Producer Phil Spector Charged With Murder

[son of a gun]

Producer Phil Spector Charged With Murder
1 hour, 51 minutes ago


ALHAMBRA, Calif. - Record producer Phil Spector, the 1960s recording-studio wizard who created pop music's Wall of Sound, was charged Thursday with murder in the shooting death of a woman at his home last February.

AP Photo

Spector, 63, was expected to be arraigned Thursday afternoon in the slaying of 40-year-old Lana Clarkson (news), a B-movie actress and model found dead in the foyer of his Alhambra mansion.


He has been free on $1 million bail since his arrest for investigation of murder shortly after the shooting Feb. 3.


Spector has denied he killed Clarkson, suggesting in an Esquire magazine interview that she may have shot herself. After more than six months of investigation, authorities concluded Spector shot her.


Spector is famous for creating the Wall of Sound that involved overdubbing of multiple instruments, vocals and sound effects create a full, dramatic effect. The technique changed the way pop records were produced while bringing fame to groups like the Ronettes and the Crystals.


Among the hits bearing his signature style are "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me" by the Crystals; "Walking in the Rain" by the Ronettes and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by the Righteous Brothers.


He also worked with Elvis Presley (news) and Ike and Tina Turner (news), produced the last Beatles album, "Let It Be," in 1970, worked with John Lennon (news) on "Imagine," and helped Yoko Ono (news) produce Lennon's work after he was killed in 1980

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tm....inter=1

 

[Sven]

What gun was used?

 

[Mike Irwin]

Uh, maybe Michael Jackson's?

 

[bountyhunter]

Interesting guy

Read about his life and it was fascinating. He was a mean SOB and as cheap as they get. Sonny Bono went to him and begged to work for him and Phil told him: "OK.... but I'm gonna work your butt off and I won't pay you a penny." Sonny said he was true to his promise.

He also got in trouble for not paying singers and musicians for no apparrent reason and ripping off royalties and proceeds.

On the upside, he developed a technique for recording music in a way that gave it a big sound and nobody could duplicate it.. it was dubbed "The Wall of Sound". All music was monophonic (one channel) back then and sounded pretty weak. His recordings had a spacious effect nobody else knew how to duplicate. The song "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes was the best example of this ever. And, FWIW, he married their lead singer (many people say) just to avoid paying her the royalties off the biggest hit he ever had. Ronnie Spector was the first "bad girl" of rock and was very hot for the time.

It turns out the big sound he attained was indirectly due to his cheapness.... he used a very small recording studio to pinch pennies and crammed all the musicians and singers into it. In some cases he had two pianos and two full drummers playing along with guitars and the singers, everybody elbow to elbow. So there were many microphones all picking up sound, and much of it was reflected. The "big sound" was due to the time -delayed reflected sounds being picked up in surrounding microphones. The brain interprets that as a spatial effect and it sounds "bigger". The variable time delay feature is built into modern receivers to simulate stadium effects.

Phil also produced the biggest hits of the Righteous Brothers, but music basically left him behind after that.

 

[Sven]

This is barely gun related.

Famous person used a gun to kill a lady.
Or lady killed herself.
Or...

Regardless, closing thread for not being firearms related enough.