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Phil Spector: Dead at 81
Terrible human
Genius
Comments
Yeah too bad he was such a horrible nut job but those records were huge!
First single I owned - a jukebox reject in the 70's - was the Ronettes Be My Baby doubled with Baby I love You. Still gets to me that sound. I was watching The Ronettes inducted into the Hall of Fame the other day and the band do a cracking job recreating the sound.
He produced some amazing records, but as noted, apparently not that nice of a person.
Got to give him credit for what he did for music (at least what he did prior to the 70s).
Be My Baby really is the greatest pop single of all time.
On the other hand: For years, I used to keep a running tally of musicians whom Spector had allegedly pulled a gun on. It’s a rather impressive roll call: John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Leonard Cohen, DeeDee Ramone...
Be My Baby remains the greatest pop recording of all time.
A true nut job!
Barney Kessel’s sons worked as “bodyguards” for him for years. Their job was primarily to prevent Spector from attacking other people.
I’m sure that list is much longer, but apparently he eventually became impossible to work with, regardless of whether he pulled a gun or not.
George Harrison has said at various times that only a small proportion of ‘All Things Must Pass’ was actually produced by Spector, as you had to catch him in that perfect window between being sober and disinterested, and too drunk to care about continuing with the session. He’s implied more than once that most of the production work was done by Harrison and the engineer for the sessions.
Still, you can’t fault him for the work he produced in his heyday.
Murderer skilled in pressing play and record at the same time dies
Knowing that Phil Spector "produced" Let It Be sheds a different light on this so-called genius ...
He didn’t produce it, he was brought on to finish it when they abandoned it. I like the version without his additions better though.
I echo the sentiments that he created some groundbreaking productions while being a tortured human being whose mental illness affected others in very bad ways. That doesn’t excuse any of his actions, just a framework as to underlying causes.
I was expecting more from Let It Be Naked, and I think it would have benefited from McCartney letting another producer work on it. Spector’s version is a salvage job to some extent, but I don’t think McCartney’s is really an improvement. Full disclosure - I do like both versions.
This might fly in most non-music forums, but we know production takes a lot more than that, and making some of the greatest productions that inspired the next greatest productions is something else altogether.
Definitely a murderer, though.
I agree. It got me thinking yesterday. As soon as a studio owner gets the hang of the threshold and ratio knobs, they become a total wanker, whilst somehow conveying an aura of genius at the same time. Not just Spector. Look at Joe Meek.
Phil Spector didn’t engineer at all. Larry Levine worked as an engineer with Phil Spector most often in the 60’s period in which he was most productive. Joe Meek did engineer. He also had schizophrenia, which ultimately led to his death.
Without opening a huge can of worms, I feel like most people considered groundbreaking or geniuses were either autistic or dealt with schizophrenia like mental health issues, or sometimes both. That lack of being restrained by convention leads to groundbreaking thinking, and in some cases, very difficult behavior for others to be around. Difficult line to straddle, beautiful in some cases, very difficult in others.
Larry Levine. Here he is at the Gold Star board.
Funny, I was editing my post after looking it up to include his name. Thanks for posting though. Great photo. You can see the protective wall Phil Spector has around himself in that photo, starting with his sunglasses.
Yes, later on bodyguards, guns and high fences were added
Apparently he had something to say about every aspect of the production except for musical arrangements - that was the one thing he left alone, but once they were written he would make sure they were played over and over until they were perfect. Joey Ramone told the story of when he was doing a vocal take for ‘Baby I Love You’ that Spector would make him listen to the original all the way through each time he made a mistake, repeating the process for over 50 takes.
Good write up from Richard Williams.
https://thebluemoment.com/2021/01/18/behind-the-curtain-of-sound/
Good advise from Cohen (produced and ‘co-written’ by Spector)
I have a kind of love/hate relationship with that album. It doesn’t work so well as a Leonard Cohen album, but it does have its moments. This is actually one of the better songs from it though.
Hot take: end of the century is the best Ramones record.
It's the most different of their output, but I don't know if it's their best.
It's also the album with the least amount of Ramones actually playing on it.
“I don’t know who is playing bass on that record, but it’s not me”
- Dee Dee R.
It was Dee Dee’s quote I thought of too. The others said they played on it, but a lot of session musicians have also claimed they played on it too.
I think the only one that we can be sure was on it is Joey.
I always thought it was interesting how much they leaned into the Spector sound AFTER eotc even though all but Joey apparently hated the overproduction. It seems like they split the difference among them. Pure slick pop on the records (mostly) and fast furious and raw live. I always get a kick out of listening to a live version of Howling at the Moon (Sha la la la) after playing the record version. It’s like two different bands.
Ironically, Howling at the Moon was produced by a returning Tommy Ramone I think.
No shit? And arooouuund and arooouuund we go! 😊
It shows you how deep Spector’s influence went when it goes round like that.