Before he became a big star, Campbell was a session guitarist who worked as part of an elite group of session players known as the 'Wrecking Crew'. They worked with everyone from Frank Sinatra to the Beach Boys (Glen Campbell played on 'Good Vibrations' and stepped in for Brian Wilson following his breakdown). After decades in the shadows, this documentary (available in the US since 2008) brings the 'Crew's' story to light.
As a trove of information, The Wrecking Crew is worth a look. I had some knowledge of the Wrecking Crew from Kent Hartman’s 2012 book, but there is an added impact to watching the musicians do live performance back to familiar tunes.
As a documentary, it is a little too scattered. Tedesco’s scope is a little too wide - as the son of one of the musicians (guitarist Tommy Tedesco), he tries to use his father’s story as a spine.
That narrative line is a little threadbare - Tedesco will sporadically provide voice-over which felt out of place.
There is also no narrative structure to the various sections of the documentary - we get occasional profiles of the musicians, but then we get another section which shall be on the wall of sound or Brian Wilson’s recordings with the group. It just comes off a little disorganised, and I left the film feeling like it needed more focus and depth. It almost would work better if it had provided more of a chronology or a focus on his dad’s story.
It probably works best as a taster for the Crew’s work.
If you want the Wrecking Crew’s story, I would recommend reading Kent Hartman’s book instead, and maybe using the documentary as an audiovisual side dish.
Post-script
I wrote the opening paragraphs to this review on 28th July 2015.
I was planning to go to a screening of The Wrecking Crew at that year’s New Zealand film festival.
The screening was late and I think I had just finished another screening earlier that afternoon. I l was too tired and decided to just go home.
I left these opening lines, thinking I would get around to watching the documentary at another date.
I did not think it would be a decade.
So much has changed.
Personally, I am in a completely different place. In 2015 I had re-booted this blog as part of a broader career re-think.
After bombing out of law school, I spent 2015 as a freelance writer, pitching articles to Den of Geek and reviewing Auckland theatre for Theatrescenes.
It was a really exciting time, and I had the time to try a variety of different things.
Within six months of this aborted review, I would be using my freelance work to apply to journalism school.
2015 was an important turning point for me.
It was also sadly significant in a different way - it was the same year Donald Trump announced he was running for president, and it was the beginning of the end of the post-World War Two order.
While I was disturbed by the accelerating climate crisis and widening inequality ten years ago, I still had some hope that things could get better.
Trump’s election in 2016 showed that optimism to be bullshit.
Incremental improvement would not save us. And now on top of collapsing ecosystems, we would have to face down the resurgence of global facism.
I was one of the people who was completely discombobulated by his election. I lost most of my interest in writing.
What was the point in writing about pop culture? And in that realm, what could I actually contribute?
I drifted for a long time. I went to work, I hung out with friends and family, and I kept writing - but the spark was gone.
I gradually lost interest in freelance work, and stopped pitching ideas.
I had always been a writer, in some way. But now it just turned into an exercise. This blog became a bit of a life raft, a way to keep myself afloat.
It kept me going through Trump’s first term, the global pandemic, first love, and the horror of the Gaza genocide.
I do not know if I will ever get that spark I had when I wrote the first lines for this review a decade ago. But I will keep writing.
I have to.
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