The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSSs20AYS0o&feature=share&list=LPaY3hWhXYhCU

 Damn, I knew he was on TV in the 60's, but you just can't find the stuff... like it never happened or something. Thanks for finding.

Finally some visual evidence for Spector the pseudo celebrity that I've read so much about . He's A Rebel, Tearing Down The Wall Of Sound, seemingly every article ever published on the man would reference these TV appearances, and I could never get my hands on one of  'em, except the I Dream  Of Jeanie appearance, which was  not interesting. To be honest this interview is making me uncomfortable. It's the same kind of weird joking around you hear over the talkback on the session tapes, but weirder. Seeing/hearing him in the context of non-musicians is a disturbing experience.

What an unpleasant weirdo.

Definitely interesting. Phil's not much of a charmer, though.

yup.

Is it just me, or........ Adam Sandler much?  :o

Now that you mentioned, yeah! Same guy! Just as funny!

I don't know if he was just nervous, not being that used to tv-performances... Maybe striving for John Lennon -type witty banter, but falling painfully short. Or then that's just the way he is.

The voice, the mannerisms.....

Al Pachino is going to make an interesting Phil Spector, that's for sure

Another incredibly talented but messed up person. Hard to believe he's going to die in prison

"Good Vibrations was an edit record"

According to Wikipedia, he can get parole when he's 88 years old. There is a chance he lives that long. But still, I feel sorry for the guy. I know, if he killed that woman, he of course deserves every minute of prison time he got, but... As Sting once said when talking about "I Hung My Head", there are no accidents with guns. Knowing his history, it's more of a wonder he didn't off somebody already decades ago. So sad and frustrating. The creator of "Be My Baby" would have deserved a happier life, yet he still has only himself to blame.

The Beach Boys were on Merv in 1968 but it hasn't been seen since.  I wonder if the tape will now surface-looks like the Griffin estate is now releasing all the archives.  They also appeared in early 1982 (taped in late 81) and that clip is/or was on Youtube.  Has them doing a lip-synch medley (minus Carl)

Well I personally found that quite comedic...

I find Phil's humor somewhat funny, but I feel like he tried too hard making up his persona.

So true. But even if he came across as a bit of a twat, he still is verbally quite witty and fast. I mean, before this, I had only heard him speak (or croak) in some documentaries filmed in the 2000's... And of course Lennon session tapes, where everyone involved is acting out a bit.

Boy, I would give my left Converse shoe to hear the Ramones session tapes with Phil Spector. There must have been some interesting exchanges going on.

This is great. He's realllllly antagonistic and arrogant. Looks like he's always been that way!

The archives for Merv Griffin's show have been available for licensing for a handful of years, but it's not something the average person or fan can contact them with and ask to buy a certain episode or clip on demand. If you are, say, a network TV show and want to use a clip of a certain celeb, there is an entertainment agency that handles the requests and will go through the legal means to license the clip.

I think many of the Mike Douglas shows are also available this way, but I do believe a majority of Merv Griffin's run on television was archived and saved on video, unlike, say, the Johnny Carson or Joey Bishop shows which were mostly lost.

This begs the question, for those in an official capacity who are in a position to license such clips, why have we not seen items such as those mentioned from the Griffin show, or the ones which were listed as available from Griffin's or Douglas' official libraries? Is it a financial reason, or are the legal issues too big to just license and release the clips through some kind of a Beach Boys archival deal for the fans? Because the clips are there, as far as we can tell, unless the specific Beach Boys content is not part of the archive.

(http://static.episode39.it/artist/16313.jpg?t=1215197613)

He sounds like Blake Clark

This was a semi-common thing especially around certain music biz types (several producers) at that specific time. There seemed to be an entire scene built around acting cool if not outright cold, detached, silent to those who weren't on your "level", and sarcastic to an annoying degree...and of course you'd need to wear shades indoors to maintain the cool detachment.

I relate that theory because there is a full page or so in a Nik Cohn book about seeing Lou Adler and Johnny Rivers hanging out somewhere at the same time of this Spector appearance, hiding behind sunglasses and seeing them give that exact image and persona to those in their company, where they were trying to project a hipness and a cool detachment to the point of being ridiculous. Grunting answers, acting detached, ignoring people, all of that fun hip stuff.

Scan through any number of rock bios or histories and you'll find a few of these hip producer and music insider types who acted the same way Spector was seen as acting in the video. It was an act.

In some ways it makes his "Easy Rider" cameo more relevant... :-D

Phil has an odd manner of communicating, but he is, or was, quite a genius, with a lot to communicate about music. His "blindfold" segment on the KHJ History Of Rock And Roll radio series still blows my mind, especially what he says about the Four Tops' Reach Out I'll Be There.
Also, when I met him, he was quite friendly, and willing to include a newcomer into his circle, for a friend of another trusted friend.

That information explains Phil's behavior in this video, he was totally playing that role of the "elite" hitmaker to everybody in the room.

How was Phil's behavior and personality like when he wasn't in "Phil Spector: Rock and Roll Rebel" mode?

Glad he didn't shoot you in the face.

Hey, I didn't say Phil didn't deserve to die in jail, he does.
Phil, when he didn't have his chip-on-shoulder resentment-at-the-world pseudo-jazz slur on, was a nice, understandable guy. You can see that Phil in the interview captured in the Living In The Material World documentary on George Harrison.
The thing with Phil is, his anger comes from the same source as his music, it is a very punk rock thing, a rise from the bottom of the social food chain. His genius, as with so many people in rock and roll, comes out of personality dysfunction, or develops in that way. Compare that to Brian Wilson, who was a football player dating the prettiest cheerleaders and heading out for root beer runs. Brian Wilson's social class (tho not him specifically, of course, he was too good of a guy) are the type who probably beat up Phil in school. Some of the resentment people like Phil and Zappa had about Brian Wilson comes from that, the outsider's natural resentment of the Big Man On Campus. People see Brian as an outsider now, but he wasn't then, he was the Class President.
As far as Phil's attitude in that clip, he comes off as jive. Dylan did that stance way better, he had the act down pat and never lost his cool.

The intro in this video might have more info.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jl8JjJJ4ME

It also links to this site:
http://www.reelinintheyears.com/index.php

Phil talkin'  'bout how he's jive   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPnFt1AJ_d0    (skip to 2:06)

So, Brian's favorite song was almost "My One And Only Baby". Hal Blaine is a genius, too ;D

It's funny to see what Phil Spector looked and sounded like if you've ever read Ronnie Spector's autobiography. She fell head over heels in love with him at first sight and describes it in great detail in her book. Uh, Ronnie, dear, why?

The cane, perhaps.

Just wanna say, this is a fantastic post.  I think you've really dissected the whole situation here.  In this way, Kurt Cobain falls into the same category as Phil Spector.

I think part of the difference is also that Brian had Murry and Phil's dad died while he was still growing up. Brian was dominated by the idea of his father, Phil was like Wagner, a spoiled child raised by his mother into a tyrant.

Well said about Kurt Cobain. He was my hero when I was in my teens. Musically, he still is one of them, but his "grumpy punk rock outsider" -mentality that comes across in some of his interviews now seems a bit daft. Dylan was/is the only one one who can carry that out. Maybe Zappa, too. John Lydon tries too hard.

wow... that was a sh*t piece of television if ever i saw it. they had not only Phil Spector but also Richard Pryor - two hugely talented people who are now considered to be legends in their respective fields... and that was the best they could do? i'm from the UK so excuse me for not really knowing who merv griffin is. it's one of those names you hear of from time to time but i wouldn't be able to tell you anything about him. But judging from that; what a lousy, uninteresting, charisma bereft host.


That was one of the most awkward things ive ever watched, and i'm a Brian Wilson fan.

There is something else being missed in all of this - and I do agree that it feels awkward when watching this clip - but there was some background to how Phil was acting specifically on this show.

At a certain time, let's compare what Phil did on this show to what someone like Charles Grodin was known to do with Johnny Carson. If we watched one of Grodin's older appearances on Carson's show, and didn't know a thing about who Grodin was, everyone watching would think Grodin was the biggest horse's ass on tv. He'd come on the show and basically rip Johnny apart, be a grump, be insulting - the whole deal. It was like Don Rickles, but Rickles was so well known for acting like an ass and insulting people...and he looked the role he played...it was his nasty schtick that made him famous. Grodin came out looking like a professor or something, Carson would be nice, and Grodin would spit it back at him.

Spector appearing on Merv Griffin played the same role. This was *NOT* a one-off appearance, nor was it a guest spot to plug something. Spector was a regular guest on Merv Griffin's show, and it wasn't even a guest kind of deal as his seat on this day was at Merv's desk - guests usually took the chair and the couch next to the desk.

Spector was playing up the role of critic, curmudgeon, resident grump, whatever you want to call him. Naturally when you play something up, you still get a lot of yourself coming out in the role. But Spector has multiple appearances logged with Griffin and on his show, and if you listen between the one-liners, you'll hear references to this act of Phil's as if it were something he would come on the show specifically to do - play the heavy, the sarcastic millionaire, whatever the case, and make it a point to insult people.

For proof of this, short of finding other clips of Phil Spector on Griffin, note that he was a semi-regular guest with Merv in 1965 and 1966, and by semi-regular I mean more than the showbiz folks who would appear only to plug a movie.

American talk shows were different back then, I think the old tapes resurfacing may even show that they were far different in tone and in pace than even those who watched regularly at the time would remember them.


Note: Merv Griffin is considered a pioneer in television for his creation and development of game shows. Jeopardy and Wheel Of Fortune are among the most popular and long-running game shows (and tv shows in general) in history. They're still on 5 nights a week in most US markets. He also wrote the Jeopardy theme music, which to Americans is as ubiquitous as any melody you'd hear in everyday life...and the royalties made Griffin a fortune. He was a multi-, multi- millionaire successful from his media ventures. His talk show was big with a certain demographic, but I think he said he was asked to do that show because of his outgoing personality, more than any specific talent he had. But the show was on for decades, whatever his skill.

Just remember Phil was indeed playing up a role when you watch this, and the role was one that he was called back onto the show to play because someone thought it was funny, interesting, or compelling enough for him to play the guy the crowd wanted to boo and jeer after he'd be critical of a guest or the host. I'm not saying the role we see in that clip wasn't a lot of Phil's own manners and personality, but he was playing up a character when he'd do the Griffin show. Just like Grodin on Johnny Carson's show.

Is it just me, or did Mike Nesmith resemble Phil Spector?

That's all quite true, Craig. But he doesn't play that role well, at least in that appearance.

I found that seating arrangement interesting in a couple of ways. First, the way Spector was blurting things out, as if whatever was crossing his mind, reminded me of that occasional side of Brian Wilson.

And, it almost looked like Spector needed that distance from the others, like a safety zone, which gave him some space to speak his mind. Especially with Eartha Kitt, I wonder if he would've been as forward with her if he was sitting next to her. She might've smacked him - or walked off.

I agree with prior posts that part of this was an act, but I also wonder if Spector couldn't control himself, or his impulsiveness. Do you get the feeling that he dealt with EVERYBODY in a similar way?

The main point of all I wrote above was that what we see in that single film clip was Spector playing the role of agitator, which he was invited back, beyond a handful of times and sometime twice in one week (which even Carson did not do often with any guests), to play that character on Merv Griffin's show in 65-66. Every talk show had their "characters", these recurring often B-list semi-celebs like Henry Morgan or Oscar Levant (who was actually brilliant when he was coherent...) who would come on to shake things up.

We cannot take that Spector appearance as the way Spector was with everyone. Do I think he acted that way with everyone? That judgement cannot be made fairly on a 10 minute TV appearance.

It was a recurring bit for Phil to come on and act up in exactly that way, not too far removed from the wrestler who gets picked to be the heavy, bad-guy character so the fans can boo something as much as they cheer.

I think Phil relished the role - and remember, he was being called something like a teenage Svengali, and he'd go on and rip apart the "old guard" of showbiz, i.e. anyone over 24 and even Merv's band, which I thought was cool.

How could Merv not bring him back? Merv's crowd felt bad for the people he mocked, they groaned and booed, and Merv's people thought Phil was taking the bigger beating by getting hissed by those folks. All the time, Phil was on their show, on their stage, sending all of them up and doing it in a way a lot of people watching Merv had no clue what he was saying...Note Phil's line about wearing his "LSD Glasses", then Merv tries them on and gets a big laugh from the 45+ audience members who thought it was funny to see button-down Merv wearing such crazy glasses. Note also Phil's lines about Merv's band: They were basically a generation removed from the guys making Phil millions in LA.

A bigger note to note: Johnny Carson's show comes up in the discussion in this clip, with the issue of why Phil doesn't do Carson's show, and appears on Merv's show instead. That was an easy one Phil would never say: Carson was a comedic genius with the best timing in the business, and a sharp wit. Spector knew this, he would not dare to do what he did with Merv - make a mockery of the show - with Carson because he'd look foolish. He could not match wits with Carson, while he could go on Merv's show, cut it to pieces, mock the guests, mock the whole scene, bring on silly props like a cane and psychedelic shades and have those props win bigger laughs that anything Merv could say, and look like a real freak to the middle America loyal viewers who thought by laughing at him being outlandish they were getting the edge, but it was just the opposite going on, and just prior to it really taking hold and changing the entertainment business.

Phil was invited back, he was a repeat guest, sometimes twice a week, and he chose Merv's show - that's all which is necessary to connect a few more dots than a single 10 minute video of just one such appearance can connect.

I agree, it's more uncomfortable than it needed to be, but maybe the guests can be blamed for that, too. And ultimately, it was Merv's people going up to Merv himself who wanted Phil to keep coming back to the show and play this role for laughs, despite the guests. The guests' reactions suggest they weren't up to the task of giving it back to Phil in a way that a Johnny Carson, Jonathon Winters, even a Lenny Bruce would do. I thought Pryor was a let-down in how he acted timid and his jokes fell flat, but then I realized it wasn't the Pryor of 1975 and he was a young guy who probably didn't want to ruffle a lot of feathers by reacting to Phil's schtick as he would if it were happening somewhere other than a TV broadcast.

How about seeing Wally Cox in that clip? I'm guessing at this time he was still living in that mansion which Peter Tork would later buy and turn into one of the worst/best crash pads and party mansions in LA.  :)

Of course....I was just speculating, thinking out loud, making a generalization.

Speaking of Johnny Carson and favorite guests who played a role....I used to love it when Buddy Rich was on. Buddy was a surly, obnoxious, sometimes crude guest, but you could almost see the tongue planted firmly in cheek, and you got the feeling he was gonna burst out laughing any second. Johnny used to love to get him going and telling stories about other musicians.

Yes! And Johnny was a drummer, too - he loved watching those guys. Buddy Rich is a great example, he played up the role when he'd come on, for laughs. But then that tape of him yelling at his musicians on the tour bus (NO BEARDS!) leaks out and the private Buddy may have been more obnoxious than the persona!  ;D

I think you touched on something that Johnny had over any other host, and that was his ability to both host a show and be a regular person type of fan who would react like we would react to watching Buddy Rich drum or tell a jazz story, while not gushing and fawning over them. Merv - not to single him out - but Merv was a straightforward, old-guard showbiz host type and the audiences who stayed with him were drawn to that. I think celebs could feel safe on Merv's show because Merv was safe, unless Phil Spector was there... :-D  Carson could appeal to everyone without coming off as trying too hard.

There was another semi-frequent guest of Merv Griffin who probably felt "safe" on Merv's show and that was Orson Welles. While it was obvious that Merv adored Orson, Merv could also make jokes about Orson and his reputation, and make this legendary, misunderstood genius appear more human. I used to love their interviews.

Richard Pryor wasn't anything close to a legend back in the mid-'60s; he wasn't even famous. He was a very safe comedian back then who did nothing controversial in his act and you would have no hint that he ever would. He was mostly doing little nightclub gigs and appearing at times in tiny roles in TV sitcoms.  I don't think Merv or anyone else could get anything interesting out of Richard Pryor back then, and most people had never even heard of him at all, so there was no reason to show him any deference. 

I think the main awkwardness was having a guest in a second chair next to Merv at his desk. He didn't do that format later on and I wasn't aware he ever did that until seeing these black and white clips that have surfaced on YouTube. Later in his career, Merv was more obsequious than awkward.

Finally watched the clip, and indeed, it's evidently from someplace during a string of Spector appearances.

When Uncle Phil walks on the set the band plays Antonio Carlos Jobim's Insensatez aka How Insensitive. And Phil's response is to make a crack about them getting fired. He's evidently quite practiced in doing this kind of routine.

For a guy who seems to be winging it most of the time, Phil's delivery and timing would mostly do credit to a good second-string Borscht Belt funnyman. And speaking of the Borscht Belt, what about that business where Merv mishears "gross ignorance" as Grossinger's?  Was that scripted?

(Grossinger's was a very famous, in its time, resort in the now waterlogged Catskill Mountains of New York state, for those non-Americans and gentiles among you nowadays disinclined to look at Wikipedia because it now doesn't seem to work too good on mobile phones.)

Eartha really counterpunches skillfully, putting her trademark purr in her ripostes. Wally Cox seems to be trying to get a word in - usually he had better luck in these type of exchanges.  Merv, as us older folk well recall, just acts like 1960s Merv.  Richard Pryor is still in the middle of his Bill Cosby substitute stuff, though toward the end, when he does those peculiar vocalisms, you can see a glimpse of his ability to go into territory that wasn't typical Cos shtick.

I kept wondering where Merv's frequent '60s sidekick Arthur Treacher was.  (Treacher was the go-to actor for butler roles in '30s/'40s Hollywood - he once played Jeeves. By the '60s he was long in the tooth for such parts - it was his old pal Alan Napier who landed Alfred on Batman - but Merv was quite fond of juxtaposing his stately British persona against somebody like Monti Rock III or Baby Jane Holzer.) Guess he was tending to his string of fish and chips franchise eateries.

Now that Merv's vault is ready for licensing, I wonder when the strangest and wildest musical performance of all will make it to YouTube - the one that probably tops Syd Barrett meeting Pat Boone.  In 1968, Nico - yes, Nico - came on Merv's show.

Merv put Nico on because he wanted to know what had happened to 1966's Girl Of The Year - or I've read, anyway, that's how his intro went.  She walked on, sat down at a harmonium, and played a track from The Marble Index.  Hoo-eee - that's something you never would have seen on The Hollywood Palace, and it was a far cry from the stylings of the Masked Singer (aka future Starsky & Hutch star David Soul), a Merv favorite of the time.

 Nico then went to the couch and sat down. Merv asked her a question. She stared at him, not speaking. Another question. Another stare. Merv stopped in the middle of a third question and yelled to the booth that they had to go to a commercial. By the time the break was over, she was gone.  (People still don't believe that happened but it's discussed in at least one Nico biography and one or two big books about the Velvets.)

(http://www.bsnpubs.com/la/philles/psi012.jpg)
This thread prompted me to get out my ice cream man.

Wow, that is interesting. I wonder if Merv had any connection to the Factory or other Warhol people? David Soul also hung out at The Factory.

http://www.reelradio.com/  I assume this is where I'd find the Spector/Four Tops thing...It's gonna cost $20.00, seems worth it come payday. I'm  interested in those classic L.A. DJs...Huggy Boy. Humble Harve etc. There was funny story in Tearing Down The Wall Of Sound about Huggy Boy, who was having lunch at Phil's castle, and apparently he was really old and infirm, but Phil would still make him walk up this giant flight of stairs. Y' know, Instead of letting him be dropped off at the  door, as a sign of respect for the castle, or something.

Definitely worth 20 bucks for an entire year of listening to classic airchecks, including the Spector segment on The History of Rock n Roll.

Where do I hear this? Can't find it anywhere

http://www.reelradio.com/ng/index.html
Robert W. Morgan, KHJ History of R&R,
February 22, 1969 Hour 33

His appearance reminds me of Pacino in Scent of a Woman!

THIS. :lol

HOO-ah!

Indeed!

Lots of cool Beach Boys material available thru the Griffin people it seems: http://www.reelinintheyears.com/search/index.php

Artist    Song Title    Footage Date    Song Length    Total Length
Beach Boys   Surfin' USA   1963-09-24       
Beach Boys   Things We Did Last Summer   1963-09-24       
Beach Boys   Arrival At Sydney Airport   1964-01-13   :10   :31
Beach Boys   Interview   1964-01-13   :14   :31
Beach Boys   Surfin' Safari   1964-01-13   :07   :31
Beach Boys   Fun, Fun, Fun   1964-02-01       
Beach Boys   Hawaii   1964-02-01       
Beach Boys   In My Room   1964-02-01       
Beach Boys   Little Deuce Coupe   1964-02-01       
Beach Boys   Long Tall Texan   1964-02-01       
Beach Boys   Monster Mash   1964-02-01       
Beach Boys   Papa Oom-Mow-Mow   1964-02-01       
Beach Boys   Shut Down   1964-02-01       
Beach Boys   Surfer Girl   1964-02-01       
Beach Boys   Surfin' USA   1964-02-01       
Beach Boys   I Get Around   1964-05-12       
Beach Boys   In My Room   1964-05-12       
Beach Boys   Interview   1964-11-15   2:09   
Beach Boys   Fun Fun Fun   1964-11-18   2:16   4:21
Beach Boys   I Get Around   1964-11-18   2:25   4:21
Beach Boys   Dance Dance Dance   1964-12-18   1:51   
Beach Boys   Fun Fun Fun   1965-07-03   1:14   4:53
Beach Boys   Little Honda   1965-07-03   1:02   4:53
Beach Boys   Monster Mash   1965-07-03   :12   4:53
Beach Boys   Surfin USA   1965-07-03   1:56   4:53
Beach Boys   Unknown Title   1965-07-03   :27   4:53
Beach Boys   Barbra Anne   1965-10-23       
Beach Boys   California Girls   1965-10-23       
Beach Boys   Surfing Skit w/ Bob Hope & Jack Benny   1965-10-23       
Beach Boys   Pet Sounds   1966-00-00   L   5:13
Beach Boys   Sloop John B   1966-00-00   S   2:54
Beach Boys   Silent Concert B-Roll (Chicago, Ill)   1966-07-01   1:56   1:56
Beach Boys   Babara Anne   1967-12-24   2:00   5:31
Beach Boys   Come All Ye Faithful   1967-12-24   1:03   5:31
Beach Boys   God Only Knows   1967-12-24   2:28   5:31
Beach Boys   Friends   1968-00-00   2:31   
Beach Boys   Bluebirds Over The Mountain   1968-12-13   2:47   5:17
Beach Boys   I Can Hear Music   1968-12-13   2:31   5:17
Beach Boys   Barbra Anne   1968-12-14   2:01   24:32
Beach Boys   California Girls   1968-12-14   2:38   24:32
Beach Boys   Darlin'   1968-12-14   2:11   24:32
Beach Boys   Do It Again   1968-12-14   2:14   24:32
Beach Boys   Friends   1968-12-14   2:27   24:32
Beach Boys   God Only Knows   1968-12-14   2:47   24:32
Beach Boys   Good Vibrations   1968-12-14   3:33   24:32
Beach Boys   Sloop John B   1968-12-14   2:53   24:32
Beach Boys   Wouldn't It Be Nice   1968-12-14   2:12   24:32
Beach Boys   California Girls   1969-00-00   2:40   
Beach Boys   Breakaway   1969-07-03   2:54   12:17
Beach Boys   Cotton Fields   1969-07-03   2:15   12:17
Beach Boys   Good Vibrations   1969-07-03   3:34   12:17
Beach Boys   I Can Hear Music   1969-07-03   2:31   12:17
Beach Boys   Tears In The Morning   1970-12-15       
Beach Boys   Marcella   1972-05-02       
Beach Boys   Interview With Dennis Wilson   1977-00-00   3:20   
Beach Boys   All This Is That   1978-03-09   7:49   79:31
Beach Boys   Barbara Ann   1978-03-09   2:37   79:31
Beach Boys   California   1978-03-09   3:37   79:31
Beach Boys   California Girls   1978-03-09   2:54   79:31
Beach Boys   Catch A Wave   1978-03-09   2:29   79:31
Beach Boys   Country Pie   1978-03-09   3:39   79:31
Beach Boys   Do It Again   1978-03-09   3:16   79:31
Beach Boys   Everyone's In Love With You   1978-03-09   2:21   79:31
Beach Boys   Fun, Fun, Fun   1978-03-09   4:02   79:31
Beach Boys   God Only Knows   1978-03-09   2:57   79:31
Beach Boys   Good Vibrations   1978-03-09   6:12   79:31
Beach Boys   Help Me Rhonda   1978-03-09   3:45   79:31
Beach Boys   I Get Around   1978-03-09   2:12   79:31
Beach Boys   Lady Lynda   1978-03-09   2:57   79:31
Beach Boys   Little Deuce Coup   1978-03-09   1:51   79:31
Beach Boys   Rock And Roll Music   1978-03-09   2:40   79:31
Beach Boys   Sloop John B   1978-03-09   3:05   79:31
Beach Boys   Surfer Girl   1978-03-09   2:24   79:31
Beach Boys   Surfin' USA   1978-03-09   2:33   79:31
Beach Boys   Wouldn't It Be Nice   1978-03-09   2:56   79:31
Beach Boys   You Are So Beautiful   1978-03-09   1:24   79:31
Beach Boys   Interview With Mike Love   1979-06-09   2:26   
Beach Boys   Barbra Anne   1982-01-06   :19   13:00
Beach Boys   Fun Fun Fun   1982-01-06   1:09   13:00
Beach Boys   Good Vibrations   1982-01-06   :51   13:00
Beach Boys   Help Me Rhonda   1982-01-06   :26   13:00
Beach Boys   I Get Around   1982-01-06   :41   13:00
Beach Boys   Interview   1982-01-06   5:11   13:00
Beach Boys   Lady Linda   1982-01-06   3:21   13:00
Beach Boys   Shut Down   1982-01-06   :18   13:00
Beach Boys   Surfin' Safari   1982-01-06   :19   13:00
Beach Boys   Surfin' USA   1982-01-06   :25   13:00
Bruce Johnson (Beach Boys)   Tears In The Morning   1970-12-15       
Bruce Johnson (Beach Boys)   Disney Girls   1977-00-00       
Bruce Johnson (Beach Boys)   Pipeline   1977-00-00       
Bruce Johnson (Beach Boys)   Rendez-Vous   1977-00-00       


Hahahah, just found Pipeline on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lxGstAel7c

Wow....they have a Tears In The Morning 1970 clip listed - that would be so cool to see.

There's got to be a way for Bruce to slip that out of the vaults and on YouTube. How many hours are there, by now, of him mike-adjusting on that site? Probably more than the time remaining till the election. There should be room on there to see him do a tune that was probably more effective live than on record.

But it's pretty interesing to see just what this Reeling site handles. For one thing it seems to have the French TV show Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico did in '72.

   Phil Spector: wimpy ’20s sidekick yes man
               (“you tell ‘em baws!”)
(http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/doppleganger-spector.jpg)






http://www.uproxx.com/webculture/2012/09/1920s-celebrity-mugshots/#ixzz2B9I2qA3H

Ew, it looks like Phil Spector had a baby with Prince Charles.

Brian Wilson! What, me worry?

Listening to this now. Yeah...Phil on Merv Griffin was definitely not the "real" Phil. 

 Phil says the castanets on Zip a dee doo dah were inspired by Sweet Georgia Brown. I always thought so.

Exactly, the Phil that was hamming it up on the Griffin shows was, in my opinion, deliberately overplaying a role because that was why he was invited back as a recurring featured guest of the show. Many, many, many "celebrities" do this as a matter of fact in everyday life. If you're in the public eye, you'll need to flip the switch and be "on" for the public so they're not disappointed when they see you out at a restaurant eating a sandwich and you're not the person they know from the movies, or TV, or the boxing ring, whatever. That, right there, is the burden and the cause of so much crap in and around that business, and it has been for decades. When your image and the reality of who you are blur to the point of believing the hype, you'd better have a strong psyche or have a great psychologist on call to help sort it out before it gets out of hand...like Spector, like Belushi, like Sly, like any number of tragic tales.

Yet - a great, great point to take from the comments about the KHJ radio appearance - Phil Spector was a different person when he was *in his element*, which was music. Listen to the commentary - the man knew his trade, and was successful for the reasons we hear in his commentary, he could hear and perceive things a different way, and had a feel for his trade. But then again, there are also many reports of him acting like a diva when recording "Let It Be" overdubs on or around this same time period as the KHJ show where he'd throw up his hands and dramatically shout "I MUST have more STRINGS!" and play silly games with the volume faders on the board...this from a man who did not need theatrics like that to get results and ultimately who knew better.

So as much as the Griffin appearance may have been Phil acting it up a bit for comic effect, and the KHJ appearance was Phil as one of the best in his business, where or when did the "real" Phil come out? A conundrum, because the answer may be the real Phil was a combination of all the other public Phils we can see in the archives combined with the most recent Phil who landed in a courtroom with a suit and a mile-high hairstyle.

Well, when we talk about Phil, we should be speaking of his mental well-being in just about the same terms as Brian Wilson. The guy isn't all there in the everyday sense of the word.

This is true, and worth noting with Brian specifically is how some participants spoke of witnessing "the old Brian" coming out at the studio sessions for the last album, where the mannerisms, actions, reactions...all of it...reminded some of the Brian we hear on the talkback mic when recording the "Summer Days" album in '65, or whatever. When you put these guys in their element, no matter how much time has passed, there might be a bit more than a minor personality change to fit that situation..and a tendency to go back to what was once everyday, normal behavior in the process of getting the job done. Proof of that, form another source: Films like the Funk Brothers doc, where these guys who played every week together at one time got back together to play a few decades later and that groove, that connection, was still there as if they were in Motown's basement back in '67. Put them back in their element, that usurps quite a bit of the water that flowed under the bridge since the heyday.

Then again...One of the more sad Brian tales is when, in the early 80's at one of the lower points of his life, they tried to organize (force?) a Wrecking Crew reunion where they called the old players and participants into Western to try cutting a few songs like "the old days", and Hal Blaine for one says it broke his heart when not only did Brian not recognize Hal or much of the assembled group, but had trouble recognizing his own song Good Vibrations as he sat at a piano and noodled on a few riffs. I think he asked Hal what song it was, at one point, and it was GV.

So as much of a trigger as it is to get Phil talking about what goes into a hit record as heard on KHJ, or getting Brian manning the producer's chair for the first full Beach Boys session in years and getting some "classic" results and sounds, the undercurrent running under all of this is that the deeper issues will always be there.

The Western Session is the one where Brian recorded drip-drop. :(

"listen closely and you'll hear Dylan"  How did he figure that out. Maybe Phil hung out with Holland-Dozier? suppose they coached Levi in that direction,  and Phil just happened to have a drink with one of 'em and asked , " where did you get the  sound? "  because when he lays the Dylan thing on you, it's like he's got a hot tip or something.

For one, I think Phil was one of those in the business of making hit records whose ears were tuned in to everything going on, and when he'd hear a record he'd be listening with a far more critical ear than the average listener, or even the average musician - Producers are musicians but far fewer musicians can be producers.

I will add too that I have heard or read more than a few stories of "insider" spying (not in a malicious way) among those in the recording business at this specific time, with various folks actually taking jobs or getting tours of studios and control rooms looking for specifics of how different operations were doing certain things to give them a unique sound. Information was not widely published, some of the trade secrets among studios, engineers, and producers were more closely guarded because they did not want to reveal how or exactly why they did certain things or set up a board a specific way, because if they did they would lose their main selling point: If you wanted a record to sound a certain way, often the only way to get it was to actually go to a specific studio with specific equipment and rooms for that sound.

I read this from Bones Howe: He needed to book time to record something or work on something around Spector's "Wall Of Sound"...apparently at whatever time that was, it was still a secret in the industry, so Larry Levine had to tell him how they were patching into the echo chamber and the tape delay and all of that, where the order of how they tapped into those things was one of the keys to the "Wall". It seems simple now...yet Bones Howe seemed to suggest no one knew and he had to get it straight from the source. It is interesting that the closest anyone got to the fabled "Wall" in the mid-60's were those who were witnessing it firsthand, specifically those like Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers who made a record everyone thought was a Spector Wall production but it wasn't, in the aftermath of a feud they had with Phil...they watched and listened, just as Brian had done when he was "visiting" Spector's sessions.

Motown was another example: Several engineers I have heard about either went to or sent someone to Motown's studio(s) in order to find out how they were getting the echo and send/return setups on their boards. Wally Heider booked studio time at Brian Wilson's favorite Studio 3 at Western and measured, mapped out, and analyzed every inch and tile of that room, using those measurements and specs which he would later build into his own #3 at his LA facility. I forget who it was, but one studio set up a scene where they sent a young engineer to "learn the ropes" at a certain other studio which was known for cranking out great sounding hit records, and after serving this "apprenticeship" and learning how they did things, he'd come back and know what the secrets were.

I wish I could be more specific on that stuff, but all that information is both buried in my memory and inside stacks of books and mags on my shelves... :)

No doubt there was industry talk, industry chatter, and folks getting each other drunk and high at various times and getting each other to reveal secrets about how they were recording, what they were doing different, etc.