Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector

Anyone who still believes suicide leaves no longer-term impact upon those left behind should read the story of the music and sonic genius who named his first hit record with the tombstone epitaph for the father he loved (whose suicide was first told to the nine-year-old boy as an accident), who created music that revolutionised record-making and still makes millions happy today (and you should listen as much to the more obscured singles Spector delivered as heavily as his hits that endure to get the full range of his musical singularity), but whose collision between music genius and reckless madness ended with the senseless murder of a young woman and himself behind bars to die in a prison hospital in due course.This book came forth before the first trial over Lana Clarkson's death ended in a hung jury. But to read it is to comprehend as completely as possible how Phil Spector could and did become the wounded narcissist recoiling from his irrevocable grief, and from his mother's furies and dominance, to turned the recording studio into his personal monument but himself into the stunted paranoiac at war with the world, with himself, and with the very idea of love his best music championed and amplified, right up to the hour in which Clarkson died at his hand.The boy who sought to control every facet of his environment regardless of whom he alienated, too often with reckless indifference. The young man feted (in Tom Wolfe's unforgettable phrase and analysis) as the First Tycoon of Teen before he was 25. The songwriter-turned-producer to whom his artists were mere messengers for Himself. The megalomaniac who nevertheless felt privileged to work with incumbent and former Beatles when given the chance. The Wall of Sound mastermind who couldn't tear down his own wall of insecurities and psychosis and wouldn't tear down his wall of control.If only Benjamin Spector's bereft son had paid closer attention to the lyrics being sung in one of his greatest productions, George Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity." (On which Spector arranged a less thickly overcooked but no less effective new Wall of Sound involving some of the cream of the 1970 musical crop, including but not limited to Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Dave Mason, Procol Harum's Gary Brooker, Spooky Tooth's Gary Wright, horn team Jim Price and Bobby Keys, future Yes drummer Alan White, all four members of Badfinger, and three-quarters [Clapton, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon] of Derek and the Dominos].) Or, to the substance in what will always remain Spector's most unusually minimal production, the songs through which John Lennon purged his own lifelong parental abandonment, rage, and sorrow, on "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band."If only Benjamin Spector's son could have.He might have forged genuine friendships instead of temporary alliances of music and business convenience. He might have adapted to the music times sooner than he did when the Beatles threw him an unexpected lifeline. (There are few more self-immolating recordings in the history of music than Spector's hubris-driven 1966 overproduction of Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep-Mountain High.") He might have been a decent husband instead of a prison warden. He might have felt and been less abandoned.And Lana Clarkson might still be alive.

With an interest in music and pop culture of the 50s-70s, this book falls right in my sights. Phil Spector and his "Wall of Sound" led the way to the British invasion in the 60s which eventually swept his Wall of Sound and girl bands from the charts. How ironic that one of his greatest accomplishments was later producing a comeback album by John Lennon?But this is a flawed character if there ever was one. A bad upbringing with history of mental illness leads to an obsessive career to be the best, step on anyone on the way up and never look back. That's not impossible to pull off but with his personality skills or lack thereof, eventually his world crumbles as the music changes and he leads the life of a wealthy hermit with few people with which to converse.But of course his life was to get stranger. Occasionally re-appearing from his "fortress of solitude", specifically when he is inducted in the Rock in Roll Hall of Fame, Spector shows a new side, his obsession with guns and occasional desire to force people to stay in his house thru the night against their will with threats of gun violence. Prior to Lana Clarkson's murder the last third of the book is filled with these stories.Of course this leads to her tragic death, more Spector manipulation as he repeatedly fires lawyers and wears bizarre wigs to where we are today, a short time before his verdict. Frankly, while the defense builds a case that Clarkson chose this moment to commit suicide, I personally think this rings hollow. Spector has too much bizarre history of incidents similar for him to not be guilty, particularly when his drivers states that's what he initially said.But this is a review of the book and its potential enjoyment. Did I like the book? Yes. Did the author do an excellent research job? Absolutely. But you have to ask yourself how much of your life do you want to devote to Phil Spector. This book took twice as long to read as most books. It is exhaustive and by the end I was happy to be able to move on from this depressing life. Phil Spector made great music years ago. But his life is not to be celebrated. Read only if you have many hours for this complete history of a man we should not be celebrating.

Loses one star due to the few pages of crummy black and white photos. I had read Ronnie Spector's book which was great but I wanted to know more about Phil's later years. Taken from many well-sourced accounts, this book brings Spector's tenuous hold on sanity to the forefront. At first I felt Mick Brown's writing style was too dry but after awhile it became perfect to report on this madman. Spector became a fully actualized ghoul of a man with very little conscience. His life also shows how his money and success kept buying him "friendship and support" from so many people famous or not. He was capable of generosity and kindness but only as a Dr. Jeckyl. The Mr. Hyde in him led the way and got increasingly disturbed. You could make a cartoonish movie about his life but it would be appropriate. Good for Abnormal Psychology students for sure.

Good book!

Excellent book. Well written & researched.

In the early 1960s I was one of the kids for whom Phil Spector produced his little symphonies, and they became so embedded in my life that even now I feel the thrill of adolescent longing when I hear the Crystals, the Ronettes, or the Righteous Brothers.Not the overwrought, empty sound of Ike and Tina Turner's River Deep, Mountain High, however. And it marked the tumbling down of Spector's great invention, the Wall of Sound. It also marked the beginning of Spector's long descent into madness, as he travelled from being merely crazy into a vortex of pills, booze, paranoia, and guns. He locked himself away in castles, until he was locked away in somewhere even more impregnable.Mick Brown is an outstanding journalist and writer, and this account tracks Spector from his earliest days. He perhaps had insanity hard-wired into him. His parents were first cousins, his father killed himself, his sister was in and out of mental health institutions, and his poor mother smothered her son the record producer with unwanted love.Brown interviewed Spector only a few short weeks before the shooting of Lana Clarkson, the fatally last in a long line of girls who found themselves viewing Phil from the wrong end of a gun. Brown also attended Spector's trial.The book coincidentally throws into almost comic relief some of the vagaries of the Californian judicial system. Spector's defence counsel absences himself from much of the trial while he sets up his own TV reality show. Phil appears in a selection of improbable wigs, the most awe inspiring being a giant blond Afro, and is at times so unsteady on his feet that one observer records he looks like he might fall off his shoes. The jury is apparently unable to comprehend that a blood-spattered Spector, clutching a revolver and telling his chauffeur that he thinks he just killed somebody, had actually killed somebody, and fails to come to a verdict.A retrial had to take place before they put Phil somewhere that involved a wall, but not of sound. Brown's book is a masterpiece of rock 'n' roll biography.

The biography itself is great, but...I purchased a new copy of this book direct from Amazon. I was surprised to discover that it was Amazon's own reprint (see picture), and more than a bit annoyed that it isn't quite the same as the publisher's editions.Firstly, the book includes a page and half-long list of photo credits; however, there are no photos at all in the book.Secondly, both the spine and the back cover of the book are blank.Amazon should make it clear when new books they're selling have been printed by them; they should also state any ways in which such books differ from the publisher's edition.If I'd bought this as a gift, I'd definitely return it.

Mick Brown is a sterling writer, both as an author and a journalist. He tackles his subject here with ferocious insight and intelligence. Phil Spector, whose ability as a music producer sits in the highest place, is also a dark personality riddled with self-doubt and a measure of self-loathing that descends to the lowest levels. Ego on his scale is disturbingly chaotic and tends to threaten a peaceful order that the overwhelming majority of us subscribe to. But this ego has given birth to some of the most uplifting sounds in the pop pantheon. Mick Brown tells this story on a measured way, taking the reader through the fascinating but loopy career of the man whose mantra was that he wanted to give the world "little symphonies for the kids."