Posted on 04/15/2009 12:30:28 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Reclusive record producer Phil Spector's murder conviction has seen him travel a long way from his glory days producing The Righteous Brothers and John Lennon.
One thing in particular sticks in my mind from the interview that I conducted with Phil Spector in his Los Angeles mansion, six weeks before he murdered Lana Clarkson. We had been talking about success, the extraordinary run of hits that had made Spector - at one time - the most important producer in pop music. "People tell me they idolise me", he said, "want to be like me, but I tell them, trust me, you don't want my life. I've been a very tortured soul".
Our three hour conversation had provided ample confirmation of the fact. A small, fragile figure, almost dwarfed by the capacious white sofa on which he was seated, his hands trembling as he spoke, Spector had talked with extraordinary candour of the emotional and psychological problems that had plagued him throughout his life. He believed he was "relatively insane", he said, and - invoking the words of his friend John Lennon, he had been "crippled inside". Happiness had never been an option in his life, he went on. But then what was happiness? It wasn't a good woman, or money, or hit records. "Happiness is when you feel pretty f---ing good and you've no bad s--- on your mind. Good health, bad memory, that's about happy." My interview with Spector appeared in the Telegraph magazine on February 2 2003. Thirty-six hours later Spector walked into the House of Blues on Sunset Strip and invited the club's VIP hostess, Lana Clarkson, to join him for a drink. Three hours later she was dead.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Not to mention his haircut.
Ain’t that the truth!!
Can you imagine looking into a mirror and seeing youself looking the way he does.
AFTER
He had a bit part in Easy Rider, first part of the movie.
He was buying coke from Fonda and I remarked how much he reminded me of Bob Denver then. His hair was cut Beatles style and straight and he wore yellow aviators. His looks have changed immensely, but he has always been little folk in stature.
Spector’s “talent” was turning the reverb way up on all his records. Wow.
Reagan, Bush and Nixon loving conservative Johnny Ramone aka John Cumming thought Phil was an idiot when he “produced” their record. During that period - Phil pulled a gun on The Ramones.
Bug-eyed Spector.....some big guys future bitch!...your depression is only beginning....
Holy crap I thought that Wall of Hair was a photoshop!
Apparently not.
FAIL
Is he already in jail?
“Spector’s ‘talent’ was turning the reverb way up on all his records. Wow.”
Look, producing rock and roll records isn’t like composing a symphony. There have been plenty of great albums produced by people who couldn’t even read music, let alone understand what all the buttons and dials in a studio are capable of doing. Most of their job consists of wrangling doped up musicians. We tend to exagerrate the artistry of popular entertainment.
That being said, as far as rock producers are concerned, Spector is tops, along with people like George Martin, Quincy Jones, and Brian Wilson (before he went nuts). Why? Because when you hear a Spector record, whatever other feelings you have, you say to yourself, “This is a Phil Spector record.” It’s tough to be instantly recognizable as a producer.
“Spector’s ‘talent’ was turning the reverb way up on all his records.”
He also wrote and picked tons of hits. Not easy to do. They say “a hit is a hit,” but how much money is lost every year picking the wrong singer, the wrong band, the wrong song, the wrong feel?
I think he should look at his incarceration as a “career opportunity”. There are many talented “artists” in our penal system who would benefit from his tutelage and experience. Think of the rappers he could advise. Think of the salsa music he could promote. Why this could be his key to the happiness that has evaded him.
Coupled with the money he has to buy protection on the inside, I’m thinking he could come to love his new home. Actually, this is probably a good place for the little sot from his point of view AND, more importantly, OURS.
He was taken into custody immediately after the verdict....
I’ll also add that Phil Spector is NOT the only record producer ever to brandish a gun in the studio to get the act to listen to his instructions.
I’ve even heard of the guns being discharged. Seems to be pretty standard equipment (at least in the 1960s and 1970s).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystals#The_.22Let.27s_Dance_The_Screw.22_saga
The “Let’s Dance The Screw” saga
The next single credited to The Crystals is one of the rarest — and also possibly the strangest — in rock music history. Reports vary as to the actual motivation behind the recording, but most agree that Phil Spector was looking for a way to annoy former business partner Lester Sill. What he came up with was a nearly six-minute song called “Let’s Dance The Screw - Part I”, which would have been unplayable on 1963 radio. The record featured simple instrumentation (very much unlike Spector’s famous Wall of Sound production style), repetitive lyrics, and Spector himself intoning the lyric “Dance The Screw” numerous times in a deadpan monotone. (The B-side, Part II, was more of the same.) The Crystals sang the song’s repetitive verses, though it is unclear if these singers were the ‘real’ Crystals or The Blossoms. Incidentally, some accounts mention that Spector’s lawyer is actually the man intoning “Dance The Screw.”
The recording was never released commercially as a single, and only a few copies are known to exist (all marked D.J. COPY - NOT FOR SALE). The record was apparently only created to be a bizarre sort of joke at Sill’s expense, who was soon to leave the Philles label, as a single copy was specially delivered to him in early 1963. Both parts of the song have since been released on CD.
I think he also pulled a gun on John Lennon while recording.
Spector’s first big hit on PHILLES records was “He’s a Rebel”, written by Gene Pitney. The song was given to him as a producer/AR guy by Imperial Records to produce for Vicky Carr. Spector grabs Darlene Love, flies to England, cuts it with her and studio musicinas, and put it out as being by the Crystals, a group he had under contract. So he shafted Imperial, and Vicky Carr, and made a bundle [Love got something like $900 for the session].
Love, who recorded for Spector as herself, Bobby Sox and the Bluejeans, andd other groups wound up suing him [with others] because he never paid her royalties on her songs.
Phil’s first hit, which he wrote, was the Teddy Bears “To Know Him Is To Love Him” [He’s one of the ‘Dah-Dah- Dah-Da’ guys in the back]. Took the title off his father’s tombstone. That about says it all. And yeah, I think it was Marky Ramone who confirmed old Phil pulled a gun on them [and made them listen to the opening chord on “Rock ‘N Roll High School” for hours].
Sonny Bono, who worked for Spector in the early ‘60s said Spector expected the ‘Wall of Sound’ would go on forever, and wasn’t prepared for it when it didn’t..
“Spector’s first big hit on PHILLES records was ‘He’s a Rebel’, written by Gene Pitney. The song was given to him as a producer/AR guy by Imperial Records to produce for Vicky Carr. Spector grabs Darlene Love, flies to England, cuts it with her and studio musicinas, and put it out as being by the Crystals, a group he had under contract. So he shafted Imperial, and Vicky Carr, and made a bundle [Love got something like $900 for the session].”
I don’t doubt that Spector is a bad human being, nor that he was a bad business partner. I’ve always thought the term “Robberbaron” would be better applied to people in the entertainment industry than people like Rockerfeller and Morgan. Because these sharks deal with kids just out of the ghetto, steal their ideas, get writing credit, manufacture hits by paying off radio stations, and throw a few pennies the kids’ way to keep them happy.
Nonetheless, you can’t fake Spector’s ability to pick hits, nor his ability to sound unique in a rather limited musical genre.
“Phil’s first hit, which he wrote, was the Teddy Bears ‘To Know Him Is To Love Him’ [He’s one of the ‘Dah-Dah- Dah-Da’ guys in the back]. Took the title off his father’s tombstone. That about says it all”
I happen to really like that song. Or rather, I like the Bobby Vinton version.
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