Spector was a brilliant record producer, perhaps the best ever. His influence is immeasurable. He was also a spectacular failure as a human being -- and that was before he murdered Lana Clarkson.
For me personally, Spector indirectly inspired me to start writing about music. I had thoughts about comparing his productions with the dense, layered guitar music I loved in the 90's. I picked up a pen (literally, there were no blogs at the time) and the rest is history.
Rather than size up his complicated legacy (which I've already looked at in other posts over the years), I think I'll shine a light upon CNN's horrible excuse for an obit.
Starting with the headline: "Grammy-winning producer and convicted murderer Phil Spector dies." His Grammy win was inconsequential to his career, Phil Spector was not famous for winning Grammys. It's a small footnote in any proper bio.
"Spector, who was originally from Bronx, New York, produced recordings by stars including The Beatles, Ike and Tina Turner, Cher and the Ramones". When George Martin died in 2016, did the obits read "he produced records by Elton John, Neil Sedaka, and Gerry and the Pacemakers"?
"Creator of a production style that became known as the "Wall of Sound," the influential producer formed the Teddy Bears and recorded the group's only hit, "To Know Him is to Love Him," while he was still in high school." These are two unrelated factoids linked in the same sentence, not to mention that the implied timeline is reversed.
"Spector's approach to record production -- the layering of instrumental tracks and percussion that underpinned a string of hits on his Philles label -- was a major influence on popular music in the 1960s." This is easily the most benign and meaningless description of the Wall of Sound ever written. There is nothing of substance in this obit, not even the slightest attempt to produce an informative piece of writing, it is clickbait, content for the sake of having content, and nothing more.
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