Inside the Dark, Twisted Mind of Phil Spector, Musical Genius-Turned-Murderer
The question of how to feel about art created by monstrous artists has risen to the fore over the past decade courtesy of high-profile scandals involving, among others, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen, and Michael Jackson. Spector, directors Sheena M. Joyce and Don Argott’s four-part Showtime docuseries (Nov. 4) about the legendary “Wall of Sound” music producer Phil Spector, cops to having no absolute answer on that subject. What it does know, however, is that Spector was guilty of the Feb. 3, 2003, slaying of 40-year-old actress Lana Clarkson in the mogul’s palatial Pyrenees Castle home in Alhambra, California. An examination of a maniacal titan whose compulsions finally resulted in murder, it’s as even-handed and comprehensive as it is damning beyond a reasonable doubt.
Spector attended his trial in a variety of outlandish wigs that were highlighted by a giant afro that became a running pop-culture joke and stands as arguably his defining image—not only because of its sheer ludicrousness, but because it speaks to his derangement. Spector makes plain that the reclusive producer’s 2003 killing was less a random incident than the culmination of lifelong compulsions and hang-ups that began at an early age, when his father committed suicide and, consequently, saddled him with abandonment issues. On top of that, his mother and sister were apparently a tyrannical pair with whom he violently fought, inspiring a combativeness—and, it’s implied, a latent anger against women—that festered as the clan moved to Los Angeles and Spector, attending Fairfax High School, proved himself a musical wunderkind.
With his group The Teddy Bears (alongside singer Carol Connors, who’s one of many collaborators and acquaintances featured here), the 19-year-old Spector had a No. 1 smash with 1958’s “To Know Him Is to Love Him”—a title taken from his father’s tombstone. Before long, he was forming his own record label (and splitting with his controlling mom and sister) and developing a uniquely symphonic style known as the “Wall of Sound” that became the veritable soundtrack for a generation. Through interviews, archival clips and recordings, and photographs, Spector captures not just the revolutionary nature of that approach, but the way in which it arrived at the right moment in time, helping create a modern—and previously non-existent—teen culture. Seismic hits would follow with the likes of Tina Turner and the Righteous Brothers, cementing his status as a musical genius.