Phil Spector Interview (Merv Griffin Show 1965)

[halblaineisgood]

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

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

[EgoHanger1966]

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

[rab2591]

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

THIS.

[KittyKat]

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

THIS.

HOO-ah!

[halblaineisgood]

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

THIS.

HOO-ah!

Indeed!

[roll plymouth rock]

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

[EgoHanger1966]

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

[rn57]

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.

[halblaineisgood]

   Phil Spector: wimpy ’20s sidekick yes man
               (“you tell ‘em baws!”)







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

[Letsgoawayforawhile]

   Phil Spector: wimpy ’20s sidekick yes man
               (“you tell ‘em baws!”)







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

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

[Cyncie]

   Phil Spector: wimpy ’20s sidekick yes man
               (“you tell ‘em baws!”)







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

Brian Wilson! What, me worry?

[halblaineisgood]

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

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

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

[halblaineisgood]

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

[guitarfool2002]

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.

[I. Spaceman]

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.

[guitarfool2002]

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.

[SMiLE Brian]

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

[halblaineisgood]

"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.

[guitarfool2002]

"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 Holland-Dozier 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.