P.F. Sloane: 1945 - 2015
P.F. Sloane was famous mostly for being the composer of Eve Of Destruction. The only other thing I knew about him (until today) was that he had written the Turtles' best song (IMHO), Let Me Be. Let Me Be was their next single after It Ain't Me Babe, and it went nowhere. I had to buy the record just so I could hear it. Maybe that's why it was my favorite of all Turtles' songs; it was about the only song by the Turtles that didn't get played to death on the radio.
Until learning of his death today, I had no idea P.F. Sloane was such a prominent player back in the day. He also composed You Baby by the Turtles, as well as She's a Must To Avoid (recorded by Herman's Hermits) and Secret Agent Man (recorded by Johnny Rivers).
P.F. Sloane was also an accomplished session guitarist in L.A. during this period; he was part of a group of session players called the Wrecking Crew. He was one of the original members of the Grass Roots, and he performed the falsetto vocals in Jan and Dean's Little Old Lady From Pasadena.
R.I.P.
Labels: Eve of Destruction, Let Me Be, P.F. Sloane, Wrecking Crew
posted by Tom Harper @ 7:21 PM
6 Comments:
If you're interested in the Wrecking Crew, I highly recommend the movie Love and Mercy (the Brian Wilson biopic). I liked it so much I saw in the theatre twice.
Jim: Thanks for the info. I saw Love and Mercy a few weeks ago; I didn't know the Wrecking Crew was part of it. (I hadn't heard of them until yesterday.) There's also a movie about them titled "The Wrecking Crew" -- I just googled it. I'll probably have to rent that one too if it's available.
One site I found describes the Wrecking Crew as "The best band you never knew you knew." Good description. Same with the Muscle Shoals studio musicians, and also the Detroit studio musicians who played on practically every 1960s Motown hit. We've all heard their licks a million times, and yet most people don't even know their names.
As long as we're on a roll here: there was another L.A. studio band called The Section -- probably a few years after the Wrecking Crew. They made a few albums on their own -- mostly jazz fusion -- but in the studio they backed up everyone from James Taylor, Carol King, you name it.
The Motown band was called "The Funk Brothers" and the Documentary done on them is called "Standing in the shadows of Motown"
Erik
Erik: I've seen that movie; it was excellent. The group's name had escaped me when I was typing the earlier comment.
I know there was Bob Dylan, Pete Segar and the rest of the Folk Song Army, but Eve of Destruction was the first true Apocalyptic protest song which pokes at both sides. I still remember it almost word for word even today.
Erik
Erik: Me too. One of those songs where the car radio just couldn't get loud enough.
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