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Jan 18, 2021 13:13:16 GMT
Post by respiratoryproblems on Jan 18, 2021 13:13:16 GMT
Am I the only one who thinks The Wall of Sound is more like The Wall of Shit? Honestly, I never got why Spector's work was so revered in the first place. Maybe you had to be there? I remember when I went through my 60s phase that I kept reading in Mojo or wherever about how everyone revered River Deep Mountain High and it was a true pop masterpiece. When I finally heard it, I thought it was the weediest, most anaemic shit I'd heard this side of Donny & Marie Osmond singing Steely Dan. I couldn't listen to the Back To Mono box set for more than two or three tracks at a time without developing a nausea that I can only equate to car sickness. I eventually left it on a bench at Honor Oak Park railway station because I got so sick of it taking up room in my record collection.
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hoffa_nagila
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Jan 18, 2021 14:14:32 GMT
Post by hoffa_nagila on Jan 18, 2021 14:14:32 GMT
Am I the only one who thinks The Wall of Sound is more like The Wall of Shit? Honestly, I never got why Spector's work was so revered in the first place. Maybe you had to be there? I remember when I went through my 60s phase that I kept reading in Mojo or wherever about how everyone revered River Deep Mountain High and it was a true pop masterpiece. When I finally heard it, I thought it was the weediest, most anaemic shit I'd heard this side of Donny & Marie Osmond singing Steely Dan. I couldn't listen to the Back To Mono box set for more than two or three tracks at a time without developing a nausea that I can only equate to car sickness. I eventually left it on a bench at Honor Oak Park railway station because I got so sick of it taking up room in my record collection. Oh God River Deep Mountain High sounds fucking awful. The sell by date for The Wall Of Sound had passed by then.
Otherwise, the "brilliance" of the Wall Of Sound is indebted just as much to the songs that Phil co-wrote or picked and the singers he worked with. It's a great novelty and at least works on the hits and well remembered tracks.
I also love the sleazy seventies stuff he did with Leonard Cohen and John Lennon (with Rock N Roll). A perfect end-cap to the Wall Of Sound and Phil Spector. Too bad he didn't die right after that. He already did enough awful shit as a person to use up whatever goodwill one earns for making pop music (as if that is a thing!)
He did co-produce Yoko Ono's Season Of Glass which would be her last solid album for over a decade. I don't know how involved he truly was though. I suspect not very much...
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Jan 18, 2021 16:58:02 GMT
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Post by mintyjackhole on Jan 18, 2021 16:58:02 GMT
These days I find the early sixties girl group esthetic way more compelling than Beatle music, so I dig Spector's one trick in context. But time surely has shown Spector was fairly useless outside of the very short window of relevance COLA talked about.
His Christmas album sounds far more dated than Nat "King" Cole's. And I'm glad that such a shithead will be forgotten soon enough.
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Jan 18, 2021 18:12:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2021 18:12:35 GMT
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hoffa_nagila
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Jan 18, 2021 18:22:03 GMT
Post by hoffa_nagila on Jan 18, 2021 18:22:03 GMT
"Unfortunately his love of guns exerting dominance and control over people to make up for his deep insecurities was his undoing."
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Jan 18, 2021 18:59:56 GMT
Post by bad gateway on Jan 18, 2021 18:59:56 GMT
Am I the only one who thinks The Wall of Sound is more like The Wall of Shit? Honestly, I never got why Spector's work was so revered in the first place. Maybe you had to be there? I imagine it sounded pretty cool coming out of a tinny AM radio. Nothing else sounded like that. And his arrangements were pretty wild for simple pop songs. But it sounds more dated than any music from that era now. They were show tunes for kids. Ponderous kitschy pop songs are much better with a pwog reboot:
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Jan 18, 2021 19:17:20 GMT
Post by Sanjay Gupton on Jan 18, 2021 19:17:20 GMT
Spector’s Wall of Sound was the 60’s version of the drum sound of the 80’s. It did sound good on a transistor radio. Motown sounded better. I was ra kid right at the end of the transistor radio era so Wall of Sound was on oldies stations and Motown was still a thing.
When I was in Jr. High I got to take the very first history of rock class my district ever offered. There were kids that weren’t allowed to take it and you had to get your parents permission to take it. It counted as a whole music credit for high school, so I’m glad I got to take it. We did compare Wall of Sound with Motown and my teacher really disliked Spector and his bands, especially compared to the Motown acts. I’m sure that has an influence on my musical tastes but those girl groups of the early 60’s and that whole sound have bugged me for as long as I can remember.
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Jan 18, 2021 20:06:34 GMT
Post by audiopro on Jan 18, 2021 20:06:34 GMT
Jack Nitzche and Gene Page's arrangements, mostly. Credit where it's due. They played Unchained Melody on the radio as a tribute to him yesterday. Rather fitting, given he didn't even attend the session for that one. It was recorded as album filler.
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hoffa_nagila
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Jan 18, 2021 20:21:51 GMT
Post by hoffa_nagila on Jan 18, 2021 20:21:51 GMT
Jack Nitzche and Gene Page's arrangements, mostly. Credit where it's due. They played Unchained Melody on the radio as a tribute to him yesterday. Rather fitting, given he didn't even attend the session for that one. It was recorded as album filler. There's so many mis-credits connected to this stuff. Be My Baby by the Ronnettes only features Ronnie. He's A Rebel and Sure The Boy I Love are sung by Darlene Love and The Blossoms but released as the Crystals.
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Jan 18, 2021 21:34:53 GMT
Post by Sanjay Gupton on Jan 18, 2021 21:34:53 GMT
I’m with you. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling is a giant turd. The Righteous Bros. are a giant turd factory.
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daved
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Jan 18, 2021 21:36:46 GMT
Post by daved on Jan 18, 2021 21:36:46 GMT
Furthermore, I could never fathom the bizarrely popular notion that "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" is supposed to be the greatest song of all time, or one of them. Even as a kid I thought it was an interminable, miserable dirge — with stupidly lugubrious vocals to boot. Yeah, I have always loathed that tune. Baby.....baby......baby.....baby........
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Jan 18, 2021 23:44:54 GMT
Post by GeddyLeePierce on Jan 18, 2021 23:44:54 GMT
Nancy and Lee’s version is better.
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Jan 19, 2021 2:42:00 GMT
Post by essayceedee on Jan 19, 2021 2:42:00 GMT
Glad I'm not the only one who thinks "River Deep-Mountain High" is awful. The only thing worse than the shitty, already-past-his-prime overproduction is the lyrics. Tina does her best with it but as great as she was, she still can't scale that mountain of shit.
There are definitely some Spector recordings that I love ("Be My Baby" is genuinely great), but I find it almost impossible to listen to a whole album of that stuff. I'm more of a Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell fan.
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Jan 19, 2021 3:51:29 GMT
Post by Boozin' Susan on Jan 19, 2021 3:51:29 GMT
Apart from the Beatles’ (and solo) albums, and End of the Century by the Ramones, the only Phil-Spector-produced song I have is “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”.
And I only have that one because it’s on the Cruisin’ 1965 compilation LP. (In the context of that album (which is programmed to be like an old KHJ radio broadcast), I don’t mind it being there.)
Truth be told, I’ve never understood Phil Spector’s appeal. I think his music sounds muddy, and just not that aurally pleasing.
I’m interested to hear the upcoming “un Spectorized” versions of both All Things Must Pass and End of the Century. Getting rid of the Spector’s bombast is always a good thing.
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Jan 19, 2021 4:09:34 GMT
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Post by mintyjackhole on Jan 19, 2021 4:09:34 GMT
I adore "Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio", but the Spector production on the rest of The Ramones album production sucks. As does everything else Spector did after '64 or so. And The Righteous Brothers blow.
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