How Was This Ever Thought To Be Rubbish?

In 1975 Phil Spector decided that he was the person who could revive the flagging career of Dion DiMucci. At the time Dion was thrilled to be working with one of his heroes but by the time it was completed he all but disowned the album saying " it was basically Phil's album". The decision not even to release the album in the US and it's negligible impact in the UK can't have boosted Dion's confidence on the release either.

However listened to now, it is an absolutely astounding album where Spector's production shines but does not overwhelm DiMucci's vocals and the whole thing could sit proudly beside the best works of Scott Walker and Brian Wilson.

The song Born To Be With You is actually a cover having been a top ten hit both sides of the Atlantic in 1956. The Spector/DiMucci version although heavily produced, who would expect anything else of Spector, is an incredibly beautiful track which is interspersed with just the right amount of sax courtesy of Nino Tempo. I'm sure that Bobby Gillespie had been listening to this when he wrote Sometimes I Get So Lonely, well in my head anyway.

Dion - Born To Be With You

Spector, No Not That One

I'm off to Belfast 'til Friday.

Here is a track from th Tracks Of My Year. There has been a lot of coverage of Spector in the music press, some good, a lot bad. As far as I'm concerned, I've liked everything I've heard so far, they're far from being the most original band in the world but then again who is these days?

I particularly like the break at about 2 mins twenty.

Spector - Never Fade Away

Candy And The Kisses

How about a bit of northern?

Sisters Candy and Suzanne Nelson along with Jeanette Johnson from Port Richmond NY are probably best remembered for the Cameo-Parkway released single The 81 in 1964 which has a typical upbeat girl-group sound of the times. They also produced a version of Mr Creator a track much loved in northern circles in the version cut by the Apollas.

Are You Trying To Get Rid of Me Baby has a more moody feel to it than their other releases and is probably my favourite track by the trio. Written by Ashford, Simpson & Armstead it was later released on 45 by the Crystals after their association with Phil Spector had ended.

Candy And The Kisses - Are You Trying To Get Rid Of Me Baby

Amy Winehouse

So terribly sad and such a bloody waste!

Rest easy Amy.

Amy Winehouse - To Know Him IS To Love Him (link removed due to DMCA takedown)

Terry

Ok, it may not be quite as good as Leader of the Pack but Terry by Twinkle has a charm all of it's own.

Right at the start of one of my favourite books, Fuel Injected Dreams, the dj and main character Scott goes into this spiel about how he is on a death trip, only playing trashy, records about death and starts listing the tunes that he is playing such as Dead Man's Curve, Tell Laura I Love her, Happiness Is A Warm Gun etc and every time I read the passage this song by Twinkle pops into my head.

Although it is a pale imitation of the Shangri-La's classic, I think that there is a lot more sadness in Twinkle's voice than there is in Mary Weiss's.  Maybe Twinkle really has lost the love of her life and Mary has just lost her latest love but then again I may be reading far too much into a throw away pop song.

A couple of not very interesting facts about the song. Firstly, it was banned by the BBC for being tasteless and secondly Jimmy Page was one of the session musicians on the track.

What was it Phil Spector once said about little symphonies for the kids?

Twinkle - Terry

A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knockin' Everyday)

The only positive thing that I can find in the weekly air travel that I am currently doing is that I get to listen to lots of music. It gives me time to listen without interruption and fully to the latest releases that I've purchased or sometimes to just what is thrown up when the iPod is on shuffle.

This week the shuffle picked a song by Ike and Tina Turner that I don't think that I have ever heard before or if I have I never took much notice of it, although I must have had the track for at least ten years.

Tina Turner always conjures up negative connotations for me. When the name is mentioned I think of big hair, the terrible end to the Mad Max series of films but above all one side of the auld firm due to their appropriation of that terrible symbol of all that went wrong with soul music in the 80's, Simply The Best.

However, when you look back to the stuff that she produced in the 60s and 70's on the Sue label with her then husband Ike it is all rather good soul music and she did have a great voice.

The track which came up on shuffle was one of the tracks that the Turners recorded during the sessions with Phil Spector which produced River Deep - Mountain High.

A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knockin' Everyday) was recorded in 1966 and was released on Phillies Records, the 135th release on the label. It is full of the bombast and wall of sound that you would expect from a Spector production. My copy is on the 4 cd boxset Back To Mono which is the definitive compilation of the convicted murder's work.

Ike & Tina Turner - A Love Like Yours (Don't Come Knockin' Everyday)

Wall Of Pain

I've just finished reading the Dave Thompson biography of Phil Spector, Wall Of Pain. The book is a comprehensive look at Spector's life, studio sessions and plainly unhinged behaviour of which I feel that Thompson is far too ready to justify. An example of which is when recounting the story of when Spector pulled a gun on Walter Cronkite's daughter at a Christmas bash hosted by Joan Rivers, Thompson writes "Context, of course, is everything and Spector has never publicly spoken about why he pulled the gun" It doesn't matter why he pulled the gun,  Dave, there is no justification.

If you can put the bias to one side the book is rather informative about Spector's relationship with many of the musicians he worked with. It also shows, how at a very young age Spector knew what he wanted to do and was able to realise his ambitions by learning quickly how to play the game and beat the music establishment at their own game.

I have a feeling that a lot of the stories around Spector's erratic behaviour in the studio has been somewhat embellished over the years or why were the same musicians willing to go back in the studio session after session, year after year. It certainly can't be due to lack of work. As these musicians must have been sought after having been involved in so many hit singles in the early 60's.

There is one big what if in the book.  During 1979 Spector was looking around for a new project and turned his attention on Blondie. Spector had first noticed the band when they were the support for the Ramones at The Whisky A Go Go in 1977 and had followed their progress since. Blondie, however, aware of the antics during the recording of the Ramones, End Of The Century album with Spector, declined his offer to produce. One can only dream of what could have been the result of those sessions if both band and producer had got it together.

During what I think will have been Spector's last production session,  for Starsailor, James Walsh marvelled at what the producer could do in the studio without the use of modern technology such as Pro Tools. "It was an amazing experience, first and foremost. To see for example, the way he could make a string quartet sound like an orchestra|" he is quoted as saying.

The final chapter deals very briefly with the events of the early hours of 3rd February 2003 when the actress Lana Clarkson was found dead at Spector's house in Alhambra and the record producers eventual indictment for murder on the 19th of September. The book went to print long  before the case would eventually come to court and Spector sentenced to 19 years to life for second degree murder on 29th May 2009. Spector now resides in the Corcoran state prison which also houses Charles Manson.

My overwhelming impression of Spector after reading this book, hasn't changed from the one I formed of him after reading Ronnie Bennet's autobiography and He's A Rebel, a previous biography by Mark Ribowsky, that of a deeply troubled individual capable of greatness in the studio but a wholly inadequate human being who at times was incredibly dangerous to be around.

What doesn't sit well with me sometimes is the sheer pleasure that I get out of the work of a convicted murderer. Is it wrong to still get enjoyment out of the work of such a person, is it possible to detach Spector from his "little symphonies for the kids"? I just don't know and should I be bothered when these days it seems to be a badge of honour in some music genres to boast about your criminal past?

Still, a man who once  reffered to the Spice Girls as the antichrist can't be all bad.

Here is the results of that final Spector session.

Starsailor - Silence Is Easy