SteveS I D E M E N H Douglas By Ro6 Bowman — lthough f e w f a n s k n e w s t e v e d o u g l a s b y After Douglas left Eddy in i960, he became an in- name, the sound of his muscular, R&B- demand session player on a cornucopia of R&B, rock inflected baritone and tenor sax playing and pop sessions. Douglas also led a band that includ­ was an essential ingredient of innumerable ed Spector as lead vocalist and guitarist. The band Alate-Fifties and early-Sixties hits, including the Ven­ broke up when Spector headed to New York in 1961. tures’ “Walk - Don’t Run,” Bob & Earl’s “Harlem Shuf­ W ithin a year, Spector had started Philles Records and fle,” the Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel,” the Beach Boys’ “Shut was flying Douglas to the East Coast to overdub his Down” and Jan & Dean’s “The Little Old Lady (From earthy sax tones on the earliest Crystals recordings. Pasadena).” In fact, virtually every sax solo on a rock W hen Spector elected to move Philles to Los Angeles, record emanating from Los Angeles in the first half of he tapped Douglas to put together a session band that the 1960s was played b y Steve Douglas, and every sub­ included Hal Blaine, pianists Leon Russell and Don sequent saxophonist in rock history, from Denny Pay- Randi, bassist Ray Pohlman (replaced by Carol Kaye ton of the Dave Clark Five to Clarence Clemons o f the after his death) and guitarists Glen Campbell, E Street Band, owes a significant debt to Douglas’s pal­ Howard Roberts and Tommy Tedesco. pably intense approach to the instrument. Known as the Wrecking Crew, Douglas and com­ Born in Los Angeles in 1938, Douglas spent his pany defined the sound of West Coast rock & roll in childhood in Fresno before moving back to L.A. at age the early 1960s, playing on virtually every Beach Boys thirteen. Growing up in a musical fam­ recording from 1963’s Suitin’ USA ily (his mother sang with Stan Kenton), throu gh 1966’s Pet Sounds. During the Douglas studied trumpet, trombone next few years, Douglas appeared on and violin. When he heard L.A. horn nearly every surf and hof-rod record cut player Chuck Higgins wail the intoxi­ on the West Coast. He also worked on cating “Pachuco Hop,” he decided to sessions for artists ranging from Nancy teach himself to play tenor sax. Within Sinatra to Sam Cooke to Elvis Presley. months, Douglas was playing on local Between 1964 and 1967, Douglas sessions and appearing with a variety of served as an A&R exec at Capitol, pro­ bands at the legendary Hunter Han­ ducing hits by Glen Campbell and cock-hosted El Monte Legion Stadium rock shows. Bobby Darin, among others. He signed Billy Preston to In late 1958, not long after graduating from Fairfax Capitol and produced the keyboardist’s W ildest Organ High School (which Phil Spector attended at the same in Town! After his superiors overruled his attempt to time), Douglas joined Duane Eddy and the Rebels, sign Aretha Franklin, Douglas left to head Mercury’s playing the sax solos on “Cannonball,” “Forty Miles of West Coast office, signing Leon Russell and the Asy­ Bad Road” and, most notably, “Peter Gunn,” am ong lum Choir and Blue Cheer. Douglas subsequently ran other hits. The last is arguably D ouglas’s finest his own label, Pentagram Records. moment. Over the course of two and a h alf minutes, In 1978, Douglas went on the road to play saxqn Douglas swings, rolls and rocks as he blows lascivious Bob Dylan’s Asian, European and Am erican tours and chorus after chorus o f hair-raising raunch and roll, appeared on Street-Legal and Bob Dylan atBudokan, then driving the recording to a series of increasingly worked in Ry Cooder’s road band and played on Coo- intense climaxes. One minute he’s blowing in the der sessions for the next fifteen years. A solo Douglas high register, his tone on the verge of breaking up as recorded some jazzy New Age albums, including The he pushes the barriers of sonic taste into the rock & Music of Cheops (cut inside the Great Pyramid at Giza). roll stratosphere. The next minute he’s extracting Douglas’s prodigious recording credits have ranged meaty low-end grunts and groans from the in stru ­ from Frank Sinatra to B.B. King, Ricky Nelson to J.J. ment, guaranteed to drive any rock & roll hipster out Cale. Poignantly, while playing a session for Cooder on erf his cotton-picking mind. Douglas was the real deal, April 19,1993, Douglas suffered a fatal heart attack. and anyone with ears knew it. According to drummer Tonight he takes his rightful place as a member in the Hal Blaine, “Steve had that honking thing down!” sideman category of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. □ .