Tearing Down the Wall of Sound

August 27, 2007
Currently on trial for his life, accused of the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, hit maker and Wall of Sound creator Phil Spector has been the subject of much recent media interest. Brown's detailed biography of Spector begins with his working-class childhood, continues through his glory days as a musical wunderkind and mysterious recluse, on up to the moment when he is alleged to have killed Clarkson. Porter's reading of Brown's biography does a solid job of hitting the high notes, maintaining an even tone and reading with understated panache. Porter is workmanlike, trekking through Spector's up-and-down life at an even clip with a careful, documentary-film–narrator assurance. He likely should not stray too far from his phone, for the inevitable posttrial version of the book. Simultaneous release with the Knopf hardcover (Reviews, May 28).

Starred review from December 31, 2007
This eminently readable and thoroughly researched biography from U.K. journalist and author Brown (The Dance of 17 Lives
) chronicles the roller coaster life of legendary (and legendarily bizarre) music producer Phil Spector, a man propelled by genius, insecurity, paranoia and rage. Spector's career was off and running before his 20th birthday, when he penned and produced the 1958 Teddy Bears hit, “To Know Him Is to Love Him.†Soon enough, Spector was perched atop the industry, a dazzling figure in flashy suits and six-inch Cuban-heeled boots, who produced dozens of hits for the Crystals, the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers; worked with the Beatles and the Ramones; and defined the “wall of sound†technique that would change audio forever and bring the first strains of pop music into the world of serious art. And yet Spector remained anxious, paranoid and vengeful (“the little guy rubbing the big guy's nose in itâ€), secluding himself for years at a time and prone to unpredictable, dangerous outbursts—in other words, a time bomb. Brown makes a chilling account of Spector's most recent brush with detonation—the 2003 shooting death of a woman in Spector's home—in a chapter titled, “I Think I Killed Somebody,†featuring new interviews and grand jury testimony released in 2005. Stacked with incredible anecdotes, Brown's entertaining and nuanced portrait lifts the fog of myth and outright falsehood (including Spector's own) that have obscured the celebrity producer (like an enormous, gravity-defying wig) through the years.