May 29. 2009

Phil Spector (AP)

Record producer, Phil Spector, has been sentenced to 19 years to life in prison, for the murder of indie actress Lana Clarkson.

Spector's fall from grace was an expected, but nonetheless, astonishing one. He engaged in self-destructive, abusive, criminal behavior for many years, flouting the law, due to his celebrity status.

Phil Spector in the 60's

He is the originator of the "Wall of Sound" music recording technique. It emphasizes using duplicates of the same instruments in live studio recordings, to create a full, rich sound. He was one of the top producers of his day. He did real music. Not the garbage you hear on the radio now, where everything is sampled and over processed.

Ronnie Spector

However, Spector was a paranoid, controlling, manipulative man that held his own wife, singer Ronnie Spector and his son, captive in the family's mansion. His son said he was not allowed to leave home much and forced to pee in a pot in the corner of his room. Spector, a privacy extremist, kept all the curtains closed, for fear anyone would see he was going bald.

Hollywood tends to bring out the worst in people. With some, their worst, is criminal conduct. You can add Phil Spector's name to that long list.

What is it about Hollywood that makes people go insane. So many countless Hollywood stars have fallen from grace in a terrible way, many of them ending up incarcerated.

Spector needed an intervention badly, but due to his fame and wealth, no one wanted to, until it was too late for Lana Clarkson, who he shot in cold blood.