Phil Spector Charged with Murder - Page 5

This transformation was enabled by the unprecedented success of "Off the Wall" ('79), "Thriller" ('82), "Bad" ('87), and "Dangerous" ('92), but by '93 all of that changeed with the first round of child molestation accusations, which brought no criminal charges but ended with a payment to the alleged victim of between $15 and $20 million.

Spector's childhood was also 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" (ironically just 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.

Double-edged Sword

Spector and Jackson have similarly used fabulous wealth and power to create hermetically sealed environments, Spector his dark hilltop castle in Alhambra, Jackson his whimsical, personal theme park "Neverland," where the distractions and irritations of the world have been largely shut out among the rides, animals, and trappings of perpetual childhood.

These insular worlds can come to seem real to their creators, fostering self-perpetuating delusions that accentuate internal demons in a way that mere mortals, forced to deal with the world on its own terms, can rarely achieve. In isolation, surrounded by paid enablers and toadies, quirks and eccentricities become exaggerated, heightened, and can even be latched onto as defining characteristics. A sense of entitlement and exceptionalism can grow as the ego goes unchecked, and eccentricity can blossom into the sociopathic.

Article Author: Eric Olsen

Career media professional Eric Olsen is honored to be the founder and publisher of Blogcritics.org, which, quite frankly, rules - as do his wife and four children.

Visit Eric Olsen's author page — Eric Olsen's Blog