Not a single music superstar came forward to support “Wall of Sound” producer Phil Spector as his trial for the murder of blond B-movie actress Lara Clarkson kicked off yesterday - and it’s not surprising, considering how he bitterly trashes many of them in an upcoming biography.
Mick Brown, author of “Tearing Down the Wall of Sound,” out in June from Knopf , interviewed Spector - who produced The Beatles, the Ramones, Ike and Tina Turner and the Righteous Brothers - just weeks before Clarkson was shot in the face at his sprawling mansion outside L.A. And Spector didn’t mince words about the biggest acts in pop and rock history.
* Michael Jackson is “the most depressing, heinous thing,” Spector said. “Starting out life as a black man and ending up as a white woman. What’s that all about? But the King [of Pop]? He’s no King . . ”
* On Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys leader and songwriting legend who battled mental illness for years, Spector declared, “I don’t feel sorry for Brian Wilson. I never thought he was that talented to begin with . . . I’d be more impressed if somebody with a brain idolized me.”
* Oasis, the British band fronted by Liam and Noel Gallagher, are “jerks.”
* On Tina Turner: “I made her famous, and she resents that . . . But give it up, for God’s sake . . . Why say, ‘[Bleep] you.’ Just leave me alone.”
* Bruce Springsteen, who borrowed the “Wall of Sound” technique for his breakthrough hit “Born to Run” in the 1970s, “should have paid me royalties . . . Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery until it becomes plagiarism.” Spector also said the Boss’ career is stale: “He’s protected himself with three new songs and 25 old ones.”
* On Motown founder Berry Gordy: “I don’t see Berry doing very much. Wrote some good songs, ‘Money’ and all of that. But beyond that I feel there were more talented people in the organization.”
* And on “American Bandstand” legend Dick Clark: “That’s where payola started. Everybody around Dick Clark went to jail, except for Dick Clark.”
When Brown asked Spector who his closest friends were, he presciently replied, “My attorneys.”
(Via pagesix)