Phil Spector:Rock's King Of Weird

Of all the people who had been closely associated with the Beatles,one unlikely character exist in the person of Phil Spector.He's been on the news just recently and had made several headlines in the past few years.We all know that he's now serving in the California State Prison for the second degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson.He's serving a term of 19 years to life and will be 88 years old by the time he'll be eligible for parole.

Actually,Spector has been making headlines and had been a notorious figure in both pop and rock music as far back as the late fifties and the 1960s.He was reportedly growing his hair to excessive lengths even before the Beatles came to America.

 One interesting fact about his persona was his obsession with bodyguards and his tough attitude.Not to mention his character being one of the most eccentric figures in the music business.Some people say the reason of him being so tough and ungrateful was due to his lack of height-sort of.Having that short stature and high-pitched voice,he had a huge hit in 1958 at the age of 17,a song called "To Know Him Is To Love Him"--it was credited to the Teddy Bears though Phil sang and played on it.The song which was also written by him,was taken from an epitaph on his father's gravestone.

He had a string of hits in the early sixties,hits that were quickly dubbed as teenage symphonies of the era primarily due to the teenage market as the records' marketing target.Songs like "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Be My Baby" and "He's A Rebel" were all mixed with his so-called Wall Of Sound wherein a record would sound as if three orchestras were playing on it.This is allegedly the same technique he used on the Beatles' rescue-production on the Get Back tapes which was retitled as Let It Be.One particular track,"The Long And Winding Road" in which the wall of sound was heavily used was lambasted by none other than Paul McCartney himself.Though the other three Beatles spoke well of the results,McCartney was reportedly so unhappy that made this other reason for him to be alienated furthermore from the rest of his bandmates.Glyn Johns,who was the album's engineer also defended McCartney on his stand on the song,saying that "The Long And Winding Road" sounds fabulous as it was without all those schlock added into it.Phil Spector lambasted McCartney back when he used a "minimal orchestra" on one of his live performances of the said song.

Phil Spector was reportedly known to be outspoken and ungrateful--one such toughness unmatched by any record producer at the time or perhaps even today.Going back to the bodyguard obsession he is well known for can be traced back to one Teddy Bears performance in which he sang  wholeheartedly.Four men were reportedly not impressed over Spector's singing that when he went offstage,he was beaten in the bathroom and got peed on by these huge thugs who weren't very keen on these teenage harmonies Spector had been writing and recording in the studio.From that moment on,he hired bodyguards and kept them close to him wherever he went.It was also said that Spector  was terrified of physical contact.

 Perhaps the most  memorable and most famous song written by Phil Spector is "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'"-a 1964 hit by the Righteous Brothers.One of the most beautiful love songs ever written,it was covered by other artists like Cilla Black and later on by Hall and Oates.


The last chart topping hit ever produced by Phil in the mid sixties was "Baby I Love You" by the Ronettes in 1966 in which one member Veronica,became his wife.After that,he fell from grace after producing Ike And Tina Turner's "River Deep Mountain High" which was considered a prime bomber on the American music scene though the track was hugely popular in Britain.

Spector made a comeback four years later to do a salvage project on the Beatles' Let It Be which catapulted to the top of the charts and earned him both a Grammy and an Academy Award he shared with the fab four.

After the last Beatles album, and in spite of having a feud with Paul McCartney,Spector had a long term association with two of the Beatles-George Harrison and John Lennon.He produced George Harrison's solo album All Things Must Pass

(photo left:Phil Spector and George Harrison,All Things Must Pass sessions 1970)

Though Harrison was reportedly happy to work with Spector and spoke well of the results,he and Phil got themselves in jeopardy when George was sued over one particular track "My Sweet Lord",in which Harrison was accused of  unconsciously plagiarising the Chiffon's song "He's So Fine" in which the prosecution even pointed out similarities between the two songs.Harrison sadly,lost the case,and incredibly enough,he had to pay the damages to none other than Allen Klein-the person he was contented to be having as the Beatles' manager post-Epstein.

(photo right:Phil Spector with John Lennon)

Phil Spector and George Harrison may have gotten along very well with the former even producing the Concert For Bangladesh in 1971 which pioneered rock philantrophy.But his working relationship with the other Beatle John Lennon was mixed particularly on one album Rock N' Roll that would put Spector on the headline of notoriety once again.

Spector had produced other John Lennon albums-Plastic Ono Band and Imagine to name a few.But Yoko Ono was always there as co-producer to supervise the sessions.In 1973,after recording Mind Games--Lennon's third solo album post-Beatles,John and Yoko decided to separate for a while.Lennon had flown to Los Angeles with a female companion May Pang who eventually became his lover.

In LA,John Lennon had spent a drink and drugs binge in which he quickly labeled as 'The Lost Weekend".Phil Spector trooped along with Lennon's friends and drinking buddies Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon.

(left: John Lennon's 1975 solo album Rock N' Roll)

The recording of Rock N' Roll has begun at both Sunset and A&M Studios in Hollywood.In spite of Yoko Ono nixing the idea of Lennon's to proceed with the recordings,they went ahead anyway with most of the sessions ending in a bloody mess.John Lennon and the musicians who played on the album were said to be drunk and high on drugs all the time as well as Phil Spector himself.One time they were thrown out of A&M Studios when  Spector reportedly  had freaken out and proceeded to shoot the studio's ceiling and lightings with his hand gun.Incredibly enough,nobody was injured by Spector's trigger happy shooting spree.

Recording proceeded at Sunset Studios after the A&M incident.Eventually,Lennon and Spector had a clash of egos as the sessions for Rock N' Roll was going nowhere,though some of the tracks were said to be finished.Phil Spector was said to have taken the tapes and hid it somewhere.After a short while,for some unknown circumstances,Lennon got hold of the tapes and took it back with him to New York where he continued to record and polished the tracks for the album.Rock N' Roll was finally released in 1975.

(photo right: Veronica Spector,Phil Spector's wife from 1966 to 1974)

Phil Spector continued to make headlines as a notorious figure like when he was inside Whiskey's A-Go-Go where he screamed so hard he had to be thrown out.And when his wife Veronica Spector told a crazy story about him monitoring her phone calls at their mansion in Hollywood and how he forbid her to go outside even threatening to kill her and keep her in a glass coffin.

Singer Leonard Cohen also stand witness to Spector's craziness  wherein he was kept at gunpoint during the recording of his 1977 album Death Of A Ladies Man until the entire album was finished.

(left: Leonard Cohen's 1977 album Death Of A Ladies Man)

Spector later produced albums by the Ramones-a punk rock band whose name was taken from Paul McCartney's first stage name with the Silver Beatles-Paul Ramon.The records he produced by then was said to be insubstantial.

Even at the twilight of his life Spector continued to make headlines like when he was convicted for the second degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson who was found dead on his mansion in Alhambra,California.

Spector defended himself from all charges of second degree murder by saying that Clarkson's death resulted from an accidental suicide when she allegedly 'kissed' the gun.Clarkson's body was found at Spector's mansion in 2003 and a trial for murder had proceeded four years later in 2007.In September of that latter year,the jury's decision went into a deadlock and a mistrial was announced.

(photo right:actress Lana Clarkson whose death got Spector convicted for second degree murder)

Phil Spector remained free over $1 million bail and got the public's eye again with the news about his murder trial being published in different magazines and tabloids all over the world.A retrial proceeded on October 2008 and after several months of hearing,the jury found Spector guilty on April 13,2009.He was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison on May 29,2009 but didn't began his sentence until two years later due to appeals he and his lawyer made which was eventually quashed by the court itself.

We will never know whats next for Phil Spector,his eccentricity has unmatched every pop and rock music icon from 1960s and beyond.

(photo:Phil Spector in 2007 during the Lana Clarkson murder trial)


(c) Keith Vernon Adagio