April 13, 2009 Earworm

The jury has finally reached a verdict and Phil Spector is guilty of second degree murder. By most accounts, he was not a good man: driven by demons and haunted by a family history of mental instability, the stories of his manipulations and eccentricities compile a very strong narrative for his eventual comeuppance. Yet, there still seems to be something missing in this, the final nail in both his and Lana Clarkson's coffin. While I think that Spector is guilty of much, and in the case for which he was tried, of something, I still have reasonable doubt as to how Clarkson's final hour played out and what, exactly, Phil's part in that gunshot was. The details do not matter to the victim when the outcome is death but the difference between manslaughter and murder mean everything for the defendant although, given Phil's litigious history, his appeals may mean that he, himself, dies before he ever spends a day in prison.

His legacy, of course, will live on regardless of these events. When I received a text telling me that the jury was about to announce it's verdict, an odd bit of timing found me listening to Shivaree's beautiful cover of "Paradise", a song Phil recorded with the Ronettes in 1965 and then left to languish while the kids at Red Bird made a classic Shangri-Las track with it. Ambrosia Parsley and company create a wide open oasis on their version with only the tympani passing judgement on her fantasy.

March 10, 2008 Earworm

From 1961 through 1963**, Phil Spector's productions were tales of hearts aflutter romance and lustful angst. Midway through 1964, a melancholy mood began to descend, casting shadows on the wall of sound. The year was kicked off with The Ronettes' "(The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up" but ended with The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling". Right in the middle you could find The Crystals announcing that they were "All Grown Up", and could do and go where they wanted to go and away they went from the Philles stable, leaving The Ronettes as the last chance of teeny bop romance but instead, we got the beautifully depressed yearning of "Walking In The Rain".

By the time that "Is This What I Get For Loving You?" was released in March of 1965, Ronnie no longer sounded like a girl waiting on the stoop for her dream boy, replaced by the voice of a woman who realizes that sometimes the best part of breaking up is actually breaking up. Where she once promised "I'll make you happy baby, just wait and see...", in less than two years she's now begging, "Don't leave me baby, don't tell me it's over, after I trusted you, and did my best to make you happy...", her longing vibrato clipped and her vocal bathed in so much echo that she sounds as though she's descended into a pit. A pit filled with angry bongos, to boot.

It's a hauntingly beautiful record yet it's disheartening to think that any women just barely twenty years old could sound as weary as this, particularly at the moment when, as the record fades to silence, you can just barely hear her sing "You know I love you baby" as the needle hits the run-out groove...


**
1961:
100 There's No Other Like My Baby - The Crystals
1962:
102 Uptown - The Crystals
105 He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) - The Crystals
106 He's A Rebel - The Crystals
107 Zip-A-Dee-Doo Dah - Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans
108 Puddin N' Tain - The Alley Cats
109 He's Sure The Boy I Love - The Crystals
1963:
110 Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Heart - Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans
111 (Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry - Darlene Love
112 Da Doo Ron Ron - The Crystals
113 Not Too Young To Get Married - Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans
114 Wait 'Til My Bobby Gets Home - Darlene Love
115 Then He Kissed Me - The Crystals
116 Be My Baby - The Ronettes
117 A Fine Fine Boy - Darlene Love
118 Baby, I Love You - The Ronettes
119 Little Boy - The Crystals
1964:
120 (The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up - The Ronettes
121 Do I Love You - The Ronettes
122 All Grown Up - The Crystals
123 Walking In The Rain - The Ronettes
124 You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - The Righteous Brothers
125 Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love
1965:
126 Born To Be Together - The Ronettes
127 Just Once In My Life - The Righteous Brothers
128 Is This What I Get For Loving You - The Ronettes
129 Unchained Melody / Hung On You - The Righteous Brothers
130 Ebb Tide - The Righteous Brothers
1966:
131 River Deep-Mountain High - Ike and Tina Turner
132 White Cliffs of Dover - The Righteous Brothers
133 I Can Hear Music - The Ronettes (produced by Bob Crewe)
134 Two To Tango - Ike and Tina Turner (produced by Bob Crewe)
135 I'll Never Need More Than This - Ike and Tina Turner
136 A Love Like Yours - Ike and Tina Turner

February 14, 2008 Earworm

From the skip in the heart drumbeat - an icon in its right - to the spine shivers of the castanets, "Be My Baby" is undoubtedly the candy heart of popular music. Little more than a string of promises not easily lived up to, delivered with an eager innocence that belies Ronnie Spector's reputation as teen lust incarnate, that merely hints at what may come after three kisses. Quivering with the anticipation of that first touch, the electricity of that first kiss, "Be My Baby" perfectly captures the moment when love walks in and anxiously begins to tap its foot while waiting for lust to show up.

The mournful, string laden bridge is the only hint of reality, a reminder that the hunter has yet to capture the game, but it is quickly kicked back into romantic form by a tiny, high heel clad angel, and her posse of starry eyed vixens.

You'd be a fool not to believe.

This is dedicated to the one I love. The one who, when asked, "What's the perfect Valentine's Day song", replied without hesitation, "'Be My Baby'".

Indeed.