He's A Rebel: Phil Spector (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
I like all things biographical so I read this along with Tearing Down the Wall of Sound to get a better glimpse of Phil Spector, the person who absolutely exploited everybody he could to make himself a music mogul during his prime. The fact that he was mental, misogynistic, and abusive until he ultimately killed a woman while in a megalomaniacal stupor, is confounding to say the least. Why so many men and women tolerated his left of center behavior for so long and passively allowed him to get away with it until someone was left dead in his wake, is disconcerting indeed and says little about the social imperative we have as human beings to be accountable to each other in every sense of the word, regardless of the industry we're in. Very little to admire about the man he ultimately became. Good book that gives good insight into a man and the music industry of his time.
This book's split down the middle - 50/50: interesting vs boring. Let's face it, everyone buys it to hear about Spector's production. How he did it, what he used, the groups he worked with, all of that. Sadly Ribowsky splits this focus with too much insight into Spector's relationships. Knowing about his father's suicide when Spector was a child, or his mother's and sister's resulting mental problems are certainly interesting, but don't need as much attention as they're given here. If it doesn't tie into his idea of bouncing echoes around channels, we really don't need to hear too much about it. The book also suffers from Spector's own reluctance to participate in it. Not surprising, given the subject, but it also gives all the people who feel shorted/cheated by him to air their grievances without a rebuttal.
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