It would have been fun in the Extended Edition to see Wolfman and the band run through "TTYD" during sound check. Obviously they had to have run through it a couple times because he does OK on the backing vocals, too.
The bass parts he could probably pick up on the fly, plus if "TTYD" was a Top Ten single as described on the movie, he probably would have heard it a few times and been able to pick most of it up. But backing vocals are usually a little tougher to pick up.
The big question would have been, what would happen the next day at the recording session when T.B. Player returns from his weekend at Disneyland with the Marines, is he just fired? Probably so, since he was leaving the band anyway in another month or so.
In an alternative-universe world where The Wonders went on and had a long stellar career as the "American Beatles," T.B. Player is demoted from bassist to tour equipment manager and roadie (much like Ian Stewart with the Rolling Stones and Mal Evans with the Beatles). He blows a knee cartilage moving speakers and is reclassified 4-F.
Since he later ends up being a construction contractor, being a roadie/equipment manager would be right up his alley.
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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.
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jonjax71
12 years ago
The bass licks played by Wolfman were too futuristic for 1964, no one was playing bass lines like that until the late 60's and early 70's when bassists likes Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Larry Graham started that trend.
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jaystarstar
12 years ago
Yeah, absolutely. Paul McCartney was a pretty far-out bassist for 1964, but he wasn't playing anything like Wolfman in the audition. John Entwhistle did some crazy bass stuff for the Who in 1965-66 but that was a year or two after the time frame of TTYD.
The scene was deliberately overdone for the sake of the movie, to show that Wolfman, unlike any of the original Wonders, was a highly skilled professional musician.
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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.
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jtdunlop
9 years ago
To give the film credit, I can almost hum verbatim his licks. Even if ahead of their time, they were kick-ass enough to reduce the rest of the band down to "I think I can handle your tune 'JUNIOR'" :)
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HikerBoy57
11 years ago
They wouldn't have been used in any popular songs, but that doesn't mean that skilled players wouldn't have challenged themselves to go the extra mile, just to prove that they could. I had no problem with Wolfman's riff at all. He was showing off the stuff he works on back at home, or in the jazz clubs.
The war is not meant to be won... it is meant to be continuous.
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tallkennj
11 years ago
That type of bass line may not have been making it on to record, but... especially in L.A. at that time... there were a number of stellar studio musicians. Lest we forget, all of the early songs by the Byrds and many other of the early California bands who arose in the mid-sixties were recorded in the studio by studio musicians (Hal Blaine, Glen Campbell, Bruce Johnston among them) with the band only dubbing in the vocals. There is a reason why a ridiculous pre-fab band like The Monkees was completely accepted by members of many of L.A.'s mid-60s "bands".... because most of those bands (Buffalo Springfield was a notable exception) were EXACTLY like the Monkees. Point being, there were any number of L.A. studio musicians in the early to mid sixties who could have played the same riff Scott Pell did in their sleep.
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jon-gwynne
9 years ago
Who says he wasn't just a big fan of John Entwistle?
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Fox "News": We lie, you panic!
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JEFJR
9 years ago
I think you have sold Ian Stewart short. Wasn't he also the off-stage keyboard player for the Stones?
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