WEBVTT - Phil Spector: Silent Night, Loaded Gun 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:18.000 Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:23.080 story about Christmas. It's a story about guns and about 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.960 pain and control, about how a kid from the Bronx 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.640 made a wall of sound and then made the Holidays 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.559 sound bigger than they ever had before. It's about how 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:39.159 fame turns to fear and fear turns to violence, and 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:44.440 it's about the fine line between immortality and infamy. This 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:48.920 is a story about Phil Spector, so naturally, it's a 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:54.160 story about great music, some of the most groundbreaking and 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:58.800 influential music of the last sixty years. Unlike that clip 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:00.360 I played for you at the top of the show. 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.640 That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.160 my melotron called Electric hair Piece MK. 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:09.000 Two. 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.240 I played you that loop because I can't afford the 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:18.120 rights to Deep Purple by Nino Tempo and April Stevens. 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.560 And why would I play you that specific slice of 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:27.080 Richie Blackmore Inspiring Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.000 was the number one song in America on November twenty two, 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.559 nineteen sixty three, And that was the day that Phil 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:38.840 Spector released the album A Christmas Gift for You, His 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:42.120 attempt to cement his young legacy on the charts and 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.200 in the minds of millions, only to have his music 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:49.480 overshadowed by one of the darkest days in American history, 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:54.440 an omen of the even darker days to come. On 0:01:54.600 --> 0:02:00.480 this episode, a wall of sound, guns, fear, violence, great 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:05.760 Christmas music in Phil Spector. I'm Jake Brennan and this 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:35.120 is Disgracelam February third, two thousand and three, Alhambra, California. 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.880 Fifty thousand volts of electricity ripped through Phil Spector's sixty 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:45.160 three year old body. Within seconds, his knees gave up. 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.400 He dropped to the floor. His vision was blurry, but 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:51.960 he could now feel the cop who just tasered him 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:57.080 cuffing his hands behind his back. This was his house, 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:02.519 his castle, actually the famed Pyrenees Castle, a castle fit 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.520 for a king, or, more accurately, Inspector's case, fit for 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:12.960 a legendary record producer. Phil Spector lived up on high 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:17.760 on a hill overlooking the San Gabrielle Valley. Ten bedrooms, 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:24.200 ten bathrooms, turrets, spires, mirrored walls, crystal chandeliers. It was 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.880 part Gothic, part Romantic, part relic of the past. 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:29.280 But it was his. 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.680 And the police just walked right in like they owned 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:37.160 the place. And they saw the woman's body slumped in 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.080 an ivory brocade chair, and they saw all the blood, 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.120 the teeth scattered all over the floor of the foyer, 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:48.800 and then they saw Phil Spector standing there, his white 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:50.360 jacket splattered with blood. 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:53.240 They told him to put his hands up. He did 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:53.760 not comply. 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.760 He hated cops. He hated cops ever since. They made 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.720 life hell for his good friend Lenny Bruce rest in peace. 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:02.680 So fuck you a HUMBERPD. 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:06.760 That's the moment the cop fired the taser, and that's 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:08.520 when the pain really set in. 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.360 Life was pain. 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.240 Phil Spector knew pain as early as nine years old 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:17.560 when his father parked his car on the side of 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.200 the road in Brooklyn, pumped in the exhaust through a 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.440 rubber tube in the driver's side window, and suffocated on 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:28.000 the fumes. And then years later, when his own son, 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.279 Philip Junior, died of leukemia, Phil Spector knew the pain 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.919 never really went away, and now faced down on the 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:40.280 cold floor of his castle, Phil had to push past 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:42.839 the pain of the taser to realize that he was 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:47.919 being placed under arrest on suspicion of murder. At this point, 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.800 the cops had found the bloody thirty eight caliber Cobra 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.880 Revolver and the nine other guns Phil kept in the house. 0:04:55.160 --> 0:05:00.680 Phil Spector loved guns. Just ask John Lennon, Debbie, Harry Ramone, 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:04.600 Leonard Cohen Cher, or any other musician who'd once had 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:06.440 a gun pulled on them by one of the twentieth 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:11.760 century's most consequential figures in popular music. It was true 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:16.400 Phil Spector loved guns, but there was one thing he 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:27.320 loved even more than guns, Christmas. As an orchestrated rendition 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:31.000 of Silent Knight played in his headphones, Phil Spector leaned 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:35.120 into the microphone Phil's right hand, studio engineer Larry Levine, 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:35.760 hit record. 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:37.159 The tape rolled. 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:42.279 Phil Spector spoke in his nasal, high pitched voice, Hello, 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.719 this is Phil Spector. It's Christmas, so why don't you 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:51.760 go fuck yourselves? In reality, it wasn't Christmas, not quite yet. 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.320 It was August nineteen sixty three. Outside the walls of 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.839 gold Star Studios in Hollywood. The mercury topped one hundred 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:04.960 three degrees inside, though it was freezing. Philip cranked the 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.640 ac and hopes that it would help the many musicians 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.520 and singers involved in creating his new Christmas album get 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.520 into the holiday spirit. But Phil Spector, for one, may 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:15.960 have gotten a little too much. 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.719 Into the spirit. I made this for you. 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.279 He said into the microphone, as the tape kept rolling. 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:26.840 You caught suckers. Phil began to laugh hysterically. Larry Levine 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.200 had stopped on the tape machine. Come on, Phil, he said, 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.520 you can't say that. And also, this monologue of yours 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:34.720 is already like five minutes long. 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:35.640 You gotta cut it down. 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:41.440 The monologue that Larry was referring to was Phil's spoken 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.760 word contribution to the final track of the record. It 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:47.440 was Phil's way of making sure that listeners knew who 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:51.039 was really the brains behind the operation. Not the Rawnettes 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.359 and not the Crystals, but the so called Tycoon of 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:58.239 teen the self made millionaire who made his bones producing 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.960 hit records for the teenage set. He called them little 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:07.359 symphonies for the kids. At just twenty three years old himself, 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.600 Phil Spector was serious about his groundbreaking, overwhelming wall of 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:15.320 sound style, which, for the first time in pop music history, 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.000 really exploited all the amenities of the recording studio for 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:23.680 maximum emotional effect. A Phil Spector record was known for 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.400 its layers of instruments, strings and echo, and a collection 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:31.360 of Christmas songs would be no different. Because this record 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.920 wasn't just a cynical holiday cash grab, It wasn't some 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:39.200 phoned in Andy Williams bullshit. It was a proof of vision. 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.400 Phil Spector was going to make the greatest, most musically 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:47.240 sophisticated Christmas record ever released. He hoped it would be 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:49.640 as big as Irving Berlin's White Christmas, not only the 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.440 biggest selling Christmas song of all time, but the biggest 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:58.200 selling song of all time period. White Christmas was immortal, 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:02.720 Thus Irving Berlin was immortal too. That was the kind 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:07.520 of immortality that Phil Specter aspired to. So we booked 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:12.040 gold Star Studios for six weeks. He worked fifteen sixteen 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:16.840 hour days, seamlessly weaving together a joyous tapestry of horns, strings, 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.640 sleigh bells, LA's greatest session musicians, the Wrecking Crew, and 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.080 the voices of beehive hair dude beauties like Darlene Love 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.640 and that one girl he had a crush on, Ronnie Bennett, 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.120 even though Phil himself was a newly led but although 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:33.760 the music was joyous, the ways in which he achieved 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:38.360 that sound were often less, so he demanded take after 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:42.960 take and get it just right. He punched the talkback button. 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:51.520 Stop take it again from the top. Stop take it 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:58.880 again from the top, Stop take it again from the top. 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.600 He pushed every player to their limits, and when it 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.400 all got to his head, which it often did, when 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.360 his ego and his ambition made him feel godlike, so 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.200 powerful that even he thought for a moment that he 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.320 could actually say go fuck yourselves on his monologue for 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.640 the album's final track. He had guys like Larry Levine 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.800 who brought him back down to earth. It was Larry 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:26.920 Levine who said, quote the Christmas album is a period 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:31.360 I don't remember with pleasure unquote. But Phil Spector didn't 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.480 really care about all that. This record was his statement 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:37.160 of purpose, and when it was released in November of 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.880 nineteen sixty three, it would blow the Irving Berlins and 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.880 Andy Williams's right out of the water and cement Phil 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:47.400 Spector as the musical force to be reckored with. 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:49.480 And then. 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.920 Here is a bullet them from CBS News in Dallas, Texas, 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:59.800 three shots were fired at President Kennaday's motorcade and downtown. 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.320 The first report say that President Kennedy has been seriously 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:06.200 wounded by the shooting. 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:12.640 The assassination of President John F. Kennedy just so happened 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:16.120 to coincide with the release of Phil Spector's holiday album, 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:20.320 A Christmas Gift for You. Retail sales came to a halt. 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:25.080 Radio stations broke format for days, replacing pop music with 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:29.160 round the clock news, and as a result, the record 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.360 did not sell as expected, but even more crushing for 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:36.520 its creator, it did not make Phil Spector immortal. Phil 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.880 Spector was instead reminded of his own mortality because he 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:43.559 had failed, and he was now once again in pain, 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:47.800 so much pain, in fact, that the accepted narrative claims 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.520 that Phil pulled all copies of A Christmas Gift for 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:54.800 You from record store shelves across the country. But do 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.080 a little digging in, it seems that this is nothing 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.360 but a myth, one that's been perpetuated over the years 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:04.240 by biographers, perhaps out there by Phil himself, in order 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.680 to control the narrative about why the record didn't sell 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.840 well upon its initial release. Because if you look at 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.679 the data from the trade charts. During December of nineteen 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:17.080 sixty three, The album was number thirteen on Billboard's seasonal 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:21.560 list and in the top five on cash Box's seasonal survey. 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.440 What Died that weekend wasn't the record so much as 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:30.720 the moment hit radio went silent, Commerce screeched to a halt, 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.040 and by the time America went back to normal, the 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:38.160 window had nearly closed, and so at Phil Spector's odds 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:39.520 at achieving immortality. 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.320 But Phil was nothing if not tenacious. 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.640 He knew he would create another opportunity in which he 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:49.200 could take another shot, and this one would be huge, 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:55.079 bigger than Christmas, big enough that the whole world would 0:11:55.080 --> 0:12:24.680 take notice. Big Jim slammed his big fists down on 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.600 the desk, papers went flying, a rotary phone fell onto 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:31.880 the floor, and Phil Spector, who had just been seated 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.560 behind the desk, leaped to his feet and shock. Big 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.640 Jim was not fucking around. He was a thug and 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.920 pleaded khakis. He rolled up his sleeves and started to 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:43.960 come around to the other side of the desk, obviously 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:47.360 eager to wring Phil Spector's neck. Phil panicked and began 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.320 to distance himself defensively. What the hell do you want, 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:54.880 Big Jim laughed. It's not what I want, It's what 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.640 Joe Scandori wants. And I'm the guy who makes sure 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:02.600 that Joe Scandori gets what he wants. Joe Scandori as 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:06.600 in the well connected business association of the Genevese crime family, 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.040 who also just so happened to be the manager of 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.960 the vocal group The Crystals, who were signed to Phil 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:16.360 Spector's independent record label. Big Jim grabbed both ends of 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:18.959 the desk with his big palms. It looked like he 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.200 was either about to vault over it or toss it 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.640 to the side, and do you know what Joe Scandori wants? 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.200 And Phil thought about making a run for it, but 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.240 he knew that Big Jim would squash him like a 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:34.520 size fifteen steel toe boot on a scattering cockroach, so 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:38.880 he just stayed where he was opposite his momentary tormentor, 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:41.200 trying not to look like he was about to piss 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.920 his pants. Joe Scandori wants you to deliver this fucking 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.080 single by the Crystals that you owen, and he wants 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:49.280 you to do it right now, and you'd better do 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:52.040 it because if you don't I'm going to kill your 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.360 fucking mother, and then I'm coming back here to break 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:59.920 your legs. A few weeks later, in August of nineteen 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:04.120 sixty two, Phil Spector's record label released The Crystal's latest single, 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:07.920 He's a Rebel. But here's the thing. The girls who 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.920 actually sang on that single, they weren't the Crystals. They 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.960 were The Blossoms, featuring the great Darlene Love on lead. 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.800 For years, this remained a secret, and the reason that 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.840 it happened in the first place was because Phil Spector 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:26.320 was terrified that Joe Scandori's muscle Big Jim, was going 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:28.640 to make good on his promise to maim and kill 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.120 if Phil didn't release something by the Crystals, and since 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:34.480 he had a recording of the Blossoms already in the cam, 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.800 putting that out under the Crystal's name seemed the easiest 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:39.640 and swiftest way to avoid. 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:40.800 Big Jim's bloody retribution. 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:44.360 And despite the discrepancy between the name on the label 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:48.120 and the voices in the record's grooves, He's a Rebel. 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:51.560 The song became the second single produced by Phil Spector 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:56.120 to hit number one. The Crystal's next single, which actually 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:58.920 was performed by The Crystals. This time the Du Run 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:03.000 Run hit number tis, and then the Rawnettes excellent be 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:05.960 My Baby made it to number two. Both of those 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:10.200 songs in nineteen sixty three. Be My Baby, in particular, 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.680 was the helen of Troy of early sixties pop, the 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.800 song that launched one thousand ships, as it were, or 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:20.440 more accurately, the song that inspired upstarts like The Beach Boys, 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.240 Brian Wilson and The Beatles John Lennon to. 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:24.720 Reach new creative heights. 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.040 The next time Phil Spector would see one of his 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.680 productions hit the top of the pop chart, however, was 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:34.280 with the Righteous Brothers nineteen sixty four single You've Lost 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:38.160 That Loving Feeling, a number one smash in both the 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.640 United States and the UK. 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.520 You've Lost That Loving Feeling, be My Baby, the Do 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:45.720 Run Run, and. 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:50.040 He's a Rebel all shared the same thing, Phil Spector's 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:54.800 unmistakable wall of sound, which was achieved by doubling or 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:58.920 sometimes tripling instruments like an acoustic piano and electric piano 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.960 and harpsichord, all playing the same parts simultaneously. 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:03.880 The resulting sound. 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:08.000 Was massive, as big and expressive as the dramatic melancholy 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:12.080 of nineteen sixties teenage life, and it exploded from jukeboxes 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:16.760 in car radio speakers. In nineteen sixty six, the wall 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.200 of sound grew bigger than ever at the gold Star 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.560 session for Phil's production of Ike and Tina Turner's version 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:26.640 of River Deep Mountain High. Four guitars, three bass players, 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.640 three pianos, two drummers, multiple percussionists, close to two dozen 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:34.760 musicians in total played in that room together at top volume, 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:38.320 and after Tina Turner matched to the musician's energy level 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.960 with a performance so feverish and sweaty that she stripped 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:44.480 down to her bra and after the final product had 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:48.160 been drenched in that patented wall of sound echo, River 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:53.720 Deep Mountain High was undeniably a masterpiece. 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.200 A Phil Specter masterpiece. 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:02.760 But the decade was changing fast. The teenagers Phil made 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:07.200 his music for were moving on. Beatlemania had completely rearranged 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.400 the musical landscape, and the British invasion was all the rage. 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.160 In nineteen sixty six, during a summer which stripped down 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:17.800 songs by the Rascals, the Mamas and the Papas and 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.800 the Rolling Stones dominated the pop chart, the overstuffed River 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:26.679 Deep Mountain High stalled at number eighty eight. It was 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.359 the worst charting single of Phil Spector's now eight year career. 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.320 The failure was a gut punch. This was the Christmas 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:40.439 album of fiasco all over again. Maybe it was complicated 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:42.120 by the fact that he tried to sign The Rolling 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.639 Stones to his record label, Phil Less Records, but was 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.480 stonewalled by the chairman of their UK label. Either way, 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:53.720 this time Phil Spector took it personally. In an interview 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:56.200 with The New York Times that very year, he said 0:17:56.240 --> 0:18:00.399 he'd lost interest in the record business. It's like a 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:05.520 fish saying that he's lost interest in water. With that 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.800 sudden disinterest came an equal and opposite strong interest in 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:13.720 one Ronnie Bennett, the Spanish Harlem girl with the hair 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:15.840 and the face and the dark eyes and the red 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.879 lips and the whole thing. Phil didn't tell her he 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:21.679 already had a wife when they began dating, and Ronnie 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.240 didn't suspect anything because Phil wasn't acting like a married 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:30.040 man would act. One time, Ronnie left gold Star Studios 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.399 with Phil's gopher, a pre famed Sonny Bono, to go 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:36.720 grab some burgers, and Phil's jealousy ran so hot that 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:39.160 he turned the studio upside down while she was gone. 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:40.560 Even ripping tape off the reels. 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:45.400 Another time, Ronnie went out dancing with Sonny's girl Chare 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.240 at the Purple Onion, only to have Phil show up 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.280 in a rage and drag Ronnie from. 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:50.879 The dance floor. 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:55.480 Ronnie saw Phil freak out many a time, but never 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.399 more than when his friend, the comedian Lenny Bruce, was 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:02.199 found dead of an overdose. Phil couldn't get over the 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:06.679 injustice of it all. Lenny had been arrested, humiliated, vilified, 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:11.680 all for a couple of dirty words. Phil saw Lenny 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:14.679 a kindred spirit, someone who was just as much a 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.480 rebel as he was, especially when it came to the 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.520 kinds of rules that their respective industries wanted to impose 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:24.679 upon them. With Phil, it was the expectation that he 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:27.000 would make hit records like they had always been made. 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.760 With Lenny, it was the expectation that he'd play it clean. 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:33.840 And when they both broke the mold, like true rebels, 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:37.199 this is what they got for it, rejected by the 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:41.040 general public. With poor Lenny here naked on his bathroom floor, 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:45.000 a syringe of junk his only companion. During his last breath, 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.480 Phil was so upset about Lenny that he forbade Ronnie 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:51.639 from leaving him. She couldn't even go on tour with 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:53.840 the Beatles, who had invited the Rawnettes to open their 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:57.080 American dates for them, so her cousin Lane went in 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:01.800 Ronnie's place, and by Christmas of nineteen six, when the Ronettes, 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:04.280 like many other girl groups of their ilk, called it 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:08.639 quits for good, it was Ronnie's turn to grieve because 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:10.840 she had been denied those last few months with the 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.680 group that bore her name. Phil said he'd make it 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:16.960 up to her. He was going to return to the 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.640 record business that had forsaken him in order to make 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:24.040 her a bona fide pop star. Ronnie hoped that Phil 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:27.800 was telling the truth, turning a corner even and for 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.879 that she was elated. But Ronnie couldn't see what was 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.600 going on inside of Phil, who she would eventually marry 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:38.760 in nineteen sixty eight. Phil Spector was not turning any corners. 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.520 Phil Spector was now a man defined by his pain, 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:45.760 a man frustrated by what he perceived to be a 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:50.560 disdainful public reaction to his genius, A man increasingly out 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:52.840 of time. He was a man living in a world 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.200 that had moved on without him. The Beatles, the Stones, 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:59.480 the Mamas and the Papas, the rascals. They were running 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.399 laps around him, while he found himself paying increasing attention 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.679 to the devil on his shoulder, and also to the 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.800 devil on his other shoulder and inside Phil Spector, those 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.760 devils waged a war through all that pain. 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.720 We'll be right back after this. We're We're, We're. 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:32.920 Nineteen seventy nine, the Hollywood Hills. Deede Ramone was tired 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.359 of waiting around. This wasn't New York City. This wasn't 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:39.760 fifty third and third. This was the cold and sterile 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:43.000 home of Phil Spector, the first of assumed to be 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:48.080 notorious mansions. This one nestled in the sunburnt brush, high 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:51.720 above the Sunset Strip. It's not like the basis for 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:54.119 the Ramones couldn't wait. If he had good reason to. 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:56.679 Dede could wait on his man for some of that 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.920 Chinese rock, no problem. He just didn't like waiting on 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:03.879 this man, or the man if this dinosaur of a 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:07.080 record producer was to be believed who, according to d 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:12.960 d's bandmate Johnny Ramone, was doing everything ass backwards. Johnny 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:16.280 was the one usually calling the shots. And when Johnny spoke, 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:20.520 you listened. He thought like he played, He talked like 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:25.359 he played. He strategized like he played, which was fast, loud, 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:30.520 and very brief. Johnny didn't waste notes, and he didn't 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:33.560 waste your time. When you made a record, According to 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:36.640 the wisdom of Johnny Ramone, you got in, you got out, 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:40.800 you got it over and done with. Making records was 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:46.080 an occupational hazard, an inconvenience at best. But the Ramones 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:48.920 were making a record with Phil Spector, who was as 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:52.399 laborious and methodical as the leather and denim clad punks 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:55.880 were quick and dirty. Phil made Johnny play the same 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:59.400 fucking chord over and over again. It felt like some 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:03.600 sick joke. And so now Dedey found himself just wanting 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:06.959 something to do, something besides all this sitting and waiting 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:10.680 with his dick in his hands, And where was Joey? 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:13.400 The Ramones lead singer, had been whisked away by Phil 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:15.400 hours ago to work on a cover of an old 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:19.640 Ronette song. Dede stood up and began to wander through 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:22.440 the rooms in the hallways of Phil's mansion, shouting. 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:25.040 Joey, Joey, the fuck are you. Let's get the hell 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:25.760 out of here man. 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:31.359 Suddenly, Phil Spector appeared from out of the shadows, wearing 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:36.880 all black, long black hair, black goateee, black shades, A big, 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:39.720 gaudy crucifix hung from his neck, and in his hand 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:45.080 he held a revolver. What's the matter, Dede? Dedee nearly laughed, 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:51.000 Phil looked ridiculous. Instead, Dede just shook his head, dismissed 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:53.800 this crazy motherfucker standing before him with a wave of 0:23:53.840 --> 0:23:57.639 his hand, and told Phil that he was leaving. Phil 0:23:57.720 --> 0:24:00.880 stepped forward until he was in arm's length from Dede. 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:03.480 He raised the revolver and pushed it squarely into the 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:10.280 bass player's chest, and then he spoke, dide, you. 0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:11.120 Ain't going nowhere. 0:24:14.760 --> 0:24:17.280 Dede and the rest of the Ramones were quickly discovering 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:20.760 what others before them already knew that the producer, Phil 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:25.439 Spector was fucking nuts. Their friends and Blondie knew it, 0:24:25.880 --> 0:24:28.280 and just a few years earlier, Phil invited them back 0:24:28.320 --> 0:24:30.400 here to his mansion after a show at the Whiskey 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:33.879 and then held them at gunpoint, even at one point 0:24:33.920 --> 0:24:36.879 sticking the butt of his forty five down Debbie Harry's boot. 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:40.600 Leonard Cohen knew it when Phil pulled the piece on 0:24:40.720 --> 0:24:42.879 him while they were making the album Death of a 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:46.600 Ladies Man. Actually, Phil grabbed Leonard's neck and then stuck 0:24:46.640 --> 0:24:49.560 the butt of a gun against the singer's head and said, Leonard, 0:24:50.000 --> 0:24:54.440 I love you. Cher knew it when she confronted Phil 0:24:54.480 --> 0:24:57.239 over some of her recordings he had legally released, and 0:24:57.280 --> 0:24:58.919 he responded by twirling. 0:24:58.520 --> 0:24:59.720 A revolver on his finger. 0:25:01.040 --> 0:25:03.840 George Harrison never saw it while he and Phil made 0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:06.720 All Things Must Pass, one of the greatest solo records 0:25:06.720 --> 0:25:09.760 by a Beatle, but George's friend John Lennon sure did. 0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:13.000 Phil showed up at a session for john solo album 0:25:13.080 --> 0:25:15.960 Rock and Roll, dressed like a surgeon and wildly fired 0:25:15.960 --> 0:25:19.040 his pistol at the studio ceiling. And all this, of 0:25:19.080 --> 0:25:22.320 course after he caused it, typically stoned and docile Paul 0:25:22.440 --> 0:25:25.640 McCartney to fly off the handle and compose the angriest 0:25:25.720 --> 0:25:28.840 letter of his career when Phil molested the master tapes 0:25:28.880 --> 0:25:33.720 of the Beatles' final album Let It Be. But perhaps 0:25:34.240 --> 0:25:38.360