Like Phil Spector built his “Wall of Sound” – Rolling Stone

Spring 1963: Mice and rats – producer Phil Spector builds the “Wall of Sound”

“I think everyone liked to work with me, but they hated gold star,” says Phil Spector about the small, wet studio in Hollywood, where his classic “Wall of Sound” singles were created. “In the gold star there were shit, mice, rats, cockroaches, a 90 percent probability that they cracked your car outside, and a toilet seat on which you got felt lice.

All musicians had some and passed them on to their women and friends – I bet, these felt lice have a few long -term relationships on their conscience. ” But, he adds, “Who did that take care of? It had a great area. ” This hall room consisted of concrete boxes, each about one meter high and a little over a meter wide, and was one of the most important building blocks in Spectors “Wall of Sound”.

Another was his merciless perfectionism. The man, to whom Tom Wolfe missed the nickname “Tycoon of Teen”, was a merciless Schinder in the studio: the members of his house band (internally called “the demolition command”), had to rehearse their pieces until they fall over, and Spector had the arrangements repeat until he got what he wanted.

More musicians than fitted into the studio

Last but not least, it was the sheer quantity of musicians who produced this sound: in early 1963, when he started the recordings for “Be my Baby”-as part of a series of 20 monster hits between 1962 and 1966-the producer stuffed more musicians into the studio than actually fitting. Two bassists, five to six percussionists, five to six keyboardists, a five -member wind section, a drummer and seven to eight guitarists.

“Seriously, we often had to stack people,” explains Spector. “It was not unusual that two or three pianists were on the same instrument – one in the upper register, the second in the middle and the third below – together with a harpsichord, an electric piano and a piano.” In the center of the entire madness bombast was the 17-year-old singer (and later Mrs. Spector) Ronnie Bennett, who was so shy that she basically only practiced in the cloakroom. She needed three days for the singing, after which spector laboratories for three months around the song until he was finally satisfied.

“I was constantly in the studio, changed something, then changed again to get it even better. I had to hear the piece hundreds of times and every overdub was critical. I went home when the others needed sleep. I couldn’t sleep anyway. “