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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
Apr
14
Just in case you were wondering . . .
Filed Under Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, assholes, courts, misogyny, violence against women and girls | Posted by Cara |
What oh what does Cara, Feminist Beatles Fan Extraordinaire (wait, no one actually calls me that?), think about the murder trial and now conviction of Phil Spector, one-time producer to the Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison?She thinks he did it, and is both absolutely shocked and extremely fucking happy that his gun-waving, misogynistic ass is going to prison.
No, it has nothing to do with the fact that this asshole totally ruined the vast majority of the Let It Be album, or the fact that I think the wall of sound is generally overrated. Nor do I have any sympathy for him based on the fact that he is responsible for making one of my favorite songs of all-time (Let It Be, the song itself) absolutely perfect, or that he kinda, sorta produced great albums by both John and George when he could be bothered showing up.
The man certainly has been responsible for both wonderful and horrific things in the realm of popular music. It doesn’t matter though, in the least.
The man killed a woman. He has a history of being misogynistic and abusive. He has a history of waving guns around and threatening violence. And I believed that he pulled that trigger the moment I first heard the news that he was being investigated by police. It had nothing to do with what kind of record producer I think he is. It has absolutely everything to do with what kind of person I think he is.
My thoughts are with the family and friends of Lana Clarkson. She was not a “B-list movie actress” as I keep seeing her dismissively and somewhat titillatingly described. She was a person. She is dead now because one hateful, piece of shit man didn’t see her as such.
Nothing can bring Lana back, but I am so happy that some form of justice has been done in this case. My hopes from this point out may be unrealistic, but then again, I thought a conviction for Phil Fucking Spector was unrealistic, period. So, I hope that he spends the rest of his life behind bars.
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
It’s amazing what kinds of behaviour men can get away with because they’re “brilliant.” I still remember when my aunt’s husband was throwing her down the stairs, and people saying – “but he’s brilliant!”
My ASS is brilliant – and it doesn’t throw people down the stairs or shoot women in the mouth.
By all means, we have to appreciate the talented among us – especially when music and art are derided as frivolous – but that should never give them a pass.
I feel like – Lana Clarkson might never had died had people long ago realized that Spector wasn’t being “eccentric,” that he was acting like a deranged violent asshole.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but there was a ridiculous number of women who had testified to how he had pulled a gun on them in the past at this trial. None of them had the power to put a stop to his behaviour, and this is how it all ended up.
You’re absolutely right. Though the man is clearly a misogynist to the extreme, there are also lots of stories out there about him pulling guns on the male artists he was producing, as well. I mean, stories that have not been as well hidden as those by the women recounted at his trial (because of course men are able to talk about it without being deemed hysterical).
But it was always just laughed off. “Hohoho . . . oh that Phil Spector. So eccentric, he is! But that’s just how he works! WALL OF SOUND, PEOPLE, WALL OF SOUND.”
It’s true that the times he accosted musicians are well-documented. Of course, musicians’ lives are also important – nobody gives a shit about some “groupie.” And Clarkson was posthumously slut-shamed, from what I understand… Like, what was she doing going up to that house anyway? Well, guys, he’s a powerful man in the music business, and she’s struggling with her career. This sort of thing happens all the time, and no, it doesn’t excuse violence and it does NOT make the victim complicit in what happened.
Yup. I’ve seen lots of stuff too about how she was supposedly using him to score drugs, etc.
Like . . . I have no idea of that was true. But if it was: so? Seriously, so? Women who do drugs deserve to get brutally slain by unhinged, misogynistic record producers? WTF?
John Lennon was among those threatened with a gun by Spector – Spector killing him is the Point of Departure from our timeline in an essay in one of the Alternate History anthologies
Also, he threatened the Ramones with a gun. He just loved to wave guns around; if there were no women around, he would deign to point them at men, even famous ones.
Ecstatic to hear this news, since my blog threatened to turn into the Phil Spector Trial blog last year. I was very bummed when there was a hung jury. Good riddance to a misogynist, woman-hating pig.
Thank you for this post. Thanks for being thrilled that he is finally being put away.
And less importantly, but still important to me: thanks for saying her ruined Let it Be, and that the Wall of Sound isn’t all that. Adding strings where they don’t belong isn’t all that revolutionary. It made rock n roll sound like Big Band, but wrong.
“her ruined” should say “he ruined”. Ehh…