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Music Producer Phil Spector Arrested in LA Murder
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By Dan Whitcomb and Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary rock producer Phil Spector, who revolutionized pop music with his lush "Wall of Sound" recordings in the 1960s, was arrested for murder on Monday in the shooting death of a woman in her 20s at his mock castle on a Los Angeles hilltop.




Spector, the reclusive and eccentric genius behind such classic hits as "Be My Baby" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" and the man who made the Ronettes and the Crystals superstars, was in the process of posting $1 million bail pending an arraignment, officials said.


Investigators said a woman in her 20s was found in the foyer of Spector's make-believe castle in the suburb of Alhambra with the 62-year-old record producer nearby. The weapon was also recovered and Spector was taken into custody at the scene.


The woman was not immediately identified by police who were waiting for next-of-kin to be notified. Police believe she arrived at the house with Spector in his black Mercedes which was still parked outside with its the passenger door ajar.


Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokeswoman Faye Bugarin said officers were called at 5 a.m. (8 a.m. EST) to Spector's 10-bedroom, eight-bathroom "Pyrenes Castle," which stands behind wrought-iron gates on a private road and found a woman who had been shot dead.


Spokesmen for Spector, a two-time Grammy winner, did not immediately return calls seeking comment. He was being represented by Robert Shapiro, the veteran lawyer who played a key role in the defense of O.J. Simpson (news) during his so-called "Trial of the Century." Simpson was found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife and her friend.


Neighbors said the producer was rarely seen at the red-tiled, turreted replica castle with a marble entrance overlooking a middle-class neighborhood and shielded by large pine trees. He was sometimes seen coming or going in a white Rolls Royce or another car.


Tom Mestaz, who lives near the castle, said that while Spector was not there often, lately he had seen lights on in the residence at night. Several neighbors reported hearing dogs barking early Monday morning.


WALL OF SOUND


A pioneer in pop record production, the Bronx-born Spector is famed for his "Wall of Sound" technique that featured lush orchestration with strings, horns and additional percussion added to the spare instrumentation of rock music.


Formerly married to Ronnie Bennett of the Ronettes, one of several girl groups he ushered into super-stardom, Spector developed a reputation as a temperamental, reclusive and erratic genius.


Spector got his start in the music business in 1958 as a songwriter, guitarist and backup singer for the Los Angeles group the Teddy Bears, which had a hit single with "To Know Him is to Love Him" and made him a millionaire by age 21.


Soon after the group split, Spector pursued a career as a songwriter and producer, working primarily with the Crystals and the Ronettes. He went on to produce records for the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Ike & Tina Turner (news), Eric Clapton (news) and the Righteous Brothers. He was voted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.


He was hired by the Beatles to do post-production work on their "Let It Be" album, which Paul McCartney (news) and many critics later criticized as overdone.


He also produced the first solo albums from John Lennon and George Harrison and shared a Grammy with George Harrison, Bob Dylan (news), Eric Clapton and others for producing the "Concert for Bangladesh" album, named album of the year for 1972.


In a business where the singer is the star, Spector often outshone his clients.


Spector "elevated record production to commercial art," former Rolling Stones manager and Spector protege Andrew Loog Oldham wrote in his 2001 memoirs "Stoned."


"In scale and presence he was to the record biz what Orson Welles was to Hollywood. 'You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling' and 'River Deep Mountain High,' like 'Citizen Kane' and 'Touch of Evil,' could not be created merely by re-creating what had been successful in the past."

Spector was just 17 when he wrote and produced his first No. 1 hit, "To Know Him Is To Love Him" -- a line taken from the inscription on his father's gravestone -- for his high school group, the Teddy Bears. The teen tycoon would go on to produce 17 top-10 U.S. hits in a decade.

Shocking truly shocking. In the kingdom of great producers, this guy goes right up there with Jeff Lynne, Zappa, and Prince. He was a miracle worker in the studio.

savoirfaire said:

he's right up there in the asshole department with those guys too

River deep, mountain high like a mu'fucka...

He was just released on a Million Dollars Bond.

Sage said:

ouch! Jeff Lynne an asshole? Come on. Actually, to tell the truth, I have absolutely no clue what he's like to work with, nor have I heard much about Zappa's asshole-ness.

Isn't that like admitting you did it?

You've Lost That Loving Feeling is one of my favourite songs.
Elvis Presley's live take on it is truly remarquable.
the original has a beautiful timeless sound also.
its a shame such a talent like Spector has gone down this road.

Jay Leno said"he isn't gonna have any bail,because the judge said he is a risk 2 do run,run" just out of curiousity is he any relation 2 the singer Ronnie Spector?she sang with Meatloaf & Eddie Money.

ThaHumanBody said:

Yup, they were married. He treated her very badly, beating several shades of crap out of her, making her ride around in a car with a cardboard cutout of him in the passenger seat (to foil any potential roadside Romeos), and calling her "a fucken nigger" whenever his blood was up.

Joshy84au said:

I think his talent was already in mothballs. He hasn't produced anything since The Ramones great "End of a Century" album in 1980. Oh, he pulled a gun on them in the studio too. And on Leonard Cohen, with whom he also worked on the equally great "Death of a Ladies Man" album.
[This message was edited Tue Feb 4 8:08:26 PST 2003 by nas3110]

From the Los Angeles Times

Music Legend Phil Spector Arrested in Woman's Killing
The record producer is taken into custody after actress' body is found in his Alhambra mansion.

February 4, 2003
By Geoff Boucher, Richard Winton and Andrew Blankstein, Times Staff Writers

Phil Spector, the influential but erratic rock 'n' roll producer best known for his layered "Wall of Sound" recording technique, was arrested on suspicion of murder early Monday after an actress was found shot to death at his hilltop mansion in Alhambra.

Police said they were called to the gated estate about 5 a.m. by a limousine driver who reported hearing shots fired after he dropped off the couple in Spector's Mercedes-Benz.

Officers arrived to find the body of a woman identified as Lana Clarkson, 40, of Los Angeles, an actress who attracted a cult following from her roles in films by director Roger Corman, and has appeared widely in TV programs and commercials. Her body was sprawled in the marble foyer, Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators said.

Alhambra police immediately arrested Spector, 62, the soundboard genius behind such hits as "Be My Baby" and "You Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." He was released late Monday on $1-million bail, accompanied by his defense attorney, Robert Shapiro.

Sheriff's investigators would not describe the relationship between Clarkson and Spector. Sources said they had met the night before.

Investigators said Clarkson and Spector were the only people in the house at the time of the shooting, although other people may have been on the wooded estate, which towers improbably over a middle-class neighborhood of single-story homes.

Legendary in the music industry for his work in the 1960s and '70s with such varied artists as the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers and the Ronettes, Spector built a reputation by the 1980s as a recluse, chased behind mansion walls by personal demons, haunted by drinking and reckless behavior. Friends said they thought he had put that behind him in recent years, and expressed bewilderment at the charges.

"None of this equates," said guitarist Dave Kessel, one of Spector's closest friends. "He has been in great spirits and great shape, and feeling so good about everything. This doesn't fit into what I know about him and where he is."

Lt. Daniel Rosenberg, the sheriff's homicide detective in charge of the investigation, said investigators recovered a gun that was believed to be the murder weapon.

Although Rosenberg would not say how many times the gun was fired, one neighbor, who declined to identify herself, said she heard three or four shots.

Asked if Spector had admitted committing the crime, Rosenberg said, "No. There has not been a confession by Mr. Spector."

A large team of investigators, led by six sheriff's detectives, pored over the estate throughout the day Monday, paying special attention to the foyer, where the shooting is believed to have occurred, and the driveway, where the newly purchased black Mercedes-Benz sat facing the front gate, its driver's-side door agape.

Spector purchased the Alhambra chateau — built with 33 rooms in 1926 by a Basque rancher and dubbed the Pyrenees Castle — for $1.1 million in 1998. Spector commented later in Esquire magazine that he had bought "a beautiful and enchanting castle in a hick town where there is no place to go that you shouldn't go."

That derisive tone was repaid in kind Monday by some neighbors, who said their only contact with Spector was the occasional glimpse of him speeding by in a luxury car. "I just saw him driving by waving, the feudal lord to the serfs," said Lynn Browers, who lives on a street behind the Spector estate.

But Spector's move to Alhambra also appeared to reflect his desire to stay out of trouble after his wild years, when he was dogged by accusations of domestic abuse and public drunken rages.

The Ramones accused him in 1980 of brandishing a gun in the studio; singer Leonard Cohen called him a madman out of control three years earlier.

In an interview with The Times in 1991, Spector fretted that his reputation as a recluse and tales of his drinking and violence would taint his legacy, and he compared himself to a late friend, troubled comedian Lenny Bruce. "I started asking myself, 'Do they remember Lenny Bruce as the philosophical genius and great comic mind — or do they remember him as some sick, stupid morphine addict?' "

In the same interview, he said his substance abuse and relationships had also haunted him: "Do I have regrets? Sure, lots of them. From people I married to records I could have done, I have a lifetime of regrets."

Spector has been married several times, and has four children. Among his marriages was one to Ronnie Spector, lead singer of the Ronettes. Another ex-wife, Janice Spector, had been working for him until two weeks ago, when she quit, said Bob Merlis, a longtime music industry publicist and Spector confidante.

The victim of Monday's shooting, Clarkson left behind a long filmography heavy on such 1980s B-movie fare as "Death Stalker," "Blind Date" and Corman's "Barbarian Queen," in which she played the sword-wielding title character. She claimed the Corman role was the prototype for the TV show "Xena: Warrior Princess." She also appeared in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Scarface," and has been a regular at comic book and movie fan conventions.

Her Web site, http://www.livingdollproductions.com, says she also worked in stand-up comedy and volunteered at Project Angel Food, a meal delivery program for people with the HIV virus. In on-line comments to fans, she said that she had "plenty" of security, including a bodyguard.

"I have had some problems," the 6-foot-tall, blond actress wrote last fall, "but they were dealt with by the authorities."

Clarkson wrote that she considered herself a spiritual person, and "I like to be with someone who has some sort of spiritual practice, likes kids, does volunteer work and likes to travel. I hope to make some sort of difference in this lifetime... I'd like to find a partner who has the same aspiration."

There is no evidence of any prior connection between Clarkson and Spector.

In recent years, friends said, Spector seemed to have found a harmony in his life that matched the buoyant sound of his classic early hits.

Those friends said Spector had reengaged the music world, becoming a frequent figure at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame events, checking out new bands at Sunset Strip concerts and returning to the studio to try to relaunch his career with the promising British band Starsailor.

He also had become more outgoing, organizing an annual bowling party in Montrose for his friends, attending Los Angeles Lakers games and joining Nancy Sinatra at a Bruce Springsteen concert.

"He has not been a recluse by any means," Merlis said. "He entertains at his home, and he has been a great guy and a great friend. I just think the world of him. And that's what makes this all so hard."

Another friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Spector had become comfortable in recent years with the mantle of an elder statesman with a wild past. "He had been happy and sober," the friend said.

If Spector's life has made him a figure of grim mystery, his music was infused with a shimmering magic and an orchestral bombast that made it jump out of the radio in the late 1950s through the '70s.

Spector is one of the rare pop music producers to achieve brand-name recognition with the public and the history books, joining the likes of Quincy Jones, George Martin, Sam Phillips and Jerry Wexler.

For Spector, the fame was shaped by his layered, orchestral work, the famous Wall of Sound, which gave a luminosity and power to late-'60s songs such as "Then He Kissed Me" by the Crystals. He called the songs "pop symphonies for teens."

"He showed he was a genius," Wexler said. "He created these records out of his own imagination and created a way of recording. The Wall of Sound is something we all learned from... I'm not religious, so I can't pray, but I'm yearning with all my heart that he will be exonerated."

Born Harvey Phillip Spector in the Bronx, Spector was a 17-year-old Fairfax High School student in Los Angeles when he wrote and produced his first hit, "To Know Him is To Love Him," a title taken from an inscription on his father's tombstone.

By 21, Spector was a millionaire and a maverick dubbed the "teen tycoon" by author Tom Wolfe. By the end of the 1960s, Spector was working with the music of the Beatles and popping up as a cocaine user in the film "Easy Rider."

He put strings on "The Long and Winding Road" for the Beatles, built the music foundation of "You Lost that Lovin' Feelin' " for the Righteous Brothers and shaped the raucous backdrop to John Lennon's "Instant Karma." His other credits included Lennon's "Imagine," George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," and "River Deep — Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner.

Robbie Robertson, who as a member of The Band is a fellow member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, said Spector "actually invented something, which is quite rare in the music business. Mostly, people just do what other people do a little bit different. But he had a whole vision and a sound and a way of producing that was unique... It changed Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys' lives in terms of how to make records. It changed the Beatles' lives."

Spector's last major work was with the Ramones in 1980 on the collection "End of the Century." In recent years, the maestro who once moved so easily from project to project found it hard to find a new niche. Sessions with Celine Dion, for instance, fizzled a few years ago, and the recent Starsailor work in England led to the recording of a single, but not a whole album as had been discussed. That song will be on the band's album due later this year.

Times staff writers David Pierson, Robert Hilburn, Errin Haines, Daniel Hernandez, Mitchell Landsberg and Cecilia Rasmussen contributed to this report.

Yeah, I heard he was booked for slaughtering Let It Be

Joshy84au said:

Daryl & John did it better imo
"Sessions with Celine Dion, for instance, fizzled a few years ago" unfortunately he didn't shoot Celine
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[This message was edited Tue Feb 4 16:58:17 PST 2003 by jnoel]

nas3110 said:

As far I know...Ronnie said that Phil made sure that she couldn't get into the Rock and Hall of Fame. By what she told, the guy seems a bit cynical and disturbed.
Regardless of the quality production he made in the past, he's very suspectible and I won't be surprised if he gets a harsh sentencing.

careydevi said:

She said He told Her not to Tour or He was gonna get Her.the Cat is a Talented Mother but the Cat went Madd.