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Another Brick in the Wall of Sound
My take on the Spector mess
by Ray D'Ariano

I love Phil Spector, huge fan really. Once in the late 70's I gave some guy 25 bucks for his Back To Mono button. This was before it became available free in the "Back to Mono" boxed set. But when he showed up in court on May 23, 2005 looking like Noel Redding from The Jimi Hendrix Experience, I . . . I just don't know. Philip, you have a lot of fans out here. You gotta work with us a little here. You're not supposed to become the lead item on The Daily Show and Letterman. That's Michael Jackson's gig, OK?

I wasn't at Pyreness Castle, his sprawling hilltop estate early on that booze-filled February morning in 2003 so I don't know what happened. My opinion is based largely on information I accumulated from the media. For example there's his ex-wife Ronnie, former lead singer of The Ronettes, saying, "My heart goes out to the woman and her family. I don't know what the circumstances are; I can only say that when I left in the early 70's I knew that if I didn't leave at the time I was going to die there."

Pretty heavy, right?

But then the same lady told The New York Daily News, "I had never seen him violent like that, with a gun or anything, I feel awful. I don't think he would do anything like this." When the reporter reminded her that in 1998 she testified that he had threatened to kill her, she explained, "Not personally, that was with a hit man."

The point is, as of this writing in May 2005, Ronnie Spector is very much alive and well; Lana Clarkson isn't, and the "he" mentioned above, Phil Spector, is going to stand trial for her murder.

I don't think he did it. I believe it was either an accident or a suicide, but I'm leaning toward accident.

Spector is the greatest producer of rock and roll records in the music's 50-year history. His "Wall Of Sound" consisted of heavy orchestration, huge groups of background singers, multiple instrumentation and overdubbing, all used to create "little symphonies for the kids" and was featured on smash hit records of artists like Cher, The Crystals, The Beatles, The Righteous Brothers, Ben E. King, The Ronettes, Darleen Love, George Harrison, Ike and Tina Turner, The Ramones, Sonny Charles and the Checkmates, John Lennon and many more.

Speaking about Spector's studio wizardry, the brilliant artist who played drums on most of his records, Hal Blaine said, "Phil is the greatest director in the world. He had a way of holding you. He treated the musicians like race horses. 'Don't play yet.' He would rehearse the guitar player for an hour. He would rehearse the bass fiddles. He'd rehearse the band. 'Everybody play, but Hal, don't play. I'm getting a sound here.' Then he would say, 'Hal, play now!' In the booth it was like charades. He would say, 'Watch me,' and you'd read his lips. He would give you an, 'easy, easy,' and then he'd give you a 'Go crazy'!"

Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers:"Phil went to (Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil) and said I'm gonna write a song for The Righteous Brothers. Can you write a song for them? And Barry Mann wrote this ballad and I remember him telling me he wanted to write a song that was like a 4 Tops record . . . so they wrote this ballad and Phil and Barry sat down at the piano and sang it to us. And they both had real high voices . . . and when they got done I said, man, that's a great song for The EverlyBrothers 'cause they sounded like The Everly Brothers. I couldn't imagine this was the song Phil Spector wanted to do with us."

Phil's production of that song, The Righteous Brothers' classic, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" is the most played record in the history of American radio. Medley continues, "Phil asked me if I would produce the albums because it was too time consuming for him to produce entire albums. So he was going to do the singles and I would do the album. And so that's how it happened and that's how I produced "Unchained Melody" which Phil Spector apparently takes credit for. He can have the credit . . . but it's obviously not a Spector production."

Bill, Bill, Bill, come on big fella . . . it doesn't sound like a Spector production???????????????

I don't know Bill, first off, the record offers one of the most brilliant vocal performances ever recorded, and that sensational performance belongs to Bobby Hatfield. You, William, as great as you are (and you are) are nowhere to be heard on this record. If anything, this is a Righteous Brother record.

Let's listen to it, shall we?

It starts off with piano behind Bobby's falsetto vocals . . . the strings come in on "Time goes by so slowly" . . . the vocal backup choir on "So much . . . are you still mine" . . . piano and strings continue . . . "I need your love . . . God speed your love to me" . . . piano and strings . . . incredible vocal gymnastics . . . "yeah, yeah, yeah" . . . cymbal, chorus, horns,, and that ending!? Come on, it sure sounds like a Spector production to me, but what is obvious is that you and Phil didn't always see eye to eye.

According to Mark Ribowsky, author of a terrific Spector bio called He's A Rebel: "As far as Phil was concerned, he made The Righteous Brothers as he had made other artists. In fact in '65 when The Righteous Brothers were enjoying their initial success, Phil called them 'mediocre singers,' simple tools to express his artistic vision. He claimed they had no real talent without him to guide them. The truth is somewhere in between – Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley were a spectacular singing team, but it was Spector's production that put them over the top."

Most Spector watchers agree that Phil had an ego that was even larger than his massive wall of sound, and the stories of what some consider Phil's bizarre behavior have circulated for years.

Jack Nitzche, Phil's arranger on everything from "He's A Rebel" to "River Deep Mountain High," talked about Phil's flying phobia and how after swallowing a hand full of tranquilizers he boarded a plane. "He got on this United flight once and he looked around and he said, 'There's too many losers in here. This plane is going down!' So the plane was on the runway getting ready to take off, and he stopped it. He started yelling that he had to get off the plane. They took the plane back and they had to take everybody off because they thought this was a bomb scare. So there was Phil, stoned out of his mind on pills sitting there in the airport waiting room with Cher and people staring at him because he's really a funny looking guy. He had long scraggly hair for the time and these dark round glasses. His eyes suddenly popped open and there was this crowd standing around watching him and he looked at them and said, 'Wha-whats the matter? Haven't you ever seen Caesar and Cleopatra before?"

And then there were the stories about the guns, decades worth of gun stories.

In a fascinating article called "John Lennon/The Roots Of Rock 'N' Roll" by William McCoy and Mitch MgGeary, they write about the Spector/Lennon recording sessions in L.A. "According to drummer Jim Keltner, Phil had fired a gun inside The Record Plant West although studio representatives denied it."

Rolling Stone reported that Spector had drawn guns on Stevie Wonder, a guest one evening, in protest of Wonder supposedly hiring away an engineer Spector wanted to use.

John Lennon told BBC Radio's Andy Peebles that he once heard a loud noise, possibly gun fire, coming from the men's room of The Record Plant.

In a Rolling Stone interview with Kurt Loder while chatting about the "Rock 'N Roll" album Loder asked, "What about the stories that Spector's working habits are a little odd? For example, that he either showed off or shot off guns in the studios?" Lennon responded, "I don't like to tell tales out of school, y'know. But I do know there was an awful loud noise in the toilet of The Record Plant West."

We move back to the Ribowosky bio where he writes that famed songwriter Doc Pomus said that Phil changed clothes four times a day and "each time he'd have a different gun to match his outfit."

According to Contactmusic.com there was an incident while Phil was producing Leonard Cohen's 1977 album "Death of a Ladies Man." "Spector allegedly put an arm around Cohen's shoulders, pointed a semiautomatic pistol at his chest and said, "I love you Leonard."

Then there were all those reports of abusive and near psychotic behavior during the production of The Ramones' "End of the Century" LP. It is said that Spector made the lads play the opening chord of "Rock and Roll High School" for 8 hours straight. It is said that Dee Dee Ramone, in total frustration, lashed out at Phil and said he was going to kill him. He was quoted as saying, "Spector had guns on him and he wouldn't let me out of the house for a couple of days."

Fellow band member, the late Joey Ramone:"That's true.
It was insane. He locked us in his house for hours, and he pulled a gun on Dee Dee, but it was a positive learning experience and the chord does sound really good."

Ok, let's review . . .

It turns out that America's greatest rock producer is a nut. He's eccentric, weird, and strange and doesn't behave like a "normal person." Who's the last "normal person you know who produced The Ramones, John Lennon, and Ike Turner? In addition, it's well documented that for the past 20, 30 years he waved guns around, sometimes shot them off, and at other times pointed them at famous people. You don't have to deny this Phil! Admit it! Here's the important part – during all those episodes YOU NEVER SHOT ANYBODY! Lot of guns waved at a lot of people over a very long period of time, over three decades, but HE NEVER SHOT ANYONE!

I won't be on the jury, but if I was, I'd vote that he walk. Take away his guns, no problem. Get him to some counseling, cool. Have him produce a record to raise money for some good cause, but Phil walks.

Like I said up front, I do not believe he murdered anyone. I come to this conclusion based on the information above and on what Phil himself said on the BBC Show, "Secret Map of Hollywood." He said, "A tragedy happened, but it could have happened in anybody's house. It's not for me to explain why she took her life. It's only for me to explain that I had nothing to do with it and I didn't. This prosecution is bogus. I mean it has to be because of who I am."

"They (the police) behaved like cowboys. I had no weapon. I'm 5 foot, 5 inches. They came in with their weapons drawn. They tasered me with 50,000 watts of electricity."

"It has to be a frameup because it's not based on real evidence. I had nothing to do with her death and three coroners have stated that. Case closed, move on, you know."

I believe him and wish him well.

Sources:
– Jack Nitzche's comments are from Crawdaddy Nov. 1974.
– Joey Ramone's quote is from The Boston Phoenix Sept. 2, 1999.
– Bill Medley's words can be found on an interview on www.righteousbrothers.com.
– Hal Blaine's thoughts are from www.reasonstorock.com.
– Ronnie Spector's quotes are from Yahoo! Music and The New York Daily News 12/9/2003.

Material also found on Contactmusic.com, Rolling Stone, and Gigwise.com., and Mark Ribowsky's book
"He's A Rebel." You can't make this stuff up, but you can look this stuff up.