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Phil Spector: Silent Night, Loaded Gun · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
0:18
Speaker 1: story about Christmas. It's a story about guns and about
0:23
Speaker 1: pain and control, about how a kid from the Bronx
0:27
Speaker 1: made a wall of sound and then made the Holidays
0:30
Speaker 1: sound bigger than they ever had before. It's about how
0:34
Speaker 1: fame turns to fear and fear turns to violence, and
0:39
Speaker 1: it's about the fine line between immortality and infamy. This
0:44
Speaker 1: is a story about Phil Spector, so naturally, it's a
0:48
Speaker 1: story about great music, some of the most groundbreaking and
0:54
Speaker 1: influential music of the last sixty years. Unlike that clip
0:58
Speaker 1: I played for you at the top of the show.
1:01
Speaker 1: That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from
1:04
Speaker 1: my melotron called Electric hair Piece MK.
1:08
Speaker 2: Two.
1:10
Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
1:13
Speaker 1: rights to Deep Purple by Nino Tempo and April Stevens.
1:19
Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
1:22
Speaker 1: Richie Blackmore Inspiring Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that
1:27
Speaker 1: was the number one song in America on November twenty two,
1:31
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, And that was the day that Phil
1:34
Speaker 1: Spector released the album A Christmas Gift for You, His
1:38
Speaker 1: attempt to cement his young legacy on the charts and
1:42
Speaker 1: in the minds of millions, only to have his music
1:45
Speaker 1: overshadowed by one of the darkest days in American history,
1:49
Speaker 1: an omen of the even darker days to come. On
1:54
Speaker 1: this episode, a wall of sound, guns, fear, violence, great
2:00
Speaker 1: Christmas music in Phil Spector. I'm Jake Brennan and this
2:06
Speaker 1: is Disgracelam February third, two thousand and three, Alhambra, California.
2:36
Speaker 1: Fifty thousand volts of electricity ripped through Phil Spector's sixty
2:40
Speaker 1: three year old body. Within seconds, his knees gave up.
2:45
Speaker 1: He dropped to the floor. His vision was blurry, but
2:49
Speaker 1: he could now feel the cop who just tasered him
2:52
Speaker 1: cuffing his hands behind his back. This was his house,
2:57
Speaker 1: his castle, actually the famed Pyrenees Castle, a castle fit
3:02
Speaker 1: for a king, or, more accurately, Inspector's case, fit for
3:06
Speaker 1: a legendary record producer. Phil Spector lived up on high
3:13
Speaker 1: on a hill overlooking the San Gabrielle Valley. Ten bedrooms,
3:18
Speaker 1: ten bathrooms, turrets, spires, mirrored walls, crystal chandeliers. It was
3:24
Speaker 1: part Gothic, part Romantic, part relic of the past.
3:28
Speaker 2: But it was his.
3:30
Speaker 1: And the police just walked right in like they owned
3:32
Speaker 1: the place. And they saw the woman's body slumped in
3:37
Speaker 1: an ivory brocade chair, and they saw all the blood,
3:41
Speaker 1: the teeth scattered all over the floor of the foyer,
3:45
Speaker 1: and then they saw Phil Spector standing there, his white
3:48
Speaker 1: jacket splattered with blood.
3:51
Speaker 2: They told him to put his hands up. He did
3:53
Speaker 2: not comply.
3:54
Speaker 1: He hated cops. He hated cops ever since. They made
3:57
Speaker 1: life hell for his good friend Lenny Bruce rest in peace.
4:00
Speaker 2: So fuck you a HUMBERPD.
4:03
Speaker 1: That's the moment the cop fired the taser, and that's
4:06
Speaker 1: when the pain really set in.
4:09
Speaker 2: Life was pain.
4:12
Speaker 1: Phil Spector knew pain as early as nine years old
4:15
Speaker 1: when his father parked his car on the side of
4:17
Speaker 1: the road in Brooklyn, pumped in the exhaust through a
4:20
Speaker 1: rubber tube in the driver's side window, and suffocated on
4:23
Speaker 1: the fumes. And then years later, when his own son,
4:28
Speaker 1: Philip Junior, died of leukemia, Phil Spector knew the pain
4:32
Speaker 1: never really went away, and now faced down on the
4:36
Speaker 1: cold floor of his castle, Phil had to push past
4:40
Speaker 1: the pain of the taser to realize that he was
4:42
Speaker 1: being placed under arrest on suspicion of murder. At this point,
4:47
Speaker 1: the cops had found the bloody thirty eight caliber Cobra
4:50
Speaker 1: Revolver and the nine other guns Phil kept in the house.
4:55
Speaker 1: Phil Spector loved guns. Just ask John Lennon, Debbie, Harry Ramone,
5:00
Speaker 1: Leonard Cohen Cher, or any other musician who'd once had
5:04
Speaker 1: a gun pulled on them by one of the twentieth
5:06
Speaker 1: century's most consequential figures in popular music. It was true
5:12
Speaker 1: Phil Spector loved guns, but there was one thing he
5:16
Speaker 1: loved even more than guns, Christmas. As an orchestrated rendition
5:27
Speaker 1: of Silent Knight played in his headphones, Phil Spector leaned
5:31
Speaker 1: into the microphone Phil's right hand, studio engineer Larry Levine,
5:35
Speaker 1: hit record.
5:36
Speaker 2: The tape rolled.
5:37
Speaker 1: Phil Spector spoke in his nasal, high pitched voice, Hello,
5:42
Speaker 1: this is Phil Spector. It's Christmas, so why don't you
5:45
Speaker 1: go fuck yourselves? In reality, it wasn't Christmas, not quite yet.
5:52
Speaker 1: It was August nineteen sixty three. Outside the walls of
5:56
Speaker 1: gold Star Studios in Hollywood. The mercury topped one hundred
6:00
Speaker 1: three degrees inside, though it was freezing. Philip cranked the
6:04
Speaker 1: ac and hopes that it would help the many musicians
6:07
Speaker 1: and singers involved in creating his new Christmas album get
6:10
Speaker 1: into the holiday spirit. But Phil Spector, for one, may
6:14
Speaker 1: have gotten a little too much.
6:15
Speaker 2: Into the spirit. I made this for you.
6:18
Speaker 1: He said into the microphone, as the tape kept rolling.
6:21
Speaker 1: You caught suckers. Phil began to laugh hysterically. Larry Levine
6:26
Speaker 1: had stopped on the tape machine. Come on, Phil, he said,
6:30
Speaker 1: you can't say that. And also, this monologue of yours
6:33
Speaker 1: is already like five minutes long.
6:34
Speaker 2: You gotta cut it down.
6:38
Speaker 1: The monologue that Larry was referring to was Phil's spoken
6:41
Speaker 1: word contribution to the final track of the record. It
6:44
Speaker 1: was Phil's way of making sure that listeners knew who
6:47
Speaker 1: was really the brains behind the operation. Not the Rawnettes
6:51
Speaker 1: and not the Crystals, but the so called Tycoon of
6:54
Speaker 1: teen the self made millionaire who made his bones producing
6:58
Speaker 1: hit records for the teenage set. He called them little
7:01
Speaker 1: symphonies for the kids. At just twenty three years old himself,
7:07
Speaker 1: Phil Spector was serious about his groundbreaking, overwhelming wall of
7:11
Speaker 1: sound style, which, for the first time in pop music history,
7:15
Speaker 1: really exploited all the amenities of the recording studio for
7:19
Speaker 1: maximum emotional effect. A Phil Spector record was known for
7:23
Speaker 1: its layers of instruments, strings and echo, and a collection
7:27
Speaker 1: of Christmas songs would be no different. Because this record
7:31
Speaker 1: wasn't just a cynical holiday cash grab, It wasn't some
7:35
Speaker 1: phoned in Andy Williams bullshit. It was a proof of vision.
7:40
Speaker 1: Phil Spector was going to make the greatest, most musically
7:43
Speaker 1: sophisticated Christmas record ever released. He hoped it would be
7:47
Speaker 1: as big as Irving Berlin's White Christmas, not only the
7:49
Speaker 1: biggest selling Christmas song of all time, but the biggest
7:52
Speaker 1: selling song of all time period. White Christmas was immortal,
7:58
Speaker 1: Thus Irving Berlin was immortal too. That was the kind
8:02
Speaker 1: of immortality that Phil Specter aspired to. So we booked
8:07
Speaker 1: gold Star Studios for six weeks. He worked fifteen sixteen
8:12
Speaker 1: hour days, seamlessly weaving together a joyous tapestry of horns, strings,
8:16
Speaker 1: sleigh bells, LA's greatest session musicians, the Wrecking Crew, and
8:20
Speaker 1: the voices of beehive hair dude beauties like Darlene Love
8:24
Speaker 1: and that one girl he had a crush on, Ronnie Bennett,
8:26
Speaker 1: even though Phil himself was a newly led but although
8:30
Speaker 1: the music was joyous, the ways in which he achieved
8:33
Speaker 1: that sound were often less, so he demanded take after
8:38
Speaker 1: take and get it just right. He punched the talkback button.
8:44
Speaker 3: Stop take it again from the top. Stop take it
8:51
Speaker 3: again from the top, Stop take it again from the top.
9:01
Speaker 1: He pushed every player to their limits, and when it
9:05
Speaker 1: all got to his head, which it often did, when
9:08
Speaker 1: his ego and his ambition made him feel godlike, so
9:11
Speaker 1: powerful that even he thought for a moment that he
9:14
Speaker 1: could actually say go fuck yourselves on his monologue for
9:17
Speaker 1: the album's final track. He had guys like Larry Levine
9:20
Speaker 1: who brought him back down to earth. It was Larry
9:23
Speaker 1: Levine who said, quote the Christmas album is a period
9:27
Speaker 1: I don't remember with pleasure unquote. But Phil Spector didn't
9:31
Speaker 1: really care about all that. This record was his statement
9:34
Speaker 1: of purpose, and when it was released in November of
9:37
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, it would blow the Irving Berlins and
9:40
Speaker 1: Andy Williams's right out of the water and cement Phil
9:43
Speaker 1: Spector as the musical force to be reckored with.
9:48
Speaker 2: And then.
9:52
Speaker 4: Here is a bullet them from CBS News in Dallas, Texas,
9:56
Speaker 4: three shots were fired at President Kennaday's motorcade and downtown.
10:00
Speaker 4: The first report say that President Kennedy has been seriously
10:04
Speaker 4: wounded by the shooting.
10:09
Speaker 1: The assassination of President John F. Kennedy just so happened
10:12
Speaker 1: to coincide with the release of Phil Spector's holiday album,
10:16
Speaker 1: A Christmas Gift for You. Retail sales came to a halt.
10:20
Speaker 1: Radio stations broke format for days, replacing pop music with
10:25
Speaker 1: round the clock news, and as a result, the record
10:29
Speaker 1: did not sell as expected, but even more crushing for
10:32
Speaker 1: its creator, it did not make Phil Spector immortal. Phil
10:36
Speaker 1: Spector was instead reminded of his own mortality because he
10:39
Speaker 1: had failed, and he was now once again in pain,
10:44
Speaker 1: so much pain, in fact, that the accepted narrative claims
10:47
Speaker 1: that Phil pulled all copies of A Christmas Gift for
10:50
Speaker 1: You from record store shelves across the country. But do
10:54
Speaker 1: a little digging in, it seems that this is nothing
10:57
Speaker 1: but a myth, one that's been perpetuated over the years
11:00
Speaker 1: by biographers, perhaps out there by Phil himself, in order
11:04
Speaker 1: to control the narrative about why the record didn't sell
11:06
Speaker 1: well upon its initial release. Because if you look at
11:09
Speaker 1: the data from the trade charts. During December of nineteen
11:12
Speaker 1: sixty three, The album was number thirteen on Billboard's seasonal
11:17
Speaker 1: list and in the top five on cash Box's seasonal survey.
11:22
Speaker 1: What Died that weekend wasn't the record so much as
11:25
Speaker 1: the moment hit radio went silent, Commerce screeched to a halt,
11:31
Speaker 1: and by the time America went back to normal, the
11:34
Speaker 1: window had nearly closed, and so at Phil Spector's odds
11:38
Speaker 1: at achieving immortality.
11:40
Speaker 2: But Phil was nothing if not tenacious.
11:43
Speaker 1: He knew he would create another opportunity in which he
11:45
Speaker 1: could take another shot, and this one would be huge,
11:50
Speaker 1: bigger than Christmas, big enough that the whole world would
11:55
Speaker 1: take notice. Big Jim slammed his big fists down on
12:24
Speaker 1: the desk, papers went flying, a rotary phone fell onto
12:28
Speaker 1: the floor, and Phil Spector, who had just been seated
12:31
Speaker 1: behind the desk, leaped to his feet and shock. Big
12:35
Speaker 1: Jim was not fucking around. He was a thug and
12:38
Speaker 1: pleaded khakis. He rolled up his sleeves and started to
12:41
Speaker 1: come around to the other side of the desk, obviously
12:44
Speaker 1: eager to wring Phil Spector's neck. Phil panicked and began
12:47
Speaker 1: to distance himself defensively. What the hell do you want,
12:51
Speaker 1: Big Jim laughed. It's not what I want, It's what
12:55
Speaker 1: Joe Scandori wants. And I'm the guy who makes sure
12:57
Speaker 1: that Joe Scandori gets what he wants. Joe Scandori as
13:02
Speaker 1: in the well connected business association of the Genevese crime family,
13:07
Speaker 1: who also just so happened to be the manager of
13:09
Speaker 1: the vocal group The Crystals, who were signed to Phil
13:12
Speaker 1: Spector's independent record label. Big Jim grabbed both ends of
13:16
Speaker 1: the desk with his big palms. It looked like he
13:19
Speaker 1: was either about to vault over it or toss it
13:21
Speaker 1: to the side, and do you know what Joe Scandori wants?
13:25
Speaker 1: And Phil thought about making a run for it, but
13:28
Speaker 1: he knew that Big Jim would squash him like a
13:30
Speaker 1: size fifteen steel toe boot on a scattering cockroach, so
13:34
Speaker 1: he just stayed where he was opposite his momentary tormentor,
13:39
Speaker 1: trying not to look like he was about to piss
13:41
Speaker 1: his pants. Joe Scandori wants you to deliver this fucking
13:44
Speaker 1: single by the Crystals that you owen, and he wants
13:47
Speaker 1: you to do it right now, and you'd better do
13:49
Speaker 1: it because if you don't I'm going to kill your
13:52
Speaker 1: fucking mother, and then I'm coming back here to break
13:54
Speaker 1: your legs. A few weeks later, in August of nineteen
14:00
Speaker 1: sixty two, Phil Spector's record label released The Crystal's latest single,
14:04
Speaker 1: He's a Rebel. But here's the thing. The girls who
14:07
Speaker 1: actually sang on that single, they weren't the Crystals. They
14:11
Speaker 1: were The Blossoms, featuring the great Darlene Love on lead.
14:17
Speaker 1: For years, this remained a secret, and the reason that
14:19
Speaker 1: it happened in the first place was because Phil Spector
14:22
Speaker 1: was terrified that Joe Scandori's muscle Big Jim, was going
14:26
Speaker 1: to make good on his promise to maim and kill
14:28
Speaker 1: if Phil didn't release something by the Crystals, and since
14:32
Speaker 1: he had a recording of the Blossoms already in the cam,
14:34
Speaker 1: putting that out under the Crystal's name seemed the easiest
14:37
Speaker 1: and swiftest way to avoid.
14:39
Speaker 2: Big Jim's bloody retribution.
14:41
Speaker 1: And despite the discrepancy between the name on the label
14:44
Speaker 1: and the voices in the record's grooves, He's a Rebel.
14:48
Speaker 1: The song became the second single produced by Phil Spector
14:51
Speaker 1: to hit number one. The Crystal's next single, which actually
14:56
Speaker 1: was performed by The Crystals. This time the Du Run
14:59
Speaker 1: Run hit number tis, and then the Rawnettes excellent be
15:03
Speaker 1: My Baby made it to number two. Both of those
15:06
Speaker 1: songs in nineteen sixty three. Be My Baby, in particular,
15:10
Speaker 1: was the helen of Troy of early sixties pop, the
15:13
Speaker 1: song that launched one thousand ships, as it were, or
15:16
Speaker 1: more accurately, the song that inspired upstarts like The Beach Boys,
15:20
Speaker 1: Brian Wilson and The Beatles John Lennon to.
15:23
Speaker 2: Reach new creative heights.
15:26
Speaker 1: The next time Phil Spector would see one of his
15:28
Speaker 1: productions hit the top of the pop chart, however, was
15:30
Speaker 1: with the Righteous Brothers nineteen sixty four single You've Lost
15:34
Speaker 1: That Loving Feeling, a number one smash in both the
15:38
Speaker 1: United States and the UK.
15:41
Speaker 2: You've Lost That Loving Feeling, be My Baby, the Do
15:44
Speaker 2: Run Run, and.
15:45
Speaker 1: He's a Rebel all shared the same thing, Phil Spector's
15:50
Speaker 1: unmistakable wall of sound, which was achieved by doubling or
15:54
Speaker 1: sometimes tripling instruments like an acoustic piano and electric piano
15:58
Speaker 1: and harpsichord, all playing the same parts simultaneously.
16:02
Speaker 2: The resulting sound.
16:03
Speaker 1: Was massive, as big and expressive as the dramatic melancholy
16:08
Speaker 1: of nineteen sixties teenage life, and it exploded from jukeboxes
16:12
Speaker 1: in car radio speakers. In nineteen sixty six, the wall
16:16
Speaker 1: of sound grew bigger than ever at the gold Star
16:19
Speaker 1: session for Phil's production of Ike and Tina Turner's version
16:22
Speaker 1: of River Deep Mountain High. Four guitars, three bass players,
16:26
Speaker 1: three pianos, two drummers, multiple percussionists, close to two dozen
16:30
Speaker 1: musicians in total played in that room together at top volume,
16:35
Speaker 1: and after Tina Turner matched to the musician's energy level
16:38
Speaker 1: with a performance so feverish and sweaty that she stripped
16:42
Speaker 1: down to her bra and after the final product had
16:44
Speaker 1: been drenched in that patented wall of sound echo, River
16:48
Speaker 1: Deep Mountain High was undeniably a masterpiece.
16:53
Speaker 2: A Phil Specter masterpiece.
16:57
Speaker 1: But the decade was changing fast. The teenagers Phil made
17:02
Speaker 1: his music for were moving on. Beatlemania had completely rearranged
17:07
Speaker 1: the musical landscape, and the British invasion was all the rage.
17:11
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty six, during a summer which stripped down
17:15
Speaker 1: songs by the Rascals, the Mamas and the Papas and
17:17
Speaker 1: the Rolling Stones dominated the pop chart, the overstuffed River
17:21
Speaker 1: Deep Mountain High stalled at number eighty eight. It was
17:26
Speaker 1: the worst charting single of Phil Spector's now eight year career.
17:32
Speaker 1: The failure was a gut punch. This was the Christmas
17:36
Speaker 1: album of fiasco all over again. Maybe it was complicated
17:40
Speaker 1: by the fact that he tried to sign The Rolling
17:42
Speaker 1: Stones to his record label, Phil Less Records, but was
17:45
Speaker 1: stonewalled by the chairman of their UK label. Either way,
17:49
Speaker 1: this time Phil Spector took it personally. In an interview
17:53
Speaker 1: with The New York Times that very year, he said
17:56
Speaker 1: he'd lost interest in the record business. It's like a
18:00
Speaker 1: fish saying that he's lost interest in water. With that
18:05
Speaker 1: sudden disinterest came an equal and opposite strong interest in
18:09
Speaker 1: one Ronnie Bennett, the Spanish Harlem girl with the hair
18:13
Speaker 1: and the face and the dark eyes and the red
18:15
Speaker 1: lips and the whole thing. Phil didn't tell her he
18:18
Speaker 1: already had a wife when they began dating, and Ronnie
18:21
Speaker 1: didn't suspect anything because Phil wasn't acting like a married
18:25
Speaker 1: man would act. One time, Ronnie left gold Star Studios
18:30
Speaker 1: with Phil's gopher, a pre famed Sonny Bono, to go
18:33
Speaker 1: grab some burgers, and Phil's jealousy ran so hot that
18:36
Speaker 1: he turned the studio upside down while she was gone.
18:39
Speaker 2: Even ripping tape off the reels.
18:41
Speaker 1: Another time, Ronnie went out dancing with Sonny's girl Chare
18:45
Speaker 1: at the Purple Onion, only to have Phil show up
18:48
Speaker 1: in a rage and drag Ronnie from.
18:50
Speaker 2: The dance floor.
18:51
Speaker 1: Ronnie saw Phil freak out many a time, but never
18:55
Speaker 1: more than when his friend, the comedian Lenny Bruce, was
18:58
Speaker 1: found dead of an overdose. Phil couldn't get over the
19:02
Speaker 1: injustice of it all. Lenny had been arrested, humiliated, vilified,
19:07
Speaker 1: all for a couple of dirty words. Phil saw Lenny
19:11
Speaker 1: a kindred spirit, someone who was just as much a
19:14
Speaker 1: rebel as he was, especially when it came to the
19:17
Speaker 1: kinds of rules that their respective industries wanted to impose
19:20
Speaker 1: upon them. With Phil, it was the expectation that he
19:24
Speaker 1: would make hit records like they had always been made.
19:27
Speaker 1: With Lenny, it was the expectation that he'd play it clean.
19:31
Speaker 1: And when they both broke the mold, like true rebels,
19:34
Speaker 1: this is what they got for it, rejected by the
19:37
Speaker 1: general public. With poor Lenny here naked on his bathroom floor,
19:41
Speaker 1: a syringe of junk his only companion. During his last breath,
19:46
Speaker 1: Phil was so upset about Lenny that he forbade Ronnie
19:49
Speaker 1: from leaving him. She couldn't even go on tour with
19:51
Speaker 1: the Beatles, who had invited the Rawnettes to open their
19:53
Speaker 1: American dates for them, so her cousin Lane went in
19:57
Speaker 1: Ronnie's place, and by Christmas of nineteen six, when the Ronettes,
20:01
Speaker 1: like many other girl groups of their ilk, called it
20:04
Speaker 1: quits for good, it was Ronnie's turn to grieve because
20:08
Speaker 1: she had been denied those last few months with the
20:10
Speaker 1: group that bore her name. Phil said he'd make it
20:14
Speaker 1: up to her. He was going to return to the
20:16
Speaker 1: record business that had forsaken him in order to make
20:19
Speaker 1: her a bona fide pop star. Ronnie hoped that Phil
20:24
Speaker 1: was telling the truth, turning a corner even and for
20:27
Speaker 1: that she was elated. But Ronnie couldn't see what was
20:31
Speaker 1: going on inside of Phil, who she would eventually marry
20:34
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty eight. Phil Spector was not turning any corners.
20:39
Speaker 1: Phil Spector was now a man defined by his pain,
20:43
Speaker 1: a man frustrated by what he perceived to be a
20:45
Speaker 1: disdainful public reaction to his genius, A man increasingly out
20:50
Speaker 1: of time. He was a man living in a world
20:52
Speaker 1: that had moved on without him. The Beatles, the Stones,
20:56
Speaker 1: the Mamas and the Papas, the rascals. They were running
20:59
Speaker 1: laps around him, while he found himself paying increasing attention
21:03
Speaker 1: to the devil on his shoulder, and also to the
21:06
Speaker 1: devil on his other shoulder and inside Phil Spector, those
21:10
Speaker 1: devils waged a war through all that pain.
21:18
Speaker 4: We'll be right back after this. We're We're, We're.
21:28
Speaker 1: Nineteen seventy nine, the Hollywood Hills. Deede Ramone was tired
21:32
Speaker 1: of waiting around. This wasn't New York City. This wasn't
21:36
Speaker 1: fifty third and third. This was the cold and sterile
21:39
Speaker 1: home of Phil Spector, the first of assumed to be
21:43
Speaker 1: notorious mansions. This one nestled in the sunburnt brush, high
21:48
Speaker 1: above the Sunset Strip. It's not like the basis for
21:51
Speaker 1: the Ramones couldn't wait. If he had good reason to.
21:54
Speaker 1: Dede could wait on his man for some of that
21:56
Speaker 1: Chinese rock, no problem. He just didn't like waiting on
22:00
Speaker 1: this man, or the man if this dinosaur of a
22:03
Speaker 1: record producer was to be believed who, according to d
22:07
Speaker 1: d's bandmate Johnny Ramone, was doing everything ass backwards. Johnny
22:13
Speaker 1: was the one usually calling the shots. And when Johnny spoke,
22:16
Speaker 1: you listened. He thought like he played, He talked like
22:20
Speaker 1: he played. He strategized like he played, which was fast, loud,
22:25
Speaker 1: and very brief. Johnny didn't waste notes, and he didn't
22:30
Speaker 1: waste your time. When you made a record, According to
22:33
Speaker 1: the wisdom of Johnny Ramone, you got in, you got out,
22:36
Speaker 1: you got it over and done with. Making records was
22:40
Speaker 1: an occupational hazard, an inconvenience at best. But the Ramones
22:46
Speaker 1: were making a record with Phil Spector, who was as
22:49
Speaker 1: laborious and methodical as the leather and denim clad punks
22:52
Speaker 1: were quick and dirty. Phil made Johnny play the same
22:56
Speaker 1: fucking chord over and over again. It felt like some
22:59
Speaker 1: sick joke. And so now Dedey found himself just wanting
23:03
Speaker 1: something to do, something besides all this sitting and waiting
23:07
Speaker 1: with his dick in his hands, And where was Joey?
23:10
Speaker 1: The Ramones lead singer, had been whisked away by Phil
23:13
Speaker 1: hours ago to work on a cover of an old
23:15
Speaker 1: Ronette song. Dede stood up and began to wander through
23:19
Speaker 1: the rooms in the hallways of Phil's mansion, shouting.
23:22
Speaker 2: Joey, Joey, the fuck are you. Let's get the hell
23:25
Speaker 2: out of here man.
23:27
Speaker 1: Suddenly, Phil Spector appeared from out of the shadows, wearing
23:31
Speaker 1: all black, long black hair, black goateee, black shades, A big,
23:36
Speaker 1: gaudy crucifix hung from his neck, and in his hand
23:39
Speaker 1: he held a revolver. What's the matter, Dede? Dedee nearly laughed,
23:45
Speaker 1: Phil looked ridiculous. Instead, Dede just shook his head, dismissed
23:51
Speaker 1: this crazy motherfucker standing before him with a wave of
23:53
Speaker 1: his hand, and told Phil that he was leaving. Phil
23:57
Speaker 1: stepped forward until he was in arm's length from Dede.
24:01
Speaker 1: He raised the revolver and pushed it squarely into the
24:03
Speaker 1: bass player's chest, and then he spoke, dide, you.
24:10
Speaker 2: Ain't going nowhere.
24:14
Speaker 1: Dede and the rest of the Ramones were quickly discovering
24:17
Speaker 1: what others before them already knew that the producer, Phil
24:20
Speaker 1: Spector was fucking nuts. Their friends and Blondie knew it,
24:25
Speaker 1: and just a few years earlier, Phil invited them back
24:28
Speaker 1: here to his mansion after a show at the Whiskey
24:30
Speaker 1: and then held them at gunpoint, even at one point
24:33
Speaker 1: sticking the butt of his forty five down Debbie Harry's boot.
24:37
Speaker 1: Leonard Cohen knew it when Phil pulled the piece on
24:40
Speaker 1: him while they were making the album Death of a
24:42
Speaker 1: Ladies Man. Actually, Phil grabbed Leonard's neck and then stuck
24:46
Speaker 1: the butt of a gun against the singer's head and said, Leonard,
24:50
Speaker 1: I love you. Cher knew it when she confronted Phil
24:54
Speaker 1: over some of her recordings he had legally released, and
24:57
Speaker 1: he responded by twirling.
24:58
Speaker 2: A revolver on his finger.
25:01
Speaker 1: George Harrison never saw it while he and Phil made
25:03
Speaker 1: All Things Must Pass, one of the greatest solo records
25:06
Speaker 1: by a Beatle, but George's friend John Lennon sure did.
25:10
Speaker 1: Phil showed up at a session for john solo album
25:13
Speaker 1: Rock and Roll, dressed like a surgeon and wildly fired
25:15
Speaker 1: his pistol at the studio ceiling. And all this, of
25:19
Speaker 1: course after he caused it, typically stoned and docile Paul
25:22
Speaker 1: McCartney to fly off the handle and compose the angriest
25:25
Speaker 1: letter of his career when Phil molested the master tapes
25:28
Speaker 1: of the Beatles' final album Let It Be. But perhaps
25:34
Speaker 1: no one knew about Phil Spector better than his wife, Ronnie.
25:39
Speaker 1: Phil rarely let Ronnie leave the house. He locked her
25:42
Speaker 1: in the closet when he had company over, and on
25:44
Speaker 1: the rare occasion when he did allow her to leave,
25:46
Speaker 1: he placed an inflatable man doll in the front passenger
25:49
Speaker 1: seat of her car, so it appeared that he was
25:51
Speaker 1: driving around with her. And perhaps there was no better
25:54
Speaker 1: example of the extent of his fucked upness than when
25:57
Speaker 1: he bought a solid gold coffin fur him his wife, Ronnie,
26:01
Speaker 1: and then showed it to her, making sure to point
26:04
Speaker 1: out that it was equipped with a glass top so
26:06
Speaker 1: that he could keep an eye on her even after
26:09
Speaker 1: she was dead. And by the time Phil was working
26:13
Speaker 1: with the Ramones, Ronnie had long since done what she
26:16
Speaker 1: had been afraid to do for a long time. Afraid
26:20
Speaker 1: because she knew about Phil's insane jealousy, about his anger volatility,
26:25
Speaker 1: and about how that mixture, along with some alcohol and
26:28
Speaker 1: a house full.
26:28
Speaker 2: Of loaded firearms, could prove deadly.
26:32
Speaker 1: But she was able to leave unscathed, and as the
26:35
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies flew by and punk rock broke, Ronnie came
26:39
Speaker 1: to expect those monthly alimony checks from Phil, the ones
26:42
Speaker 1: that were always stamped with the words.
26:45
Speaker 2: Fuck you on the back.
26:47
Speaker 1: Juvenile. Yes, but she'd take it over the way he
26:50
Speaker 1: used to pay her twelve hundred dollars delivered entirely in
26:53
Speaker 1: nickels by a couple of heavies carrying shotguns.
26:56
Speaker 2: But I digress.
27:01
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy nine, five years after his split with
27:05
Speaker 1: Ronnie was made official, Phil Spector needed.
27:07
Speaker 2: A new target.
27:09
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for them, it became the Ramones, and like I said,
27:13
Speaker 1: Punk may have broken, but Phil was doing his best
27:16
Speaker 1: part to break punk by remaking the band and his image. Obviously,
27:21
Speaker 1: the Ramones were aligned with the lineage of girl groups
27:24
Speaker 1: like the Ronettes, but it was as though Phil was
27:26
Speaker 1: stuck in the past and hell bent on dragging the boys.
27:29
Speaker 2: Back there with him.
27:31
Speaker 1: That said, the resulting album, End of the Century is
27:35
Speaker 1: pretty fucking awesome, even if it's not a true Ramones
27:37
Speaker 1: album in the sense that Phil brought in other drummers
27:40
Speaker 1: and guitar players for some songs, as well as a keyboardist.
27:43
Speaker 2: And a saxophonist.
27:45
Speaker 1: It took them three weeks to make the album. Joey
27:48
Speaker 1: said it was interminable, with the exception of his minor
27:52
Speaker 1: involvement on Yoko Ono's album Season of Glass in the
27:55
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, not to mention a failed attempt at working
27:58
Speaker 1: with Celine Dion in the nine two tracks for a
28:01
Speaker 1: Star Sailor album in the two thousands. The Ramones record
28:05
Speaker 1: was the last full album of new material Phil Spector
28:09
Speaker 1: ever produced. For decades, he was largely absent from the
28:13
Speaker 1: musical landscape. He was a relic in an industry that
28:16
Speaker 1: was constantly moving forward. He became a fetish of so
28:20
Speaker 1: called audio purists, synonymous with that back to Mono slogan
28:24
Speaker 1: which campaigned for a heyday that had been lost just
28:27
Speaker 1: as quickly as it had been defined. But to show
28:30
Speaker 1: him that he mattered, at least as an important notch
28:33
Speaker 1: on the timeline of twentieth century popular music, that same
28:37
Speaker 1: industry inducted Phil Spector into the Rock and Roll Hall
28:40
Speaker 1: of Fame in nineteen eighty nine.
28:43
Speaker 2: It was recognition.
28:44
Speaker 1: It was a plaque on a wall somewhere in Ohio,
28:48
Speaker 1: but it wasn't eternal. It wasn't White Christmas. And that's
28:53
Speaker 1: what Phil Spector had always wanted to be remembered for eternity.
28:58
Speaker 2: And so he went in.
29:00
Speaker 1: He got what he wanted, but he had to do
29:02
Speaker 1: something else in order to get it, because to truly
29:06
Speaker 1: grasp an eternity, to hold it in his hands, he
29:09
Speaker 1: had to also take infamy along with it, which is
29:13
Speaker 1: what he did. And when it long last, he seized
29:16
Speaker 1: eternity and infamy, he did it with a gun. Hey guys,
29:36
Speaker 1: Earlier in this episode I mentioned an incident in which
29:38
Speaker 1: Phil Spector shot his gun into the ceiling while making
29:41
Speaker 1: a record.
29:42
Speaker 2: Was John Lennon.
29:43
Speaker 1: The whole story around Phil and John's relationship is much
29:46
Speaker 1: crazier than that little nugget there, I believe it or not,
29:48
Speaker 1: and we simply didn't have time to get into it
29:51
Speaker 1: in this episode.
29:52
Speaker 2: No problem.
29:52
Speaker 1: That's why we have many episodes and you can hear
29:55
Speaker 1: that story about the wild Shenanigans of Phil Spector and
29:57
Speaker 1: John Lennon, which is full of debauchery and brazen theft
30:02
Speaker 1: and near death. You can hear all about it in
30:04
Speaker 1: a brand new mini episode, Like I said, of Disgraceland,
30:06
Speaker 1: available right now. Our mini episodes are created exclusively for
30:10
Speaker 1: our All Access members. So to hear this mini episode
30:13
Speaker 1: and hear every mini episode each week, just go to
30:16
Speaker 1: disgracelandpod dot com to sign up.
30:18
Speaker 2: All right now, back.
30:19
Speaker 1: To this story about Phil Spector in the wee hours
30:24
Speaker 1: of February three, two thousand and three, at the age
30:27
Speaker 1: of sixty three years old, Phil Spector still thought of
30:30
Speaker 1: himself as a rebel, just like the one in That
30:33
Speaker 1: Blossom Crystal's song. Only this time his rebellion wasn't taking
30:39
Speaker 1: place inside a recording studio as it had four decades earlier.
30:43
Speaker 1: This time he was rocking that rebel attitude by going
30:46
Speaker 1: in the wrong door at the House of Blues on
30:48
Speaker 1: Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. This was the door you
30:52
Speaker 1: went through if you were somebody. You had to be
30:55
Speaker 1: worthy to go through that door. Phil Spector wasn't on
30:58
Speaker 1: the House of Blues VIP list that night, but that
31:01
Speaker 1: didn't matter to him. He was a VIP in the
31:03
Speaker 1: larger cultural sense, at least in his own mind. At first,
31:08
Speaker 1: the club's staff told him he wasn't allowed in the room,
31:11
Speaker 1: but then one of the waitresses did recognize him, and
31:13
Speaker 1: suddenly everyone's tune changed. Suddenly Phil was being led to
31:17
Speaker 1: a seat and poured a stiff glass of Bacardi.
31:20
Speaker 2: Who won fifty one.
31:21
Speaker 1: He could hear Judas priest rob Halford wrapping up his
31:24
Speaker 1: set in the performance room there at the venue, But
31:27
Speaker 1: all that hell bent for leather shit that wasn't for Phil. Besides,
31:32
Speaker 1: Phil was too busy making eyes at one waitress, in particular,
31:36
Speaker 1: the six foot tall blonde with piercing eyes and legs
31:39
Speaker 1: for days. Lana Clarkson was a forty year old struggling
31:44
Speaker 1: actress who had never quite reached the Hollywood dream. She'd
31:47
Speaker 1: spent her adult life chasing B movies Roger Corman productions,
31:52
Speaker 1: films with titles like Barbarian Queen. This was what she'd
31:56
Speaker 1: come to expect as her lot in life. Eyed hustles
32:00
Speaker 1: like this House of Blues gig were necessary to keep
32:03
Speaker 1: the lights on, and the work wasn't as risky as
32:05
Speaker 1: the work she'd allegedly done a decade earlier as a
32:08
Speaker 1: call girl who commanded upwards of one thousand dollars an hour. Now,
32:13
Speaker 1: maybe Lana Clarkson had heard of Phil Spector before. It's
32:16
Speaker 1: hard to know, But after Phil made repeated advances during
32:20
Speaker 1: his brief stay there at the House of Blues that night,
32:23
Speaker 1: Lana eventually accepted his invitation to go home with him
32:26
Speaker 1: to his castle on a hill some fourteen miles away
32:30
Speaker 1: in nearby Alhambra. The pair climbed into the backseat of
32:34
Speaker 1: Phil's black Mercedes limousine and his driver, Adriano Desuza, put
32:38
Speaker 1: it in drive.
32:40
Speaker 2: There was two thirty in the morning.
32:44
Speaker 1: The bright lights of Los Angeles receded in the distance,
32:47
Speaker 1: and now was all strip malls, single stories, bungalows. Now
32:51
Speaker 1: Hambro was fast asleep. A little over an hour passed,
32:55
Speaker 1: and soon Lana Clarkson could see the huge iron gates
32:59
Speaker 1: that created a physical and metaphorical barrier around Phil's otherworldly castle.
33:05
Speaker 1: Adriano pulled the limo up to the house. Phil and
33:08
Speaker 1: Lana got out, and then they walked up the eighty
33:10
Speaker 1: eight stone steps to the castle's front door. Lana didn't
33:14
Speaker 1: even think to wonder if that number eighty eight was intentional,
33:18
Speaker 1: done on purpose to match the number of keys on
33:20
Speaker 1: a piano. Was it mere coincidence, just like her presence
33:25
Speaker 1: here right now. Had this all been planned in advance,
33:29
Speaker 1: Was it in the cards cosmically speaking, or was it
33:32
Speaker 1: as completely random as it seemed like?
33:36
Speaker 2: I said.
33:37
Speaker 1: She wasn't thinking these things because her mind was racing
33:40
Speaker 1: to simply take in what she was seeing as they
33:43
Speaker 1: walked through the enormous front door and into the ornate foyer,
33:47
Speaker 1: the marble flooring, the crystal chandeliers, the white piano in
33:52
Speaker 1: the decorative suit of armor, and an ivory brocade chair.
33:57
Speaker 2: Outside.
33:58
Speaker 1: Adriano had pulled the limo around back where he was
34:01
Speaker 1: now waiting because technically he was still on the clock.
34:05
Speaker 1: The soft meditative purr of the engine was suddenly rattled
34:08
Speaker 1: by a loud crack coming from inside the castle. Adriana
34:13
Speaker 1: was startled. He threw open the driver's door and jumped
34:15
Speaker 1: from the limo just as his boss, Phil Spector, was
34:17
Speaker 1: coming out of the back door. Phil was holding a
34:20
Speaker 1: revolver in his hand. Phil stood there in the early
34:23
Speaker 1: morning darkness and the sun just beginning to push up
34:26
Speaker 1: against the cold horizon, and with a blank stare on
34:29
Speaker 1: his face. Phil Spector looked at Adriano and said, I
34:33
Speaker 1: think I killed somebody. Minutes later, Alhambra PD discovered Lana
34:41
Speaker 1: Clarkson's dead body slumped in that ivory brocade chair with
34:44
Speaker 1: a single gunshot wound to her mouth. Phil Spector would
34:48
Speaker 1: go on to claim that Lana Clarkson had drunkenly played
34:51
Speaker 1: around with the thirty eight Colt Cobra revolver that killed her,
34:54
Speaker 1: even kissing it in the moment before she accidentally shot herself,
34:59
Speaker 1: but the evidence otherwise, and after two trials and after
35:03
Speaker 1: a jury deliberated for thirty hours, Phil Spector was found
35:07
Speaker 1: guilty of second degree murder on April thirteenth, two thousand
35:10
Speaker 1: and nine. He got nineteen years to life. Eight months later,
35:18
Speaker 1: on December twenty third of that same year, Darlene Love,
35:22
Speaker 1: formerly of the Blossoms, one of the groups shepherded by
35:25
Speaker 1: a young Phil Spector, appeared as the musical guest on
35:28
Speaker 1: The Late Show with David Letterman. As was Letterman's tradition
35:32
Speaker 1: since nineteen eighty six, every December, right before the holiday,
35:36
Speaker 1: Darlene would come on the show to perform her song
35:39
Speaker 1: Christmas Baby, Please Come Home, one of the highlights from
35:42
Speaker 1: Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift for You album. This year, however,
35:47
Speaker 1: Phil Spector's name was not mentioned on the televised broadcast.
35:53
Speaker 1: This was Darlene Love's song. This was Darlene Love's moment,
35:59
Speaker 1: and for all the studio audience knew, hell for all
36:02
Speaker 1: the world new as they.
36:03
Speaker 2: Watched from home.
36:05
Speaker 1: Phil Spector had nothing to do with this. This Christmas
36:10
Speaker 1: album was once the thing that Phil Spector hoped would
36:13
Speaker 1: make him remembered for eternity. But now all Phil Spector
36:18
Speaker 1: was known for was being a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan
36:24
Speaker 1: and this is Disgraceland. All right, guys, thanks for checking
36:46
Speaker 1: out this episode of Disgraceland. This week's question of the week,
36:50
Speaker 1: I want to know from all of y'all, what are
36:52
Speaker 1: you listening to? What are your go to Christmas songs?
36:54
Speaker 1: Christmas albums.
36:55
Speaker 2: I'm hoping to hear some out there kind of unique.
37:00
Speaker 1: Sek esoteric recommendations from you guys. I want to get
37:03
Speaker 1: turned on to some Christmas music that I'm not currently
37:05
Speaker 1: aware of that I'm not listening to. We love Christmas
37:08
Speaker 1: music in the house, we got to play constantly, but
37:09
Speaker 1: I want your Christmas tune recommendations, all right, hit me
37:13
Speaker 1: up six one seven nine oh six six six three eight.
37:15
Speaker 1: You might hear your voice on the next bonus episode,
37:18
Speaker 1: the Afterparty episode of Disgrace, and you can also text.
37:20
Speaker 2: Me at that number.
37:21
Speaker 1: Hit me at disgracelampod on the socials. You guys, want
37:24
Speaker 1: exclusive content from Disgraceland, you want ad free listening, you
37:27
Speaker 1: want that mini episode. Go to disgracelampod dot com and
37:30
Speaker 1: become an all access member today.
37:32
Speaker 2: Our guys, here come some credits.
37:36
Speaker 1: Disgracelam was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
37:39
Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
37:42
Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
37:46
Speaker 1: Rate and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,
37:49
Speaker 1: and Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com,
37:53
Speaker 1: slash at disgracelampod.
37:56
Speaker 2: Rock a Roller.
38:01
Speaker 3: He's a bad, bad man.