Phil Spector: The Master of Teenage Hormones

[MeDotOrg]

Phil Spector could be the hero of a novel written by Ayn Rand and Hunter S. Thompson.

In the history of Rock 'n Roll, Spector deserves a place near the top. He was his own Brill Building. He was the first rock producer millionaire before he was 21. But there was always a shadow. His first hit record was the epitaph from his father's tombstone.



He expanded the universe of Rock by compressing the sound stage, creating the wall of sound. He went from a nebbish to a Pop Music God, and it was not an smooth metamorphosis. Like a lot of teens who have fame thrust upon them, he stopped growing emotionally. His life shrank behind walled estates, CCTV, gates and guns. He was an evil, controlling Svengali in his relationships with women. He justified his own behavior in a song He hit me and it felt like a kiss. '

He hit me
And it felt like a kiss.
He hit me
But it didn't hurt me.
He couldn't stand to hear me say
That I'd been with someone new,
And when I told him I had been untrue
He hit me
And it felt like a kiss.
He hit me
And I knew he loved me.

An anthem for every abusive boyfriend.

He had been Imprisoned since 2009 for the murder of Lana Clarkson, a hostess he picked up at a Sunset Boulevard night club. Depending on the news source, he died of complications due to Covid-19 or natural causes.

So why am I marking the passing of this strange and sad man? I'll begin with a maxim:

Adults think.
Childeren feel.
Teenagers secrete.

Throughout the time Phil Spector was at the height of his creative powers, I was pimple-popping, raging soup of teenage hormones. From the agony of the Righteous Brothers You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin', to the backseat ectasy promised by Ronnie Spector in Be My Baby, Phil Spector understood.

He wasn't a Tin Pan Alley Producer trying to figure out 'what the kids want these days'. He was that kid. His wife sang Be My Baby. He made it okay for kids to produce the music kids want.

He flamed out early. There was not a great deal of progression in his musical style. By the time he got to the Beatles Let it Be, his orchestration felt like a Long and Winding Road. The Beatles later released an the album Let it Be Naked, stripped of Spector's baroque accompanyment. Back to Mono is the best Spector Anthology. Out of print, natch. There's always Spotify.

Goodbye Phil. You'll always be in my heart, next to a used-up tube of Clearasil.

[MeDotOrg]

[bump]

Jersey Girl, I thought you would have been all over this...

[Jersey Girl]

I have a really hard time paying tribute Phil Spector. Although I was a little too young to be in a backseat with anyone, I was fully aware of his music and there is no question that his Wall of Sound recordings kicked Rock n' Roll ass. I'm pretty sure that while he was developing his innovations, no one could have known that he was probably working on a hard and long lasting case of Bi Polar Disorder. Fine line between genius and madness. The way he treated Ronnie makes me sick. But yes, he left an indelible mark on the music industry and a bullet hole in the mouth of his girlfriend. It's so hard to praise him!

I'm not sad that he's passed. He is out of his misery and so are those who would have come in contact with him had he not been imprisoned.

I did want to mention for the uninitiated that he used Cher for a back up singer and I believe Sonny Bono worked for him in the studio. I'm sure there were other soon-to-be famous back up singers that I'm unaware of. On this recording Cher sings back up and if I am not mistake, somewhere in my life I read that Dick Clark was one of the folks who provided the hand claps.

Da Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3_KgmgrUm8

I give this an 95, Dick. It's got a good beat and it's easy to dance to!

[MeDotOrg]

I have a really hard time paying tribute Phil Spector. Although I was a little too young to be in a backseat with anyone, I was fully aware of his music and there is no question that his Wall of Sound recordings kicked Rock n' Roll ass. I'm pretty sure that while he was developing his innovations, no one could have known that he was probably working on a hard and long lasting case of Bi Polar Disorder. Fine line between genius and madness. The way he treated Ronnie makes me sick. But yes, he left an indelible mark on the music industry and a bullet hole in the mouth of his girlfriend. It's so hard to praise him!

I'm not sad that he's passed. He is out of his misery and so are those who would have come in contact with him had he not been imprisoned.

I did want to mention for the uninitiated that he used Cher for a back up singer and I believe Sonny Bono worked for him in the studio. I'm sure there were other soon-to-be famous back up singers that I'm unaware of. On this recording Cher sings back up and if I am not mistake, somewhere in my life I read that Dick Clark was one of the folks who provided the hand claps.

Da Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3_KgmgrUm8

I give this an 95, Dick. It's got a good beat and it's easy to dance to!

To paraphrase hit first hit, to know him was not to love him. Drugs, paranoia, megalomania and money...in some ways it's amazing he lasted as long as he did. And I get that his music probably resonates more with me. You're right about Sonny Bono, he worked in the studio back at Phillies Records. Listen to the orchestration on "I Got You Babe". Straight out of Spector.

[huckelberry]

I like this thread as an excuse to review a bit of teenage music history. Wikapiadia provided some specifics about this wall of sound I had heard of. Interesting information, lots of instruments repeating the same simple lines. That is hardly new at the time. Think of big band with banks of horns repeating rhythmic patterns. A lot of music tries to build a broad big sound. I have always preferred cleaner music. I reviewed Chuck Berry, Maybellene thinking of wall of sound techniques. The guitar amp makes broad note sounds. Rhythm has a broad supporting sound. There is even a piano kept back to the edge of audibility. Sounds like wall of sound ideas. I read that Chess records brought a crew and spent good time creating Chucks early records.

Reviewing Doo Wop and other girl groups I think Specters creations sit mid stream in the ongoing creation of this sort of music. He is not the only one avoiding the bare bones beauty of early Beetles or Stones. I am not so much a fan of walls of sound so am lodging my complaint. Yet in reviewing "Da do ron ron" or "You lost that loving feelilng" I am forced to tip my hat acknowledging a master craftsman. He could fit a lot of sound securely behind a simple effective melody.
.........
MeDotOrg. I hope I can apologize in advance for this minor disagreement. I think children think, teenagers feel and adults hopefully do both. Songs like the Da do Ron Ron bring to my mind early romantic thoughts and hopes. I hope for you you did not loose the grand exploration and discovery of romance in to much worry about pimples and secretions.

(perhaps speaking of pimples is a way to sidestep reviewing the feelings and difficulties of teenage romance.)
Jersey Girl has link to Da Do Ron Ron
Oh my my heart stood still,,, they get a lot of milage out of those little hips sways.

[Jersey Girl]

Jersey Girl has link to Da Do Ron Ron
Oh my my heart stood still,,, they get a lot of milage out of those little hips sways.

So did I. ; - ) I still dance to all kinds of music. Yes, even that one. There's a kind of hand jive dance thing you can do to Da Doo Ron Ron, too. One of my girl friend's older sister taught it to us in their garage back in Jersey after school one day. They lived across the street from the grade school. We made our own little girl group.

Here's what you are talking about, huck---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-qqi7-Q19k

[MeDotOrg]

MeDotOrg. I hope I can apologize in advance for this minor disagreement. I think children think, teenagers feel and adults hopefully do both. Songs like the Da do Ron Ron bring to my mind early romantic thoughts and hopes. I hope for you you did not loose the grand exploration and discovery of romance in to much worry about pimples and secretions.

(perhaps speaking of pimples is a way to sidestep reviewing the feelings and difficulties of teenage romance.)
Jersey Girl has link to Da Do Ron Ron
Oh my my heart stood still,,, they get a lot of milage out of those little hips sways.

Before you have sex, it's a mystery. And again, specific to my physiological and chronological relationship with Rock 'n Roll, Phil Spector represents the painfully sweet blue-balled ecstasy and frustration of back seats and living room couches.

So no worries. Spector's music is resolutely adolescent, which is a two-edged sword.

A 'sweet mystery of life at last I found you' would be something like

Para Machuchar Meu Coracao - listen to the bridge.

[Jersey Girl]

Omg you guys. Listen to this monologue/intro by Shaun Cassidy talking about Spector holding him at gun point.

Shaun Cassidy Da Doo Ron Ron BOSTON 7-30-19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4oZ6gra_1E

[huckelberry]

Jersey Girl has link to Da Do Ron Ron
Oh my my heart stood still,,, they get a lot of milage out of those little hips sways.

So did I. ; - ) I still dance to all kinds of music. Yes, even that one. There's a kind of hand jive dance thing you can do to Da Doo Ron Ron, too. One of my girl friend's older sister taught it to us in their garage back in Jersey after school one day. They lived across the street from the grade school. We made our own little girl group.

Here's what you are talking about, huck---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-qqi7-Q19k

yes that is the video I was thinking of. I wonder if Phil never could accept that people liked those singers a whole lot more than they liked him.

A couple of years a go a friend I hadn't seen since 1969 asked what my favorite song was, number one you know. My brain totally strangled. there was fancy songs, simple songs, intellectual songs, pop, jazz, Hendrix, Midnight Rambler, country. I have no ability to decide. I should keep for safety Da Do Ron Ron and those hand hip movements as number one and the crowd of competing songs just have to pause giving my poor brain a break.