#Phil Spector

[king-of-the-birds]

Paul McCartney attended the annual Q Awards ceremony at the Park Lane Hotel in London on 4th November, where he was presented with a Best Songwriter Award for Flaming Pie. Also attending the proceedings was legendary producer Phil Spector, who received a Special Q Award. When video clips of some of Spector’s best-known recordings were played on a giant screen, Paul stood up and applauded an excerpt of John’s “Stand By Me” (which Spector didn’t actually produce!), but when Phil took to the stage to make a speech, Paul got up from his seat and walked out.

The Beatles Monthly Book N°260, December 1997

[twixnmix]

The Ronettes and Phil Spector during a recording session for the album "A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector" at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, 1963.

Photos by Ray Avery

[torchlitinthedesert]

Up for auction: 1971 letter from John, inviting Eric Clapton to join the Plastic Ono Band. John sounds excited and enthusiastic, filling eight pages with ideas for new approaches to touring (including a bit about performing/recording on a boat that gave me Get Back QE2 flashbacks, especially since he wants EMI to pay for it all. And make an experimental film of it.). John suggests people bring partners (who might appear on stage) and their families - interesting given how negative the rock press would be about that. I'm also rolling my eyes at the macho phrasing of "you could make the kind of sound that could bring back the Balls in rock'n'roll" - very early 1970s rock world.

It's a real charm offensive. John is working hard for Clapton's favour: repeatedly assuring him that he admires him, discreetly sympathising with Clapton's recent health problems (heroin addiction), promising he wouldn't have to do anything he didn't like and John will still "love and respect" him if he says no. He mentions Yoko often, but writes as "I" rather than JohnandYoko. He noticeably doesn't mention George or the other Beatles.

What's up for auction is a draft copy, with crossings out and omissions (I'm amused by "Dear Eric and", John presumably not being completely sure who Eric's current girlfriend was).

More images and transcript below the cut.

Dear Eric and

I've been meaning to write or call you for a few weeks now. i think maybe writing will give you and yours more time to think.

You must know by now that Yoko and i rate your music and yourself very highly, always have. you also know the kind of music we've been making and hope to make. Anyway the point is, after missing the Bangla-Desh concert, we began to feel more and more like going on the road, but not the way I used to with the Beatles - night after night of torture. We mean to enjoy ourselves, take it easy, and maybe even see some of the places we go to! We have many 'revolutionary' ideas for presenting shows that completely involve teh audience - not just the 'superstars' 'up there' - blessing the people - but that's another letter really.

I'll get more to the point. We've asked Klaus Jim Keltner, Nicky Hopkins - Phil Spector even! to form a 'nucleus' group (Plastic Ono band) - and between us all would decide what - if any - augmentation to the group we'd like - eg saxs, vocal group whatever we like, they all seem to agreed so far - and of course we had YOU!!! in mind as soon as we decided.

in the past when Nicky was working around (Stones etc) bringing your girl/woman/wife was frowned on - with us it's the opposite, Nicky's missus - will also come with us - on stage if she wants (Yoko has ideas for her!) - or backstage. Our uppermost concern is to have a happy group in body & mind. Nobody will be asked to do anything that they don't want to, no-one will be held to any contract of any sort - (unless they wanted to of course!)

back to music. i've/we've long admired your music - and always kept an eye open to see what your up to of late. [lately] i really feel real I/we can bring out the best in you - (some kind of security financial or otherwise will help) but the main thing is the music. I consider, Klaus, Jim, Nicky, Phil, Yoko, you could make the kind of sound that could bring back the Balls in rock'n'roll.

Both of us have been thru the same kind of shit/pain that I know you've had - and i know we could help each other in that area - but mainly Eric - i know i can bring out something great - in fact greater in you that has been so far evident in your music, I hope to bring out the same kind of greatness in all of us - which i know will happen if/when we get together.

i'm not trying to pressure you in anyway and would quite understand if you decide against joining us, we would still love and respect you. We're not asking you for your 'name', i'm sure you know this - its your mind we want!

Yoko and i are not interested in earning bread from public appearances, but neither do we expect the rest of the band (who mostly have familys) to work for free - they/you must all be happy monewise as well - otherwise what's the use for them to join us. We don't ask you/them to ratify everything we believe politically - but we're certainly interested in 'revolutionising' the world thru music, we'd love to 'do' Russia, China, Hungary, Poland, etc. A friend of ours just got back from Moscow, and the kids over there are really hip - they have all the latest sounds on tape from giant radios they have. 'Don't come without your guitar' was the message they sent us, there are millions of people in the East - who need to be exposed to our kind of freedom/music/. We can change the world - and have a ball at the same time.

We don't want to work under such pressure that we feel dead on stage or have to pep ourselves up to live, maybe we could do 2 shows a week even, it would be entirely up to us. One idea that i had which we've discussed tentatively (nothing definite) is goes like this,

I know we have to rehearse sometime or other, i'm sick of going on and jamming every live session. i've also always wanted to go across the Pacific from the U.S. thru all those beautiful islands - across to Australia, New Zealand, Japan - wherever, you know - Tahiti, Tonga - etc, so I came up with this

How about a kind of 'Easy Rider' at sea. i mean we get Emi or a sane film co, to finance a big ship with 30 people aboard (including crew) - we take 8 track recording equipment with us (mine probably) more equipment - and we rehearse on the way over - record if we want, play anywhere we fancy - say we film from L.A. to Tahiti, we stop there if we want - maybe have the film developed there - stay a week or as long as we want - collect the film, (of course we'll might probably film wherever we stop (if we want) and edit it on board etc. (Having just finished a movie we made around our albums 'imagine' 'fly' - it's a beautiful surreal film, very surreal, all music, only about Two words spoken in the whole thing! We know we are ready to make a major movie). Anyway its just a thought, we'd always stay as near to land as possible, and of coruse we'd take Doctors etc, in case of any kind of bother. We'd always be able to get to a place where someone could fly off if they've had enough. The whole trip could take 3-4-5-6 months, depending how we all felt - all familys children whatever are welcome etc. Please don't think you have to go along with the boat trip, to be in the band. I just wanted to let you know everything we've been talking about. (I thought we'd really be ready to hit the road after such a healthy restful rehearsal.

Anyway there it is, if you want to talk more please call me us, or even come over here to N. York. We're at the St. Regis here til Nov 30 at least (753-4500- ext | room 1701) all expenses paid of course! or write. At least think about it, please don't be frightened, i understand paranoia, only to well, i think it could only do good for you, and would bring to work with people who love and respect you, and that's from all of us. anyway enough of that, lots of love to you both from

John + Yoko

[muzaktomyears]

The man who was there the day the Beatles broke up

Mal Evans was the Fab Four’s roadie, fixer and friend. Paul McCartney confided in him when the band split, while John Lennon relied on him to guard his life. A new book tells his story

The Beatles’ lingering tensions finally caught up to them during a meeting among John, Paul and George at 3 Savile Row on September 10 1969. As Mal and Neil [Aspinall, who ran the Beatles’ company Apple Corps] observed, John took particular issue with what he perceived as Paul’s megalomania, saying that, “If you look back on the Beatles albums, good or bad or whatever you think of ’em, you’ll find that most times if anybody has got extra time it’s you! For no other reason than you worked it like that.” For Mal, the conversation must have been pure agony. He idolised Paul, who bore the brunt of the meeting’s vitriol.

In his own defence, Paul protested that he had “tried to allow space on albums for John’s songs, only to find that John hadn’t written any”.

With the idea of recording a new album seemingly off the table, John suggested that they produce a Christmas single instead. After all, he reasoned, their annual holiday fan club record would be due before long. When this idea was met with silence and indifference, John soberly concluded, “I guess that’s the end of the Beatles.”

As horrible as the experience must have been for Mal, panic hadn’t set in just yet. During the past 15 months, Ringo and George had quit the band at various times, only to be coaxed back. But ten days later it all spilled out again at a meeting at Apple. Mal and Allen Klein (their manager after the death of Brian Epstein) were there, along with Yoko, Neil and the boys. For his part, George was on speakerphone from Cheshire, where he was visiting his ailing mother. The topic at hand was a new agreement with Capitol, which Klein was understandably eager to ink.

As Mal observed, Paul began to enumerate the group’s upcoming opportunities, including a series of intimate gigs and a possible television special. In each instance, John said, “No, no, no,” before telling Paul, “Well, I think you’re daft.” Eventually, he blurted out that he wanted a “divorce”. “What do you mean?” a stunned Paul asked. “The group’s over,” John replied. “I’m leaving.”

At this point, Paul recalled, “Everyone blanched except John, who coloured a little, and said, ‘It’s rather exciting. It’s like I remember telling Cynthia I wanted a divorce.’ ”

Afterwards, Mal and Paul returned to McCartney’s home, where they retreated to the garden, still trying to process what had transpired. Paul remained hopeful that John might change his mind, that the Beatles would continue unabated. But Mal knew better. As with George, Mal had reasoned that “all of them had left the group at one time or another, starting with Ringo’’. But when “John came into the office and said, ‘The marriage is over! I want a divorce,’ that was the final thing. That’s what really got to Paul, you know, because I took Paul home and I ended up in the garden crying my eyes out.”

That night with Lennon and Phil Spector in 1973, when happiness was not a warm gun

Mal took great pleasure in spending long hours in John’s company, enjoying the Beatle’s undivided attention, as opposed to sharing him with Paul, George and Ringo. “It was fascinating,” said Mal, who by this point was living in LA and writing his own songs, “because John was talking to me like I was a songwriter, and that was incredible. For the first time, John and I really communicated, whereas, when it was the four of them, John was always the hardest to talk to. I always thought that when John stopped insulting me, we had fallen out as friends.” But, he added, referring to John’s teasing, “The more he likes you, the more he takes the mickey out of you.”

Yet, as Mal soon discovered, working with John during this period would prove to be a chore — incomparable, in fact, to their touring years together, when the Beatles were often confined to the relative safety of a hotel suite. When he was in LA, John could often be found at the Sunset Strip’s Rainbow Bar and Grill, which had emerged as his de facto headquarters [during a period of heavy drinking which Lennon ironically referred to as the Lost Weekend but actually lasted 18 months.] With musicians like John, Harry (Nilsson), Ringo, Keith Moon, Alice Cooper and Micky Dolenz adopting the Rainbow as their regular watering hole, they had taken to calling themselves the Hollywood Vampires, a nickname that evoked the night hours they spent guzzling hooch in the bar’s loft space.

On one of his most harrowing evenings in Los Angeles, Mal had accompanied John and Phil Spector to the Rainbow. At one point, John walked Phil to his car, assuring Mal that he would return shortly. “About a half hour goes by, and I start worrying and go outside looking for John — no sign,” Mal later wrote. “I’d lost track of a Beatle for a day. What had happened, I found out the following evening, was that when he’d seen Phil off, a few hippie fans of his took him in tow, and John, who had just moved into a flat, couldn’t remember the address, nor his or my phone numbers. [John] eventually turn[ed] up, but not before I’d had a few irate words from Yoko, who phoned me from New York shouting, ‘I thought you were John’s bodyguard — why don’t you guard his body?’ ”

At a loss for words, Mal admitted that “I never really thought of myself as a bodyguard to anybody, but I suppose over the years that had been part of the gig. Anyway, they were all grown up, with very strong minds of their own as to what they wanted to do, and I certainly didn’t expect them to hold themselves accountable to me.”

That December, as work on Back to Mono proceeded, John and Phil shifted their project to the Record Plant West. The change of recording studios had everything to do with John’s and Phil’s antics having gotten them evicted from their previous studio, A&M. At one point, Nilsson and Moon, in a drunken stupor, had urinated onto the recording console, leaving the electronics in an ungodly mess.

Things began innocently enough after John and Phil completed their December 11 session at the Record Plant West, where they took a pass at Chuck Berry’s You Can’t Catch Me. As Mal looked on, the two men, drunk to the gills, were horsing around the Las Vegas Room. In a nod to the early days of Beatlemania when the Beatles would climb on Mal when they heard they were at the top of the charts, John decided to hop onto Mal’s back for a piggyback ride. Unfortunately, Phil opted to get in on the act, too. Mal’s physical dexterity in late 1973 was a far cry from that of the early 1960s, and he had difficulty sustaining the weight of two men atop his aching back. As always, Mal observed, “Phil goes a little too far,” and in the ensuing ruckus, “he karate-chopped me on the nose, my spectacles went flying, and I got tears in my eyes I can tell you. I turned around with a real temper and told Phil, ‘Don’t ever lay another finger on me, man.’ ”

And that’s when Phil, “maybe to re-establish himself in his own eyes”, Mal thought, pulled out a handgun. To the roadie’s surprise, the producer “fired it off under our noses, deafening us both, the bullet ricocheting around the room and landing between my feet”.

John was understandably incensed, exclaiming to Phil, “If you’re gonna kill me, kill me, but don’t take away my hearing — it’s me living!”

Until that moment, Mal and John had believed that Spector’s handgun was a toy. At one point earlier in the evening, Phil had cocked the trigger and aimed the weapon at John’s head. As a result of the incident in the Las Vegas Room, “John’s fear of guns generally was doubled.” For his part, Mal vowed to stay clear of Phil. He would attend the recording sessions in deference to John, but that was it.

In nearly the same instant that Mal decided to banish Phil from his world forever, he and John were hustled off to [co-founder of the Record Plant] Gary Kellgren’s house for a lavish going-away party in honour of Mal, who was preparing to make his return to Sunbury. For the occasion, Phil had arranged for Mal to receive “a beautiful large cake, which must have measured four feet by three feet, so nicely decorated with a large bottle of Napoleon brandy, [and] a lot of comic figures like Superman and Batman,” Mal wrote. The sumptuous dessert was inscribed, “To Mal, my pal, love, Philip.”

As it turned out, the madcap producer’s greatest gift to Mal that night came in the form of his absence. “Phil, to show the most understanding side of his nature, did not come to the party,” said Mal. “He knew if he had, he’d be outrageous and spoil it for me. But he set it up and didn’t come — a true mark of affection from a friend.”

The party came to a sudden close, though, when John, having grown blind drunk, planted a telephone into the sticky remains of the cake.

Meet the Beatles: four days in Mal’s life with the moptops

Paul (1962) In July 1962, Mal and his family attended the celebration of the “Wavertree Mystery”, an annual event held to commemorate the anonymous donation of a local playground back in 1895. Mal later recalled that, “Lil and I were proudly pushing Gary in his pram when she turned to me and said, ‘There’s a weird guy over there — keeps staring at us. Now he looks like a real Cavernite to me.’ On turning, I was to see Paul standing there, unshaven, with a denim jacket thrown over his shoulder and chewing on a toffee apple.” After engaging in the niceties of introducing his wife to the scruffy musician, Mal took Paul for a jaunt. “We spent the rest of the day together,” Mal wrote, “Paul and I daring each other to go on things like the parachute drop and other displays that took nerve, neither of us accepting the challenge.” At one point, they stopped in front of an automobile exhibition. Paul announced to Mal that “one of these days I’m going to own one of those cars’’, pointing to one very humble saloon-type car.

George (1962) After shows at the Cavern, Mal would introduce his wife Lily to the rest of the band. “On one occasion,” Mal recalled, “Lil and I bought the fish and chips for the group and ourselves, as they could only muster enough money between them to pay for the teas.” Although she had her misgivings about Mal’s involvement in their lives, she enjoyed getting to know the bandmates. “After gigs,” she later recalled, “George would come back to our house for bacon and eggs. He sometimes came back before Mal to keep me company. I’d be washing baby clothes and nappies or ironing. I liked him the best.” Lily fondly remembered the time she pushed the bangs from Harrison’s face, saying, “Let’s see what it looks like with your hair back. I like that better.” But George wasn’t having it. He combed his hair forward, telling her, “That’s the way I have to wear it; it’s the Beatle cut.”

Ringo (1965) Driving up the M1, Mal and Ringo stopped at a roadside café for lunch. “We were sitting at the counter,” Mal recalled, “and the chap next to me had obviously been trying to make up his mind whether it really was Ringo with me. Suddenly, he turned to me and said, ‘I don’t care if it is him or not.’ Ringo nearly choked with laughter as I teased the fellow, saying, ‘No, it’s not him. But it gets terribly embarrassing taking him anywhere because everybody mistakes him for Ringo!’”

John (1964) John held no illusions about the Beatles’ behaviour, later admitting that, “We were bastards. You can’t be anything else in such a pressurised situation, and we took it out on Neil and Mal. They took a lot of shit from us because we were in such a shitty position. It was hard work and somebody had to take it. Those things are left out, about what bastards we were. F***ing big bastards, that’s what the Beatles were. You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles were the biggest bastards on earth. We were the Caesars. Who’s going to knock us when there’s a million pounds to be made, all the handouts, the bribery, the police, and the hype?”

During a flight to Massachusetts for the September 12 show at the Boston Garden, Mal’s long-standing feelings of intimidation around John came to a head. Sitting at the rear of the plane, he broke down in tears, telling a reporter that “John got kind of cross with me — just said I should go f*** off. No reason, ya know. But I love the man. John is a powerful force. Sometimes he’s rough, if you know what I mean, man. But there’s no greater person that I know.” In many ways, it was as if Mal’s lack of self-confidence, a key aspect of his persona for the balance of his life, had returned with a vengeance. Later John approached Mal and embraced him.

Extracted from Living the Beatles Legend by Kenneth Womack (Mudlark £25), published on November 14.

(source)

[bitter69uk]

“In the aching grit and woah-oh-ohs of Ronnie Spector’s voice was a woman from Spanish Harlem harnessing her dreams and pushing them inside out. Drama, wonder, devastation, and confidence all coalesced in her perfect pop storm. Ronnie’s colossal vocals tore out a space in the universe in the name of love, which is to say desire: for the object of her affection as much as for her awe-inducing music itself. In every note, from her early days as a fabulous, beehived Ronette alongside her sister Estelle and cousin Nedra to her self-possessed solo work, Spector tenaciously held onto her dreams … The Ronettes proceeded to seek out Phil Spector: picking up the phone, locating the number for his Philles Records, and calling directly to mastermind the hit song they desperately craved. The partnership of Phil Spector and the Ronettes started with two hungry teenage sisters in their Harlem bedroom, laser-focused on a rock’n’roll fantasy that would change music forever … They released one album, 1964’s dazzling Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica, a girl-group masterpiece … The baroque pop perfection of the Fabulous Ronettes was pushed into the stratosphere of greatness by Ronnie’s overflowing mix of innocence and rebellion …”

/ From Pitchfork’s obituary for Ronnie Spector by Jenn Pelly, January 2022 /

Grab the Maybelline Velvet Black eyeliner pencil and can of Aqua Net and start ratting-up that beehive like a teenage Jezebel … Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes featuring Veronica, the sole studio album by the iconic American girl group, was released this month (November 1964) sixty years ago! The album compiles the Ronettes’ triumphant statements like “Be My Baby”, “Baby I Love You”, “Walking in the Rain” and “(The Best Part of) Breakin’ Up”, songs that express the yearning soul of every tough but tender teenage bad girl ever born against Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound!

[ernestoednrec]

Domingo para escuchar mi nuevo vinilo de The Beatles, el famoso álbum "Let It Be"

[lisamarie-vee]

[musicmags]

[harrisonarchive]

Was George Harrison close with Phil Spector?

Hi, anon,

Here are George's in-depth recollections about working with Spector:

George: “In the old days we just had George Martin working with us. And after that, well, I worked a little while with Phil Spector. That became more trouble than it was worth, and I ended up doing most of the work myself. [O]n All Things Must Pass Phil came in and we did half the backing tracks. Then, because of the condition he was in, he had to leave and I completed the rest of the backing without him. And did maybe 50 percent of the overdubbing, all the backing vocals and guitar parts. All of this was over a four, five-month period. But he still had to keep going to the hospital, seeing a doctor. He was going through a bad time with drinking and it made him ill.” Q: “What was his role in recording Bangla Desh?” George: “Phil was at the concert dancing in the front when it was being recorded! There was a guy, Gary Kellgren, who did the key work in the live recording. Then when Phil came to the remix, again Phil was in and out of the hospital. Phil worked on the second solo album, Living in the Material World, but by that I mean he was around. Again, he kept falling over and breaking his ankles, wrists. The guy who was his helper was having heart attacks. Phil was never there. I literally used to have to go and break into the hotel to get to him. I’d go along the roof at the Inn On The Park in London and climb in his window yelling, ‘Come on! We’re supposed to be making a record!’ He’d say, ‘Oh. Okay.’ And then he used to have 19 cherry brandies before he could get himself down to the studio. I got so tired of that because I needed somebody to help. I was ending up with more work than if I’d just been doing it on my own.” - Musician, November 1987

Hope this answers the question a little, at least.

[dbp]

The Ronettes with Phil Spector and George Harrison

[mahgnib]

Greatest Christmas album ever.

[ludmilachaibemachado]

The Ronnettes🪴🌵🌹

Via Pinterest🎍🌻🌿

[twixnmix]

Phil Spector and Veronica Bennett during a recording session for the album "A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector" at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, 1963.

Photos by Ray Avery

[guessimdumb]

Tina Turner - I'll Never Need More Than This (1967)

River Deep - Mountain High may be better known, but here’s another spectacular single with Phil Spector.  R.I.P. Tina

[mydadlistenstothis]

New podcast episode is up! This week, we're going up on the roof whether George likes it or not because we're listening to the Beatles Let it Be...and oh boy do we have thoughts.

[alpacinonumberone]

Al Pacino and Helen Mirren in Phil Spector (2013)

Happy Birthday, Helen Mirren!