Remembering the wall of sound

[dino]

Spector jury says it's deadlocked


LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The jury in the murder trial of legendary music producer Phil Spector has "reached an impasse" after more than a week of deliberations, the trial judge said Tuesday.
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Phil Spector, 67, is charged with second-degree murder in the 2003 killing of an actress.

The nine-man, three-woman jury delivered a note to court officials early Tuesday afternoon, warning they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict in Spector's case.

The panel's foreman later told Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler that jurors were split 7-5 after four ballots, but did not indicate which way they were leaning.

Fidler quizzed jurors as to what might break the deadlock and denied a defense request for an immediate mistrial in the case.

But he said he would consider whether to repeat jury instructions, allow jurors to hear a read-back of testimony or let them consider a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.

"At this time, I don't believe that anything else will change the positions of the jurors based on the facts that are in evidence," the foreman told the judge.
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Court proceedings will resume Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. ET).

The jury began deliberating September 10 after hearing testimony and arguments since April.

Spector, 67, is charged with second-degree murder in the 2003 killing of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson.

The onetime star of "Barbarian Queen" and the spoof "Amazon Women on the Moon" was found dead in Spector's Alhambra home -- dubbed "the castle" -- from a single gunshot wound through the roof of the mouth.

Spector's lawyers argue that Clarkson, then working as a VIP hostess at Hollywood's House of Blues, was depressed over a recent breakup, grabbed the .38-caliber pistol and took her own life.

A small amount of blood spattered on Spector's white jacket proves his innocence, they said.

But prosecution witnesses painted Spector as a gun-toting menace, with five women telling harrowing tales on the witness stand of the music producer threatening them with firearms.

Spector's driver testified he heard a loud noise and saw the producer leave the castle holding a revolver, saying, "I think I killed somebody."

The defense attacked the driver's command of the English language, asserting the Brazilian constantly mixes up pronouns and meant to say something else.

But under intense cross-examination, he never strayed from the gist of his original call to a 911 emergency operator.

Spector has won two Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, but he stayed out of the public eye for two decades before his 2003 arrest.

In the 1960s, he became famous as the man behind the "Wall of Sound" -- the instrumentally dense swirl of melody and percussion underlying tunes like The Ronettes' "Be My Baby," the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" and Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High."

He later produced the Beatles' "Let it Be" album, John Lennon's "Imagine" and the Ramones' "End of the

[david]

If you're going to kill somebody, L.A.'s clearly the place to do it . . .

[dino]

i see that OJ is back home too

[Some king]

Ha!

Jurors in the Phil Spector trial have been unable to reach a verdict, the jury foreman said today in court.

The 12-member panel is deadlocked at 7 to 5, but it is not known which side has the majority vote.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler asked the foreman if there was anything he could do to help, but foreman said "At this time I don't believe that anything else will change the positions of the jurors,"

When the jurors were asked individually the same question, some said that nothing else would change their position, some said further instructions might help, and one said further information about reasonable doubt might help.

The panel were then sent back to the jury room to talk to lawyers.

After the deadlock was discussed, Spector's defense team asked for a mistrial but it was denied because three of the jury said further instructions might help the impasse.

Spector, a famed music producer, is accused of shooting actress Lana Clarkson in the mouth in February 2003 at his Alhambra, CA mansion. His lawyers are saying she shot herself in an accidental suicide.

It is believed he shares a keen interest in producing the next Oasis record to revive his struggling career.

--By our New York staff.
Find out more about NME.

www.nme.com/news/phil-spector/31210

[cripes]

I guess that the jurors decided not to go for the Cripes 'fuck you for wasting my time' guilty verdict.

It was smart of Harv's lawyers not to try for an accidental homicide (which we all know it was) verdict.

Lonesome cowboy Phil.

[dino]

I believe that the Bros are the only ones who can kick harvey ass out of a studio when he start to get mad as usual

[manho]

yeah, when i saw that, "either murder or not guilty", choice the jury were given i thought, what the fuck?

but it looks like the judge has the power to downgrade it now to manslaughter. what sentence does that carry? is there a lawyer on the island?

[cripes]

says here:

If Spector is convicted of second degree murder, he faces 15 years to life in prison. If convicted of involuntary manslaughter he would face between two to four years behind bars, according to prosecutors.

[Some king]

Where's Teddy fucking Ballgame when we need him?

[manho]

Phil Spector breaks his silence before second trial for murder

Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
Sunday February 17, 2008
Observer

Phil Spector, the American music producer who faces a second murder trial later this year, is about to break his media silence to talk on British television about the case against him and about his extraordinary career.

In his first screen interview, the recluse, who is charged with having shot a nightclub hostess dead in his Hollywood home five years ago this month, will pledge to clear his name when he is retried this autumn. He will speak, too, about the musical instincts that led him to create some of the most enduring hit records of all time, from 'You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin' to 'River Deep, Mountain High' and The Beatles album Let it Be

The programme - Phil Spector: The Agony and The Ecstasy - has been made by the BBC2 arts programme Arena and is due to be broadcast in mid-April. The programme-makers argue that Spector, who has made a huge impact on modern culture, should be considered innocent until proved guilty and that anyone charged with a serious crime deserves a fair public hearing.

The director, Vikram Jayanti, said: 'An interview with Spector has been the Holy Grail for arts documentary makers for many years and I think he agreed to speak to us because he felt that we were inspired by a sense of empathy, though not of sympathy. We intend no disrespect to the dead woman. The whole thing was clearly tragic.'

In the film, the 67-year-old inventor of the Wall of Sound in 1960s Los Angeles, suggests he faced public prejudice when he stood in front of a judge during an inconclusive first trial last year. 'On the jury selection questionnaire, 45 per cent of the jury pool said I was guilty based on pre-trial publicity and 20 per cent said I was insane,' Spector tells Jayanti.

In September last year, a mistrial was declared when the jurors were unable to reach a verdict. Spector was then released on £500,000 bail while the Los Angeles district attorney, who had brought the case against him, sought a retrial. If Spector is found guilty of second-degree murder this year, he may spend the rest of his life in prison.

The murder case arose from the death of Lana Clarkson, a 40-year-old actress and waitress, who was killed by a single gunshot to the mouth and found slumped in the entrance hall of Spector's 30-room mansion.

Spector's chauffeur, Adriano de Souza, claimed he had heard a gunshot ring out and then saw Spector emerge from the front door with a gun, saying: 'I think I killed somebody.'

During last year's trial, Spector's legal team attempted to discredit the driver's memory and emphasised the forensic evidence, claiming that the blood on Spector's white jacket proved he could not have been close to the victim at the time of the fatal shot.

Prosecution witnesses argued that Spector was often violent when he had been drinking. In the Arena film, the music producer will talk candidly about the part anger has played in his creative life. 'It is the anger and the rage that make you do better,' he says.

Spector goes on to suggest that the talents of the great black jazz musicians Count Basie and Duke Ellington were spurred on by their angry resistance to discrimination. 'They said, "You have got to treat me with respect, because you have always pissed on me",' he says .

The former 'tycoon of teen' also talks about the envy he felt from other musicians, including the Beach Boys, who tried to replicate his unique arrangements. 'I wish I had a nickel for every joint Brian Wilson smoked trying to work out how to get my "Be My Baby" sound,' he jokes.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

[cripes]

'I wish I had a nickel for every joint Brian Wilson smoked trying to work out how to get my "Be My Baby" sound,' he jokes.


Har har har Harve....I laughed so hard I almost accidently shot myself in the mouth.

[manho]

there's a filmed interview with spector on the bbc programme arena tonight. you can check out excerpts from it in three or four newspaper articles posted over at expecting rain. funny stuff.

[owen]

excellent programme. he told a nice story about lennon calling him down to his house to show him "mean streets" and telling him that they were ripping off his song. phil wanted to pull the plug on "scesey's" movie but was told it would do nothing....

[cripes]

Phil Spector rants about his relationship with The Beatles ahead of his murder retrial
By Mark Jefferies 25/10/2008

Hands trembling and eyes watering like a broken main, bonkers record producer Phil Spector lashes out left, right and centre in a bizarre interview.
He is a man with much to say – and a hell of a lot on his mind.
Spector – a legend in the music industry for creating the so-called “wall of sound” – is awaiting retrial in America for the killing of nightclub hostess Lana Clarkson.
Last year a jury failed to reach a decision and a new one has just been selected in LA.
Spector is on a million dollar-bail and could be banged up for life – but that doesn’t seem to be troubling him too much today.
Instead, he seems more concerned with settling old musical scores. Sir Paul McCartney, for one, is unlikely to be high up on his Christmas card list.
Spector was brought to London in 1970 by the Beatles’ manager Allen Klein and was given the task of turning abandoned Get Back sessions into the Let It Be album.
But while he had the backing of John Lennon and George Harrison, McCartney was in two minds – and Spector is scathing about one of Macca’s most famous ballads.
“The Long and Winding Road was a terrible recording when I first heard it,” he says.
“John was playing bass on it with all the wrong notes. There was no snare drum on it – I had to get Ringo in to play.
“It was really awful.”
Tell us what you really feel Phil.
He went on: “Paul was singing like he didn’t believe it, he was kinda mocking it. And John didn’t like the song. That’s why he played bass on it, and he didn’t know the chord changes so he was guessing.
“It was a farce and I had to do everything I could to cover up the mistakes.”
Warming up, Spector says producing the album was the recording job from hell.
“I worked with strangers in a hostile environment, hostile press, hostile people, all Beatle lovers who thought I was taking their Beatles away,” he says. “It was not an enviable task.”
“But I wanted Let It Be to be a great farewell album. I knew they were breaking up, I knew there wouldn’t be a reunion – the public didn’t.
“I was there to make a commercial album because I wanted to sell 12 million albums.
“And the public ended up buying it because I was Mr Commerciality. I wondered how I was going to put it together but I knew I could and I knew there was an album there.
“I don’t think McCartney is very secure that I went there in a few months and did what they couldn’t do in two years with those tapes.
“John was thrilled with what I did and George was thrilled with what I did, and Paul said he loved The Long and Winding Road when it was done.”

But in 2003, Macca brought out Let It Be... Naked which stripped the songs of Spector’s input – and this seems to have stung the producer big time.
He says: “I don’t know, what else could it be, except that it is a bug up his a**e? He waited 35 years to do it, I don’t know why, I don’t care why.
“Whatever the grievance, he has got me mixed up with somebody that gives a s**t.”
His hands shaking, Spector clearly does care – and the man who gave the world classic tunes like Be My Baby and You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ believes he is given far less respect than he deserves.
“I don’t get depressed cos I don’t let myself get depressed,” he says.
“It is a wasted emotion. But I’m concerned with the fact that I haven’t been made a doctorate at a college and Bill Cosby has, even Bob Dylan has.
“I think I have offered more to American culture and music than they have, or as much. George Martin, Paul McCartney are made sirs, Buddy Holly had a stamp, I love him, but he only lived three years in rock’n’roll.”
In the documentary, made by Oscar-winning director Vikram Jayanti, Spector reckons his influence extends way beyond music, and makes the bizarre claim that Hollywood legends Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro owe him their careers.

He says that Scorsese used Be My Baby without his permission in one of his earliest films, Mean Streets.
“I had never heard of this Scorsese guy and I called my attorney to get it pulled and he said it was a school project and an unknown director and to just let it go,” says Spector.
“So they told me not to get an injunction because everyone’s career is at stake – so I said they could work it out later. Fast forward to later and Scorsese is giving me the rights to other films and I am in Godfather and Taxi Driver.
“But the bottom line is that day I held Scorsese and De Niro’s career in my hand.”
As for the upcoming retrial for the death of Lana Clarkson, Spector insists people are out to get him.
He describes the judge of the first trial as a “mean son of a bitch” and admits: “I have been ostracised from the industry with this indictment hanging over me. Innocent until proven guilty is no longer a factor.”
The weird Afro-style hairdo which he sported during the trial may have done him few favours – but Spector insists it was (almost) deliberate.
He says: “It took me four-and-a-half hours to get it like that, I woke up at four o’clock in the morning and had to perm it and do everything to it. It was a tribute to Einstein and Beethoven.
“Jay Leno said it looked like I had already been electrocuted. But I didn’t mean to be that comical. We went beyond the extreme and no one pointed it out to me.”
When he is asked how he will cope if he does get sent down for murder, he mumbles: “I’ll be in a jail with Bubba, 6ft 8 Bubba and he’ll be my husband.”
Whatever you say Phil.

www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/latest/2008/10/25/phil-spector-rants-about-his-relationship-with-the-beatles-ahead-of-his-murder-retrial-115875-20836885/

[Cat Stevens]

"But the bottom line is that day I held Scorsese and De Niro’s career in my hand."

ha, ha!

have fun with 6ft 8 Bubba, mr. Spector.

[manho]

he's right about let it be, though. it was a pile of unfinished shite and he turned it into a passably good album.

however bonkers he is we must always remember he's a musical genius.

[dino]

But I’m concerned with the fact that I haven’t been made a doctorate at a college and Bill Cosby has, even Bob Dylan has

and he is right about this too

[zilla]

Yeah Let It Be sounds better than Let It Be Naked does...I also don't envy him having to try to make something out of The Long And Winding Shit...I'd say most of his Beatles comments sound pretty sane to me. The Einstein quote shows he has a sense of humor too.

[digit]

harvey, meet bubba, bubba meet harvey

Phil Spector convicted of murder

US music producer Phil Spector has been convicted of murdering actress Lana Clarkson at his home in 2003.

The 68-year-old, famous for the "Wall of Sound" recording technique, faces between 15 years and life in prison.

He had pleaded not guilty to the second degree murder of 40-year-old Ms Clarkson, who was shot in the mouth at Spector's home in Los Angeles.

The trial, at the city's Superior Court, lasted five months and saw 77 witnesses take the stand.

Second degree murder falls between first degree murder, which requires proof of pre-meditation, and manslaughter.

Actress Clarkson, 40, had been working as a hostess at the House of Blues venue in Los Angeles, and went home with Spector on the night of her death.

After appearing in cult 1980s films such as Barbarian Queen and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, her acting career had hit the rocks.

Spector had arrived at the club with waitress Kathy Sullivan, before setting his sights on Ms Clarkson.

Spector's Brazilian chauffeur, Adriano De Souza, said his boss appeared to be intoxicated and that Ms Clarkson was initially reluctant to go home with the music producer.

She was found dead in the foyer of his house in the early hours of the morning.

A holster that matched the snub-nosed Cold Cobra revolver that Spector used to kill her was found in a drawer in the foyer.

Mr De Souza called the emergency services, saying: "I think my boss killed somebody", after Spector emerged from his home with a gun.

He told jurors Spector had said: "I think I killed somebody."

The producer was taken into custody about 40 minutes after the shooting and had to be subdued by officers using a stun gun.

The trial also heard from a number of women who said Spector had threatened them with guns in the past.

Defence lawyers had argued that Ms Clarkson's death was a suicide.

Spector himself decided not to give evidence.

The two sides in the trial closed their cases on 7 September.

The prosecution, speaking last, offered a dramatic animated video purporting to recreate the shooting, showing Spector within inches of Ms Clarkson's mouth.

Prolific career

"These are not evidence," prosecutor Pat Dixon said of the animations. "They are our view of what happened."

Spector's lawyer closed her case by asking jurors not to become "vigilantes", appealing to them not to judge the star on his eccentric appearance, or by stories of women who dated him.

The jury began their deliberations on 11 September, but returned to court after a week to say they were split over the verdict.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler ruled they would not be allowed to consider a lesser charge of manslaughter after hearing arguments from lawyers on both sides of the case.

Spector worked with some of the biggest names in the pop and rock business, including The Beatles and Ike and Tina Turner.

He produced hits including You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by the Righteous Brothers and the Ronettes' Be My Baby.

[cripes]