I just pledged to the Kickstarter campaign for a film called “The Wrecking Crew.” I saw a version a few years ago and loved it! It kind of felt like my LA life of seeking out musicians and hearing their stories. When people disparage Los Angeles, I always laugh because I know I get this: access to people who’ve been in the heart of shaping our culture just by proximity and a little curiosity. My father stoked this. He was a psychologist from Jackson, Mississippi, but he always kept an ear out for musicians he thought would inspire me and he could b.s. his way into about any backstage to facilitate a connection. The biggest coup was Stevie Wonder visiting us in Irvine when I was a little kid, but that’s a story for a different time. But it was meeting people like George Bohanon and engineer Cal Harris that kind of opened me up to the idea that people made music, worked hard and would generously share their experience and resources with you. It made creating music tangible – and these guys worked on “Let’s Get it On!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xs2kJn6PBE

Denny Tedesco started putting “The Wrecking Crew” together after his father, the great guitarist Tommy Tedesco, was diagnosed with terminal cancer to capture the stories of the musicians that played on so many of the classic records that came out of Los Angeles in the 60s and 70s. (For five straight years “The Wrecking Crew” were the players on the Grammy award winner for Record of the Year.) Like “The Funk Brothers” who played on the Motown hits, the musicians of “The Wrecking Crew” were the regional sound of pop music. The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Phil Spector, even Frank Sinatra and Simon & Garfunkel used “The Wrecking Crew.” It’s an awesome story and this film is like sitting down for an intimate conversation with the guys that were hustling from studio to studio humbly adding their expertise to music that’s become the fabric of the world’s cultural consciousness.

As a testament to the continuing value of the cultual product, it’s been stalled by licensing royalties. There’s so much cultural value in these musicians’ stories, that I’d really like to see it get a wide distribution.

Take a look and help if you can. (And if you join their mailing list, from their website, wreckingcrewfilm.com, you’ll find a thrilling collection of outtakes for music geeks!)