Jimmy Page was a session guitarist before he achieved any success with Led Zeppelin. He decided he was more at ease in the confines of a recording studio after realizing he wasn’t having a great time touring. As was pretty standard procedure for a session guitarist, he assisted several bands in getting the sound they were going for.
It’s a fact that performing live and recording music in a studio are two entirely different things. As a musician, you are under more scrutiny and need to play with extreme precision. Notes can overlap and sound jumbled when playing a solo guitar live; this enhances the live sound, but it’s not always appropriate in a recording studio. Session guitarists are used when even the most skilled musicians are unable to achieve the desired sound.
People frowned upon the use of session guitarists, despite it being a common practice. According to purists of music, a band should be in charge of every element of their sound, even if it was recorded in a studio and performed live.
Steely Dan was one band that faced criticism for hiring studio musicians. They decided to give up on the road and focus only on recording music. This allowed them to experiment with time signatures and instrumentation, resulting in some exciting songs. However, to achieve this sound, they required assistance from some studio musicians.
The band was always the first to defend themselves, effectively stating that they didn’t find the use of studio musicians to be all that significant. They accused The Beatles of having other musicians enter the studio and play over parts that John, Paul, George, and Ringo weren’t equipped to perform themselves. They used them as an example of why it’s not a huge deal when a band uses session musicians.
Walter Becker stated, “We don’t feel it’s something to be ashamed of. The Beatles, by their admission, did it quite a bit.” Many mistakenly believed that songs played by Eric Clapton were by George Harrison.
Steely Dan accused The Beatles of using session musicians on other occasions. They also claimed that Clapton played a significant role in The White Album. Many commonly speculated that R&B percussionist Bernard Purdie filled in for Ringo Starr on a number of The Beatles songs. People believed that Purdie played drums on the tracks instead of Starr.
Purdie has attested to this, but there is still conjecture surrounding the claims. He declared, “98% of the groups, self-contained groups, are not on their albums. Fixing records was a way of life.” Purdie went on, “For me, listening to the Beatles music was just another job. I contributed to 21 tracks for The Beatles, and because they fired him early on, half of them lacked drums.
Why did people find the use of session musicians so controversial? Even though it is unclear how many (if any) session musicians The Beatles used in their songs. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, as Steely Dan points out. If the outcome is an album that sounds better overall, then everyone wins.
