Passages

[hearthesilence]

Edward Fletcher, aka Duke Bootee, the pioneering rapper who co-wrote and appeared on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s classic “The Message.”

[Never Cursed]

Phil Spector

[Blutarsky]

Phil Spector

I knew this was coming. Phil had never been, by both physical and mental standards, “healthy”. Since the release of “River Deep - Mountain High” and his marriage to Ronnie Spector nee Veronica Bennett, Spector had bouts of reclusion, drug abuse, and a life threatening car accident that took his life in the seventies. The “Wall of Sound” he created is, even today, one of the most exhilarating listening experiences. “Be My Baby”, “Then He Kissed Me”, and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” are rightfully deserving of their place as some of the greatest pieces of pop music ever recorded. His work on Let it Be may still be controversially, but his work on John and George’s solo albums are essential to their breakthrough post-Beatles.
However, it goes without saying that his eccentricities as a producer also led to some awful events. Lana Clarkson was lost way too early, Ronnie Spector was mentally tortured, being held prisoner in their mansion with her kids, and drawing a loaded gun on the Ramones. It is incredibly sad that we lost Phil, but it is important that we remember his legacy as a titan of the music industry, and his failures that led to suffering of others.

[hearthesilence]

Phil Spector

I knew this was coming. Phil had never been, by both physical and mental standards, “healthy”. Since the release of “River Deep - Mountain High” and his marriage to Ronnie Spector nee Veronica Bennett, Spector had bouts of reclusion, drug abuse, and a life threatening car accident that took his life in the seventies. The “Wall of Sound” he created is, even today, one of the most exhilarating listening experiences. “Be My Baby”, “Then He Kissed Me”, and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” are rightfully deserving of their place as some of the greatest pieces of pop music ever recorded. His work on Let it Be may still be controversially, but his work on John and George’s solo albums are essential to their breakthrough post-Beatles.
However, it goes without saying that his eccentricities as a producer also led to some awful events. Lana Clarkson was lost way too early, Ronnie Spector was mentally tortured, being held prisoner in their mansion with her kids, and drawing a loaded gun on the Ramones. It is incredibly sad that we lost Phil, but it is important that we remember his legacy as a titan of the music industry, and his failures that led to suffering of others.

A great artist and a complete shit. Thoroughly scarred by his upbringing, but also enabled by too many people in the music business. Tom Wolfe's profile on him remains a classic. Darlene Love's new Rolling Stone and Variety interviews where she discusses every crappy thing Spector did to her is worth reading - in the end, she won her court battles and complete vindication.

[dustybooks]

Nik Cohn’s profile of Spector from The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll is magnificent (eerily capturing him in all his seclusion as of the early 1970s) and quite prophetic, but doesn’t seem to be online anywhere sadly.

[Blutarsky]

hearthesilence, I completely agree with you that a great artist and complete shit. It was very interesting reading the reflections by Spector’s former label artists. If any book is worth reading is both Tom Wolfe’s legendary essay and Ronnie Spector’s memoir “Be My Baby”. Her escape from his mansion is truly heartbreaking and horrifying.

[Lemmy Caution]

Phil Spector telling a story about Otis Redding:

Like when I met Otis Redding the first time. Otis says, “Hey Phil” – man, I loved Otis – we were just gettin’ along famously talking, having dinner and he says, “How long you been knowin’ Omelet?” I just sort of laughed ’cause he said “Omelet,” and I know his name is Ahmet not “Omelet.” And I said, “About seven years.”

And he said, “Omelet is just too much, he’s too much.”

I said, “Yeah he sho’ is.” Afterwards, I went over to Ahmet Ertegun and said, “Ahmet, how long you been knowin’ Otis?”

He said, “Oh, about three years.” I said, “And you mean he calls you ‘Omelet’?”

So he says, “That’s right man. You know he calls the office all the time and he asks for Omelet, and they don’t want to hurt his feelings by telling him my name is Ahmet.”

Otis was not a dumb colored cat. You know he was a smart cat and knew what was happening. If he ever knew that Ahmet’s name was not Omelet, he would have been real upset, you know. And none of the secretaries told him ’cause they thought, “Oh, man, maybe a dumb spade.” And also they loved him and didn’t want to put him down, but he’d get on the phone with Jerry Wexler and he’d say, “How’s Omelet doin’?” Wexler would say, “Oh, Omelet’s fine Otis, Omelet’s doin’ real good, Otis.” The poor guy called him Omelet all his life.

{Note: Phil Walden, Otis’ close friend and personal manager, says Otis knew Ahmet’s real name, but thought it was a laugh to call him “Omelet.”}

But they love Ahmet for that, because he looks like Lenin, he has his beard and he’s sophisticated and he come on and he jives all these cats and he goes to Harlem and he cooks and he smokes the shit and everybody digs him.

From a long and zany 1969 interview.

[Aunt Peg]

Jean-Pierre Bacri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Bacri

[domino harvey]

I know he's better known for all his Jaoui colabs, but I'll always remember him for the weird friendship he forms with Michel Serrault in On ne meurt que deux fois even after Serrault spits spent pistachio shells at him!

[Feego]

John Richardson, of COVID-19

[skilar]

Nathalie Delon, of cancer

[captveg]

Another baseball Hall of Famer, pitcher Don Sutton.

[MichaelB]

Legendary stuntman Rémy Julienne who, amongst many other credits, did the stunt driving in The Italian Job and was Roger Moore's stunt double on multiple Bond films.

[FrauBlucher]

Hank Aaron... the bad news just keeps coming for baseball royalty...RIP

[bearcuborg]

Hank Aaron... the bad news just keeps coming for baseball royalty...RIP

Man, tell me about it... I can’t imagine any true baseball fan doesn’t consider him the true home run king.

[colinr0380]

Legendary stuntman Rémy Julienne who, amongst many other credits, did the stunt driving in The Italian Job and was Roger Moore's stunt double on multiple Bond films.

I cannot remember the title now but I still recall a stunt driving programme on ITV that used to play all the time on weekend afternoons and was full of Rémy Julienne's stunts, even namechecking him and following the behind the scenes shooting of the car crash scenes. I think he was probably the first stuntperson that I ever heard of by name. This sequence from Target might be representative of his style (driving cars up and down flights of stairs seemed to be one of his key stunts). I also see that he was the Stunt Co-ordinator on Jackie Chan's Operation Condor: Armour of God II, which I guess means that he was involved with this scene!.

And in recent years he worked on everything from Taxi 2 to The Da Vinci Code!

Ah, I should have just searched his name! Here's a video of his stunts (which with all of the bumping and grinding going on would probably work as the ultimate fetish video for the characters in Crash!) as well as an Italian advert for a Fiat car that seems to be about the most fraught school run ever!

[fiddlesticks]

Hank Aaron... the bad news just keeps coming for baseball royalty...RIP

Man, tell me about it... I can’t imagine any true baseball fan doesn’t consider him the true home run king.

I remember every detail of 715; I don't remember anything at all about 756, or even if Bonds is still atop the list.

[ando]

I remember every detail of 715; I don't remember anything at all about 756, or even if Bonds is still atop the list.

Yep. R.I.P.

[okcmaxk]

Larry King

[domino harvey]

Prob the biggest non-politician Covid death yet, right?

[bearcuborg]

I guess it’s telling how treatable the virus is with good health care if he is the biggest celeb to die from Covid.

I’ve heard Larry’s radio show was much better than his syndicated show on CNN. Some years ago I heard some great snippets of Larry interviewing Stan Freberg, here’s hoping his estate will do a podcast with this old interviews...

Part of the fun of seeing the Dodgers in the last few NLCS WS baseball games was watching Larry King.

[colinr0380]

He seemed the go-to person for cameoing in faux news reports in films at a certain point in the mid-90s (usually underlining the message being put forward a bit too much) which is really where I'm most familiar with him. Films such as Contact, Costa-Gavras' Mad City, Enemy of the State, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and inevitably a lot of the political films of the Clinton period: Dave, Primary Colors, Bulworth, The Contender.

[bearcuborg]

He has a cameo in Ghostbusters, from his radio show, smoking his brains out.

[Never Cursed]

That last one (along with the recently circulating meme of him interviewing Danny Pudi) were the immediate things I thought of when I heard his passing

[Pavel]

Screenwriter Walter Bernstein