RIP Hal Blaine

[philsunset]

The loss can't be overstated

[progeezer]

The loss can't be overstated

No kidding!

Take most people's 100 top pop/rock singles of all time and it's a safe bet Hal Blaine is the drummer on at least 8-10 of them.

[markwoll]

No kidding!

Take most people's 100 top pop/rock singles of all time and it's a safe bet Hal Blaine is the drummer on at least 8-10 of them.

RIP Mr Blaine.
( Russ Kunkel would be on a bunch of others )

[doneg]

No kidding!

Take most people's 100 top pop/rock singles of all time and it's a safe bet Hal Blaine is the drummer on at least 8-10 of them.

Without a doubt, but depending on whats on that top 100 list it could also be much more than 8-10.

[doneg]

Coincidentally I just watched The Wrecking Crew again this past weekend, highly recommended to understand what was behind so many of the hits of the 60s and 70s, including Hal Blaine

[GuitarGeek]

Without a doubt, but depending on whats on that top 100 list it could also be much more than 8-10.

Certainly if you're talking about 60's era stuff, it would be considerably more. Hal Blaine, Glen Campbell, Tommy Tedesco, Carol Kaye, and a few others played on like every record that was made in LA during the 60's. But you guys already knew that. So there's tons of records, including a lot that were made by so called bands, where it's the band's singer (maybe just the lead vocalist), backed by the Wrecking Crew.

Coincidentally I just watched The Wrecking Crew again this past weekend, highly recommended to understand what was behind so many of the hits of the 60s and 70s, including Hal Blaine

I love the bit where Gary Lewis is talking about how none of the guitarists he's ever worked with on the road can actually play what Tommy Tedesco played on...I forget which song i twas, but there some sort of Spanish flavored thing, I guess. Gary's like "Yeah, the guys I work with have to play a simplified version".

And there's the bit where Al Casey, I think it was, is talking about the end of that era, and how he was sitting in a bar one day and Glen Campbell's rhythm guitarist comes in and starts talking about how they spent all day working on one song (remember that The Wrecking Crew would knock out an entire album in the space of a day or two), because he couldn't get "Al Casey sound", and Al laughs and says "Does Glen know I'm available?!".

I also remember an article on Tedesco in Guitar Player, where he's talking about some of the recorsd he played on, and he mentions The Marketts. The interviewer said, "You played on the Marketts records?" and Tommy responds, "We were the Marketts", "We" presumably meaning himself and whichever handful of studio musicians that particular producer hired for that session. The Marketts, as a band, didn't really exist until the record took off and became a hit, and the producer hired a bunch of guys to go out and perform on tour as The Marketts.

[spellbound]

Rest in peace.

[headcrash]

Along with Ringo, Hal Blaine was the reason I wanted to play drums, and I didn't even know who he was at the time. I'm glad he lived long enough to receive the recognition among the general public that he deserved. If you're of a certain era, like a lot of us here are, Hal Blaine was the timekeeper to the soundtrack of our lives.

[Supersonic Scientist]

Very sad....RIP Mr. Blaine.

[starless and bible black]

I'm so, so sorry to hear about the passing of Hal Blaine. I was just reading the book The Wrecking Crew for the first time in years and recalling all the great songs he played on. RIP Hal.

[SteveSly]

Coincidentally I just watched The Wrecking Crew again this past weekend, highly recommended to understand what was behind so many of the hits of the 60s and 70s, including Hal Blaine

Agree, fantastic documentary. There is also a book on The Wrecking Crew that is excellent.

[doneg]

Certainly if you're talking about 60's era stuff, it would be considerably more. Hal Blaine, Glen Campbell, Tommy Tedesco, Carol Kaye, and a few others played on like every record that was made in LA during the 60's. But you guys already knew that. So there's tons of records, including a lot that were made by so called bands, where it's the band's singer (maybe just the lead vocalist), backed by the Wrecking Crew.


I love the bit where Gary Lewis is talking about how none of the guitarists he's ever worked with on the road can actually play what Tommy Tedesco played on...I forget which song i twas, but there some sort of Spanish flavored thing, I guess. Gary's like "Yeah, the guys I work with have to play a simplified version".

And there's the bit where Al Casey, I think it was, is talking about the end of that era, and how he was sitting in a bar one day and Glen Campbell's rhythm guitarist comes in and starts talking about how they spent all day working on one song (remember that The Wrecking Crew would knock out an entire album in the space of a day or two), because he couldn't get "Al Casey sound", and Al laughs and says "Does Glen know I'm available?!".

I also remember an article on Tedesco in Guitar Player, where he's talking about some of the recorsd he played on, and he mentions The Marketts. The interviewer said, "You played on the Marketts records?" and Tommy responds, "We were the Marketts", "We" presumably meaning himself and whichever handful of studio musicians that particular producer hired for that session. The Marketts, as a band, didn't really exist until the record took off and became a hit, and the producer hired a bunch of guys to go out and perform on tour as The Marketts.

Yes, all great moments in the documentary, the part about "Does Glen know I'm available" was especially funny, that part seemed to get passed me watching it the first time, which was the reason I've been wanting to see it again, there were many parts that I either didn't catch or wanted to see again but the first time was in the theater, of course at home you can forward and reverse if you miss something, also the DVD has some extras that weren't in the theater release.......which makes me wonder how much more footage there is unreleased and if there is will we ever see it? I vaguely remember reading an interview years ago with Denny Tedesco saying something about either not having the funding to tape everything he would've liked to or that he did tape more and didn't have the funding to put it all out, I'm not sure, maybe someone else has some insight on this

[doneg]

I see a couple mentions about a book on the The Wrecking Crew, I didn't know about that, thanks, I'll have to look into it

[GuitarGeek]

[QUOTE=doneg;888038]

Yes, all great moments in the documentary, the part about "Does Glen know I'm available" was especially funny, that part seemed to get passed me watching it the first time, which was the reason I've been wanting to see it again, there were many parts that I either didn't catch or wanted to see again but the first time was in the theater, of course at home you can forward and reverse if you miss something, also the DVD has some extras that weren't in the theater release

I forget which cable channel show it, but that's how i saw it. I might not even have DVR'd it, I jus twatched it the one time, because my DVR is perpetually maxed out (that was the nice thing about the VCR: If you needed another 4 or 6 hours, I only needed to go around the corner to the local drugstore and buy a blank tape...now, not only can you not buy blank tape, that drugstore isn't there anymore!)

.......which makes me wonder how much more footage there is unreleased and if there is will we ever see it? I vaguely remember reading an interview years ago with Denny Tedesco saying something about either not having the funding to tape everything he would've liked to or that he did tape more and didn't have the funding to put it all out, I'm not sure, maybe someone else has some insight on this

Do you mean the interview footage? Any time you see interviews on TV or whatever, there's always stuff that didn't make it to air. A lot of stuff is something where someone stumbles over their words, or they need to tighten up the telling of an anecdote or something. But typically, there's just lots more material than you could possibly use in a reasonable length documentary. There's stories that go on for too long, or too many stories, sometimes there's something that's either too racy or too "inflammatory" or possibly even libelous that has to be dropped for those reasons.

In the case of the Wrecking Crew doc, the footage of Tommy, Hal, and I forget who else sitting around the table telling stories and talking about stuff, the actual raw footage was probably long enough to make up a feature length piece, by itself. I can imagine they probably spent a couple hours, possibly more doing that. And you probably have a half hour or more of any of the other interviewees. At least, I would hope, if you had the chance to interview someone like Dick Clark or Cher about that given topic, you're gonna talk to them for more than a couple minutes.

So yeah, there's virtually always more material than is needed for documentaries. Actually, that happens in TV and feature films too, but a lot of times in those arenas, it's just a couple minutes extra that got filmed and got dropped because it either dragged or "didn't work" or just because a 92 minute film about whatever was deemed "too long" (or in television, the program absolutely has to fit into a given time slot).

But with documentaries, because you're interviewing people and they're telling all these stories, that could go on all day, or several days even, depending on the time span you're planning to cover in your film. And that's just with a single person.

I'm not entirely sure the whys and what-fors of The Wrecking Crew doc. It's possibly Denny knew his dad wasn't going to be around much longer, so he felt he had to do that one interview session "right now" and not wait for whatever funding you need to have the resources to shoot for three or four hours and just capture everything that happens in the room. He may have been similarly under the gun with subsequent interviews, for similar reasons. Some of those guys had already passed away, so Denny may have felt he needed to get the guys who were still around on camera, giving as much oral history as possible, before it was too late.

But you want to hear a really bad story about having "too much material"? I read that the guy who directed the Last Days Of The Fillmore documentary actually filmed complete sets by each of the bands that appear in that film. He may have even filmed bands who didn't make it in, I'm not sure. So, anyhow, he apparently always wanted to do a second film with more of the footage he had, but he could never get the backing to make the second film made. So he had all this footage in storage, and at some point in the 80's, it just got to be too expensive to hang onto this material that was apparently never gonna be used. So he was forced to junk all of it.

[JJ88]

Once you know Hal Blaine's style you recognise his playing on so many records. One that springs to mind beyond the obvious Spector/Beach Boys ones is that version of 'Surf City' with the extended instrumental ending.

It's him- not Karen- drumming on almost all of the Carpenters' earliest hits.

[GuitarGeek]

.

It's him- not Karen- drumming on almost all of the Carpenters' earliest hits.

Now that's something I didn't know. Not that I'm some big Carpenters fanboy, but I didn't know they ever used a deputy for her in the studio.

[Baribrotzer]

It was probably a similar situation to the one with David Foster, who used Toto as the band for nearly every record he produced. Whether the real band could play or get it together in the studio wasn't the issue - the issue was that Toto could, he knew they could, and when time was money, doing it any other way was a waste of both. Hal could play in the pocket, he could cut the groove that made a hit, he could nail it on the first or hundredth take, so everybody used him. Bernard Purdie was famous for his signs, but Hal didn't need signs to tell everybody he had the stuff. They knew already.

[pb2015]

Now that's something I didn't know. Not that I'm some big Carpenters fanboy, but I didn't know they ever used a deputy for her in the studio.

Hal was credited on the albums Close To You, s/t and A Song For You, and one track from Now and Then. Karen played on some tracks from those albums too but it was mainly Hal on the radio tracks.

[JJ88]

^Yes 'deputy' isn't the right word as he is credited on the albums. (From memory, of the singles, Karen did play on 'Please Mr Postman' and 'Yesterday Once More'...maybe 'Sing' as well.) No doubt, things got done quicker with regular studio players.

[Top Cat]

Hal Blaine on Jimmy Webb/Richard Harris' MacArthur Park...his drumming on the second half of the song takes it into the stratosphere.

[Sunlight Caller]

What a drummer and what a legacy, astounding to look at the list of notable recordings, and yet he played on some 6,000 singles, that is incredible. RIP and thank you.

[progholio]

The loss can't be overstated

that's for sure.

I should add that if anyone here hasn't seen the Wrecking Crew documentary by Danny Tedesco then what are you waiting for??

[Jubal]

Best studio drummer of the 60s, hands down.

[rcarlberg]

I see a couple mentions about a book on the The Wrecking Crew, I didn't know about that, thanks, I'll have to look into it

I read the book before I watched the documentary, but both are well worthwhile.

Yes, all great moments in the documentary, the part about "Does Glen know I'm available" was especially funny, that part seemed to get passed me watching it the first time, which was the reason I've been wanting to see it again, there were many parts that I either didn't catch or wanted to see again but the first time was in the theater, of course at home you can forward and reverse if you miss something, also the DVD has some extras that weren't in the theater release.......which makes me wonder how much more footage there is unreleased and if there is will we ever see it? I vaguely remember reading an interview years ago with Denny Tedesco saying something about either not having the funding to tape everything he would've liked to or that he did tape more and didn't have the funding to put it all out, I'm not sure, maybe someone else has some insight on this

There are over three hours of "extras" -- interviews, performance footage, studio film - on the Wrecking Crew DVD. Almost all of it fascinating.

Incidentally another doc in the same vein is "Muscle Shoals."


Despite appearing on over 10,000 sessions, Carol Kaye has released very very little under how own name, but these two are remarkably good (as you might expect):


This album by Hal Blaine, OTOH, is dreadful.

[Baribrotzer]

Hal Blaine on Jimmy Webb/Richard Harris' MacArthur Park...his drumming on the second half of the song takes it into the stratosphere.

And, in my opinion, prog-related; "MacArthur Park" is every bit as much a classic, essential bit of proto-prog as Sgt. Pepper.