Don Randi's memoir, "You've Heard These Hands," details his years with the L.A. studio band that played on hundreds of hits in the 1960s and '70s; Kelly Sue DeConnick revamped the "Captain Marvel" series, but her "Bitch Planet" titles are with a smaller publisher that allows her to control her work.
In 'You’ve Heard These Hands,' pianist Don Randi chronicles his career with The Wrecking Crew
In 1962, a young pianist named Don Randi was asked to play on a recording session at a Hollywood studio. The song was “He’s a Rebel” by The Crystals, with Darlene Love singing lead, and the producer was Phil Spector.
Randi became a regular on Spector sessions, along with many other musicians who would become known as The Wrecking Crew. That group became the go-to studio band in Los Angeles in the 1960s and '70s, playing on hundreds of hit songs with everyone from The Beach Boys to Frank Sinatra to the Jackson 5 and The Monkees.
Don Randi has written a memoir about his time with The Wrecking Crew. It’s called “You’ve Heard These Hands,” and he recently came into The Frame’s studio to talk with Oscar Garza about those special days.
Interview Highlights
On moving from jazz to playing pop with The Wrecking Crew:
[Studio work is] how I made my living, and it became my living for many years. The jazz was the ultimate for me, and I got to do many albums with myself as the Don Randi Trio and then as Don Randi and Quest. I have 21 albums over the years. A number of them are still in my garage (laughs)... I enjoyed [The Wrecking Crew] ... the camaraderie ... all the guys that were there. They were a terrific bunch of musicians and they took me right in from the first day on.
What we did for all those different producers, we were basically capable of playing any genre of music. And there weren’t many guys that could do that. And all those guys that were in The Wrecking Crew and before that in [Phil Spector's] Wall of Sound, they were all jazz players. I’d be sitting next to one of the great guitar players like Tommy Tedesco, Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts ... It was always great musicians that were doing that because jazz is what they loved, but they also had to earn a living. And there was so much rock 'n’ roll being recorded in Los Angeles that we were the ones they called on.
Don Randi (at piano) and Quest playing at The Baked Potato in Studio City California (Mid 1970s). Photo from Don Randi collection.
What was it like working with Brian Wilson in the studio?
It was amazing because ... his talent was so brilliant. And many of the times you’d be working with him, he knew where he wanted to go ... If you played something he didn’t like, he’d let you know right away. Or if you played something he really liked, [he'd say], Stay with that, let’s do that. And he had the facility to remember everything. And when we did, for instance, “Good Vibrations,” we ended someplace in another world because it was that incredible. And it took us three months. We were in and out [of the studio] over three months with that song.
On recording “Help Me, Rhonda” with Brian Wilson after an earlier version appeared on the album, "The Beach Boys Today!"'
I sat there right after we went through it and I said, “My God, this is a stone cold hit.” I didn’t know it had been [previously] recorded until I got together with Leon Russell one day. He says, “You know, I think I played piano on the original one.” I didn’t even know there was another [version].
On playing harpsichord on the Stone Poneys’ “Different Drum”
[The sheet music] said, “Baroque style” ... So I just played on a rock 'n’ roll record what Bach would have had to play.
On what it was like working with artists like James Brown, Frank Zappa and Lou Rawls.
Someone asked me, “Didn’t you know you were making those hit records?” I said, “If I knew that, I would be a multimillionaire” ... We didn’t really know, we were supporting our families.
'Bitch Planet' writer Kelly Sue DeConnick gives tips for breaking into comics
If you think that comic books and feminism can’t possibly mix, you need to talk to writer Kelly Sue DeConnick.
DeConnick is probably best known in the comics world for revamping the Captain Marvel series, which is slated to become a feature film in 2019. But while writing for big shops like Marvel brings prestige and industry credibility, those jobs are often just work-for-hire. Put another way, the writers don’t retain ownership of the stories or characters they create.
Wanting to control her work, DeConnick went to Image Comics with her original, feminist sci-fi series, Bitch Planet, a series she describes as "Margaret Atwood meets Inglorious Basterds."
"This is a sci-fi riff on women in prison exploitation films of the 1970s," DeConnick said. "But I'm trying to do it from a feminist perspective, which is kind of a bigger challenge than I think I knew what I was getting into."
Image allows creators an outlet to publish their work while retaining the copyright. So DeConnick and her artist co-creator, Valentine De Landro, retain the rights to the Bitch Planet universe. Now five issues deep, Bitch Planet has been collected into a graphic novel.
DeConnick joined The Frame from her home in Portland, Oregon, to talk all things Bitch Planet, plus she gives budding comic book writers some tips on how to break into and succeed in the industry.
Tips on How To Break Into Comic Book Writing
- Start writing NOW. Don't hesitate.
The biggest mistake that people make is that thinking about writing is somehow writing ... There's not a moment to lose, you have to start now.
- Don't be afraid to write a crappy script. It's all part of learning. You will improve if you're dedicated.
You have to get through those bad scripts first. You've got to get in there, you've got to start writing some scripts.
- Take your favorite script and study it over and over.
I give exercises [to budding writers]. I tell them: take your favorite comics and reverse-engineer them, try to produce the script that made that comic.
- Read, read and then read some more.
Read as many scripts as you can get your hands on.
- You have to prove yourself (or at least prove that you can write).
Don't wait for someone to hire you to do something you've never done before, that's not going to happen ... You don't hire a plumber to fix your sink because he's a big fan of washing his hands.
- Sure, writing for Marvel and DC Comics is cool, but make sure to diversify with original ideas.
If you are a creative for [Marvel], or for DC Comics or any of the others, you are a freelancer — there is no 401K, there is no retirement package. We have charities set up in our industry for the elders, the titans of our industry, who are not in a position to pay for their own medical care. One of the things that you can do to make sure that you are thinking in the long term, and being a responsible member of your family, is to make some work that's work-for-hire and then make some work that you are certain that you own, so you have assets that continue to bring in an income for you, hopefully for a number of years.