Spector's childhood was riven between tremendous public success and deep personal pain. In 1949, when young Phil was just 8, his father committed suicide. His first hit, "To Know Him Is to Love Him," came in 1958 as a 17-year-old songwriter and member of the Teddy Bears. The song title came from the inscription on his father's gravestone.
Driven to create a huge pop sound, Spector piled layer upon mono layer of instruments onto his "Wall of Sound" (using drummer Hal Blaine, guitarists Larry Knechtel and Glen Campbell, bassist Carol Kaye, pianist Leon Russell, saxophonist Steve Douglas, and percussionist Sonny Bono among many others, collectively known as the Wrecking Crew), slaving away in the studio, which soon felt like home to the young impresario.
Among the hits were "Da Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)," "Then He Kissed Me," "Be My Baby," and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." In 1966, Spector's production of "River Deep, Mountain High" for Ike and Tina Turner was hailed as a masterwork, but when it bombed commercially Spector pulled the plug on his career and brooded in seclusion for four years before returning to produce the Beatles' "Let It Be" (re-released as Let It Be…Naked, with Spector's orchestral sweetening removed), George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, and John Lennon's Imagine.
Spector again went into seclusion after producing the Ramones classic End of the Century in 1979, but not before generating persistent rumors that he pulled a gun on the band in a dispute over the master tapes.
In the '04 Esquire interview, his first in 25 years, Spector told writer Mick Brown, "I wasn't well enough to function as a regular part of society, so I didn't. I was different, so I had to make my own world. And it made life complicated for me, but it made it justifiable. 'Oh, that's the reason they hate my … guts. I look strange, I act strange, I make these strange records, so there's a reason to hate my guts.' Because I felt hated - even when the music became big, I never felt like I fitted in."
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Article comments
1 - HW Saxton
That is one HELL of a fro that Phil is
sporting these days. His hair is bigger
than all three of The Ronettes hairdo's
put together.
I have no idea whether or not Phil S. is
innocent but his PAST behavior does not
fare well for his FUTURE trial. I hope
not as I really LOVE a lot of his music
and this will sadly taint that for me if
it's so.I know that it shouldn't but yet
it still will.
2 - Eric Olsen
I share your admiration for his work, HW, and am very sad about this all the way around - it doesn't look good for him. Either it was suicide or he did it, and no one seems to buy the suicide claim.
3 - Jeffery Haas
We wont know till the evidence comes out about Phil, but many of the "gun stories" are true, so yeah, it doesn't look to good for him.
It's always a sorry sight to behold someone whose reaction to fame and fortune is withdrawal into an inner world where the only voices they hear are imaginary, and sad to say this was Phil's own self-induced exile.
He made his own choice in becoming a recluse.
I will always admire his landmark work and I continue to hold out hope that he is innocent.
But is he sane? That's anyone's guess.....have to ask the tiny handful that knew him well, and it's a tiny handful indeed. I wish I knew Leon Russell's opinion of the situation.
4 - Eric Olsen
good points Jeffery, thanks, and no I don't think he is sane in the sense of able to function in society
5 - Vacuity's Bane
Its a deffinite fact that spector pulled a gun on Dee Dee Ramone.
6 - uao
Just as a little aside:
A "small house" in Venice will easily set you back about a million dollars. A smaller bungalow will still set you back $600,000+ More, if you live on the canals.
So B-actress or not, Clarkson wasn't starving; those comic conventions must bring in some coin.
It is a horrible shame about what happened to Spector; with the possible exception of Gary Glitter, few have climbed so high only to ultimately disgrace themselves so much.
HW Saxton says it will change the way he hears Spector. I suppose it will for me too, although I long ago learned to separate good music from the pricks who make it.
And Vacuity's Bane is right; the story of Spector pulling a gun on the Ramones has been around for many years.
John Lennon was scared of him by 1974, when he fired him from producing Lennon's Rock And Roll album; he told the story of trying to get the tapes back from Spector many times.
7 - Rodney Welch
Supposedly, he fired a gun when Lennon was in a soundproof booth, causing the ex-Betle to throw off his headphones and yell the immortal words: "Phil, if you wanna kill me, kill me, but don't mess with me fuckin' ears -- I need `em!"
I'm a huge Spector fan. The whole business is very sad and no, it doesn't look good for him.
8 - Bliffle
I thought Spector was redundant at best: his musicians deserved better and his egregious embellishments don't have legs.
9 - Rodney Welch
If they don't have legs, then nothing has legs and nothing, sadly, ever will. Forty years down the road, Spector's cornball hymns to young love still sound fresh and dynamic. You can't argue with "Be My Baby," "River Deep, Mountain High," "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)," the extraordinarily moving "Black Pearl," "You've Lost That Loving Feeling," "Walking in the Rain," or his spectacular Christmas album.