Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector » (Unabridged, 15 cassettes, 1260 minutes)

Born in London in 1950, Mick Brown is a journalist, broadcaster, and the author of four previous books. His article on Phil Spector was published in The Telegraph just two days before Lana Clarkson was found dead in the “castle” where he’d interviewed him only two months earlier.

“Tearing Down the Wall of Sound is a remarkable book about, among other things, fame, obsession, genius, money and madness. It paints the fullest picture yet of a man who, whether creating some of the greatest pop music of all time, or destroying the lives of those closest to him, seems to have existed in a continuous state of mental agitation. The Phil Spector story still awaits its ending. In the meantime, this is the definitive study of the man, and the myth that engulfed him.” —Sean O’Hagan, The Observer (U.K.)

With a number-one hit at age eighteen, a millionaire with his own label by twenty-two, and proclaimed by Tom Wolfe “The First Tycoon of Teen,” Phil Spector owned pop culture, his roster as a producer including the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, the Beatles, then John Lennon and George Harrison, as well as Leonard Cohen and the Ramones. But in the spring of 2007, he stands trial for murder.

A spectacularly troubled genius, Spector created with the “Wall of Sound” music never heard before, from “Be My Baby” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” to “Imagine” and “My Sweet Lord.” He suffered poorly the quantum shifts in rock and roll—not to mention the loss of his friends Lenny Bruce and John Lennon—growing ever more reclusive and abusive. By the turn of this century, however, he was not only sober but also attracted to new bands who knew his reputation, good and bad, all too well. Then, in February 2003, he leapt back into the headlines when Lana Clarkson, an actress, was found dead by gunshot in hisLos Angeles mansion.

Only weeks before, Spector had granted Mick Brown the first major interview he’d given in twenty-five years—the seed for this definitive, mesmerizing biography of a man who first became a king, then something else altogether.

The Washington Post - Kevin O'Donnell

"British journalist Mick Brown's exhaustively reported biography -- which includes an interview Brown conducted with Spector mere weeks before Clarkson's body was found -- traces the producer's rise and fall: from his tumultuous childhood with his overbearing mother and sister to his adulthood as a scrappy songwriter and producer to his present-day hermitage high in the hills of Alhambra, Calif."

Author's Note     ix
"Mr. Spector Likes People to Walk Up"     3
"It Was Phillip Who Was Moving Fastest"     14
"To Know Him Is to Love Him"     34
On Broadway     55
"A Big Hoot and Howl"     67
"They All Thought He Was a Genius"     86
Building the Wall of Sound     100
"He Wanted to Be Thought Of as Interesting"     119
Little Symphonies for the Kids     129
Going to the Chapel     136
"The Wall of Sound, It Kinda Sounds Tired"     152
"The Last Word in Tomorrow's Sound Today"     165
"A Giant Stands 5'7''"     172
River Deep, Mountain Low     196
Marriage in Purgatory     206
"Out There, but in a Beautiful Way"     223
The Lonely Bird in the Gilded Cage     230
With the Beatles     238
"These Are Pretty Wild Sessions, They Get Pretty Out There"     255
"Let's Take Five"     277
"Leonard, I Love You..."     296
"Thank You, Folks-Have a Good Life"     305
"A Case That No One Can Reach"     314
"Between Grief and Nothing, I Will Take Grief"     323
"I Honestly Thought He Was Kidding"     334
"You Don't Tell Mozart What Operas to Write"     344
"Anybody Have a Calculator?"     352
"He Wanted to Prove He Really Was Human"     362
"It's Very Difficult, Very Difficult to Be Reasonable"     372
"I Think I Killed Somebody..."     390
"A Genius Is Not There All the Time"     406
Afterword     435
Acknowledgments     467
Notes     469
Interviews     479
Selected Bibliography     481