It really is all the players here.
Folks like Glen Campbell and Jimmy Page could play their way and get it to sound good on any song. Folks like Tommy Tedesco and Steve Lukather could play whatever style the song called for. It’s a weird beast, being successful in the studio.
One other country musician who did extensive session work for artists in many genres: Fred Carter Jr. (His daughter Deana became a popular country singer, with hits like “Did I Shave My Legs For This?”)
Fred did a lot of nice guitar work for Simon & Garfunkel, among other acts. He played most of the guitar parts on “The Boxer,” for example.
Some musicians switch back and forth between studio session work for pay and recording/touring with their own bands and their own material.
The aforementioned Tony Levin, for instance, has been a hired gun for many acts, including John Lennon and Paul Simon- but he’s also been a steady member of King Crimson and of Peter Gabriel’s band.
Max Weinberg, the drummer for Bruce Springsteen, used to joke, “I found out when I grew up that about 15 of my favorite rock and roll drummers were really Hal Blaine.”
It was my understanding that Arlen Roth taught Ralph Macchio how to look like he was playing but all the actual playing was from Ry Cooder (with Steve Vai doing the electric classical part of the duel and some other guy doing the acoustic Mozart). I know more about that movie than I should.
You may be right because I don’t know that much about the film or the guitarists mentioned. Having said that, I do have to add that I used to listen to Ry Cooder quite a bit and haven’t heard him play fast and hard like some of the parts in the film (not referring to Vai’s playing). So I’m assuming Cooder played slide and maybe some of the milder parts and Roth played the rest.
Some names I didn’t see mentioned yet…
Drums - Jeff Porcaro, Carlos Vega, JR Robinson. Harvey Mason
Bass - Abraham Laboriel, Nathan East, Marcus Miller, Lee Sklar,
Keyboards - Leon Redbone, Michael Omartian, Greg Mathieson, Richard Tee
Guitar - Barney Kessel, Eric Gale, Matt “Guitar” Murphy
Ugh. The above should be Leon Russel, not Redbone.
Post 32.
Ahhh, you really had me wondering if there was a facet of his career I was unaware of. Thanks for the correction.