(81) GOLDSTAR and PHIL SPECTOR'S WALL OF SOUND

Now Sylvester Cross, the owner of American Music publishing, was a cheapskate. But when we were recording demos at Goldstar recording studio we were warned to stop whatever we were doing if we saw Phil Spector lurking around. Cross was convinced that Phil had a reputation for stealing other people's lyrics and licks for good reason. Phil Spector seemed way too talented to me to do so and everyone else was trying to steal his Wall of Sound technique, for which there was a lot of mystery at the time.

(We know that Phil Spector's sensational murder trial has been in the news lately and we aren't going to go there. Suffice to say, we'll leave our blog commentary here right where we are in our story, the late 1950's and very early 1960's.)

Phil was early on associated with producing girl groups like the Crystals, and the Ronettes, African-American girl groups. He married Ronnie of the Ronettes.

Here's a You Tube presentation of the Crystals and the sound of Phil's "Wall of Sound," on the Dick Clark Show. It's fast forwarding a couple years to the mod sixties. I can't help think again about the music business - entertainment - and the ground being broken when it came to integration between Blacks and Whites during these early pre-civil rights years.



(ChristineTrzyna: Does the audience in the Ronettes video reveal segregation or integration? The Go Go Dancers in the white boots key us in to the mod sixties and what is happening here, White girls dancing in the background for a Black girl group. Most interesting to me, the line of Black girls - probably from South Central Los Angeles - doing their thing in a row in the audience. I can't help but think how great it was for them to see some other African American women as stars. And more interesting to me, the girls in the audience are going wild for the girls, just like they did for the boy teen idols we all know. I mean, when do we see boys going wild for boys? Almost never!)

Ronnie almost seems like an early Tina Turner.

Phil produced "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by The Righteous Brothers. This You Tube video presentation of them singing that song is a great example of the Wall of Sound, sound and what the genius Phil Spector could do.




I knew Phil Spector from New York. In Los Angeles we got together for coffee at Canters, the Jewish deli that's still operating in the Fairfax District today. He was younger than me and typically hyper, but he was also always respectful to me. I'll say this about my time with Phil. He never talked against anyone to me.