ANGELS– The late music producer Phil Spector was considered a man with two personalities. On the one hand, the rock ‘n’ roll genius who raised the genre with his “wall of sound” in the 1960s and created hits for artists such as the Beatles and Tina Turner. On the other hand, the aggressive guy who brandished weapons against artists and ended up being sentenced to prison for murder.
Spector died Saturday of natural causes at a hospital, California state prison officials said. He was 81 years old. He had been convicted of killing actress Lana Clarkson in 2003 at her mansion in front of Los Angeles, and after a 2009 trial was sentenced to 19 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
His death generated conflicting reactions about his life and legacy. Some acknowledged his early contributions to rock, while others found it difficult to forgive his volatile past.
Al Jardine of the Beach Boys said it would be nice “to remember him only for his songs and production talents.” He said the song “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes, co-written and produced by Spector, inspired his friend and colleagues, Brian Wilson.
Bruce Springsteen’s Stevie Van Zandt of E Spring Band called Spector “a genius with a hopeless confrontation.”
“It was the best example that art will always be better than the artist,” Zandt said on Twitter. He added that Spector “made some of the best recordings ever made on the basis of saving love, while he could not give or receive love all his life.”
In turn, the host of “The Price is Right”, Drew Carey, chose Spector, whom he called “a murderer and an abusive maniac”.
“I wish I had received the psychological help he so desperately needed, but no,” the comedian said on social media. “Instead of just firing guns at people out of anger or amusement, he killed one of them. He had a good ear for music, I admit that. “
Spector’s ex-wife, Ronnie Spector, remembered Sunday as “a brilliant producer, but a terrible husband.” She was the lead singer of the Ronettes.
“Unfortunately, Phil was unable to live and operate outside the recording studio,” he wrote on Instagram. “The darkness has been planted, many lives have been affected. I still smile when I listen to the music we made together and I will always make it. The music will be forever.”
But Darlene Love, who performed hits from Spector such as “He’s a Rebel” and “He Sure the Boy I Love,” took a different approach. Despite her troubled relationship with the producer, she felt sad when she learned of his death when she told him about her son.
“It was sad for what Spector did, the wonderful music he created and spent almost 20 years of his life in prison,” said Love, who acknowledged that Spector tried to “control” his talent. during his career. She said that Spector sometimes had a dangerous temperament, but that she was trying to remember the positive.
“I hope people remember not only why he spent those years in prison, but more or less what he did for rock ‘n’ roll,” he added. “It changed the rock ‘n’ roll sound. That made me sad.”
Clarkson, known for “Barbarian Queen” and other B-movies, was found shot dead in the lobby of Spector’s mansion outside Los Angeles.
Until the actress’ death, which Spector said was an “accidental suicide,” few residents knew the blame lay with the angry producer, who spent his last years in a prison hospital east of Stockton.
Spector was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. But over time, the artists stopped working with him and he didn’t change much in style.
“It destroyed itself in the most horrible way,” said David Thompson, author of “Wall of Pain: The Biography of Phil Spector,” published in 2004. “But we have to separate the two sides. There are a lot of people who are revered until we find out they have done something terrible. That erases all their achievements. I do not agree with this. “
Thompson said Spector’s biography was one of the most difficult to write because he wanted to focus exclusively on music, but while working on the book he learned about Spector’s beliefs.
“It was difficult to balance,” he said. “I wanted to write about music, just what it did, what it created and what it gave us, but I had to balance it with the terrible things it did.”