The Smiley Smile Message Board

http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/movies/30agony.html

Looking forward to seeing this. Thought the "demented" comment was way harsh. What a putz. I do love his work though.

Old news - it was shown in the UK and Europe about two years ago. And yeah, the guy is totally insane.

Sadly, I think Phil somewhere deep down knows that Brian ran circles around him, and resent that fact.   :jedi

I think that comment should be taken with a grain of salt - it's probably mostly for show. He's got a habit of dissing everyone - Leiber / Stoller, George Martin, Bruce Springsteen, you name it - this time it just happened to be Brian he took a stab at. Actually, to be fair, I remember reading in one of the Spector biographies that Phil expressed quite a bit of support for Brian during the 60s, acknowledging the kind of pressure he was under as the sole creative force in the group (at least in terms of writing and producing) up until that point. I think I read it in Mick Brown's fantastic 'Tearing Down the Wall of Sound' which is THE book on Spector.

I wouldn't recommend the bio though. Spector is given too much spotlight to polish his ego - it would have been better with more comments from those who worked with him back in the day like they had in that British documentary from the 80s. It could be seen on Youtube split up in parts until recently....

You may want to check out He's A Rebel by Mark Ribowski then, kwan_dk. It was written in 1988 and because Spector wouldn't get in touch with Ribowski he did something even better: talked to people who worked with him or were his inner circle and so on. It was a really excellent read and, I think, was better for the fact that it excluded commentary from Spector himself, allowing the author to talk to people who at least had less of an axe to grind compared to the man himself. Plus, I got the impression when I began (but never finished) reading Tearing Down The Wall Of Sound that it was going to be boring and true-crime-like -- which is sort of boring considering he's now in jail for killing the woman!

Yeah, you're right, that's a good read. And up until Mick Brown's book I'd reckon it was the best of the bunch that's been issued on Spector. I still feel though that Mick Brown's book is the most worthwhile read - not only has he also talked to a lot of other sources, including a few who haven't been interviewed before, he also had an interview with Spector to draw from, in the process not taking Spector's claims at face value but rather giving fair interpretations of why he says what he says. You should definately give his book another chance - it really gains momentum after the first introductory chapters...

Is there anywhere online where I can watch this?

Not anywhere that I've seen

What's the update on this? I can't find anywhere to buy the DVD, nor download, etc.