Phil Spector, rock legend and convicted murderer, dies at 81
Phil Spector, circa 1970.
(JTA) - Phil Spector, the massively influential rock composer and producer who murdered a woman and spent his declining years in jail, died at 81.
Spector died Saturday at a hospital in French Camp, California, of COVID-19 complications, The New York Times quoted his daughter, Nicole Audrey Spector, as saying.
Spector was born into a Jewish family in the Bronx, New York. His father committed suicide when Spector was 8 years old, and his mother moved the family to Los Angeles, where they settled in Fairfax, a neighborhood with a substantial Jewish population.
Spector was, above all else, a murderer who had loads of abuse allegations levied against him. According to his ex-wife, Ronnie Spector, he kept a gold, glass-plated coffin in the basement and used it to intimidate her into staying with him. Dee Dee Ramone alleged that Spector pulled a gun on him during a recording session. Other artists who have accused him of holding them at gunpoint include John Lennon, Leonard Cohen and Debbie Harry.
Said Ronnie in her 1990 memoir
Be My Baby on her decision to leave her ex-husband in 1972: I knew that if I didn t leave I was going to die there.”
Dec 29, 2020
It s Christmas time, but we all know you can only play so much Bing Crosby and Mariah Carey before you ll go mad. Thankfully, there are plenty of rocking Christmas gems out there that tend to fall under the radar.
Many rock icons have tried their hand at Christmastime staples, with mixed results. (Sometimes it
is better to leave things to Crosby and the other classic crooners, after all.) But from Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, guitar gods have successfully livened up the otherwise straight-laced proceedings, or at least given the tunes more personality. Meanwhile, other rockers have just gotten, well, a little weird with things, whether it’s peak Weird Al taking the piss, the Pretenders getting new wave, or Fall Out Boy shutting down any chance of mistletoe romance. All around, they prove that with the right imagination, you can inject a harder-rocking spirit into Christmas music mall holiday playlists be damned.
Dan Blakeslee to celebrate Christmasland Jubilee Dec. 19 at Stone Church
By Christopher Hislop
You know what we could all use right about now? Something to feel good about. Something that brings a smile to our face, and some pep to our step. Something with spirit. Something with hope. Something to call in the holiday season, and call out the year that’s been 2020.
Who better to deliver all of the above than Dan Blakeslee? He signs off his last correspondence with me with, “be enchanted, stay enchanted.” And that’s a much more poignant statement than probably even he realizes. Sure, things have been dark. Things have been drab. But, there’s always light if you will it into your life. And the soundtrack to the light I’ve let into mine is the new holiday record from Mr. Dan, “Christmasland Jubilee.”