Phil Spector dies

[johncorrigan]

Covid has claimed the life in jail of the great pop music producer, Phil Spector. He's the classic case of 'Can I overlook his numerous flaws and delight at some of the work?' And what a catalogue of work he was responsible for...The Ronettes 'Be My Baby' is still, for me, one of the greatest ever pop songs: but there's also 'Then He Kissed me', 'River Deep, Mountain High', 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling', and lots more, and of course the legendary Christmas LP. And without Spector Brian Wilson would not have given us 'Good Vibrations' which has given me hours of listening pleasure in my life. Of course he was crazy - jailed 10 years ago for shooting dead Lana Clarkson in his house. Sad, mad and dangerous to know. And now merely a spectre. He didn't live in peace, but I hope he rests in peace.

[cloughie]

Indeed genius akin to madness! Produced many great tracks but were some misses - his mastering of Let it Be was a rather overblown, but he went on to produce somebof John Lennon and Nilsson’s albums in the 70s. Maybe he will rest now more than he did in his lifetime! RIP Phil

[teamsaint]

And he got the Ramones , astonishingly , their only big hit single , of which the recording is the stuff of legend.And a very good LP it was too.

The Ramones...1 hit, 50 million t shirts sold. Go figure.

RIP.

[Padraig]

Yes comrades .You've said it all. I can't believe I still regard those far off numbers with almost the same enthusiasm - but I do. We all have our reasons and our favourites. I won't detain you further - I'm off to you tube to play one of mine, the one I probably love best.

[Bella Kemp]

One needn't detain our consciences with his past demeanours - do we condemn Gesualdo? Strange geniuses who in their time gave us things wholly new.

[cloughie]

One needn't detain our consciences with his past demeanours - do we condemn Gesualdo? Strange geniuses who in their time gave us things wholly new.

I’m not sure what you’re saying there, Bella - I think there are boundaries which if are overstepped they can never really be acceptable. I guess in Spector’s case he served his time both as creator and criminal!

[johncorrigan]

I’m not sure what you’re saying there, Bella - I think there are boundaries which if are overstepped they can never really be acceptable. I guess in Spector’s case he served his time both as creator and criminal!

I read that when he was making 'Death of a Ladies' Man' with Leonard Cohen, he took a gun to Cohen and then said: 'I love you, Leonard.' Lenny replied: 'I hope you do, Phil.' I like to think that when Cohen left the studio alive he cried: 'Hallelujah!'

[muzzer]

Thing is, he was convicted in a court of law, not in the court of public opinion, and there’s no scope for the “things were different then” that inevitably surrounds discussions around, for example, rock stars exploiting their positions for gratification. And he was always known to love guns. The BBC piece online rightly features a picture of his murder victim larger than that of any of his acts, many of whom he also bullied, to say nothing of Ronnie of course. The man was a monster. So he had an ear for a tune and came up with the idea of bouncing back tracks - there was no other way of adding to the song then of course with three then four track tape machines. Is it too fanciful to hope those talents might have featured in someone slightly less psychopathic?

[Dave2002]

I hardly knew anything at all about Phil Spector until recently, when his name came up in a quiz programme, and the Wall of Sound was mentioned. Even then I didn't realise that he'd killed anyone, and it was only in the last few days that I read about his life and prison sentence. There didn't appear to be any obvious reason why he killed Lana Clarkson - was it an accident, or a crime of passion, or .... what ....? US laws on homicide are different from the UK, and it appears that his sentence for second degree murder could be considered to show that the killing was more than an unfortunate accident - which could attract a sentence of manslaughter in the UK.

So what was special about him? Was it an ability to put musicians to together and get them to work co-operatively, or was it the technique which seems to go under the Wall of Sound label? Indeed what is that technique? Is it basically a way to thicken texture in such a way as to give an impression of power and solidity without pushing volume levels up very high, or pushing recordings into distortion? Was it just a way to optimise reproduction on the types of equipment which many consumers would have to play their records - maybe compensating for poor frequency response and other deficiencies? From what I've read it seems that nowadays similar approaches would work using limiters, filters and layering - a whole bag of mixing "tricks", but Spector managed to achieve similar results by using groups of instrumentalists to thicken the sound.

He does appear to have been a complex and troubled person, but unless he was clearly deranged or insane, surely that doesn't excuse someone's murder, even if his talents as a music producer were significant.

[Pabmusic]

Will he return supernaturally as Phil Spectre?

[Leinster Lass]

Will he return supernaturally as Phil Spectre?

He could be a guest star if they make another 'Ghostbusters' movie.

[teamsaint]

One needn't detain our consciences with his past demeanours - do we condemn Gesualdo? Strange geniuses who in their time gave us things wholly new.

So, its Ok if you are on a list of approved artists ?

[johncorrigan]

Good article about Spector from Alexis Petridis in the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/17/phil-spector-brought-joy-to-pop-music-and-misery-to-so-many-lives

[gurnemanz]

I can vividly remember as a 14 -year-old in 1963 being hit sideways, not just by a great pop song like the Crystals' "Then he Kissed Me" but, I think for the first time, by the sound that music made.

[cloughie]

Good article about Spector from Alexis Petridis in the Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...-so-many-lives

Was there an actual wall? Apparently there was. Rows of black tiles at the back of the studio that helped give the sound that distinctive ‘ring’. However the day came when they had to move from the old place that had served them so well, so they thought ‘right, we’ll dismantle the tiles, number them and stick them back up in the new place exactly as they were’... and bingo!
It didn’t work.
There must have been something in the old place that configured to give the unmistakeable ‘Spector sound’.
I think ‘if it ain’t broke - don’t fix it’ applies!

Also I think that this lot had a bit to do with the sound!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(music)