Wrecking Crew

I recently watched a documentary movie on Netflix called The Wrecking Crew about a group of studio musicians in LA in the 50s, 60s and 70s that did the instrumentals on just about every hit record that came out of LA during that time period.  I can remember going to concerts in the 70s and 80s and the bands never sounded as good live as they did on vinyl.  The line was that the rudimentary sound systems and single takes relative to studio recordings was the reason.  No. Its because there were different, way more talented musicians playing on the recordings.  This is a really cool movie for all of us who lived through that time period and if you haven't seen it, I recommend it.  They have a website too (who doesn't?)

http://www.wreckingcrewfilm.com/index.php

Mark

Although I was just a kid in the 80's, I grew up listening to a lot of that stuff (obviously) and still enjoy it today. Sounds like an interesting movie. I'll definitely check it out.

It reminds me of the movie "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" about the band The Funk Brothers. They played the music for most of the old Motown hits from the 60's.

I'll have to look that one up. It makes sense when you think about it. First and foremost the music industry is a business and the point is to make money. You aren't going to sell a lot of records if they are crap and the musicians amateurish. In the movie they were talking to a producer who had done a record for Cher and they asked him what Cher thought about using the wrecking crew to record her album instead of her band. His answer was she was fine with it, we weren't recording the album for her anyway, its for the record buyers and Cher never even listened to it. The interesting thing is these guys didn't just play what was put in front of them, they ad lived, improved and collaborated. Some of the bands had a problem with the whole thin but it came down to whether or not they wanted a hit record. Show me the money.
Mark