ShareThisBy MARK BROWN
Scripps Howard News Service
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
("Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector." By Mick Brown. Knopf, 464 pages, $26.95.)
"I have devils inside that fight me," Phil Spector calmly told a British reporter weeks before an actress was shot to death in his house. "And I'm my own worst enemy."
Music-industry insiders have always known that Spector is flat-out crazy. Anyone who worked, partied or recorded with him met two Phils -- the charming, affable music genius and the brooding, violent drunk. Long before women paraded to the witness stand to tell of being held at gunpoint by Spector, he was pulling guns on anyone who crossed him, be it a lowly assistant or a Beatle.
It wasn't until Lana Clarkson's life ended in a bloody foyer in Spector's house in 2003 that the public at large heard the tales of guns, alcohol and a psychotic temper; for insiders, the Clarkson case was the inevitable conclusion of a life run amok decades ago.
Writer Mick Brown did the last major interview with Spector several weeks before the Clarkson killing, spending hours wandering the very halls where the alleged crime took place. So extensive was his trip into Spector's mental state that homicide detectives questioned him in the killing.
Brown took four years to interview those around Spector to turn out "Tearing Down the Wall of Sound," a fascinating, detailed look at the life and career of one of the biggest names in music. It's a study not just of Spector's mental problems but of how he was able to use his obsessions to create some of the most memorable and influential music in history.
From Spector's father's suicide at an early age, to his current murder trial, Brown digs to figure out what made the diminutive genius do the things he did, good and bad -- the $500 tips and the psychotic rages. He finds the little details that document Spector's mental state and includes them for flavor.
While Spector sometimes gets painted as a one-trick pony with his massive Wall of Sound production style, Brown takes time to go into his methods of layering sound and to point out recordings where Spector went in the opposite direction, such as the minimalist production he did on John Lennon's "Plastic Ono Band" album.
What's more remarkable than Spector's behavior is those who tolerated it. That Lennon would put up with gunplay in the recording studio is stunning. Spector pulled a gun on The Ramones at their first meeting -- and they still recorded an arduous album with him. At a Leonard Cohen recording session, Spector held a gun to the head of a violinist who angered him, but those present explained it away -- "Phil wasn't angry at Bobby; he was just showing off."
Brown's one mistake was the decision to bookend the work with the Clarkson killing -- starting with it, ending with it and ultimately cheapening the remarkable work he did in between. His decision to release it now with Spector on trial for the killing will grab some headlines, but works against the book. The outcome of the trial one way or another will instantly render the book out of date.
It makes the book seem mercenary when it's actually a great portrait of where genius and madness meet.
Phil is no genius
Phil is very talented musically and his "wall of sound" was very influential. His arrangement with strings and horns were the first applied in early pop music, but that style of arranging was around way before Phil. I can mention 100 people in the music industry who are more talented than Phil, and they're not labled genius.
phil no genius
Buddy Holly did some really tasty string arrangements on some of his recordings which at the time seemed very controversial. That is if his film bio can be trusted. That would have been at least 3-5 years before Phil's work with the Ronnettes, wouldn't it?
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Phil is GUILTY!
Why are we wasting so many taxpayer dollars on this trial? We all know he is guilty as sin. He's a nut, wacko, crazed killer. But, Yoko supports him. What a crock!