Here's some more from Jerry and the guys: I still remember hearing about Jerry's untimely demise, on the car radio while we were on the way to Cropredy Festival. His death meant the end for the Dead of course, but they still continue to win new fans with their thousands of hours of recorded concerts, and their sublime studio albums.
Indeed he did. He also went on tour with the Beach Boys as a bona fide full band member. One other original Wrecking Crew member who I've much admired, for as long as I've known her existence, is the studio bassist Carol Kaye. In Wichita Lineman she came up with the falling 7 note intro, which fits perfectly. Glen Campbell is said to have used her 6 string Dan Lectro bass for the distinctive deep solo in that song. Carol Kaye is 82, has played on something like 10,000 records [if you know an early 1960s USA pop record, chances are she played on it] and still going strong as a music teacher. All being equal, the women always outlive the men.!
Forgive me if it wasn't a recent thing, but I'm sure it was that name I heard one evening driving home and in my musical ignorance, I didn't know who she was.. Hope you're not on a wild goose chase.
It's fine, FLT. In my little searches I've found that a film documentary called The Wrecking Crew, all about the session band, was in the cinemas in 2008, and I'm downloading it at this moment. Should be very educational and interesting. If you hadn't mentioned that interview, I probably wouldn't have started looking. So your good deed for the day has been done. Cheers. Also, Glen Campbell is on BBC Radio 2 at this moment.
Old Willie really is the last of a dying breed though. Here he is with Merle Haggard, who checked out last year, April 2016 in fact...
I'm currently watching Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me, a 2014 documentary of his descent into Alzheimer's Disease. It's a bit harrowing, but his talent shines through. The fact that he went on a tour when he was quite honestly borderline capable, is either stupid or stupidly brave. I choose the latter. Amazingly he still had the finger and muscle memory in his hands so that he could play really cool guitar solos. And his voice stood up too, while reading a tele-prompter because he no longer remembers the words. Amazing. Now playing Duelling Banjos. This will get you well past misty-eyed.
I find it fascinating looking at album personnel to see who the musicians were and it often seems to me to be a judge of how informed musically the pop artists are. I never really paid attention until I checked out the Paul Simon "Gracelands" album back in the 1980s and found that the Brecker brothers were in the band. Since then, you certainly get a feel for the musical interests of the singer or group with people like Sting getting points for savviness by employing musicians like Kenny Kirkland, Branford Marsalis, Manu Katche and Guy Barker. It was a revelation to find that Eberhard Weber frequently played his bass on Kate Bush's records and her enthusiasm for jazz was relayed in an interview I heard her do on the radio which also hinted that she relied on others to help with composition / arrangements. The weirdest line up was on a Bjork record which I think included Oliver Lake and Larry Ochs, both pretty obscure saxophonists from the avant garde scene whose presence can only be explained by being informed about their music as they do not usually work as session musicians as far as I am aware. One of my favourite records is by tenor saxophonist Fred Jackson. I think he largely worked as a session musician but was given the opportunity to record an album for Blue Note in the early 1960's called "Hootin' & tootin'." It was one of their worst selling albums (at a time when they had the A list of talent on their roster) but the record has since gained a reputation as being rather cultish and something of a classic in the Soul Jazz genre. The organist on the record was Earl Vandyke who was a member of the Funk Brothers who were employed by Motown . I believe that the musicians initially had involvement with Ray Charles but Fred Jackson remains remarkably illusive , cropping up on other records with Baby Face Willette and Big John Patton before working with Quincy Jones in the 1970s. I have always loved this album since I was loaned a copy by a college lecturer and intrigued because I had not heard of any of the musicians before yet it was on such a celebrated record level. An under-rated classic in it's oeuvre, I think.
One of the great things about gatefold LPs is that there is plenty of space for musician lists, lyrics, etc. Whenever I buy an album my first listen through is accompanied by devouring all the info.
The individual musicianship and the vocalising is excellent, but the arrangement is completely uncohesive to the point that the song is rendered quite poor. Basically, the whole is way less than the sum of the parts. Sometimes it is better if one leaves things as they are.
Second Stain This track comes from John Hollenbeck's album "Songs I like a lot" (I think he was trying to be ironic) which includes a wide range of material including tunes written by Imogen Heep, Queen (an excellent reconstruction of "Bicycle"), American folk music and an Ornette Coleman tune. It is a really good album, full of thought-provoking interpretations but the follow up disc , which I don't have, was criticised for the same reasons you note. Essentially, it was seen t be too clever. Hollenbeck is an interesting character. He studied with Bob Brokmeyer who had a reputation as one of the most forward-thinking writers for large jazz ensembles and then worked with the avant garde composer Meredith Monk before establishing himself with a group called the Claudia Quintet.
