Spector of the Gun

I caught up with the Phil Spector murder trial this morning -- didn't even know it was still going on to be honest. I guess as celebrity crimes go, an aging and increasingly irrelevant hipster doesn't warrant the attention a sports hero or former TV star do. He acts as weird as he looks, which isn't helping his defense much, and the people around him are even loopier than he is. I only follow the mess because he used to be a big time music producer -- and I dig music.

But not his so much... He is (in)famous for his "Wall of Sound" that graced the recordings of many 60's artists, and was the spiritual precursor to Meatloaf and Jim Stienam. He also produced the lamest of the Beatles albums (Let it Be). I prefer a "Wall of Music" to a "Wall of Sound" -- the Christian group delerious? does the "Wall of Music" better than anyone I've listened to in recent months (they also do praise music that I find really dull). Spector just tossed in a bunch of instruments and huge plate reverbs -- delerious? layers in guitars, synths, vocals, processed vocals, and percussion in a way that you hear when each comes in and when each goes out.

So... what's the point? I guess there isn't much of one, except that I always thought Phil Spector was a little overated, and now I think he's a whole lot nuts. And I bet Lana Clarkson would wish she'd never met him...