The Smiley Smile Message Board

Has Brian ever said a world about Phil Spectors recent trouble with the law, it's pretty obvious that he's not getting of the hook with this, which means jail time for Brian's hero, it would be beyond intresting to hear his thoughts

I think I remember Brian saying something around the time of Spector's arrest to the effect of "I don't believe he could have done that".  I would guess that Brian, in his typical "naive" fashion, wants to believe that Spector couldn't have done it and ignores the reality that he probably did.

Yeah, somebody was interviewing him and asked him about it, and he said something like "Oh, he couldn't have done that, you don't think he did, do you????"

Brian has been quoted as saying he thought the shooting was an accident.

It's nice that Brian is publicly supporting Phil, especially when Phil says stuff like this:

"I don't feel sorry for Brian Wilson. I never thought he was that talented to begin with . . . I'd be more impressed if somebody with a brain idolized me."

The quote is from the new Phil Spector biography called "Tearing Down the Wall of Sound", by Mick Brown.

turns out the guy is just as paranoid and on at least as many medications as Brian, but that's no surprise to many.

fellow on another forum shared this story:
"I met Spector without realizing it in 1969. I was working in the record sales department of a big music store called Wallach's Music City, in Hollywood. (Anybody who was in L.A. during that time will know the place.) Spector walked in, and I waited on him, At the time he seemed like just another anonymous customer. He asked me if I was familiar with the song "River Deep Mountain High"and I told him I loved the record and wished that the LP would be released soon.

The next day I received a package containing a test pressing of the LP and a thank you note from him. I still have the test pressing."

 :lol

I remember hearing a story on this board a couple of years ago (by whom i'm not sure) but apparently (!), Brian had for years been scared of Phil and was convinced that he was going to shoot someone (or him), but this firend said 'Don't be ridiculous Brian..', and that the day after the Spector thing came out in the media, Brian phoned him up and said 'I told you so!', or something to that effect.
I know that is the worst told story but my memory is poor, someone will have to fill in the gaps!

If the jury is still out at this writing, we are looking at a hung jury, and a possible re-visitation of this case...

Not necessarily.  It can take some time to reach a verdict in any case, especially one this complex.  I don't think the prosecution made a slam-dunk in terms of how this crime came off, forensically speaking.  They put a lot of eggs in the driver's testimony basket.  I can't figure out how Phil could have shot her at close range (and he would have had to, for all the damage to her mouth) and wound up with relatively little blood on himself.  Yet, how and why she would shoot herself is also a big question mark.  It's surprising she would be the one to wind up dead when Phil has a history of threatening people he was far more involved with (and therefore had greater motivation), and never wound up shooting any of those people to death.  Beyond a reasonable doubt is a pretty high standard, too.  It's why OJ was acquitted.  He had the means, motivation, and opportunity to commit those murders, but it was hard from the jury's standpoint to figure out how he did it and managed to be so clean and blood-free in a short period of time.  He probably did the crime, but how?  It's the same deal with Phil.  They presented incriminating evidence, yet the prosecution had a hard time crossing every t and dotting every i for the crime scene.   I'm sure that's what the jury is trying to figure out right now, and I'm not sure how they'll rule.

Ah, the American justice system at its finest.  ::)

In a summer of 1977 issue of NME Spector was effusive with praise for Brian. He said basically that Brian was a sweet guy and that he was glad he was getting back on his feet. He also spoke of Brian being competitive about popularity and not interested in money. He ended his statement by saying that he didn't consider Brian a competitor.

I don't think anyone with a knowledge of Spector's previous gunplay incidents with women who wanted to leave and how he gets when he drinks has any doubt what happened - but the defense did a pretty good job of creating reasonable doubt with their forensic experts, that may be what gets him off.

Forget Marie basically nails it, I would just remind all that the jury could come back with lesser convictions like voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, or assault/battery, plus I assume some firearms violations were charged.  So I'd be surprised if he walked on everything.  But yes there is sure a lot of, uh, stuff for the jury to shovel their way through and that will take time.  Dominick Dunne reported from the trial and thought the prosecution did a good wrap-up and summation.  But, yeah, it's L.A., who knows how it will turn out.

I really don't think he deliberately murdered her.  I even doubt he ever intended to shoot any of the other people he threatened with guns, because he never did.  He did even more sick things to scare Ronnie, such as buying a coffin for her.  Phil's deal was intimidation.  However, guns are really dangerous to play with.  I takes very little to make one go off.  It's just amazing no accidents happened prior to this.