The ultimate "working" musician. Never the star but always making the stars shine.

Yup. Those people have always been heroes of mine.
It's one of the reason why Jimmy Page is such an inspiration to me, too.

Krist, Check out the movie The Wrecking Crew.

Over 10,000 tracks! Crank out 10 tunes in 6 hours from bare bones sheet music! Holy cow... Track an album a day, pretty incredible.
 
She does make a very good point about the "me-ism" of today, since her work focus was to contribute to the final product. The "me-ists" sort of fall onto their own sword fairly quickly when left to do everything themselves. Another bullet point for better collaboration tools actually.

mettelus
The "me-ists" sort of fall onto their own sword fairly quickly when left to do everything themselves. Another bullet point for better collaboration tools actually.

As individualist as I am, I discovered early on that compromise was often at the root of some of my favorite music. The minute those guys were given all the tools and no longer had to make compromise because of band mates, the results were simply boring...

bapu
Krist, Check out the movie The Wrecking Crew.

+1 in case you missed Ed's recommendation. Any musician over 40 will love this movie. Actually, any musician under 40, too, if they're at all cognizant of their pop music history.

It's definitely on my list!

Kind of makes you appreciate the fact that the greatest pop band of them all, The Beatles, actually played their own music, at least bass/drums/guitars and vocals, even if they also brought in session players. 

Rain
Kind of makes you appreciate the fact that the greatest pop band of them all, The Beatles, actually played their own music, at least bass/drums/guitars and vocals, even if they also brought in session players. 

That alone is often overlooked by even the most ardent music fan (read: no-musos). Thankfully the stars were aligned just so, that they were assigned George Martin.