[book review]
\n<\/p>\nRock and Roll Madman<\/h1>\n
<\/p>\nTearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector<\/h2>\n
<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Reviewed by William Wheaton<\/p>\n
Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector<\/i> by Mick Brown is the latest biography of legendary rock and roll producer Phil Spector who, at time of writing, nears the completion of his murder trial. Many people are familiar with the story about how when they recorded the album Death of a Lady\u2019s Man<\/i> together, Phil Spector put a gun to singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen\u2019s neck and said \u201cI love you, Leonard\u201d to which Leonard Cohen is said to have responded \u201cI hope you do, Phil\u201d. But what I learned recently from reading Mick Brown\u2019s new biography of Spector, is that Spector later claimed that Cohen is actually a big fan of, and \u201cdeeply influenced\u201d by the Partridge Family. Many people know that Spector\u2019s father committed suicide when he was a boy, but the new book reveals his parents were first cousins. That\u2019s the kind of detail of rock and roll\u2019s most infamous, alcoholic, firearms enthusiast\u2019s decline into madness that Brown\u2019s new book goes into. This is it — complete documentation of complete insanity.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been waiting for this for years, having my own background with rock and roll and guns. I may have even come close to coming into contact with Spector a few years ago. The first issue of my magazine AeonElectron<\/i> was going to include an interview with the New York girl-goth band Goodnight Gunfight because their drummer Jesse had Spector calling her house all the time- her roommate had some sort of friendship and\/or dating thing with his daughter Nicole Spector. Since my grandfather invented the M-14 and Spector\u2019s obviously really into guns I was going to try to lure him into an interview, but Goodnight Gunfight were three very spoiled young women and impossible to work with, so I let it go. I\u2019ve read a lot on Spector, and I\u2019d say the Brown biography is essential for anyone interested in the topic.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a topic that may keep you going too; the principal architect of the classic, warm \u201cgirl group\u201d pop sound of the early 60\u2019s was by almost universal accounts a hardened misogynist who liked to get drunk and point loaded guns at people\u2019s heads- and it\u2019s continued for decades. At the beginning of Tearing Down the Wall Of Sound<\/i>, Brown recounts meeting Spector at his home and recounts Spector\u2019s articulate admission in his own words:<\/p>\n
\u201cInsane is a hard word, but it\u2019s manic depressive, bipolar. I take medication for schizophrenia, but I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m schizophrenic\u2026I have devils inside that fight me. And I\u2019m my own worst enemy\u201d. <\/b><\/p>\n
Brown was the first person to do a major interview with Spector in twenty-five years. His interview with Spector was published right before Spector was arrested in early 2003 for the alleged murder of B-movie legend Lana Clarkson, who was working as a waitress at the House of Blues club where Spector had been out drinking. The defense claimed it was suicide, but Spector sure likes his liquor and handguns.<\/p>\n
We get it all in this one- from Spector\u2019s admission that his parents were first cousins and his father\u2019s suicide when he was nine right up to the famous courtroom photograph of him in the giant blond Afro-wig. This new book, written by a man who interviewed Spector right before he was arrested on charges of murder, goes into more detail about his murder case then Dave Thompson\u2019s biography Wall of Pain: A Biography of Phil Spector<\/i> released a few years ago. For example, Brown gives the details about many of the women who testified that Spector pointed guns at their heads (a mere fraction of the violence and gun-related incidents involving Spector in the book were discussed in the trial) and the recent legal battles with his former personal assistant Michelle Blaine. He accused her of embezzlement and she accused him of sexual harassment. There\u2019s everything from accusations of sexual abuse by Spector by his adopted son Donte, who became a drug addict and male prostitute and now has AIDS, to incidents involving guns and recording legends from John Lennon up through punk.<\/p>\n
It would be unfair to call this the definitive Phil Spector biography. Dave Thompson\u2019s Wall of Pain: A Biography of Phil Spector<\/i> is also excellent, and covers a number of musical topics that Brown\u2019s book does not. For example, the rivalry between Phil Spector and Joe Meek, the British rockabilly producer who shot his landlady and himself in 1967 is curiously absent from Brown\u2019s book but present in Thompson\u2019s. On the other hand, Thompson\u2019s biography does not go into nearly the comprehensive and up-to-date detail of Spector\u2019s legal and psychological problems that Brown’s does.<\/p>\n
If you read up on Spector you will never be able to listen to his familiar golden oldies greats like \u201cAnd Then He Kissed Me\u201d quite the same again. Rock and roll musicians I still care about are numbered these days, but Spector is there, in my nightmares even.<\/p>\n
WW<\/p>\n
![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i198.photobucket.com\/albums\/aa169\/reviewerphoto\/phil-spector-finger-1.jpg?w=900\")
\n[The photo above from the Spector trial was found by the editor on William Wheaton’s myspace, which he attributed to Rolling Stone<\/i> magazine. In it the accused murderer is said to be demonstrating bullet trajectory.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[book review] Rock and Roll Madman Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector Reviewed by William Wheaton Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector by Mick Brown is the latest biography of legendary rock and roll producer Phil Spector who, at time of writing, nears the completion of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[373],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-phil-spector-murder-book-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5022,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2011\/07\/22\/indy-movie-review-transtastic\/","url_meta":{"origin":351,"position":0},"title":"indy movie review: Trantastic","author":"admin","date":"July 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"[Film]TrantasticTweetfrom scumbagmovies.com directed by Brandon Gadow music by Damn Laser Vampires, \u2206AIMON, Paul Rey, The Jim Rowdy Show, Uncle Butcherindy movie review by Anjela Piccard [Editor's note: to see the totally amazing Reviewer Magazine video interview with Leia and Brandon Gadow featuring Anjela Piccard click HERE.] There is point when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/poster-tran-204x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3252,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2010\/11\/14\/new-voyageur-press-book-beatles-vs-stones\/","url_meta":{"origin":351,"position":1},"title":"book review: The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones: Sound Opinions on the Great Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Rivalry","author":"Kent","date":"November 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"[Book Review]The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones: Sound Opinions on the Great Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Rivalry Text by Jim deRogatis and Greg Kot 2010, Voyageur Press, Minneapolis, MN Reviewed by Kent Manthie Well Voyageur Press has done it again\u2026This time the Minneapolis-based publishers of such memorable \u201ccoffee-table\u201d books, such as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "books"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/beatles.stones.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":560,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2008\/12\/24\/amy-lynn-cd-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":351,"position":2},"title":"Amy Lynn CD review","author":"admin","date":"December 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Amy Lynn CD reviewReview by Kim Acrylic Amy Lynn's self-titled EP is a real shock. 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