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Spector article
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-spector10feb10,1,7404384.story?coll=la%2Dhome%2Dheadlines
Friends Say Spector Was in Dark Place
Efforts on a comeback album had fizzled and he was drinking after giving it
up. I have devils inside me, he told a London paper.
PHIL SPECTOR
By Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer
Candid friends of Phil Spector will admit that the bodyguards who prowled
the night with the famed record producer were really in the business of
protecting him from one dangerous person -- himself. So it's telling that
five months ago, Spector apparently decided that the wild life was so far
behind him that he no longer needed a hired shadow.
He came to that decision at a shining, hopeful moment in his life. His
friends say he had been sober for three years and far removed from the days
when he was notorious as a raging, erratic genius with a penchant for guns.
He also was giddy at a chance to return to the studio and reclaim his legacy
after two decades in music industry exile.
His friend, divorce attorney Marvin Mitchelson, now rues the moment Spector,
62, let the bodyguard leave his Alhambra mansion. "I can't help thinking,"
Mitchelson said, "that if he still had a bodyguard, none of this would have
happened."
What has happened is the death of Lana Clarkson, a 40-year-old actress who
also worked as a hostess at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.
Sheriff's investigators say the actress was shot in the face and found in
the foyer of Spector's home about 5 a.m. last Monday. A short time later,
Spector was arrested and subdued by police (law enforcement sources say a
taser-like device was used) and booked on suspicion of first-degree murder.
He is now free on $1-million bail. More than one gun was recovered at the
scene, these sources say.
The events of that Monday morning remain hazy, but based on two dozen
interviews with Spector's friends, authorities and others, it appears that a
man who had been hailed for his recovery was in recent weeks in a darker
place. A chance to produce a comeback album had fizzled, and he acknowledged
he was on medication used to treat schizophrenia. It also appears that he
was drinking again, at least in the hours before his arrest.
The owner and staff of Dan Tana's, one of his favorite restaurants, said
that Spector had two rum cocktails there after 12:30 a.m. Monday morning.
Sources also say he then went to the House of Blues, where he bought a
Bacardi 151 rum drink. House of Blues employees have said they saw Clarkson
leave with Spector in his chauffeur-driven Mercedes S430 about 2:30 a.m.
Friends grimly greet the news of him drinking again. "I haven't seen him
drink in years," said Bob Merlis, the longtime music industry publicist.
"The Phil I have known in that time is charming and witty. He's a unique
character. I've never met anyone like him. You know how they say you
shouldn't meet your heroes because they will disappoint you? Phil didn't
disappoint."
Taking Medication
In January, though, Mick Brown interviewed Spector for the Sunday Telegraph
of London, and his article presents an edgy Spector, one more reminiscent of
his state in the 1980s or '90s. "I have not been well," Spector told Brown.
"I was crippled inside. Emotionally. Insane is a hard word. I wasn't insane,
but I wasn't well enough to function as a regular part of society, so I
didn't. I chose not to. I have devils inside me."
Spector also said he took medication used to treat schizophrenia, although
he "wouldn't say I'm schizophrenic .... I have a bipolar personality, which
is strange. I'm my own worst enemy." Still, he stated, he was benefiting
from the medication. "I'm a completely different person than I was three
months ago, six months ago, nine months ago."
The Telegraph article presents him as a Norma Desmond-type, a show biz
eccentric in a shaggy toupee locked behind mansion walls. The piece was
published a week ago Sunday, less than 24 hours before his arrest. The
producer also had been hearing his name in the press in the days before that
with coverage of Paul McCartney's plan to excise all of Spector's
contributions to the Beatles' "Let it Be" album and reissue it.
There have been other recent changes in Spector's life. Besides the
departure of his bodyguard, former LAPD officer Jay Romaine, another of his
familiar circle was gone. The producer divorced Janice Spector more than a
decade ago, but she had remained his secretary. That changed in the past few
months, Mitchelson said. She could not be reached for comment. She and the
producer had twin children, Nicole, 20, and Philip Jr., who died of leukemia
at age 10.
Many of Spector's friends have not seen him since the holidays, when they
say he was gregarious, sober and stable. Mitchelson even noted that Spector
rolled his eyes at one party when the pair encountered a well-known
personality who was tipsy.
It was not unusual for Spector's friends to go weeks without seeing him and
keep in contact through his many e-mails, most of them jokes or curious
snippets of philosophy. A recent one bemoaned the unfairness of old age and
imagined a life in reverse, finishing with years of glee, warmth in the womb
and climaxing in conception.
Mark Ribowsky, author of the unauthorized Spector biography "He's a Rebel,"
said an alarming theme ran through much of it. "It's always guns," Ribowsky
said. "Guns. Stories about him pointing a gun at somebody. He made it the
'in' thing: guns, dark sunglasses, bodyguards. He was the first mad genius
of rock 'n' roll."
Last week, Johnny Ramone recalled how Spector used guns to exert control in
the 1980s. "We were prisoners at his house; he wouldn't let us leave," said
the member of the former punk rock group the Ramones. "Dee Dee [Ramone] said
something, and he pulled out a gun and started waving it around ... he kept
saying, 'You're not leaving, nobody's leaving.' "
But much of the lore is hyperbole, said Dan Kessel, a guitarist who appeared
on many Spector projects, including ones with Cher and Leonard Cohen. Kessel
"practically lived with Phil for seven years" but later saw him mostly at
Spector's annual bowling parties in Montrose. Those parties have been a
Spector metaphor -- they used to be wild scenes but in recent years have
taken on the bonhomie of a company picnic.
"A wild rock guy? Right," Kessel said. "And do you think Alice Cooper goes
to sleep with the snakes? A lot of the stuff in the old days was just show
biz, theater."
In any case, Kessel and others said, he had walked away from that life, and
the most important step was away from liquor. Spector never went into a
formal rehab program, Mitchelson said, but he was under psychiatric care and
three years ago realized that "the drinking was destroying him, physically
and emotionally."
A week ago, at Dan Tana's, the drink order was so out of the ordinary that
the bartender left his post to visit Spector's table to check it. "He has
been coming here for years, but in the last two or three years, only soda,
never alcohol," said a longtime employee of the restaurant. Spector, who
often dined there with friend Nancy Sinatra, is well known for his lavish
tips, and on this early Monday morning he left $500. He was reportedly
joined at Dan Tana's by his caterer, a waitress at the Grill in Beverly
Hills.
Investigators are tight-lipped on the details of Clarkson's death, and there
are conflicting reports about the nature and duration of any relationship
between her and Spector. There is at least one indication their night was
not a spontaneous liaison; as news first spread of Spector's arrest,
investigators received a call from a Clarkson relative who was aware that
the two had planned to be together.
The gloom that now surrounds Spector is in stark contrast to the bubbly time
in September when he let go a bodyguard. The producer had just traveled to
London for a gig he was confident would reinstall his reputation. The new
group was the British quartet Starsailor, the first rock band that he had
guided since the Ramones in 1981.
Spector's career began when he was a Fairfax High student in the late 1950s,
and by age 21, he was a millionaire. His signature was a symphonic approach
to pop with strings, percussion, horns and guitars creating layered power.
His resume includes "Be My Baby," "Da Doo Ron Ron," "You Lost That Lovin'
Feelin' " and "Stand By Me."
In 1995, after 14 years of silence, he reemerged. He was going to helm a
Celine Dion album and, enthused, he invited friends into the studio to
watch. Many who attended hailed the results, but the music remains
unreleased. Mitchelson cites a business dispute as the cause.
Savvy Businessman
Spector, a savvy businessman, demanded not only studio control but also
ownership of most of his '60s recordings. That led to lawsuits by artists
but has also given him a steady revenue stream. In a court decision last
year, the Ronettes of "Be My Baby" fame lost a bid to share more in the
song's success, which the singers say netted them less than $15,000 in
royalties. The Ronettes were led by Ronnie Spector, the producer's second
wife.
The Starsailor opportunity was one Spector hoped would add a second act to
his career. Starsailor has been praised for songs such as the plaintive
"Fever" and uplifting "Good Souls," which showed the influence of Tim
Buckley, whose 1970 album gave the band their name. Spector's daughter
Nicole introduced the music to her father, and he eagerly told friends he
believed he could again spin gold music.
The sessions were at Abbey Road studios in London, the same site where
decades ago Spector toiled on "Let It Be" and George Harrison's "My Sweet
Lord." His daughter joined him on the trip, as did Mitchelson and his wife.
Spector had hopes of a whole album's worth of work. Instead, he guided four
or five tracks and was later told that only one would make it on the album
later this year. The band has declined to comment. The band's lead singer,
James Walsh, told a British music weekly: "It was like two worlds colliding.
He's not done much for a long time. He's learned a lot from us about how
studios work these days, and we learned from him about older techniques."
Spector's friend Mitchelson, who has won record divorce judgments in cases
with names such as Jagger and Dylan, also has film projects on the side. One
is "Wall of Sound," the Phil Spector story. On the last page, the main
character returns to Abbey Road in triumph with a new band.
"That was the last scene, the happy ending, the comeback," Mitchelson said.
"But now, I just don't know how it's all going to end."
Times staff writers Daniel Hernandez and Richard Cromelin contributed to
this story.
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