Customer Reviews

Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew: by Hal Blaine with David Goggin

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I originally purchased this book after finding out that Hal Blaine was the most recorded musician in musical history: I knew that there had to be something "magical" about his talents! The book did much to reveal at least a bit of that magic: a great sense of humour, a love for the craft, and an abiding respect for the musicians he played with.

Now, I find it impossible to listen to music from the sixties and early seventies without saying to myself "Aha -- that's a Hal Blaine track". The Beach Boys, the Byrds, Neil Diamond, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra...even my all time favorite song, the Cascades "Rhythm of the Rain"...all have been graced by his exceptional drumming.

This is an excellent book for anyone who is interested in the creative process -- musical or otherwise.

Also included is a list of all the top-ten songs he was involved in: the list is four pages long (!)

The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is that I wish it were longer <sigh>.

This is a great book if you are a fan of '60s music. Hal helped lay the foundation for much of it. He also heavily influenced many drummers who followed, including Keith Moon of the Who. He outlines his musical training, inspiration, and dues paying. He features amusing anecdotes about working with legends of the industry, including Phil Spector, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, and Sinatra. It makes you realize how much credit he, along with other members of studio musicians known as the "Wrecking Crew", deserve for shaping their artists' visions, as their improv and input helped make those records so great. A must-have, especially if you are a drummer or ever wished you could be one. They don't make 'em like Hal anymore.

As much as I enjoy a lot of the music Hal Blaine has contributed to, I found little to enjoy about this book. Blaine offers nothing interesting or insightful about himself or the music business, just superficial outlines of his life and some of the people he worked with. He's curiously vague about the details of his own life (he either got his own birthdate wrong or consistently misstated his age by a year in the early part of the book, and he talks about women he married without even mentioning their names), and he seems to have little real knowledge of the performers he worked with (he repeats the erroneous claim that Mama Cass died from choking on food, for example, and a whole chapter about working with the Monkees actually covers a Mike Nesmith project that had nothing to do with the Monkees). He also played with some of the most popular pop/rock groups of the 1960s and 1970s (the Byrds, the Carpenters, Simon & Garfunkel), but none of them merits even a single mention in the book.

If Blaine had an interesting story he wanted to tell, he should have found a better collaborator.

As a top session drummer since the late 1950's, Hal Baine has played on over 40 number one hit records. You would think he would have enough material from all that experience to write five books the size of this one.

There are a few insights here. For example, Hal Blaine played on some of the Beach Boys' records, and he describes Brian Wilson's unusual piano style. Rather than play a bass line with his left hand and chords and melody with his right, like most piano players, Wilson played chords with both hands and the notes he played with his right hand were the harmony parts for the rest of the group to sing.

More often the book disappoints. You would think that the studio band was called the "Wrecking Crew" because they were unbeatable musicians right? Well according to Blaine they were called the "Wrecking Crew" because they didn't wipe out the ash trays and left the recording studio untidy when they were finished for the day.

The biggest problem with this book is what it leaves out. There just isn't as much new and interesting information here as there should be given the number of sessions Blaine played on. I suspect that the author is holding back. He seems like he doesn't want to disclose too much in his book because it might jeopardize future drumming gigs, so his loyalty is primarily to his past (and possible future) employers rather than to his readers.

The book is pleasant and easy to read, but if you are interested in this subject I would suggest that you read Earl Palmer's book first. Palmer is also a drummer and a contemporary of Blaine's. While Blaine is bland and pleasant, Palmer is swaggering and arrogant, and decidedly more interesting.

Hal Blaine must have lived the most hectic life considering that his sessions were so numerous, most databases only list his #1 songs or only his Top Tens. His body of work is just that vast!! But this book never portrays, say, a day in the life of the busiest studio musician of his time. The book was done in the lamest, laziest of ways where choronology isn't even considered. Blain and his writer divvy up the book into chapters about whatever artist he happened to work with. It is one of the greatest opportunities missed because Blaine didn't want to actually do the work that a comprehensive bio would have required. The book was done so cheaply that the typos are too numerous to mention. (such as the number "1" appearing instead of the first-person pronoun "I' in some instances) Lame! Lame! Lame! Do not buy this book!!! You will be thoroughly disappointed. For Shame Mr. Blaine! For Shame!

I grew up in the 60's, so I saw Hal Blaine's name on the back of a lot of album covers. When I found this book I was anxious to read it. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot that I hadn't already read in magazines. I passed the book onto my drumset instructor who is about 20 years my junior also holds a Masters Degree in Music. His comment to me was pretty much "here's this guy who was part of one of the most significant albums of the 20th Century (Pet Sounds), and he makes almost no mention of it". That essentially sums up this book. The books is basically fluff meant to appeal to the fans like me. My word of advice if you're serious about owning it. Don't pay list, or you'll be overpaying.

I have to say I ignored the negative reviews and hoped for the best. As a drummer and musicologist, I hoped and expected that Blaine's unique behind the scenes view of 30+ years of popular music-making would be enlightening. As others have already said, it's pretty light on content. And if you are looking for any kind of technical insights (from a drummer or musician's point of view), forget it, there are none to speak of. That said, it is a quick and easy read, entertaining for the most part, and the photo section is pretty cool. But as a musician's book (reader and author) it is by and large, a disappointment. Now I'm going to take the other guy's advice and buy the Earl Palmer book!

Considering the amount of experience Hal has recording with some of the top names in music in the '60s and '70s, I expected a lot more. He glosses over the stories and facts, hardly ever going into much detail. I blame the co-writer. He should have prompted Hal to dig deeper into the old memory banks. And to call this a "book" is almost a joke. A 12-year-old with a G3 iMac could have done a better job. There are typos on nearly every page and even one page with a pasted-over paragraph inserted! There were some good stories, yes, but the whole thing just lacks the proper dues this man should have been accorded.

Hal Blaine is renowned globally as the greatest studio drummer of all time; surely this credit can be modified to "greatest studio musician" without any rational argument. Blaine set the standard for all who followed, much as he held the pulse of a music within the grip of his hands.

In this book, Blaine offers us a wonderful insight into his own life, from humble working class beginnings to the first-call status he's known for---West Coast drummer to the stars. As a drummer myself, I have always admired the hell out of this man---it took me a few years to realize that many of my favorite rock and pop drummers were actually Blaine, for he usually went uncredited in liner notes. This book brings to mind many of the tracks he immortalized, from the hits of the Beach Boys and the Byrds to the Mamas and the Papas, the Carpenters and beyond. Frank Sinatra called on Blaine for his 1960s classics whenever they had even the slightest pop-rock feeling (think "That's Life", "The Summer Wind", "Something Stupid", etc) and he was also heard in most of Elvis' hits from the movies. Phil Spector's 'wall of sound' had Blaine written all over it (remember those huge drum fills on the fade-outs?). Truly, you cannot conceive of most US-produced hit records in the period bridging 1958 and 1975 without Hal Blaine driving the whole thing.

Blaine also led the loose studio band known as "the Wrecking Crew". Here was a hand-picked collective which included bass players like Carol Kaye (the most recorded bassist in history) and Joe Osborne, guitarists Tommy Tedesco, Barney Kessel and Glen Campbell, keyboard players including Leon Russel and Larry Knechtal and so many others. Jack Nitsche arranged and sometimes Blaine even brought in drummer Earl Palmer to augment the sound (ha! the Batman theme is a good example of the powerhouse sound they created in tandem). Together these musicians would change the vision of the studio musician for all time, morphing it from from suit-and-tie older caucasion men, to a wide variety of faces, sounds and styles. Blaine's musicians wore jeans and tees to work and while most of them had serious musical training and backgrounds that included jazz, they embraced the new generation of rock musicians, adding compelling accompaniments and collaborated with them to produce the music that would speak for the future of the record industry.

The information found within the pages of HAL BLAINE AND THE WRECKING CREW is invaluable to musicians, collectors and historians, however it is unfortunate that Blaine chose to offer it all up in a conversational manner, that which usually excludes specific dates and personnel of these immortal sessions. His memories are often sentimental remembrances, which give the reader a great inside view yet leaves one wishing--always--for more. Blaine breaks down his career into segments, including whole chapters on his work with certain recording artists. Yet, the details are never uniform. He does give specifics on some of the sessions with Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, as well as his close collaborations with John Denver (including touring in the latter's case), but this book could easily have included a companion volume which offers us a detailed scenario of the sessions, musicians, and songs. This music is far too important to be left to a simple remembrance, regardless of how welcoming that may be.

Still, I offer this book as a 3 star title on the basis of the information provided within. And the book opens with a listing of every top-10 hit Blaine played on between the late 50s and early 70s. Scanning over it, one is in awe of the man's sheer tenacity in the studio. Clearly, he was in the driver's seat of a generation's soundtrack, and his story is one to ponder and enjoy. But with any luck, a musical historian will sit down with Blaine and go over all of his well-kept files (Blaine has records of every session he's been on; his actions with the Musicians Union is also famous as he set the standard for proper pay scales and royalties for all studio players). Buy HAL BLAINE AND THE WRECKING to make a statement on just how important it is to have masterful, varied performances on popular music recordings, regardless of genre. His story is our story, no matter which side of the turn-table we were sitting on...
-John Pietaro is a musician, activist and writer from New York- www.flamesofdiscontent.org

THE WRECKING CREW is by no means a definitive or even a half-way detailed book on the world's most recorded musician Hal Blaine. But it is a sentimental, no dirt, no secrets look at the life and career of this great drummer, co-written by the man himself. Now at age 78, he can look back at a wonderful life, if not after six divorces, a not very financially profitable one.

Last night I attended Denny Tedesco's superb documentary tribute to his father Tommy and the musicians and music of THE WRECKING CREW itself. And the highlight was Hal and fellow crew member Don Randi playing live. I was also honored to meet Hal in person and found him to be a real gentleman and every bit the iconic statesman he has become in the musical industry.

This book is a work of gentle memories, looking back on a legendary career that will never be again for anyone. A time in pop music when you not only heard the lyrics but remembered them as well. A time when the records had such great musical intro's and arrangements. THE WRECKING CREW were the sound of their time, the unsung few who made such a difference in our lives.