[ad_1]
- Phil Spector, famous producer, died at the age of 81.
- The musical genius, known as the undisputed king of rock ‘n’ roll, worked on songs like Tina Turner’s Deep river high mountain and the beatles Let it be.
- Phil also struggled with a darker side, and in 2003 he was convicted of the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson.
Phil Spector, who revolutionized pop music in the 1960s with his “Wall of Sound” technique but ended up in prison for murder, died at age 81, authorities said Sunday.
In his heyday, Spector was the undisputed king of rock ‘n’ roll producers, the “Tycoon of Teen” whose music helped define the giddy optimism of a generation.
But the sleek suits and dark sunglasses favored by the diminutive genius gave way to prison clothing after he was convicted of the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson.
Spector was pronounced dead Saturday and his “official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner,” according to a statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Born in New York to Russian-Jewish parents in 1939, Spector was only eight years old when his father committed suicide, a family tragedy that would leave lasting scars on the young Spector’s psyche.
In the wake of his father’s death, Spector, his mother, and his sister moved to Los Angeles to start over.
It wasn’t long before Spector’s musical talents emerged, with the little teenager displaying a knack for songwriting and playing the guitar.
By forming his first group, The Teddy Bears, with three friends from high school, Spector soon reached gold with the 1958 single. To know him is to love him – the inscription on his father’s tombstone.
The record went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold five million copies. The Teddy Bears were unable to repeat the success and parted ways the following year.
Heavily affected by stage fright, Spector began to channel his energies into songwriting and production, helping to write Ben E. King’s 1961 hit. Spanish Harlem.
The creation of his own record label “Philles” marked the beginning of Spector’s best days, when he almost single-handedly changed the record industry with the “Wall of Sound”.
Using a large number of musicians playing overlapping individual parts, the technique gave Spector’s productions a distinctive orchestral quality that he described as “a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for children.”
“I knew that Beethoven was more important than whoever was playing his music,” he once said. “That’s what I wanted to be.”
Working with The Crystals, The Ronettes, and The Righteous Brothers, Spector became a hit machine, with themes including Da Doo Ron Ron, Then he kissed me Be my Baby, You have lost that feeling of love ‘ and Unchained Melody.
The final act signed with the Philles label was Ike and Tina Turner in 1966, but Spector was dismayed when the extraordinary Deep river high mountain it reached only # 88 on the United States singles charts.
Spector married the Ronettes lead singer, “Ronnie” Bennett, in 1968, and retired from the public eye as a billionaire.
He returned in the early 1970s for a triumphant collaboration with The Beatles on their hit album. Let it beand produced solo albums for John Lennon (Imagine) and George Harrison.
As the 1970s progressed, Spector became increasingly lonely and rumors of his eccentric behavior became legend.
The graphic testimony at his murder trial of repeated outbursts of rage only served to confirm what had been common knowledge within the music world for years.
Ronnie, who divorced him in 1974, recounted years of abusive behavior in his autobiography, which included the producer threatening to kill her and displaying her body in a gold-glass-topped coffin that he kept in his basement.
“I can only say that when I left in the early ’70s, I knew that if I didn’t leave then, I would die there,” Ronnie wrote later.
Spector’s threatening behavior also extended to the artists he worked with. It is alleged that he fired a gun at a studio while working with Lennon during the recording of Rock And Roll and once pointed a gun at Leonard Cohen’s head during Death of a womanizer.
In another incident, he held punk band The Ramones hostage at gunpoint during the recording of his album. End of the century.
Clues to Spector’s troubled mental state were evident in a rare and extensive interview he gave to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, just weeks before Lana Clarkson was shot and killed at her home in February 2003.
“I would say that I am probably relatively crazy, up to a point,” he said. “I am my worst enemy. I have demons inside that fight me.
“People idolize me, they want to be like me, but I tell them: ‘Trust me, they don’t want my life.’ Because it hasn’t been a very pleasant life.
“I have been a very tortured soul. I have not been at peace with myself. I have not been happy.”
