Guess we don’t say RIP in this case, but obviously a music legend.
Phil Spector dead
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
by 57 Comments
Guess we don’t say RIP in this case, but obviously a music legend.
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A horror of a man. And a genius. It’s got to be…
PS. Have you ever thought about Ike and Phil hanging out together? Those dudes had some notes to compare….
Ike was locked out of the studio when they recorded that.
Even a stopped clock….
Just before Trump pardoned him, along with Gary Glitter, Hitler and Ming the Merciless.
PS. can we have a stereo mix of a A Christmas Gift For You now*, please?
(*actually I can wait until December. I’m not a monster)
And without the last track….
Why? Wouldn’t stereo be somewhat false for a record that was conceived, recorded and mixed in mono? And I doubt it would sound better than mono.
They said that about Pet Sounds. I realise I’m in a minority of one on this thing (ironically)
Fair point, PS in stereo is a decent listen.
Wasn’t Spector himself the main man behind the short lived ‘Back to Mono’ campaign? Or was it just a cool button badge and nothing else? I believe he even got Lennon on board with it.
Pet Sounds sounds better in stereo, and Brian would have exploited stereo for all it was worth had he not been knocked upside the head by his Pa, rendering him mostly deaf in one ear.
The technology was there in the early and mid- sixties but most record companies didn’t want to put out stereo pop records. They didn’t think it was necessary because pop was for kids and most kids didn’t have access to stereo players.
If stereo was available at the time I assume Spector would have embraced it.
It was and he preferred mono, just like The Beatles and The Beach Boys.
The Beach Boys didn’t “prefer” mono.
The fact that we’ve fairly quickly got on to The Beach Boys on this thread would piss Spector off no end.
There is a stereo mix. I have it. You’re not missing anything. It’s a three track recording so you get vocals down the middle, the wrecking crew in one channel and the string section in the other.
Oh, I’ve got that, on a cheapo 80s reissue LP. I mean a good one a la Pet Sounds.
I would also like the moon on a stick.
Ah, I have the same cheapo edition. It’s crap.
It’s alright if you’re playing it in another room while peeling spuds. I’m not sure what level of HiFi test that is. Full fathom five, I should think.
Monster maybe, but let’s grant him peace; I doubt he found much in life.
Very conflicting news: he brought so much joy to so many, but was a truly horrible human being, particularly to those he should have cared for the most. How do we square still enjoying the music produced by an actual murderer, when we completely ostracise the equally enjoyable work of people whose offences are technically ”lesser’ but generally considered more repugnant?
I don’t ‘listen’ to Phil Spector’s work these days, it’s just something that turns up on shuffle, or on the radio, so the question doesn’t really arise. It would be absurd to turn it off, or skip.
So, that haircut finally caught up with him?
Never forget…
I actually really like that album. I didn’t know Hard-On had been on a single? Did they bring it out as a twelve inch? etc
They did. On the Stiff label.
Yes, I like Death of a Ladies’ Man. I remember reading somewhere that the vocals were only intended to be guide vocals, but Spector wouldn’t let ol’ Len record them again.
Memories is one of his best records, and the title track is epically gloomy…yet strangely satisfying.
A musical genius, undoubtedly, but a very troubled one. Peace in death is the least anyone deserves, even criminals. The greatest record producer in the history of recorded music (and I’ll arm wrestle anyone who disagrees) certainly does.
He may indeed have ended his days as a convicted murderer, but everyone who ever worked with him seemed to agree he was wildly unpredictable and his behaviour was frequently as mad as a box of frogs, so maybe he had some undiagnosed mental issue. Certainly his dad’s violent suicide when he was 9 can’t have helped.
Anyway, for the sheer sexy joy that was The Ronettes, we should be very grateful to him. And for this masterpiece:
He recorded John Lennon’s voice brilliantly (see Plastic Ono Band and some of Rock n Roll) but this is my favourite:
That is a great production, seems Spector was only minimally involved on POB, it was mainly Lennon producing. Think George Martin did a great job with his voice too or maybe he was just a great singer? 😉
Lennon should have stuck with that haircut. He looks way cool.
Liam n’ Noel clearly agree with you.
I refer the right honourable gentleman to the remark about stopped clocks.
I see this song as the original proto glam rock song. Anyone disagree?
Interesting idea. I’ve always thought of Revolution 1 as proto glam because of the campy shoobee-doowops and the bass saxes. But it doesn’t stomp like this.
Yeah good point.
I wish someone like Rick Ruben or Joe Boyd had produced All Things Must Pass. I imagine I’d have liked it a lot more.
I think this is overstated. Only a few of the tracks are really over produced. A number have a more stripped back feel. And I think George probably needed some bombast to disguise the relative weakness of his vocals.
Rick Rubin was only about ten. Interesting idea, though. Would have explained the pizza references.
He got The Ramones in the Top 10 (granted it was with one of his previous songs, but the production signatures are all there):
Sessions for the album were a bit fraught – Spector spending all the time and money (and more) the record company were prepared to pay, and The Ramones no longer being able to bang out a 40 minute album in 41 minutes.
1 take? More like 100 takes.
History will record Spector’s last project as being the second problem by the forgotten or at best derided Starsailor.
I think it’s rather good, although clearly not in the same universe as River Deep or Be My Baby.
Oh, and speaking of Be My Baby, here’s the world’s drunkest record.
I think Lennon and Nilsson’s Pussycats would romp home ahead of Keith Moon’s solo album in the Drunken Album stakes
Phil Spector – Number One With A Bullet.
I like the story Mark Ellen tells about meeting Phil Spector and asking him what he’s doing these days:
“Well, right now, what I’m doing is talking to you”
When I hear The Ronettes it’s The Ronettes I hear.
If I listen to The Honeys, I’m not thinking “Ah, I see what Brian did there.” I’m thinking, “Wow, The Honeys are great. Where’s my surf board?”
And if you only thought about George Martin when listening to The Beatles, you’d listen to classical music instead of The Beatles, wouldn’t you? I admire George Martin, but when I listen to I Feel Fine, it’s the era, the fashion, and the group I recall.
Love Leonard Cohen’s remark when PS pulled and held a gun to his head after he foolishly questioned his production of a track on Death of a Ladies Man. When Spector started yelling “I love you, man!”, LC coolly replied, I certainly hope so, Phil”.
I was thinking of doing a two hour radio show on his stuff but it’s not worth the hassle.
The best tribute comes from Joe Marchese at The Second Disc:
https://theseconddisc.com/2021/01/18/a-few-words-on-phil-spector-1939-2021/
That was excellent.
Sad! I haven’t read one single person who has said a kind thing about him
I always picture Spector as the person John Torturro plays in »Grace Of My Heart«:
I have the autobiography by Beverly Ross, a songwriter who shared a desk with him in the Brill Building and swears that Spector stole Spanish Harlem from her. The title of the book? The not-at-all-bitter; ‘ I Was the First Woman Phil Spector Killed’.
When Spector was producing John Lennon’s ‘Rock and Roll’ album he insisted on multiple takes for one of the tracks. After about the 30th take an exasperated Lennon called out “fucking hell Phil, no wonder Ronnie left ya”.
They were both off their nuts for the 1973 sessions, so maybe Lennon’s vocals were substandard, maybe Spector was obsessing too much, maybe a bit of both.
The untogetherness of the sessions with Spector was almost certainly why the album wasn’t completed until a year later without Spector and with Lennon relatively sober.
Only four tracks of the thirteen come from the sessions with Spector, which lasted three months. The rest of the album was bashed out in five days a year later.
At the time Lennon had fallen out with Yoko and run off with her secretary May Pang. He was out on the razz boozing and drugging with Harry Nilsson.
You forgot the bit about JL’s wearing a sanitary napkin on his head…
Has anyone mentioned Caravaggio yet?