Phil Spector was definitely weird, as well as being a criminal, but he brought us some great sounds: the "Wall of Sound", the "Girl Groups" of the early 1960s and even some Righteous Brothers songs:
Very sad, both his death and the circumstances that put him in prison. In his book, Hal Blaine alluded to Spector's mental decline back in the late 1970's, partly because he refused to adapt as the times, technologies, and tastes changed. But he definitely cemented his legend for his role during that golden era.
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Musical ruminations and "associations" - Mrs. Z and I were listening to The Association's "Everything That Touches You" this past weekend, and we both commented that the lyrics weren't easy to pick up because the verses were much more complex than just "Baby, baby, baby". Started reading some of their history and how one of their studio musicians came from a band I wasn't familiar with called The Music Machine.
So I looked the Music Machine up (their sound reminded me of the Count Five), and one of their hits was called "Talk Talk". Wait a sec, that sounded familiar. I played it, and said, "Hey, that's a cover of Alice Cooper trying to do New Wave - and THEN I started reading about Alice and his high school cross-country team ........
Beatles, meet Michael Jackson.
Rockin' that Rick Astley pompadour.