The Many Eccentricities of Phil Spector

He’s a hermit.

He’s a bit of a recluse, living first behind gates and “keep out” signs and then – a castle. He kept his mansion dark all the time and didn’t really leave at all.

He didn’t grant an interview to anyone for a good 25 years until talking to Mick Brown of the Telegraph in the UK. He didn’t work for about 23 until producing two songs for a Starsailor record.

He put up an electric fence around his mansion and employed bodyguards – as if the fence weren’t enough.

Not an average kid…

Cheated at Monopoly and Scrabble as a kid.

Dreamed of being strangled in his youth.

In his early years of songwriting, he told all he met he was a genius.

His parents were first cousins.

His given first name is actually Harvey.

Temper, Temper!

He held ex-wife Ronnie prisoner in their mansion when they were married.

When she was on tour with the Ronettes, he’d call make her leave the phone next to her face on the pillow so he could hear her breathing all night long.

He bought her a mannequin replica of himself for her to keep in the front seat of a sports car he bought her. He was a bit possessive of her because he was afraid she’d “run off” with a Beatle, according to biographer Richard Williams. Then Spector hooked up with the Beatles himself, salvaging a Let It Be album in which the title track was devoid of strings and choir at that time.

Spector once pulled a gun on The Ramones during an argument as they were recording. That’s not all though; he allegedly held a gun to a former girlfriend/employee’s head in two separate incidents. His violent, curse-ladden outbursts were legendary. If you think Alec Baldwin’s voicemail to his daughter was bad, you never were on the receiving end of one of Spector’s ragefests.

According to the prosecution today, Spector had a pattern of getting drunk, taking a woman back to his place, then when she wished to leave he’d forbid her. He’d threaten her with a gun to force her to stay.

Had a reputation the preceded him as a control freak.

Phil Spector Links:

A rare Spector interview by Mick Brown

Richard Williams, Biographer, speaks about Spector

The Prosecution’s Opening Argument today