I heard on the News last night that Phil Spector has died in prison aged 81. He was a music genius who produced some of the greatest popular music of all time, but sadly he will also be remembered for shooting dead in 2003 an actress called Lana Clarkson. This tragic event should never have been possible. Phil Spector should have been in hospital receiving treatment because he was seriously mentally ill for decades. If he was not willing to be treated voluntarily, he should have been detained under the Mental Health Act. Also, he should not have been allowed to be in possession of a gun. That is one of the major problems in American society where sick people are wandering around carrying lethal weapons. We have seen the consequences many times.
I have never read any biographies of Phil Spector, so I am just giving my views based on what I have heard. Biographies are often sensationalised to sell more copies anyway. I do know that in 1949 his father committed suicide by shooting himself. That must have had a terrible effect on the ten years old Phil. I think most of his troubles can be traced back to that event. In 1974 another major event took place when he was thrown through the windscreen of his car in a crash. It was only when a policeman detected a faint pulse that he was not declared dead at the scene. His head injuries required hundreds of stitches. He could have been suffering from brain damage or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for the rest of his life. It was after this major incident that he started wearing the bizarre wigs. Many people, such as The Ramones and Leonard Cohen spoke about Phil Spector’s eccentric behaviour, such as threatening people with guns and holding them hostage. Did they report him to the authorities though? Maybe if they had, something could have been done about it. A few weeks before he shot Lana Clarkson, Phil Spector told a journalist from the Daily Telegraph that he thought he was insane. He was a disaster waiting to happen.
To talk about the music, I have read a lot of criticism of his ‘over-production’ such as his work on The Beatles Let It Be album. It sounds fine to me and even John Lennon said that Phil was given a lot of crap and turned it into a chart-topping album. George Harrison and John Lennon were obviously happy with his work because they used him to work on such albums as All Things Must Pass, Imagine and several others. Albums were not Phil’s forte though. What he really liked was producing hit singles and that is what I will remember him for. Songs like You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling by The Righteous Brothers and River Deep, Mountain High by Ike & Tina Turner. His Wall Of Sound was hugely influential on other people such as the great Brian Wilson who incidentally also suffered from mental health problems that can be traced back to his father. Brian idolised Phil Spector and said that Be My Baby by The Ronettes was his favourite song of all time. British made records of the 60’s where you can see Phil’s influence include work by Dusty Springfield and The Walker Brothers.
I cannot think of anything else to say about Phil Spector now. I feel very sorry for the family of Lana Clarkson, they must feel terrible, but although his behaviour was shocking, I do feel some sympathy for Phil who I think was a very sick person who did not get the treatment he obviously needed. For anyone who was a teenager in the 1960’s his songs were classics. Anyone who can produce a song like Da Doo Ron Ron by The Crystals which is pure joy from start to finish can’t be all bad, can they.
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