What a cool idea.
“The Wrecking Crew” (2008) is a documentary on the famous group of LA studio musicians with considerable time spent on groundbreaking bassist Carol Kaye.
It can be found on YouTube and probably on other streaming services.
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Especially when he is playing “Time is tight” by Booker T and the MGs!
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Love the Wrecking Crew’s song No Matter What Shape Your Stomach’s In, a great instrumental with a fabulous bass line. But they changed their name to the T-bones for this song for some reason.
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Well, according to Carol Kaye herself: the studio musicians she worked with never called themselves the “Wrecking Crew,” and there was no such name back then, it was just a name cooked up much later by Hal Blaine, the drummer who wrote a book ca. 1990 in which he used the “Wrecking Crew” term. Then the film used it, and it took off.
I believe that she feels she was interviewed for the film under false pretenses, and for sure she has bad things to say about the film and those involved with it. It just irks her that this name “Wrecking Crew” got started, when the musicians never used it, and were never known by it. And now it is out there and referred to often, as if it really was a thing.
Since there really was no Wrecking Crew, it would seem there was no Wrecking Crew to “change” to the T-Bones. It’s just that the term Wrecking Crew is used as shorthand for “studio musicians,” who played on recordings unidentified, and in the case of “No Matter What Shape” etc., LIberty Records had to put a name for a group on the record, so came up with T-Bones.
It seems to be rather a convoluted story. Wikipedia has details, but who knows how accurate that Wikipedia article is. It states that there apparently was a U.S. group called the T-Bones, and when they had a hit in 1966 with “No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In)” on Liberty Records, the company made hay by using studio musicians to record a full album with the same name as the song. (see the next link: Liberty also apparently got a group together who would go on tour; the studio musicians had no desire to tour. Liberty called that touring group the T-Bones; the members of that group had not recorded the hit song).
BUT - the Wikipedia article references a Songfacts page, which instead states that studio musicians, including Carol Kaye (she lists it as one of her electric bass hits), actually did the recording of the instrumental hit song (the so-called T-Bones on the 45 rpm record label), and also references a .pdf which shows the other studio musicians who worked on the other songs on the resulting album of the same name.
It’s all somewhat confusing, but I gather that the studio musicians had nothing to do with being in a group as T-Bones, rather it was just a name at that point to have to put on the record. To the studio musicians, it was just another recording date among many. It just happened to be a hit, and went from there.
Wow, great history Never2Late! The musicians who lived through this would know a lot more than me. And none of us really know how accurate a Wikipedia article is. But whoever is on bass, it sounds really good to me.
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That movie is so well made.
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So good 
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Soooooo…is this topic only about bass players appearing in movies, or can we talk generally about the nature of music in movies? Happy to start a separate thread if needed, 'cause I got thoughts and feelings on this topic.
What spurred this is the trailer to Everything Everywhere All at Once. I thought “Ooo, Michelle Yeoh” but then right in the middle of the trailer, you hear David Bowie singing Time which just clinched it. How could I not want to see this?
But if we’re sticking strictly to bass in movies, then I’ll just leave this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwiqKSfnPp8&list=PLocqHZj7MJflfxg3wL_F7UDmve4AUSjyp&index=1
The shark is the bass; the bass is the shark.
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This looks amazing.
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Yessss. She was in a movie that not enough people saw; Sunshine directed by Danny Boyle and with a fantastic soundtrack from John Murphy and Underworld.
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Underworld is one of my favorite bands.
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Oh if you have a spare moment I’d recommend Bad News - kind of a British version of Spinal Tap
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Ohhhhh, I’ve heard about Sunshine, but haven’t worked up to watching it 
@howard @Mike_NL @Barney Can I just mention that Ke Huy Quan was in one of the most important movies of the 1980s - The Goonies
(Also in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but people tend to be divided over that movie)
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@kristine I never watched The Goonies… I do like Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom though. I think it’s a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither should we.
@Ed thanks for posting The Comic Strip presents Bad News! I’m a big fan of Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson, and of French and Saunders as well. I had completely forgotten about this one, so watching it again was great fun!
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Run, don’t walk, to your TV and watch man!
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@Mike_NL THERE’S STILL TIME (it’s a young Samwise Gamgee saving a New England town) Also, agreed about Temple of Doom and not taking ourselves too seriously
@Ed I haven’t seen Bad News; it’s going on my list!
@John_E excellent advice 
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I meant we shouldn’t take that movie too seriously, but it applies to ourselves as well 
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