Son Preserves Wrecking Crews Musical History | Best Classic...

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Son Preserves Wrecking
Crews Musical History
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Son Preserves Wrecking Crews Musical

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The Wrecking Crew were behind-the-scenes legends until

t h e re ce nt d o c u m e nt a r y f i l m

Who Postpone Rest of 2015 Tour

Roger Waters Talks Floyd & Wall Film Event

ewsflash: Denny Tedesco has

time to spend with his family.
The director of riveting music
documentary The Wrecking Crew still

Oh Lord Wont You Buy Me Joplins Porsche?

Bryan Adams Rocks On New Single
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cant believe it himself. The film he began

working on three years before the birth of
his 16-year-old daughter has finally been
researched, shot and edited, its kudosfilled festival tour finished, its rights
clearances funded and completed, its
theatrical run over, its four-CD soundtrack
and DVD and Blu-ray discs released. (Its
also available on demand from several
sources; see our review here)

Stones to Roll Into Studio for New LP

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REOs Gary Richrath Dead at 65 (Update)
Keith Richards Doc Drops with Solo LP on 9/18
Denny Tedesco with his late guitarist father Tommy Tedesco

NNEEW
WSSLLEETTTTEERR SSIIGGNN--UUPP

Im glad I dont have to put my family through it anymore, Tedesco says. The story now is that we got
it out. People are blown away that it actually came to fruition.
The Wrecking Crew: Feature on ET
Send

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Spaces
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Unequaled Masterpiece
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Session Man Nicky Hopkins
Played Like a Superstar

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10 Memorable Rock Concert

Riots

All thats left for The Wrecking Crew is continued marketing and the occasional booking for Wrecking
Crew players. Last month four of the studio musicians featured in the film reunited for a performance at

10 Re-Released Songs That

Became Hits

a fundraiser in Los Angeles for Musack, which connects music and arts professionals with students to

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help encourage their interest and skills in creat

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Deasy and Don Peake
and
bass player Joe
Osbo
hits and reminisce, 300 collective years of pop music history and rock, jazz, country and contemporary

ODDS & SODS

Christian as well.
Tedescos gone back to his film and video production roots, shooting projects for hire his current one
involves Cover Girl and MTV. Hes also doing interviews in support of the films home video release and
pondering the debts he accrued to keep the film going over the years. Until the revenues start to flow,
the memories are still fresh: drawn-out negotiations and personality mediations, debts incurred and
dreams deferred. And, finally, his personal vision made public.
This vision
and the music to
match
includes footage
of his father,
guitarist
extraordinaire
Tommy Tedesco,
a session

Members of The Wrecking Crew gathered for a Phil Spector session.

LLAATTEESSTT RREEVVIIEEW
WSS
Wilco Star Wars LP
How Music Got Free book
Neil Young & POTR LP
Amy Winehouse film
New Grateful Dead book
Brian Wilson LP
Kurt Cobain film
Courtney Barnett LP
Van Morrison Duets LP
Nellie McKay 60s songs LP
Mick Fleetwood book
Wrecking Crew film
Final Pink Floyd LP
Billy Idol autobiography
Early Kinks box set
Kate Pierson solo LP
New Jon Spencer BX LP
Doug Sahm film
John Mayall 67 live LP
Producer Glyn Johns memoir
Wilko/Roger Daltrey LP
Vanilla Fudge reunion LP
Juliana Hatfield Three LP
Jorma Kaukonen LP
Lambert/Stamp film
Sonics reunion LP
Wilko Johnson film
Blues Magoos reunion LP
Viv Albertine Memoir

musician who
played not only
on thousands of
pop songs but
many film scores

CCUURRRREENNTT && FFUUTTUURREE TTO

OUURRSS
VIEW ALL TOURS
Karla Bonoff
Paul Carrack

and jazz albums

as well. The senior Tedesco died in 1997. Dad had great chops, Denny says, better at 62 than ever
before.

Cheap Trick

Anyone who was around the Los Angeles music industry in the past decade heard about Tedesco and his
mission to raise the money needed to clear the music that is crucial to telling The Wrecking Crews
story. Clearing rights so the film could screen at the South By Southwest Film Festival in 2008 and
other festivals was one thing, as those showings are not considered commercial (read for profit) by
those who hold the rights to the music. But once there, says Tedesco, No one would pick us up because

Art Garfunkel

there was still a backend. Naysayers abounded as Tedesco sought the hundreds of thousands of dollars
needed to clear the rights to the movies 110 songs from record companies, music publishers and the
American Federation of Musicians (AFM).

Dave Mason

Union negotiations were

complicated by Tedescos own
conflicted interests: as a
filmmaker he needed to keep

Whitesnake

Doobie Brothers
Ian Hunter
Joe Jackson
Judas Priest
Gordon Lightfoot
REO Speedwagon
Ringo Starr

BBCCBB TTW
WIITTTTEERR FFEEEEDD

costs down; as a son whose

mother was the beneficiary of
his late fathers royalty
earnings, he wanted the
musicians to receive as much

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as possible.
The film had over a dozen
Audience awards from the

Deep Purple

An Amazing Week On Top 40 WLS In 1964

Tedesco with Wrecking Crew pianist & later star in-his-own-right Leon Russell.

festivals where it screened, but

until the licensing was paid it couldnt be released in theaters. So in 2010, Tedesco turned to
fundraising. He mortgaged his house. He maxed out his credit cards. He traveled with the film to 30
cities, four-walling theaters for special screenings, with sponsors ranging from local music stores to
estate planners and hearing aid companies. He got the message: his audience was aging fast. He
ramped up the fundraising, with Kickstarter and International Documentary Association campaigns. He
hit up friends, strangers and more potential sponsors,including a drum company where a staffer asked
him Whos Hal Blaine? He followed the advice of Greg Ogonowski president of Modulation Index, a
company that makes software products for audio encoding, streaming, metadata and logging who had

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suggested including dedications and other naming opportunities in the film and soundtrack.

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For instance, on the films homepage youll find a strip of linked logos for vario
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supporters button on the menu bar that leads to lists
other
sponsors,FEATURES
donor
sponsors. The movie wasnt just a labor of love for Tedesco but many others that shared his conviction
that it documented an important behind-the-scenes story that needed to be told andpreserved before
too many of the principal figures were no longer around to give their first-hand accounts.

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Now Chrissie Hynde attacks todays lewd pop stars

branding them sex workers who have created a
pornography culture (Daily Mail)
Prince Says Its a Bad Time for Music. Hes Wrong
(Nerdist)
Bruce Dickinson: Hell would have to freeze over
before youd stop me getting on stage (The Guardian)
Courtney Barnett: If I cringe at any of my lyrics, its
got to go (Salon/The Weekly Feed)
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards calls Metallica
and Black Sabbath great jokes, says rap is for
tone-deaf people in free-wheeling interview (NY
Daily News)
Just a Book? No, More Like a Trusty Companion (NY
Times)
Sixties rock n roll stars who still draw the crowds
(The Telegraph)
When I first saw Patti Smith, I didnt listen to another

As the money came in, Tedescos commitment to the project shifted from the personal to the
professional to make sure his donors felt that they hadnt thrown away their money. All I had was my

Grateful Dead record for five years: Yo La Tengos Ira

Kaplan (Salon)

promise to everyone to get it out, he says.

An Open Letter to 17-Year-Old Boys Who Just

I survived making this film because of what my father taught me: Dont blow up on the leader. Which
means, if youre in a session, you could be 125% right. But if you call someone out, especially in front of
people, dont expect to come back the next day. So think before you say it. Tedesco acknowledges,
Theres been times when I could have totally lost my mind and blown someone off. He tried not to
burn any bridges as he sought buy-in both metaphorical and financial.
Tedesco cant help but
find irony in the fact
that the movie he
made about his father
and the other top
studio musicians of
the 60s kept him
away from his family
just as those long
recording sessions
prevented his own
father from spending
George Harrison with Wrecking Crew bassist Joe Osborne
time with him. But he
couldnt help it,
driven as he was to tell the stories of the musicians whose works are so beloved but whose names were
largely unknown. Until, that is, The Wrecking Crew.
In the film Plas [Johnson, a saxophonist] says Im a better grandfather than I was a father. I realize
when he says that, thats how Ive affected my kids, my wife and my marriage the last few years. But I
knew if I didnt do it no one else would. All I had were two promises: one promise to everyone who
donated that well get this out there, and a promise to my family that it will get better.
Another irony is the fact that he has grown close with several of the musicians, including keyboardist
Don Randi. He mellows me out from all the stress thats been around me for 19 years, Tedesco says. I
didnt know him growing up. I always knew of Don, but I only heard the name. So when we started
doing things together, traveling to screenings, I started to realize how fortunate I was to know him now.

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He said to someone recently, Im closer to Denny than I was to his father.

The musicians had what was essentially a business relationship. Almost like a factory worker, Tommy
Tedesco left his work behind when he stepped through the door of his house. My father was playing

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the music but he wasnt listening to it. He didnt know what the experience of it was. When he came
home, he didnt practice. He didnt play the stereo. We never heard music at home unless it was my

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brother. He played in a
band, and at home he
would play the stereo. Not

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my dad. Hed had enough.

Of himself Denny Tedesco
says, Im not a musician. I
cant play anything. These
guys were the original Best
Classic Band.
Who Are The Wrecking Crew?

Get The Wrecking Crew DVD, Blu-ray and CD at a special discount price for Best Classic Bands readers!
Simply click on this link and enter BESTCLASSICBANDS into the Promo Code box and youll receive 10
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LLaauurraa HHuunntttt FFoottii

Laura often says, Music is my madeleine, a Proustian reference meaning that when she hears certain classic
songs she can completely transport mentally to another time and place. She has used her deep connection to
music in her career, including three memorable years at Billboard as queen of music video and three years at
RCA Records she prefers not to discuss.
More recently, after a move from New York to Los Angeles and a long stint in interactive multimedia, Laura
moved into internet/social media marketing for music and other clients. In 2012 she wrote The Cusp of
Everything, a novel incorporating a full soundtrack. In 2014 she wrote and performed a one-woman show
about online dating, All the Wrong Men. Currently she is working on a new show, My Life as a Shiksa, and
workshopping her play, Worldly Possessions.

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G UA P O

#1

23 September, 2015, 20:19

Hal Blaines nephew, Michael Kravitz has a tribute band called Demolition a tribute to
The Wrecking Crew:
http://www.demolitionatributetothewreckingcrew.com
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