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Phil Spector, 81

frankberry

frankberry

Administrator
Inactive User

Phil Spector, the eccentric and revolutionary music producer who transformed rock music with his “Wall of Sound” method whose later was convicted of murder, has died at age 81.​


www.snopes.com

Phil Spector, famed music producer and murderer, dies at 81

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Phil Spector, the eccentric and revolutionary music producer who transformed rock music with his “Wall of Sound” method and who later was convicted of murder, has died.
www.snopes.com www.snopes.com
 
He was eccentric, but a prolific producer. I like the story of how he got the Crystals version of "He's A Rebel" recorded and distributed before Vicki Carr's version.
 
radioman148 said:
He was eccentric, but a prolific producer. I like the story of how he got the Crystals version of "He's A Rebel" recorded and distributed before Vicki Carr's version.
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Eccentric? More like depraved or psychotic. His musical footprint was iconic. His work on The Beatles "Let It Be" album was polarizing. John Lennon and George Harrison worked with him again on their solo albums. McCartney has expressed dissatisfaction with "The Long & Winding Road" arrangement.

Unfortunately, Spector destroyed his legacy by committing senseless murder. His death was reported as COVID related...
 
I lived through Spector's "wall of sound" but didn't think it was the revolution others give him credit for. He had the advantage of some talented girl groups that came along as a result of the well known music scandal of the late 50's.
 
landtuna said:
He had the advantage of some talented girl groups that came along as a result of the well known music scandal of the late 50's.
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He had talented groups who he discovered, and he wrote the songs that they ended up singing.

But yes his timing was very good, and he managed to continue to have hits after the British invasion.
 
landtuna said:
I lived through Spector's "wall of sound" but didn't think it was the revolution others give him credit for. He had the advantage of some talented girl groups that came along as a result of the well known music scandal of the late 50's.
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Didn't the wall of sound turn into louder music. More compression.
 
TheBigA said:
That's an interesting question. It was definitely louder, I'll grant you that. The goal was to sound great on AM radio. He figured if it stood out on the radio, the listeners would want to buy it.

Wall of Sound - Wikipedia

This article is a pretty complete story of the process.
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Spector was basically layering tracks before it was easy to do. He wanted a fuller sound so he added more instruments.

Now with everyone listening on earbuds and crappy equipment the goal is to make the music pop more. So they clip the edges and make it louder. The effect is basically the same just for different reasons.
 
tbolt909 said:

Eccentric? More like depraved or psychotic. His musical footprint was iconic. His work on The Beatles "Let It Be" album was polarizing. John Lennon and George Harrison worked with him again on their solo albums. McCartney has expressed dissatisfaction with "The Long & Winding Road" arrangement.

Unfortunately, Spector destroyed his legacy by committing senseless murder. His death was reported as COVID related...
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It is a shame that it took the deaths of both John and George for Let It Be...Naked to come out. To my ears, these were the correct versions of all the songs in that collection. I even "christened" my house by playing "Let It Be" from Let It Be...Naked as soon as I got the stereo system hooked up when I first moved here.

And I still change stations at Christmas time whenever anything from his Christmas album (or anything that even sounds like it did!) is played. Just sounds "old" to my ears.
 
firepoint525 said:
It is a shame that it took the deaths of both John and George for Let It Be...Naked to come out. To my ears, these were the correct versions of all the songs in that collection. I even "christened" my house by playing "Let It Be" from Let It Be...Naked as soon as I got the stereo system hooked up when I first moved here.

And I still change stations at Christmas time whenever anything from his Christmas album (or anything that even sounds like it did!) is played. Just sounds "old" to my ears.
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I think The Long And Winding Road is better clean.
 
Don CT said:
I think The Long And Winding Road is better clean.
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I agree. The entire LET IT BE naked version is superior, but it was still not a great Beatles album. The band was disintegrating at that time.

Spector was simply hired to try to salvage the project and make it "more commercial and sellable". Lennon didn't care if the songs were permanently canned. He felt that Spector did a decent job with mediocre Beatles songs. George Martin supposedly quipped -- "Let It Be produced by George Martin. Over-Produced by Phil Spector"...
 
tbolt909 said:
I agree. The entire LET IT BE naked version is superior, but it was still not a great Beatles album. The band was disintegrating at that time.

Spector was simply hired to try to salvage the project and make it "more commercial and sellable". Lennon didn't care if the songs were permanently canned. He felt that Spector did a decent job with mediocre Beatles songs. George Martin supposedly quipped -- "Let It Be produced by George Martin. Over-Produced by Phil Spector"...
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At that point wouldn't anything by the Beatles sell no matter what it sounded like.
 
Don CT said:
At that point wouldn't anything by the Beatles sell no matter what it sounded like.
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Maybe in America. Different story in the UK.
Many critics in England were tough on the Beatles. The "Let It Be" film was pretty bleak with only flashes of Gallows Humour...
 
tbolt909 said:
Maybe in America. Different story in the UK.
Many critics in England were tough on the Beatles. The "Let It Be" film was pretty bleak with only flashes of Gallows Humour...
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Maybe the critics were down on the direction the Beatles were headed, but if you look at the trades and music magazines, there is no evidence of that.

Personally, I find "critic" reviews as useful in guiding my entertainment choices as I find Academy Awards in selecting films to see. In the case of the later, an Oscar is often a guarantee of a deep, disturbing or simply boring movie.
 
Not much to add after the great Wikipedia link TheBigA posted. Here's a piece with information from Larry Levine, possibly shortly before his death.

Classic Tracks: The Ronettes 'Be My Baby'

Phil Spector was one of the first producers to realise that a recording studio could be an instrument in itself - and the sound he created over 40 years ago has influenced popular music ever since.
www.soundonsound.com www.soundonsound.com

My view is on the tech side Spector and Levine superbly used room leakage, positioning of the musicians, and Gold Star studio's two live echo chambers to create a memorable sound. From the photo in the link during the prime hit making period Gold Star appears to have two three track machines and at least one mono machine. Sel-Sync may have been an option on the 350 series three track. With a room filled with musicians playing at once they achieved more density (when they wanted it) on one recording pass. Back then live echo chambers were a big deal and gave studios a competitive edge. Capitol Recording Studios has eight echo chambers below the parking lot

btw, Gold Star was located just a few blocks south of the building where I worked. I loved that about Hollywood, there was music, film and TV history everywhere. Did you know Frank Sinatra recorded an album at 5515 Melrose, which later contained KHJ, and then KRTH for a few years?

Also, according to online articles, Abbey Road studio used primarily by the Beatles had two four track Studers and they used half inch tape; and EMI policy was they didn't reuse tape. This and extensive use of Fairchild compressor meant the Beatles printed a fat sound to tape and largely avoided tape noise. Not re-using tape meant one song may have four or five work tapes of a song as it was created by dubbing between the dual four track machines. i.e. fill four tracks on machine A, mix to one track on machine B, fill remaining 3 tracks on machine B, mix to one track on machine A on on fresh tape, repeat as needed. Decades later Giles Martin was able to use the multiple reels to re-mix a given Beatles song on the Love album. He was able to use tracks from earlier reels and got the genuine sound before several tape generations. Four reels would be sixteen tracks of stuff dubbed into to Pro-Tools, to be synced and mixed. Now, instead of four Beatles playing most of the time, Spector had a dozen musicians blended with room and echo chamber sound.
 
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Greg Strickland said:
Gold Star was located just a few blocks sound of the building where I worked. I loved that about Hollywood, there was music, film and TV history everywhere.
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Sadly a lot of that has disappeared now. Gold Star closed down in 1984.

However, Spector was why Brian Wilson wanted to work in Gold Star when it was time to record the Beach Boys "Smile" sessions.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Maybe the critics were down on the direction the Beatles were headed, but if you look at the trades and music magazines, there is no evidence of that.

Personally, I find "critic" reviews as useful in guiding my entertainment choices as I find Academy Awards in selecting films to see. In the case of the later, an Oscar is often a guarantee of a deep, disturbing or simply boring movie.
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The Beatles set the bar really high. They were held to a ridiculously high standard. The point was that Spector was hired to "fix" the album because the bean counters didn't think it would sell. The Beatles were innovators.

If you don't like Oscar nominated films, you have plenty of other less cerebral options...
 
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tbolt909 said:
If you don't like Oscar nominated films, you have plenty of other less cerebral options...
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I'm with DavidEdwardo on his opinion of Oscar nominees. It seems most years you have only to follow the money to find the highest rated films. I find Rotten Tomatoes a much better review source.
 
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