WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.399 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:04.740 looking at a stack of sources that, if you just 00:00:04.740 --> 00:00:06.839 glanced at the headlines, would look like a total 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:09.080 scattershot collection. You really would. We've 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:13.880 got Wikipedia entries on a seminal 1960s girl 00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:16.800 group, a breakdown of a legendary session band, 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:19.460 the forensic details of the final Beatles album, 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:22.239 and then a review of a David Mamet film from 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:24.980 2013. I mean, it does look like a random assortment 00:00:24.980 --> 00:00:26.460 when you lay them all out on the table like this. 00:00:26.500 --> 00:00:27.839 You have the Ronettes, you have the Wrecking 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:30.460 Crew, you have... The let it be disaster. And 00:00:30.460 --> 00:00:32.640 a murder trial in a castle. And a murder trial 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:34.939 in a castle. Exactly. But the mission today is 00:00:34.939 --> 00:00:37.659 to pull the thread that runs through all of this. 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:41.359 Because there is a single, very distinct, very 00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:44.320 dark thread connecting the beehive hairdos of 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:48.320 1963 to the forensic evidence of 2003. And that 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:50.520 thread is Phil Spector. That's the guy. He's 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:52.439 the connective tissue. He is the central figure 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:54.700 in all of these stories. Without a doubt. So 00:00:54.700 --> 00:00:57.039 we're going to explore the wall of sound. And 00:00:57.039 --> 00:00:59.299 I don't just mean it was loud. We need to get 00:00:59.299 --> 00:01:01.079 into the physics of what he actually did. We're 00:01:01.079 --> 00:01:03.880 going to talk about the brilliant, often anonymous 00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:06.599 musicians who actually played the notes that 00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:09.120 made him famous. We're going to look at his collision 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:11.140 course with the biggest band in the world, the 00:01:11.140 --> 00:01:13.840 Beatles. And then, well, we have to go to the 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:16.719 dark. Final act. It really is a trajectory, isn't 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:20.599 it? It goes from pop perfection to total disintegration 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:23.689 and then finally to crime. And looking at the 00:01:23.689 --> 00:01:26.170 sources, Spector's characterized as this figure 00:01:26.170 --> 00:01:30.670 of immense contradiction. Attraction and repulsion. 00:01:30.890 --> 00:01:33.409 Exactly. He created what he called little symphonies 00:01:33.409 --> 00:01:36.269 for the kids, these massive emotional records 00:01:36.269 --> 00:01:39.150 that really defined a generation. But the sources 00:01:39.150 --> 00:01:41.670 also paint a picture of a man capable of what 00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:44.129 they call hostile lethargy, intense manipulation, 00:01:44.250 --> 00:01:47.939 and eventually... It's the contrast between the 00:01:47.939 --> 00:01:50.040 joy of discovery in the music and the absolute 00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:52.640 chaos of his personal life. It's almost a cliche 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:55.180 of the torture genius. But in this case, the 00:01:55.180 --> 00:01:57.459 torture was, you know, often inflicted on others. 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:00.859 So let's unpack this. We have to start at the 00:02:00.859 --> 00:02:02.579 beginning of the sound. We have to talk about 00:02:02.579 --> 00:02:05.140 the Ronettes. The Ronettes are fascinating because 00:02:05.140 --> 00:02:08.180 before they were the icons with the eyeliner 00:02:08.180 --> 00:02:10.800 and the attitude, they were essentially a family 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:13.780 act. You have Veronica Bennett. who we all know 00:02:13.780 --> 00:02:17.199 as Ronnie Spector, her sister Estelle, and their 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:19.439 cousin Nedra Talley. The Darling Sisters, right? 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:21.319 That was one of their original names? That was 00:02:21.319 --> 00:02:23.280 one of them, yes. They grew up in Washington 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:25.879 Heights, Manhattan. And the sources describe 00:02:25.879 --> 00:02:29.159 this really wholesome, almost storybook beginning. 00:02:29.900 --> 00:02:31.780 They were singing at their grandmother's house 00:02:31.780 --> 00:02:34.139 on Saturday nights just to entertain each other. 00:02:34.259 --> 00:02:36.319 This wasn't a polished industry plant. This was 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:39.370 family. It sounds so innocent, especially considering 00:02:39.370 --> 00:02:41.729 where the story goes. But they weren't just singing 00:02:41.729 --> 00:02:44.090 hymns. They were looking at acts like Frankie 00:02:44.090 --> 00:02:46.189 Lyman and the Teenagers and thinking, we can 00:02:46.189 --> 00:02:49.090 do that. Oh, absolutely. But here is the aha 00:02:49.090 --> 00:02:52.330 moment for me in their origin story. Yeah. Usually 00:02:52.330 --> 00:02:54.050 in these biographies, you hear about a record 00:02:54.050 --> 00:02:57.590 executive discovering a group in a church choir 00:02:57.590 --> 00:03:00.430 or, you know, a talent show. Sure. The usual 00:03:00.430 --> 00:03:03.210 story. With the Ronettes, it was basically a 00:03:03.210 --> 00:03:05.930 heist. It was a case of mistaken identity at 00:03:05.930 --> 00:03:08.030 the Peppermint Lounge. I love this detail. This 00:03:08.030 --> 00:03:11.330 is 1961, the height of the twist craze. The Peppermint 00:03:11.330 --> 00:03:13.449 Lounge is the place to be. It's the epicenter 00:03:13.449 --> 00:03:18.289 of cool. And the girls, Ronnie, Estelle, and 00:03:18.289 --> 00:03:21.530 Nedra, they are desperate to get in. But they're 00:03:21.530 --> 00:03:24.349 underage. So they decide to disguise themselves. 00:03:24.650 --> 00:03:26.449 And this isn't just putting on a hat. Right. 00:03:26.530 --> 00:03:28.389 The sources say their mothers and grandmothers 00:03:28.389 --> 00:03:30.729 actually helped them stuff their bras, put on 00:03:30.729 --> 00:03:32.889 heavy makeup, and tease their hair up to look 00:03:32.889 --> 00:03:35.430 like they were at least 23 years old. Wait, wait. 00:03:35.509 --> 00:03:38.349 The grandmothers were in on it. It was a family 00:03:38.349 --> 00:03:40.530 conspiracy. They wanted those girls on that stage. 00:03:40.810 --> 00:03:42.840 And it worked a little too well. They arrive 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:45.319 outside the club dressed to the nines and the 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:48.159 manager mistakes them for the house dancers who 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:50.599 were supposed to back up Joey D and the star 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:53.340 leaders. He basically ushers them in past the 00:03:53.340 --> 00:03:55.580 velvet rope and just throws them on stage. No 00:03:55.580 --> 00:03:57.520 way. So they went there to dance and they ended 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:00.020 up performing. That is the definition of fake 00:04:00.020 --> 00:04:02.599 it till you make it. They absolutely ended up 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:05.659 performing. And during the show, one of the star 00:04:05.659 --> 00:04:09.159 leaders hands the mic to Ronnie during Ray Charles's. 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:12.840 What I say. Now, Ronnie was a shy girl offstage, 00:04:12.919 --> 00:04:16.120 but once she had that mic, she just belted it 00:04:16.120 --> 00:04:18.959 out. Wow. And that accidental night led to a 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:21.660 permanent gig. They became the dancing girls 00:04:21.660 --> 00:04:24.060 at the Peppermint Lounge, making $10 a night. 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:26.319 Which was decent money for a teenager in 1961. 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:29.379 But more importantly, this is where they developed 00:04:29.379 --> 00:04:32.319 the look. The look was crucial. We were talking 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:34.839 about the exaggerated eye makeup, the Cleopatra 00:04:34.839 --> 00:04:38.279 eyes. And as the source describes it, enormous 00:04:38.279 --> 00:04:40.879 hairdos piled a foot or so over our heads. A 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:43.220 foot high. That's structural engineering, not 00:04:43.220 --> 00:04:45.519 just styling. It was a uniform. It was an identity. 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:48.199 Ronnie later said, we didn't want to look like 00:04:48.199 --> 00:04:49.980 everyone else. We want to look like bad girls. 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:52.540 They were creating a visual identity that was 00:04:52.540 --> 00:04:55.000 just as loud and aggressive as the rock and roll 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:57.050 they wanted to sing. Okay, so they have the look, 00:04:57.129 --> 00:04:58.850 they have the gig, but they're still just dancers. 00:04:59.170 --> 00:05:02.069 For a while, yeah. Eventually, they get tired 00:05:02.069 --> 00:05:04.550 of just being dancers or recording for Colpix 00:05:04.550 --> 00:05:08.490 Records without much success. So in early 1963, 00:05:08.990 --> 00:05:11.769 Estelle makes a cold call to Phil Spector. And 00:05:11.769 --> 00:05:14.029 this is where the central figure enters the story. 00:05:14.810 --> 00:05:16.949 Spector was already a hotshot producer at this 00:05:16.949 --> 00:05:19.329 point, right? He's the man. He's the boy genius. 00:05:19.569 --> 00:05:21.629 Yeah. He'd have massive hits with the Crystals. 00:05:21.689 --> 00:05:24.050 He agrees to audition them. And the story goes 00:05:24.050 --> 00:05:27.170 that they start singing. Why do fools fall in 00:05:27.170 --> 00:05:30.529 love? And Spector literally jumps up from his 00:05:30.529 --> 00:05:32.910 seat shouting, that's it, that's it, that's the 00:05:32.910 --> 00:05:35.329 voice I've been looking for. He heard the texture 00:05:35.329 --> 00:05:38.129 in Ronnie's voice, that specific vibrato, that 00:05:38.129 --> 00:05:41.290 sort of crackle. He did. But here is where we 00:05:41.290 --> 00:05:43.589 see the first signs, the control dynamics that 00:05:43.589 --> 00:05:46.389 would define Spector's entire life. He originally 00:05:46.389 --> 00:05:48.449 wanted to sign only Ronnie. He wanted to break 00:05:48.449 --> 00:05:50.689 up the group immediately, just strip the sisters 00:05:50.689 --> 00:05:53.470 and the cousin away. Instantly. He saw Ronnie 00:05:53.470 --> 00:05:56.470 as the star and the others as baggage. But Ronnie's 00:05:56.470 --> 00:05:58.589 mother put a foot down. She said it's a group 00:05:58.589 --> 00:06:01.029 package or nothing. Good for her. So Spector 00:06:01.029 --> 00:06:03.490 agreed, but the manipulation started almost immediately. 00:06:03.930 --> 00:06:06.089 The sources mentioned that their first few recordings 00:06:06.089 --> 00:06:08.529 with him, tracks like The Twist and The Wawa 00:06:08.529 --> 00:06:11.209 Tusi, were actually released under the name The 00:06:11.209 --> 00:06:13.930 Crystals. That is so deceptive. So the Renettes 00:06:13.930 --> 00:06:17.319 sang them. They did the work, but... The Crystals 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:20.180 got the credit on the label. Exactly. Spector 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:21.860 was just juggling these groups and he owned the 00:06:21.860 --> 00:06:24.500 names. He treated the artists like interchangeable 00:06:24.500 --> 00:06:26.740 parts in his machine. It kept them insecure. 00:06:27.079 --> 00:06:28.860 It kept them wondering where they stood. But 00:06:28.860 --> 00:06:33.759 then came July 1963. The big one. Be My Baby. 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:36.819 This is the breakthrough. This is where the wall 00:06:36.819 --> 00:06:39.860 of sound truly cements itself. And there's a 00:06:39.860 --> 00:06:42.199 fascinating detail in the production notes for 00:06:42.199 --> 00:06:44.439 this song regarding the backup vocals. Oh, yeah. 00:06:44.579 --> 00:06:46.920 When they were recording, a young woman named 00:06:46.920 --> 00:06:49.899 Cher, who was then just the shy girlfriend of 00:06:49.899 --> 00:06:53.000 Sonny Bono, who was Spector's gopher, was hanging 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:55.560 around the studio. Cher, as in the Cher before 00:06:55.560 --> 00:06:58.060 she was famous. The very same. A backup singer 00:06:58.060 --> 00:07:00.459 was a no -show, so they grabbed Cher. She was 00:07:00.459 --> 00:07:02.579 terrified, apparently. It was her first time 00:07:02.579 --> 00:07:04.959 ever singing on a record. No way. So she's buried 00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:06.860 in the background of Be My Baby, just another 00:07:06.860 --> 00:07:09.639 brick in the wall. That is wild. You have Ronnie, 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:11.639 Spector, and Cher on the same track in 1963. 00:07:12.019 --> 00:07:14.750 But let's talk about that wall. Because... Be 00:07:14.750 --> 00:07:17.410 My Baby is the definitive example. People use 00:07:17.410 --> 00:07:19.569 the term wall of sound all the time, but the 00:07:19.569 --> 00:07:22.269 sources break down how he actually did it. It 00:07:22.269 --> 00:07:25.069 wasn't just turning the volume knob to 11. No, 00:07:25.110 --> 00:07:27.709 it was a very specific architectural process. 00:07:27.990 --> 00:07:30.310 It all happened at Gold Star Studios in L .A. 00:07:31.410 --> 00:07:33.709 First, you have to understand the room. It was 00:07:33.709 --> 00:07:37.129 small. And Spectre would jam a massive amount 00:07:37.129 --> 00:07:39.790 of musicians into it. We're talking three pianos, 00:07:39.810 --> 00:07:42.629 five guitars, two basses, all playing at the 00:07:42.629 --> 00:07:45.279 same time. So instead of one guitar player, he 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:47.620 has an army of them playing the same chord. Exactly. 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:50.079 It creates this huge, dense sound. Yeah. And 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:52.439 he relied on something that modern producers 00:07:52.439 --> 00:07:56.579 try to avoid at all costs. Lickage. Explain that 00:07:56.579 --> 00:07:59.560 for us. In modern recording, you isolate everything. 00:07:59.740 --> 00:08:01.939 The drums are in a booth. The singer's in a booth. 00:08:02.100 --> 00:08:04.620 You want clean separation between every instrument. 00:08:04.939 --> 00:08:07.550 Spector did the absolute opposite. He wanted 00:08:07.550 --> 00:08:09.970 the sound of the guitars to bleed into the drum 00:08:09.970 --> 00:08:12.350 microphones. He wanted the pianos to bleed into 00:08:12.350 --> 00:08:15.470 the bass mics. It created this thick, muddy, 00:08:15.649 --> 00:08:18.350 cohesive texture where you couldn't really tell 00:08:18.350 --> 00:08:20.670 where one instrument ended and another began. 00:08:20.990 --> 00:08:22.970 It becomes a single organism of sound. Right. 00:08:23.129 --> 00:08:26.550 And then the secret sauce, the echo chambers. 00:08:26.790 --> 00:08:29.870 Gold Star had these small, concrete, trapezoidal 00:08:29.870 --> 00:08:32.389 rooms in the back. Spectre would pump that muddy 00:08:32.389 --> 00:08:34.509 sound from the studio into these concrete bunkers, 00:08:34.549 --> 00:08:37.309 let it bounce around, and then record that reverberation. 00:08:37.350 --> 00:08:40.090 That's what gives Be My Baby that cavernous, 00:08:40.090 --> 00:08:42.429 almost apocalyptic sound. And he insisted on 00:08:42.429 --> 00:08:44.889 mono, right? Even when stereo was becoming a 00:08:44.889 --> 00:08:47.490 thing. He hated stereo. He said stereo was for 00:08:47.490 --> 00:08:49.629 people who wanted to hear the separation. He 00:08:49.629 --> 00:08:51.509 wanted to control exactly what you heard from 00:08:51.509 --> 00:08:54.669 one speaker. He called it a keyhole. He looks 00:08:54.669 --> 00:08:56.470 at the keyhole and you see exactly what he wants 00:08:56.470 --> 00:08:59.740 you to see. If you have two speakers... The listener 00:08:59.740 --> 00:09:02.480 has some control over the balance. Spectre wanted 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:05.399 total control. There's that word again. Control. 00:09:05.860 --> 00:09:08.000 He controlled the mix. He controlled the release. 00:09:08.299 --> 00:09:11.820 And Be My Baby was a smash. Number two on Billboard. 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:15.580 It influenced everyone. Brian Wilson of the Beach 00:09:15.580 --> 00:09:17.480 Boys was so obsessed with it that he apparently 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:20.100 listened to it thousands of times. He wrote Don't 00:09:20.100 --> 00:09:23.159 Worry Baby as a direct homage to it. It was the 00:09:23.159 --> 00:09:26.049 absolute peak of the wall of sound. But as we 00:09:26.049 --> 00:09:28.649 know, the partnership didn't stay strictly professional, 00:09:29.049 --> 00:09:31.889 and the control moved from the mixing board to 00:09:31.889 --> 00:09:34.950 the living room. It did. As the Ronettes' popularity 00:09:34.950 --> 00:09:38.929 started to wane around 1965, partly because the 00:09:38.929 --> 00:09:42.509 Supremes and the Motown sound were rising. Spector's 00:09:42.509 --> 00:09:44.970 control over Ronnie just tightened. They married 00:09:44.970 --> 00:09:47.990 in 1968, but by then he was allegedly refusing 00:09:47.990 --> 00:09:50.399 to release their finished songs. This is the 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:52.519 part that drives me crazy. Why would he bury 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:55.039 his own artists? Why record a hit and then just 00:09:55.039 --> 00:09:58.100 shelve it? The theory, and what Ronnie later 00:09:58.100 --> 00:10:00.159 claimed in her book, was that he was terrified 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:02.940 they would outshine him. He held back songs like 00:10:02.940 --> 00:10:05.539 Chapel of Love, which then became a massive number 00:10:05.539 --> 00:10:07.820 one hit for the Dixie Cups instead. That has 00:10:07.820 --> 00:10:10.440 to be devastating for an artist. To see your 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:12.820 song, your vocal, become a hit for someone else 00:10:12.820 --> 00:10:14.919 because your producer, your husband, won't release 00:10:14.919 --> 00:10:17.779 it. It creates a sense of utter hopelessness. 00:10:18.220 --> 00:10:21.039 And it got so much worse. The group split in 00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:24.460 1967. And the sources describe Ronnie's life 00:10:24.460 --> 00:10:27.179 in their 23 -room mansion as being that of a 00:10:27.179 --> 00:10:29.220 virtual prisoner. I've read about the shoes. 00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:31.480 Yes. The sources mentioned he would hide her 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:34.159 shoes so she couldn't leave the house. He installed 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:36.620 intercoms in every single room so he could monitor 00:10:36.620 --> 00:10:39.200 her. He had a glass coffin in the basement. A 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:42.299 coffin? A gold glass -lidded coffin. And he told 00:10:42.299 --> 00:10:44.220 her he'd put her in it if she ever tried to leave 00:10:44.220 --> 00:10:46.299 him. It's like a horror movie. A gothic horror 00:10:46.299 --> 00:10:49.710 story. She eventually had to flee in 1972. She 00:10:49.710 --> 00:10:52.470 literally ran away barefoot with her mother's 00:10:52.470 --> 00:10:55.450 help to escape him. So you see this pattern. 00:10:55.850 --> 00:10:58.190 He discovers the talent, he captures the sound, 00:10:58.289 --> 00:11:00.090 and then he tries to capture the person. And 00:11:00.090 --> 00:11:01.929 while he was capturing that sound, he wasn't 00:11:01.929 --> 00:11:04.389 doing it alone. We talk about the wall of sound 00:11:04.389 --> 00:11:06.850 as if Spector built it brick by brick with his 00:11:06.850 --> 00:11:09.309 own hands, but he had a construction crew. Yeah. 00:11:09.389 --> 00:11:12.289 A very specific, very elite group of people. 00:11:12.409 --> 00:11:14.909 He absolutely did. And that brings us to section 00:11:14.909 --> 00:11:17.710 two of our deep dive. The Wrecking Crew. This 00:11:17.710 --> 00:11:19.909 is a group that I feel like the general public 00:11:19.909 --> 00:11:22.190 is only just starting to appreciate maybe in 00:11:22.190 --> 00:11:23.870 the last decade or so, thanks to the documentary. 00:11:24.210 --> 00:11:27.029 But these guys, they were everywhere. They were 00:11:27.029 --> 00:11:31.149 the engine room of 1960s pop. The Wrecking Crew 00:11:31.149 --> 00:11:33.629 was a loose collective of Los Angeles session 00:11:33.629 --> 00:11:36.669 musicians who played on almost every major hit 00:11:36.669 --> 00:11:40.980 from roughly 1962 to 1972. When you say loose 00:11:40.980 --> 00:11:42.799 collective, what does that mean? Were they a 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:45.399 band? Did they have like a union card that said 00:11:45.399 --> 00:11:47.279 a wrecking crew? They were all union musicians, 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:49.279 but they weren't a band in the sense that they 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:51.519 toured together or had a logo. They were the 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:53.840 first call players. And to understand why they 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:55.740 were the first call, you have to understand the 00:11:55.740 --> 00:11:58.940 economics of studio time in 1962. Time is money. 00:11:59.299 --> 00:12:02.580 Exactly. Tape was expensive. Studio rental was 00:12:02.580 --> 00:12:05.259 astronomical. If you hired a garage band or a 00:12:05.259 --> 00:12:07.820 young pop act, they might take 50 takes to get 00:12:07.820 --> 00:12:09.710 the rhythm right. They might get nervous. They 00:12:09.710 --> 00:12:12.690 might drift out of tune. Hal Blaine, the drummer 00:12:12.690 --> 00:12:15.090 for the Wrecking Crew, could nail it in one take. 00:12:15.289 --> 00:12:18.129 So they were insurance policies. Precisely. They 00:12:18.129 --> 00:12:20.649 were the difference between a $500 session and 00:12:20.649 --> 00:12:24.070 a $5 ,000 disaster. You hired them because they 00:12:24.070 --> 00:12:26.629 were surgical. But where did the name come from? 00:12:26.870 --> 00:12:30.649 The Wrecking Crew. It sounds aggressive. A little 00:12:30.649 --> 00:12:33.289 dangerous. That is actually a point of major 00:12:33.289 --> 00:12:35.529 contention in the sources. It's a bit of a he 00:12:35.529 --> 00:12:38.720 said, she said. Hal Blaine, the drummer. claims 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:41.659 he coined the name. He said the old guard of 00:12:41.659 --> 00:12:44.539 session musicians, the guys in the blue blazers 00:12:44.539 --> 00:12:47.639 who played on Sinatra Records, felt that this 00:12:47.639 --> 00:12:49.899 new generation playing rock and roll in t -shirts 00:12:49.899 --> 00:12:53.220 was wrecking the music business. So they embraced 00:12:53.220 --> 00:12:56.500 the insult? Kind of punk rock. According to Blaine, 00:12:56.500 --> 00:13:00.580 yes. But Carol Kay... the bassist and we absolutely 00:13:00.580 --> 00:13:02.840 need to talk about her she disputes this entirely 00:13:02.840 --> 00:13:04.700 she claims they were never called that at the 00:13:04.700 --> 00:13:06.700 time she says they were called the clique the 00:13:06.700 --> 00:13:08.820 clique sounds a lot more exclusive but i gotta 00:13:08.820 --> 00:13:10.860 say the wrecking crew definitely has better marketing 00:13:10.860 --> 00:13:13.080 it has more grit for sure and these musicians 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:15.700 had grit you look at the roster how blaine is 00:13:15.700 --> 00:13:17.820 reputed to have played on 40 number one hits 00:13:17.820 --> 00:13:21.690 40 40 number ones. That is statistically insane. 00:13:21.850 --> 00:13:23.950 That's more than the Beatles and Elvis combined. 00:13:24.289 --> 00:13:27.870 And 140 top 10 hits. The famous drum beat on 00:13:27.870 --> 00:13:31.009 Be My Baby, that boom, boom, boom. That's Hal 00:13:31.009 --> 00:13:33.190 Blaine. Of course it is. Then you have Carol 00:13:33.190 --> 00:13:35.809 Kay. She started as a jazz guitarist and switched 00:13:35.809 --> 00:13:38.210 to bass. She was one of the only women in this 00:13:38.210 --> 00:13:41.629 heavily male -dominated industry. And she didn't 00:13:41.629 --> 00:13:44.049 just survive. She dominated. She played on The 00:13:44.049 --> 00:13:46.559 Beat Goes On, right? That bass line is the song. 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:49.240 That iconic sliding bass line. That's her. She 00:13:49.240 --> 00:13:51.720 also played on La Bamba, Good Vibrations. Yeah. 00:13:51.820 --> 00:13:53.980 She invented bass lines that were hooks in themselves. 00:13:54.460 --> 00:13:56.539 Wow. And you had Glen Campbell. Before he was 00:13:56.539 --> 00:13:58.940 the rhinestone cowboy country star, he was a 00:13:58.940 --> 00:14:01.220 session guitarist for the crew. He played all 00:14:01.220 --> 00:14:03.299 over the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. I think people 00:14:03.299 --> 00:14:06.120 forget that Glen Campbell was a guitar virtuoso 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:09.379 before he was a singer. A monster player. He 00:14:09.379 --> 00:14:12.580 was a workhorse. And Leon Russell was there on 00:14:12.580 --> 00:14:15.950 keyboards. Before his own solo career took off. 00:14:16.090 --> 00:14:18.629 These were just immensely talented people who 00:14:18.629 --> 00:14:21.470 could read music on site. I mean, literally look 00:14:21.470 --> 00:14:22.909 at a sheet of paper they've never seen before 00:14:22.909 --> 00:14:25.690 and play it perfectly and also improvise instantly. 00:14:26.029 --> 00:14:28.549 And this leads to what the outline calls the 00:14:28.549 --> 00:14:32.509 ghost players aspect. This is the secret part 00:14:32.509 --> 00:14:34.610 of the industry that the labels didn't want the 00:14:34.610 --> 00:14:37.470 kids at home to know about. This is the scandal. 00:14:38.210 --> 00:14:40.649 Because the public bought records thinking they 00:14:40.649 --> 00:14:42.990 were listening to a specific band, but often 00:14:42.990 --> 00:14:44.809 they were actually listening to the wrecking 00:14:44.809 --> 00:14:46.889 crew. Give us the biggest example, the one that 00:14:46.889 --> 00:14:49.950 still shocks people. The Byrds. Mr. Tambourine 00:14:49.950 --> 00:14:53.370 Man. Iconic number one folk rock song. Sure. 00:14:53.809 --> 00:14:56.149 I can picture the band on the album cover with 00:14:56.149 --> 00:14:58.129 their Rick and Becker guitars. Well, keep picturing 00:14:58.129 --> 00:14:59.669 the cover because that's just about the only 00:14:59.669 --> 00:15:02.409 place they were. The only member of the Byrds 00:15:02.409 --> 00:15:05.070 playing an instrument on that track was Roger 00:15:05.070 --> 00:15:08.129 McGuinn. on his 12 string guitar you're kidding 00:15:08.129 --> 00:15:10.389 me the rest of the band the producer didn't think 00:15:10.389 --> 00:15:13.269 they were seasoned enough so the drums the bass 00:15:13.269 --> 00:15:15.789 the rhythm guitars that was the wrecking crew 00:15:15.789 --> 00:15:18.710 so the band is the face but the wrecking crew 00:15:18.710 --> 00:15:21.309 is the muscle precisely the same thing happened 00:15:21.309 --> 00:15:23.950 with the beach boys the band played on their 00:15:23.950 --> 00:15:26.919 early surf hits for sure But when Brian Wilson 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:29.919 moved into his complex Pet Sounds and Smile era, 00:15:30.039 --> 00:15:32.620 he needed an orchestra. He brought in the Wrecking 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:34.740 Crew. They were the ones who could execute those 00:15:34.740 --> 00:15:37.659 complex symphonies he heard in his head. So the 00:15:37.659 --> 00:15:39.899 other Beach Boys, the touring band, basically 00:15:39.899 --> 00:15:42.779 had to learn how to play the songs later to perform 00:15:42.779 --> 00:15:45.919 them live. Exactly. And the Monkees. Oh, that 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:48.000 was the famous one. The Monkees were the poster 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.879 children for this. The crew played on their first 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:54.440 two albums almost entirely. It wasn't until later 00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:56.679 that the band actually revolted. They fought 00:15:56.679 --> 00:15:58.659 for the right to play their own instruments on 00:15:58.659 --> 00:16:01.860 their own records. It was a huge battle for authenticity. 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:04.519 So how does this connect back to Spector? He 00:16:04.519 --> 00:16:07.340 was the ultimate auteur. He used the crew as 00:16:07.340 --> 00:16:10.240 his palette. Remember, he didn't want individuals. 00:16:10.419 --> 00:16:13.559 He didn't want a star guitar player with a flashy 00:16:13.559 --> 00:16:17.470 solo. He wanted a sound. The ranking crew were 00:16:17.470 --> 00:16:19.370 professionals who could check their ego at the 00:16:19.370 --> 00:16:22.549 door, sit in a room for 12 hours, and play the 00:16:22.549 --> 00:16:25.610 same three chords over and over and over until 00:16:25.610 --> 00:16:27.590 Spector got his leakage right. They were the 00:16:27.590 --> 00:16:31.330 perfect tool for a control freak. Reliable, talented, 00:16:31.570 --> 00:16:34.710 and most importantly, anonymous. Exactly. And 00:16:34.710 --> 00:16:36.730 for a long, long time, the architect got all 00:16:36.730 --> 00:16:38.769 the credit. Okay, so we have the architect of 00:16:38.769 --> 00:16:41.269 sound, and we have his elite construction crew. 00:16:41.610 --> 00:16:44.320 Now we move to section three. The Collision Course. 00:16:45.159 --> 00:16:47.259 Spectre meets the only band that was bigger than 00:16:47.259 --> 00:16:49.779 him, the Beatles. This is one of the most controversial, 00:16:49.899 --> 00:16:52.120 most debated chapters in all of music history. 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:54.759 The Let It Be album. Right. And context here 00:16:54.759 --> 00:16:58.960 is key. It's January 1969. The Beatles are, for 00:16:58.960 --> 00:17:01.600 lack of a better word, imploding. Imploding is 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:03.919 absolutely the right word. The project was originally 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:06.079 called Get Back. The whole idea was to return 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:09.119 to their roots. Live performance. No overdubs. 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:11.519 No orchestras. Just a four -piece rock and roll 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:13.670 band playing together in a room. Which sounds 00:17:13.670 --> 00:17:16.049 great in theory, a palate cleanser after the 00:17:16.049 --> 00:17:18.049 complexity and the tension of the White Album. 00:17:18.150 --> 00:17:22.049 In theory. In reality, the sources describe hostile 00:17:22.049 --> 00:17:25.470 lethargy at Twickenham Studios. You have cameras 00:17:25.470 --> 00:17:27.730 rolling constantly for a documentary, which stressed 00:17:27.730 --> 00:17:30.670 everyone out. You have George Harrison briefly 00:17:30.670 --> 00:17:33.109 quitting the band because he felt his songs were 00:17:33.109 --> 00:17:35.789 being ignored. He felt disrespected. Totally. 00:17:36.339 --> 00:17:39.819 You have John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who are inseparable. 00:17:40.119 --> 00:17:42.579 And sources note their heroin addiction was taking 00:17:42.579 --> 00:17:45.579 a toll on their engagement and creativity. And 00:17:45.579 --> 00:17:47.680 then you have Paul McCartney trying to be the 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:50.019 cheerleader, keeping it all moving, but being 00:17:50.019 --> 00:17:52.180 seen as bossy and controlling by the others. 00:17:52.299 --> 00:17:54.500 It's just a miserable atmosphere. And this all 00:17:54.500 --> 00:17:57.140 culminates in the famous rooftop concert. Right. 00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:00.200 January 30th, 1969, their final public performance. 00:18:00.619 --> 00:18:02.440 They played a few songs up on the roof of the 00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:04.480 Apple building. The police came and shut it down. 00:18:04.579 --> 00:18:07.079 And that was it. The get -back sessions were 00:18:07.079 --> 00:18:10.059 over. But they had all these tapes. Just hours 00:18:10.059 --> 00:18:12.720 and hours of recording. And nobody knew what 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:15.200 to do with them. They were a mess. They handed 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:17.740 them to their engineer, Glenn Johns. He compiled 00:18:17.740 --> 00:18:20.819 multiple versions of the album, trying to honor 00:18:20.819 --> 00:18:23.500 that original live concept. So he kept it raw. 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:27.180 Very raw and very rough. He included studio chatter. 00:18:27.640 --> 00:18:30.059 False starts. He wanted it to sound like a fly 00:18:30.059 --> 00:18:31.779 -on -the -wall documentary of a band at work. 00:18:31.900 --> 00:18:33.859 Which totally matches the get -back concept. 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:36.619 It did. But the Beatles rejected his versions. 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:39.440 Multiple times. They just couldn't agree on anything. 00:18:39.779 --> 00:18:42.240 So the tapes just sat on a shelf. The band moved 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:44.700 on, recorded the masterpiece that is Abbey Road, 00:18:44.859 --> 00:18:46.940 released it, and for all intents and purposes, 00:18:47.079 --> 00:18:49.490 broke up. So the Let It Be tapes are just gathering 00:18:49.490 --> 00:18:52.009 dust. It's the great lost album. And then in 00:18:52.009 --> 00:18:55.390 1970, Alan Klein, their new manager, and John 00:18:55.390 --> 00:18:58.609 Lennon invite Phil Spector to save the project. 00:18:59.099 --> 00:19:01.259 They basically handed the wall sound guy the 00:19:01.259 --> 00:19:04.359 tapes from the Strict Back Roots project. I mean, 00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:06.579 it was a philosophical mismatch from day one. 00:19:06.700 --> 00:19:08.940 So Spector gets the tapes. What does he actually 00:19:08.940 --> 00:19:10.839 do? Because people talk about him ruining it, 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:12.880 but what were the specific changes he made? He 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:14.900 treated the Beatles like they were the Ronettes 00:19:14.900 --> 00:19:17.940 or the Crystals. He took Across the Universe, 00:19:18.220 --> 00:19:20.539 which was a delicate, almost psychedelic acoustic 00:19:20.539 --> 00:19:23.180 track, and he slowed it down to make it sound 00:19:23.180 --> 00:19:26.960 more mournful and added a choir. He added snippets 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:29.359 of studio chatter like Bigot and Maggie Mae to 00:19:29.359 --> 00:19:31.940 give it this weird, fragmented narrative flow. 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:35.960 But the big controversy, the nuclear option, 00:19:36.180 --> 00:19:39.359 was The Long and Winding Road. This is the famous 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:42.259 dispute, the core of the issue. McCartney wrote 00:19:42.259 --> 00:19:44.779 The Long and Winding Road as a simple, sparse 00:19:44.779 --> 00:19:47.700 piano ballad. He wanted it to be really intimate. 00:19:48.059 --> 00:19:49.819 Spector listened to it and decided it wasn't 00:19:49.819 --> 00:19:52.900 epic enough. So without asking Paul, He hired 00:19:52.900 --> 00:19:55.700 an orchestra. A full orchestra? A 50 -piece orchestra 00:19:55.700 --> 00:19:58.640 with strings, brass, and a 14 -woman choir. He 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:01.359 added harps. He layered this massive, schmaltzy 00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:04.220 Hollywood production over Paul's simple piano 00:20:04.220 --> 00:20:06.960 vocal. And Paul was not happy. Paul was furious. 00:20:07.079 --> 00:20:09.400 He was absolutely livid. He felt Spector had 00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:12.019 vandalized the song, ruined its integrity. He 00:20:12.019 --> 00:20:13.059 didn't even know what was happening until he 00:20:13.059 --> 00:20:15.079 received the finished Assipate. He tried to get 00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:17.099 it changed, but the album was already being pressed. 00:20:17.420 --> 00:20:19.579 But let's play devil's advocate for Spector here. 00:20:19.660 --> 00:20:22.049 I mean... We bashed him for overproducing, and 00:20:22.049 --> 00:20:24.430 Paul hated it. But didn't Lennon and Harrison 00:20:24.430 --> 00:20:26.970 have a point? Those tapes were a mess. They were. 00:20:27.130 --> 00:20:29.670 Without Spector gluing them together with those 00:20:29.670 --> 00:20:33.049 orchestras and choirs, would Let It Be have even 00:20:33.049 --> 00:20:35.650 been releasable? That is the counterargument, 00:20:35.730 --> 00:20:38.569 and it's a very strong one. Lennon defended it 00:20:38.569 --> 00:20:40.950 vigorously for the rest of his life. He said 00:20:40.950 --> 00:20:43.190 Spector was given the shittiest load of badly 00:20:43.190 --> 00:20:45.970 recorded shit. Those are his words. And he made 00:20:45.970 --> 00:20:47.750 something commercial and listenable out of it. 00:20:48.039 --> 00:20:50.299 And frankly, he was right commercially. The album 00:20:50.299 --> 00:20:52.660 topped the charts. The single was a number one 00:20:52.660 --> 00:20:55.599 hit. So McCartney sees vandalism, Lennon sees 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:58.799 salvage. Exactly. And George Martin, their longtime 00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:01.920 producer, he felt completely sidelined and insulted. 00:21:02.180 --> 00:21:04.480 His reaction is legendary. He said the album 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:07.160 credits should read, produced by George Martin, 00:21:07.339 --> 00:21:10.859 overproduced by Phil Spector. Ouch. That is the 00:21:10.859 --> 00:21:12.660 polite British way of saying this is garbage. 00:21:12.920 --> 00:21:15.240 The critics pretty much agreed. The NME called 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:18.759 the album a cardboard tombstone. Rolling Stone 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:21.680 criticized the embellishments. But the grievance 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:25.380 lasted for decades. In 2003, McCartney finally 00:21:25.380 --> 00:21:29.140 spearheaded Let It Be Naked. Right. This was 00:21:29.140 --> 00:21:32.059 a remix project that stripped away all of Spector's 00:21:32.059 --> 00:21:35.099 overdubs. He finally got the last word. He did. 00:21:35.140 --> 00:21:38.240 It totally validated his original vision. But 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:40.559 it also just highlights how divisive Spector's 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:42.619 influence was. You could take a Beatles album 00:21:42.619 --> 00:21:44.259 and make it sound like a Phil Spector album. 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:46.079 It really speaks to the power of the producer. 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:49.339 Spector wasn't just capturing the sound. He was 00:21:49.339 --> 00:21:52.200 imposing his will on it, just like he imposed 00:21:52.200 --> 00:21:54.700 his will on the Ronettes. The parallel is striking, 00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:56.900 isn't it? Whether it was his wife or the biggest 00:21:56.900 --> 00:21:59.000 band in the world, Spector had to be the dominant 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:02.079 force. So the 60s end, the Beatles break up, 00:22:02.180 --> 00:22:04.880 the wrecking crew starts to fade away. Let's 00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:07.500 talk about the aftermath in Section 4, the legal 00:22:07.500 --> 00:22:10.059 battles and the financial realities, because 00:22:10.059 --> 00:22:12.240 the glamour wears off pretty quickly when you 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:13.900 look at the bank accounts. This is the really 00:22:13.900 --> 00:22:17.289 sobering part of the story. In 1988, the Ronettes 00:22:17.289 --> 00:22:20.049 finally sued Phil Spector. They were seeking 00:22:20.049 --> 00:22:23.769 $10 million in unpaid royalties and licensing 00:22:23.769 --> 00:22:27.630 income. 1988, that's 25 years after Be My Baby. 00:22:27.730 --> 00:22:30.569 That is a long time to wait for a paycheck. And 00:22:30.569 --> 00:22:32.369 the statistic that came out during the trial 00:22:32.369 --> 00:22:35.819 was just, it was shocking. Despite having these 00:22:35.819 --> 00:22:39.240 chart -topping world -famous songs, despite being 00:22:39.240 --> 00:22:42.180 icons whose look inspired Amy Winehouse and whose 00:22:42.180 --> 00:22:44.839 sound inspired Springsteen, the Ronettes had 00:22:44.839 --> 00:22:47.880 earned less than $15 ,000 in royalties. Wait, 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:51.059 hold on. Say that again. $15 ,000 total. $15 00:22:51.059 --> 00:22:54.759 ,000. Over decades. That is criminal. How is 00:22:54.759 --> 00:22:56.460 that even possible with hits that are played 00:22:56.460 --> 00:22:58.980 on the radio every single day in movies and commercials? 00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:01.839 It comes down to the contract. And this is a 00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:03.980 warning to every young musician out there. The 00:23:03.980 --> 00:23:05.700 court actually found their plight sympathetic. 00:23:06.339 --> 00:23:08.200 The judge acknowledged that the women had been 00:23:08.200 --> 00:23:10.940 shortchanged, that it was unfair, but legally. 00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:14.339 The judge ruled that the 1963 contract they signed 00:23:14.339 --> 00:23:16.880 as teenagers gave Spector unconditional rights 00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:18.980 to the master recordings. So the piece of paper 00:23:18.980 --> 00:23:21.720 won. The contract held. They got some back pay 00:23:21.720 --> 00:23:24.220 for other things, but the core injustice of the 00:23:24.220 --> 00:23:26.579 royalties was upheld because they signed that 00:23:26.579 --> 00:23:28.920 deal when they were essentially kids desperate 00:23:28.920 --> 00:23:31.339 for a break. That is just a harsh, harsh lesson 00:23:31.339 --> 00:23:34.140 in the music business. Talent doesn't equal leverage. 00:23:34.500 --> 00:23:36.539 What about the Wrecking Crew? Did they fare any 00:23:36.539 --> 00:23:38.980 better? Their decline wasn't legal. It was technological 00:23:38.980 --> 00:23:42.319 and cultural. In the 70s, the whole vibe changed. 00:23:42.940 --> 00:23:45.440 Bands like Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd or the 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:47.859 Eagles. They wanted to play their own instruments. 00:23:48.059 --> 00:23:49.859 You didn't want a ghost player anymore. You wanted 00:23:49.859 --> 00:23:53.380 authenticity. The band became the unit, not the 00:23:53.380 --> 00:23:55.680 producer. And recording technology changed too, 00:23:55.799 --> 00:23:58.259 right? We talked about Spectre jamming everyone 00:23:58.259 --> 00:24:01.009 in a room to get that live feel. Right. With 00:24:01.009 --> 00:24:03.950 the advent of 8 -track and 16 -track and eventually 00:24:03.950 --> 00:24:07.029 24 -track recorders, the whole philosophy of 00:24:07.029 --> 00:24:09.509 recording changed. You didn't need 20 people 00:24:09.509 --> 00:24:11.450 in a room praying for a perfect take anymore. 00:24:11.650 --> 00:24:14.309 You could record the drums on Monday, the bass 00:24:14.309 --> 00:24:17.049 on Tuesday, and the strings next week. You could 00:24:17.049 --> 00:24:19.710 isolate mistakes and fix them. So perfection 00:24:19.710 --> 00:24:21.910 stopped being a collective act and became an 00:24:21.910 --> 00:24:25.390 editing process. Exactly. And that made the Wrecking 00:24:25.390 --> 00:24:28.670 Crew's specific magic, that live, tightrope walk 00:24:28.670 --> 00:24:32.180 performance, kind of obsolete. Plus, just plain 00:24:32.180 --> 00:24:35.059 burnout played a factor. Bill Pittman, one of 00:24:35.059 --> 00:24:37.400 the guitarists, described the 15 -hour days. 00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:40.480 Moving from studio to studio, eating vending 00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:43.220 machine food day after day, it was exhausting. 00:24:43.380 --> 00:24:45.720 They burned the candle at both ends for a solid 00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:48.519 decade. So the golden era fades. The Renettes 00:24:48.519 --> 00:24:50.559 are fighting for pennies, the wrecking crew is 00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:54.460 disbanding, and Phil Spector, he becomes a recluse. 00:24:54.720 --> 00:24:57.559 He retreats into his mansion. The eccentricities 00:24:57.559 --> 00:25:00.440 that were once seen as genius quirks, you know, 00:25:00.440 --> 00:25:02.920 the guns in the studio, the wigs, the erratic 00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:05.740 behavior, they start to look much, much darker 00:25:05.740 --> 00:25:07.799 without the hits to justify them. Right. When 00:25:07.799 --> 00:25:09.900 you're making number ones, people tolerate the 00:25:09.900 --> 00:25:11.960 madness. When you aren't, you're just mad. That's 00:25:11.960 --> 00:25:13.839 a perfect way to put it. And that leads us to 00:25:13.839 --> 00:25:16.539 the final tragic act, section five, the murder. 00:25:16.740 --> 00:25:18.359 And I want to be careful here because we are 00:25:18.359 --> 00:25:20.680 dealing with a real victim, Lana Clarkson. Of 00:25:20.680 --> 00:25:24.130 course. February 3rd, 2003. Lana Clarkson, an 00:25:24.130 --> 00:25:26.029 actress, is found dead in Spector's mansion, 00:25:26.269 --> 00:25:28.089 the Pyrenees Castle in Alhambra, California. 00:25:28.490 --> 00:25:31.609 She was shot in the mouth. And Spector's defense 00:25:31.609 --> 00:25:35.269 was unusual, to say the least. He claimed it 00:25:35.269 --> 00:25:37.950 was an accidental suicide. His phrase was that 00:25:37.950 --> 00:25:40.430 she kissed the gun. Which is a horrifying phrase. 00:25:40.470 --> 00:25:42.430 And honestly, it sounds like something a screenwriter 00:25:42.430 --> 00:25:45.230 would invent. It took two trials. The first one 00:25:45.230 --> 00:25:48.589 ended in a mistrial, a deadlock jury. But in 00:25:48.589 --> 00:25:51.900 the second trial in 2009. he was convicted of 00:25:51.900 --> 00:25:53.920 second -degree murder. But we're not just looking 00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:55.740 at the trial today. We're looking at how this 00:25:55.740 --> 00:25:58.900 was portrayed in the media, specifically the 00:25:58.900 --> 00:26:02.759 2013 HBO film written and directed by David Mamet, 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:05.079 because this film is a fascinating case study 00:26:05.079 --> 00:26:09.000 in how we mythologize genius. This film... simply 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:11.420 titled Phil Spector, starring Al Pacino and Helen 00:26:11.420 --> 00:26:14.299 Mirren, is a very, very controversial piece of 00:26:14.299 --> 00:26:16.359 the puzzle. It opens with a disclaimer that is 00:26:16.359 --> 00:26:19.160 incredibly bizarre. It is. The disclaimer says, 00:26:19.400 --> 00:26:21.240 and I'm quoting here, this is a work of fiction. 00:26:21.259 --> 00:26:23.460 It is not based on a true story. But then it 00:26:23.460 --> 00:26:25.980 uses the real names of the real people involved 00:26:25.980 --> 00:26:28.319 in a real murder trial. This isn't a true story, 00:26:28.420 --> 00:26:30.599 but here's Al Pacino playing Phil Spector. It 00:26:30.599 --> 00:26:33.000 feels like a massive cop -out. David Mamet, the 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:35.319 writer and director, was very open about his 00:26:35.319 --> 00:26:38.460 philosophy here. He viewed Spector as a mythological 00:26:38.460 --> 00:26:42.180 character, like a minotaur in a labyrinth. He 00:26:42.180 --> 00:26:44.539 actually admitted in interviews that he didn't 00:26:44.539 --> 00:26:46.420 give a shit about the facts. He literally said 00:26:46.420 --> 00:26:48.140 that. Didn't give a shit about the facts. He 00:26:48.140 --> 00:26:50.579 did. He said he wanted to write a drama about 00:26:50.579 --> 00:26:53.539 the concept of reasonable doubt, not a docudrama 00:26:53.539 --> 00:26:56.920 about what actually happened. He was using Spector 00:26:56.920 --> 00:26:59.119 as a vessel for his own ideas about the legal 00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:01.480 system. But when you're dealing with a real victim, 00:27:01.579 --> 00:27:04.039 playing fast and loose with the facts seems... 00:27:04.599 --> 00:27:07.240 Deeply problematic. Let's look at the specific 00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:10.339 discrepancies mentioned in the sources. The gun 00:27:10.339 --> 00:27:12.960 evidence is the big one. Right. The film argues, 00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:15.259 very persuasively, because it's a well -made 00:27:15.259 --> 00:27:17.240 movie, that if Spectre had pulled the trigger, 00:27:17.279 --> 00:27:18.839 there would have been blood spatter all over 00:27:18.839 --> 00:27:21.920 his white jacket. And since the film claims there 00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:24.019 wasn't massive spatter, he couldn't have done 00:27:24.019 --> 00:27:26.779 it. Reasonable doubt. That sounds convincing 00:27:26.779 --> 00:27:29.460 in a movie. Where is the blood? It's a classic 00:27:29.460 --> 00:27:32.099 defense trope. But the reality... According to 00:27:32.099 --> 00:27:34.259 the source material, specifically the reporting 00:27:34.259 --> 00:27:36.460 by Mick Brown and the actual court transcripts, 00:27:36.460 --> 00:27:38.740 is that the film just ignores the forensics. 00:27:39.400 --> 00:27:41.640 The prosecution presented evidence of something 00:27:41.640 --> 00:27:44.599 called high -velocity impact spatter. Which isn't 00:27:44.599 --> 00:27:47.420 a splash like in a horror movie. No, it's an 00:27:47.420 --> 00:27:50.779 aerosol, a fine mist of blood. It's invisible 00:27:50.779 --> 00:27:52.980 to the naked eye until you look very closely 00:27:52.980 --> 00:27:55.839 under a microscope or use a chemical like luminol. 00:27:56.539 --> 00:27:59.420 And that mist was found on Spectre. It was all 00:27:59.420 --> 00:28:02.049 over the hem of his white jacket. So the physical 00:28:02.049 --> 00:28:04.269 evidence put him right there at arm's length. 00:28:04.410 --> 00:28:06.950 Yes. That mist pattern is consistent with him 00:28:06.950 --> 00:28:08.930 standing within inches of her when the gun went 00:28:08.930 --> 00:28:11.390 off. There's no standing across the room when 00:28:11.390 --> 00:28:13.490 you're covered in that mist. The film conveniently 00:28:13.490 --> 00:28:16.170 ignores the mist to focus on the lack of big 00:28:16.170 --> 00:28:18.630 drops. What about his sobriety? The film makes 00:28:18.630 --> 00:28:20.890 a point about that too, painting him as this 00:28:20.890 --> 00:28:23.869 sober man pushed to the brink. The film claims 00:28:23.869 --> 00:28:27.259 Spector had been cold sober for 10 years. In 00:28:27.259 --> 00:28:29.339 reality, testimony showed he had been drinking 00:28:29.339 --> 00:28:32.119 heavily for two months prior to the murder. He 00:28:32.119 --> 00:28:34.299 was not sober that night. And the chauffeur, 00:28:34.319 --> 00:28:36.500 the guy who drove them there, he's the only other 00:28:36.500 --> 00:28:39.519 witness on the property. In the film, they invent 00:28:39.519 --> 00:28:42.119 the whole conspiracy theory that the chauffeur 00:28:42.119 --> 00:28:44.819 was coerced by the police, that his testimony 00:28:44.819 --> 00:28:48.000 was unreliable. In reality, the chauffeur never 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:50.589 wavered. He testified that Spector came out of 00:28:50.589 --> 00:28:52.269 the back door of the house with a gun in his 00:28:52.269 --> 00:28:54.910 hand and said, quote, I think I killed somebody. 00:28:55.130 --> 00:28:57.670 I think I killed somebody. That's pretty damning. 00:28:57.670 --> 00:28:59.869 It's hard to spin that as she kissed the gun. 00:29:00.069 --> 00:29:02.349 It is. And that's why critics called the film 00:29:02.349 --> 00:29:05.250 an act of advocacy and a moral mess. It just 00:29:05.250 --> 00:29:08.069 ignored the hard evidence to play a philosophical 00:29:08.069 --> 00:29:10.589 game about how we treat eccentrics. It brings 00:29:10.589 --> 00:29:12.230 us right back to that tension we talked about 00:29:12.230 --> 00:29:14.650 at the very beginning, the attraction and the 00:29:14.650 --> 00:29:18.119 repulsion. Mamet was clearly attracted to the 00:29:18.119 --> 00:29:21.059 myth of the genius being persecuted, so he ignored 00:29:21.059 --> 00:29:23.920 the reality of the violent man. It asks the viewer 00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:26.180 to separate the art from the artist, but then 00:29:26.180 --> 00:29:28.180 it goes a step further and tries to separate 00:29:28.180 --> 00:29:30.640 the man from his actions entirely. It tries to 00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:33.299 say he's too special, too weird, too brilliant 00:29:33.299 --> 00:29:35.900 to be a common murderer. So where does this leave 00:29:35.900 --> 00:29:38.480 us? We've traveled from the Peppermint Lounge 00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:41.140 to the rooftop of Apple Tour to a courtroom in 00:29:41.140 --> 00:29:44.490 Los Angeles. It's a tragedy of control. If you 00:29:44.490 --> 00:29:47.069 look at the trajectory, Spector's genius was 00:29:47.069 --> 00:29:51.150 always, always about control. Controlling the 00:29:51.150 --> 00:29:54.049 acoustics of the wall of sound. Controlling the 00:29:54.049 --> 00:29:56.049 wrecking crew's notes so they had no individual 00:29:56.049 --> 00:29:58.809 identity. Controlling Ronnie's career and life 00:29:58.809 --> 00:30:01.230 by hiding her shoes. Controlling the Beatles' 00:30:01.470 --> 00:30:03.710 final album by drowning it in strings against 00:30:03.710 --> 00:30:05.730 their wishes. And when he couldn't control the 00:30:05.730 --> 00:30:07.589 narrative anymore, when the hits stopped and 00:30:07.589 --> 00:30:09.970 the world moved on, the violence that was always 00:30:09.970 --> 00:30:13.019 there just... It turned inward, and then it turned 00:30:13.019 --> 00:30:16.279 outward. Exactly. We remember the wall of sound, 00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:18.799 and we should. It's a monumental achievement 00:30:18.799 --> 00:30:21.680 in music history. Be My Baby is still a perfect 00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:25.000 pop song. But we have to remember the cost. And 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:26.740 we have to remember the people who actually built 00:30:26.740 --> 00:30:30.059 that wall. The Wrecking Crew, the Ronettes, the 00:30:30.059 --> 00:30:32.740 people whose immense talent was used as raw material 00:30:32.740 --> 00:30:35.160 for Spectre's vision. They're the ones who made 00:30:35.160 --> 00:30:38.160 the music human. Spectre provided the architecture, 00:30:38.440 --> 00:30:41.630 but they provided the soul. Without Ronnie's 00:30:41.630 --> 00:30:44.670 voice, without Hal Blaine's drums, without Carol 00:30:44.670 --> 00:30:47.490 Kay's bass line, Spector is just a guy in a room 00:30:47.490 --> 00:30:50.670 with an echo chamber. The HBO film asks us to 00:30:50.670 --> 00:30:52.609 think about the difference between innocent and 00:30:52.609 --> 00:30:55.109 not guilty. It wants us to consider reasonable 00:30:55.109 --> 00:30:57.930 doubt. But when you look at the entirety of this 00:30:57.930 --> 00:31:00.789 deep dive, the pattern of domination, the isolation 00:31:00.789 --> 00:31:03.450 of Ronnie, the manipulation of the music, and 00:31:03.450 --> 00:31:05.890 the physical evidence of the murder, it raises 00:31:05.890 --> 00:31:08.109 a question. Does the genius defense hold any 00:31:08.109 --> 00:31:10.400 water at all? Or was the pattern of destruction 00:31:10.400 --> 00:31:12.720 visible from the very beginning, hiding in plain 00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:15.259 sight, just behind the wall of sound? That's 00:31:15.259 --> 00:31:17.759 the question. That's it for this deep dive. Thanks 00:31:17.759 --> 00:31:19.180 for listening, and we'll catch you next time.