The Smiley Smile Message Board

Pretty much Let it be and beyond.

Starting out, I actually really do enjoy the Long and Winding Road's choir and strings overdubs.
The overdubbed stuff for Let It Be (the song) is a little unnecessary to me...there's not much to really even notice. All i remember is a basic trumpet line.
The added/repeated part to I Me Mine is a bit redundant.
I'm not sure if Spector was responsible for adding all the dialogue in the album, but I do enjoy it.

His work with Lennon and Harrison is some of his best work in years.
All Things Must Pass being a favorite of mine over the years and of course the signature sound is quite evident: Awaiting On You All and Let it Down having the most Wall of Sound evidence.
Phil's piano piano playing on Love for John's Plastic Ono Band is really all I hear of Phil on that record.
I also enjoy his vocal harmony on Oh Yoko!
I've also really liked Angel Baby and Just Because on John's Rock and Roll album.

Ronnie's cover of Try Some Buy Some has always been a favorite of mine.
The title song, Only You Know, and Make the Woman Love Me from Dion's Born to Be with You is about the only songs I find worth while or really remember from the album.
I found Death of a Ladies Man album a little more interesting than Dion's album....The most notable songs on there for me are as follows: True Love Leaves No Traces, Fingerprints, Memories (really good), Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On, and the title song.
Spector's work with the Ramones is really good too: Do You Remember Rock n Roll Radio & Rock n Roll High School.

I haven't heard his work with Starsailor so I can't say how that is...nor have I heard his work with Celine Dion, but then again, I don't think it's been released in any form.

Starsailor tunes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fglU5Ngd-Pk is the single, and the only other track they released, White Dove http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtEK_N-DkJg

Pretty average, really. But then Starsailor are a pretty average band. Silence is Easy is like an imitation of Spector, one of the reasons they dismissed him. He also apparently slagged the drummer off something awful..

On Plastic Ono Band, the sound is so Spector - just without echo. he got the best of John vocally, i think, on all his records.

You heard Sometime in New York City? It's so trashily produced. Spector was losing his classic touch, imo, to be replaced by boozy 70's work.

Also find Nilsson & Cher doing Love Like Yours http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W_SyUu4vQ0 maybe Nilsson's last good 70's vocal before he f*cked his voice.

Another thing to consider with John and Phil is that Spector basically taught him to produce, so John's productions have a huge wall-of--sound vibe. p*ssy Cats, Walls & Bridges, Mind Games, and the remaining Rock & Roll tracks all have that 70's spector sound. Listen to the way the drums sound on Ono Band, Lennon basically doesn't change that on all his production.

Yeah, I didn't list Sometime in NYC because of that reason, it's not even a "mentionable"...But I do enjoy Woman is the N of the World. Yeah, I always thought those albums you listed had a Spector vibe, and they're really good/awesome as a result.

What do you mean by the whole dismissed statement?
Are you saying that he did an imitation of himself and Star Sailor got mad?

No offense to George Martin, but Spector was a huge improvement as a producer on The Beatles solo albums. I hate the sound of the classic Beatles stuff, it feels so...so...not so great. I got the stereo box, and so much of it is impossible to listen to on headphones. You think with a project like that they'd actually take the time to go back to the original tapes and do, I dunno, *good* stereo mixes. I guess those mixes were afterthoughts, but still, even in Mono I really don't think the Beatles ever sound as great as Brian. To the end, for the longest time, the only Beatles records I liked were All Things Must Pass and Plastic Ono Band.

I mean, just listen to The White Album, I've never gotten the praise of Helter Skelter. The song could have been KILLER, but it sounds like all every member of the band was in a different room.

Black Pearl and You Came You Saw You Conquered are two of my late sixties faves from Phil. The solo Beatles stuff is decent outside of SINYC. Even that is OK arrangement wise it just has bad vocals from Yoko (like always) and some inane lyrics.

Oh man Yeah!  Love Black Pearl!

I heard it on Sirus radio the other day.

Should I bother mentioning "This Could Be The Night" considering it wasn't actually released at the time? Plus, I'm sure no one here would disagree with that one, haha.

Punkin - There was a lot of hoo-ha at the time because, y'know, one of the most boring bands doing the rounds had coaxed the legendary Phil Spector out of retirement, which people had been trying to do since the nineties. And then they fired him and  finished the album with some dude who produces Coldplay, and one of their reasons was that Spector was producing 'Spector' sounds for them. No sh*t, Sherlock.

The whole 'imitation of himself' thing doesn't really fly with me, unless he was being particularly half arsed during sessions. Phil Spector is amazing, but isn't exactly a varied producer. I wish I could remember who said this, but Phil Spector is like a dog with only one trick. That trick being he can talk. Like, he's fantastic but if you don't want that sound what the hell are you doing asking him to produce your records?

Lesse, I agree with you that I like the long and winding road.  As for "Let It Be", I like the reverb he put on Ringo's drums although like you said it's completely unnecessary.  The thing that kills me about that song is, one of the versions has an increible solo by Harrison, that's just eating the song alive, but the one that's always played (and the one featured on "naked" or whatever it was called) is the soft solo with the moog or whatever.  Never understood why they don't play that great guitar line in the mixes.  One of my favorite Harrison solos EVER.  I believe the single had the moog solo, but the Spector album had the hot guitar solo.  


Sadly I haven't heard too much more of his 'comeback' stuff, outside of the stuff he did with Lennon.  

I have to disagree with some of the assertions here. The Idea that Phil Spector did the Best
"Beatle" production with ATMP and John Lennon, that it was better than the George Martin
work is totally a wrong idea in my opinion. Martin was a fantastic arranger, and it was the arrangements
that Made Martin great. Spector hired arrangers, and had a sound. Spectors sound I think was valid
when fidelity was a problem. By saturating that tape with 12 guys playing four instruments, and adding
horns, big vocals and or Strings... you were adding fidelity at a time when good fidelity was a huge problem
to accomplish it. But with better recording equipment , well let me say this... All Things Must Pass to me
sound like a mess of echo recorded in a cave. But the songs and performance are great.

Now this is controversial, But I like Spector best on the circa 72 Lennon tracks. First I am ignoring
Yoko's tracks, no offense to her, but I don't want to listen to them. The single Happy Xmas, and the
contrast to the Dobro song John Sinclair, and the Irish Folk Song Luck of The Irish (I have a mix sans Yoko)
and the huge gorgeous production on Woman is the ni^^er of the World... contrasted against the
stereotypical Lennon New York City rocknroll song... I think its brilliant.. because each song is treated
totally differently. One is a folk song, one is a dobro or slide song, one is a political Christmas song
if you can ignore Yoko's tracks and just listen to the Lennon tracks for a moment, I think it was Spectors
peak with solo Beatles. They are not Lennons best songs by a long shot, and Elephants memory were
not really studio musicians, but I think it sounds better than Imagine or Plastic Ono Band. where Lennon wrote
great songs and I think the Production is uninteresting.

You don't have to agree with me, but I am just saying there are other considered opinions on Spector's
solo Beatle production. I personally think Imagine would have been much better if George Martin or someone
else could have produced it.

I thought he did a pretty good job on the Dion album from '74 or '75, even if Dion wasn't so into it. I also agree that he made the Beatles and their solo outtings much more listenable. I'll never understand how anyone could think George Martin was anything more than an acceptable engineer and okayish string arranger.

Phil's work and influence on John as a producer is possibly one of the best things that came out this relationship...John's Spector-like productions are FANTASTIC

There is no doubt, Lennon copied Spectors technique and sound for Walls and Bridges, Rocknroll and Nilssons
pussycats album. maybe even on Mind Games..

not exactly the same, but you'd have to be deaf or blind not  to notice the Spector influence.

I think John Lennon was much better served on record by Jack Douglas and George Martin
however. Spector did great on the Instant Karma Single and the Happy Xmas single, Lennon
himself loved what Spector did I suppose.

Look I am not saying Phil Spector didin't do a great job for Lennon, or that Spector isin't great,
(rock n roll album excepted sloppy) I am saying the type of orchestrations Martin did, and the
backwards guitars, and sitars, and all the clever Beatle production was better suited to John Lennon.
Lennon had a short solo career, and almost all of it was either produced directly by Spector, or done
in the Spector style. The one exception being Double Fantasy. Which although I don't like the songs
any better, I think sounds much cleaner and better, and more thoughtfully arranged.


John Lennon was a clever writer, perhaps less so in later years, Lennon got what he wanted on record
and Spector did a first class professional job on Imagine and POB and the singles. I am not alone here
many people would have preferred a different type of producer. I would love to hear what Richard Perry
or Phil Ramone or someone else might have been able to create on record with Lennon, if he had to go
with an American producer.

At least Lennon was working with one of the great producers of all time. But I don't think they were a good
fit together, I think Lennon would have been more suited to a different type of producer, particularly without
the melodic and clever McCartney around. What Lennon could have used was a George Martin type who could
help with all the clever little melodic bits, that's whats missing on Lennon's Solo albums, the heart is there,
but its less refined and melodic. Of course one could say his solo songwriting is not quite as strong also.

There is no way to ever really know.

"Here We Go Again" on the Lennon retrospective "Menlove Avenue"  is a great slab of Spector.

I'll never understand how anyone who's heard "Strawberry Fields Forever", "I Am The Walrus",  his work with people like Peter Sellers, or the Abbey Road medley would possibly think George Martin was nothing more than an acceptable engineer and okayish string arranger.  ;)

Thank you, I felt as if I was shouting into a void.

eh :whatever