Kent Hartman

Let's get this out of the way, right off the bat: Kent Hartman is a pedestrian writer at best.

That being said, he does an obviously good job at researching, and recreating certain events—if from more of a high-level view—during that phenomenal period of time when the Wrecking Crew could truly do no wrong, and were blasting out of our speakers on so many of the songs I loved, and still love, back in the Sixties and Seventies.

Along the way, he also does give a glimpse into the timeline of show more some of those songs (god, what I wouldn't give for a song-by-song breakdown of who played and what happened).

So, lots of stars for the subject matter and giving us some glimpses into key events, but dismally few stars for the banal attempts at suspense (the songs he hints at before revealing are hilariously obvious) and workmanlike prose. show less

This is a rollicking saga of the LA studio musicians who ruled the 1960s and 1970s, backing up every big hit we all still love today. The stories of the producers (Phil Spector and Sonny Bono), bands (Beach Boys, Carpenters, Mama and Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, Ronettes, Byrds, Righteous Brothers, Frank Sinatra, Monkees, Barbra Streisand), and the players (Leon Russell, Glen Campbell) are detailed and fascinating. The most astounding portrayal is of the unknown bassist Carol Kaye, show more responsible for the aching tone of "Wichita Lineman" and the "dum-dum-dum-dum-DUM-dum-dee-dum-dum" bass line of "The Beat Goes On". The primary premise is that these bands were on the road playing their own instruments but in the studio, the pros took over. The wool was pulled over our eyes and it's great that these outstanding players finally get their due credit. Similar to "20 Feet From Stardom" and "Standing In The Shadow of Motown", "The Wrecking Crew" movie is coming soon to a theatre near you. show less

While I was aware for a long time about the "pre-fab" nature of a lot of the popular music of the 1960s (someone had to be playing the actual instruments for those "vocal groups" after all) the virtue of this book is that it shows how deep the phenomena went, before improved recording technology somewhat undermined the need for session musicians who could knock out tunes quickly as a combo and as "authenticity" became a virtue. As for this particular gang of players they basically came show more together as Phil Spector's house band when he was creating his "wall of sound" and remained in demand from that point on; eventually gaining the credibility that if you needed saving from yourself in regards to musical arrangements you were wise to take their advice! That said, having looked at some of the negative reviews at Amazon, the author might be guilty of imposing more of a narrative then actually existed on his material. show less

This was a fun ride through the rock music of the Seventies and into the early Eighties. I've read some complaints that the author needed to highlight who the various names were, but it's really designed for those who lived it, and obsessively read the liner notes. Casual fans will be left behind.

So, while it was fun and often insightful, it's not without its flaws, starting right in the first chapter with the sentence, It was early 1969, over six months before the grizzly Tate-LaBianca show more murders for which Manson and his "family" would forever be associated...

"Grizzly"? Really? They were murdered by bears? The word, of course, is "grisly" and any competent writer (and editor) would have caught that.

Sigh.

Anyway.

This book feels very much like he's got three friends in Keith Olsen, Waddy Wachtel, and, to a lesser degree, John Kosh. It feels like he wanted to pay back some debt on by writing a book starring the three of them.

Granted Olsen and Wachtel cover a lot of ground through the Seventies, and Kosh designed a lot of great album covers throughout the same period, but some of the stories are so jarringly anecdotal (Kosh's run ins with Rod Stewart, for example) that they almost feel like filler.

At the same time, while focusing solely on American rock artists and bands (except for Rod Stewart's non-musical hijinks), he also seems to miss a broad swath of music that occurred at the time, but didn't cross over the Olsen/Wachtel territory, so was never mentioned. Where's the chapters on Steely Dan? Billy Joel? Aerosmith? Blue Öyster Cult? Where's Meat Loaf, for chrissakes? Or Bowie, if only for his Philly soul period with Young Americans>?

So, while it's a fun little ride, it's nowhere near the full story, and while Olsen's and Wachtel's accomplishments were great and interesting, there's a hell of a lot more stories out there that Hartman missed. show less