Phil Spector

Much like I expected, the rollout of Phil Spector obituaries has been dripping with smug disgust, thanks of course to him being a convicted murderer. We can't seem to separate the art from the artist, the same way we've removed all the incredible work Bill Cosby did from all of our lives. Which is anyone's prerogative, of course - hell, I made a joke claiming its only surprising Spector only killed one person (that we know of).

But as a fan who has loved his songs my whole life, I feel it's my job here to remind us how amazing his work was. The timeline of which can pretty much be boiled down to:

To Know Him is to Love Him -> Girl groups (Ronettes/Crystals/Xmas album et al) -> You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' -> River Deep, Mountain High -> breakdown after River Deep flops -> Let it Be (which is excoriated by Paul) -> solo Lennon albums (which are great but don't use the Spector sound, you wonder why he was even there) -> All Things Must Pass (which uses the Wall of Sound for some of it and when it does, is great) -> End of the Century (a dream team match-up between band and producer, half of which uses the Wall of Sound brilliantly, but half of which the songs are just terrible) -> 25+ years of seclusion -> prison.

Toss in the fact that without Spector Brian Wilson as magical producer would not exist, leaving us without the beautiful Pet Sounds.

George Martin was the perfect producer for The Beatles, but he never wrote a song himself. And while Brian Wilson used Spector's sound perfectly, he never wrote song lyrics. Meanwhile, here's a short list of songs Spector co-wrote, mostly with the brilliant husband/wife combo of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich:

Baby, I Love You, Be My Baby, Christmas Baby Please Come Home, Da Doo Ron Ron, River Deep Mountain High, Spanish Harlem, Then He Kissed Me, To Know Him is to Love Him, Walking in the Rain, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.

NOT too shabby a list!

Also what's easy to miss is how young he was: when he was pumping out girl group hits he was ONLY 23 YEARS OLD!!!!! When The Beatles called him in to save Let it Be he was out of the business and washed up...at 29!!!

ANYway...of course he fucked up his legacy with the murder, and I feel for the girl and her family, but I also agree with what Steven Van Zandt wrote about Spector after his death:

RIP Phil Spector. A genius irredeemably conflicted, he was the ultimate example of the Art always being better than the Artist, having made some of the greatest records in history based on the salvation of love while remaining incapable of giving or receiving love his whole life.

He was a raving lunatic for sure, but I for one will always be thankful for the brilliant music he gave us, which - unlike him or his legacy as a person - will truly last forever.