Dr. John Tears Down Phil Spector’s Wall Of Sound
Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” production is widely considered one of the most innovative techniques in rock music history. However, there’s one man that was never impressed by it and he was there, Dr. John.
Mac Rebennack better known as Dr. John was part of the “Wrecking Crew” in the 1960s, the group of L.A. based studio musicians who played on an enormous amount of recordings of TV themes, jingles, film scores and pop songs, many produced by Spector.
Dr. John recently stopped by the Ron and Fez Show on SiriusXM’s Raw Dog Comedy Hits 99 to talk about his new album, “Skat-Dat-De-Dat: The Spirit of Satch”, a loving tribute to work of one his hometown New Orleans musical heroes, Louis Armstrong.
While discussing his L.A. sessions days, Dr. John told host Ron Bennington, what he thought of Phil Spector and the real purpose of the Wall of Sound – “He claimed to have a ‘wall of sound’. But I have no memory other than I thought they was padding the payroll.”
Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” is one of his lasting musical and producing legacies. He would layer the sound of the instruments on recordings – using double and triple the string sections and have extra musicians play several guitars and pianos and include an extensive horn section. It can be heard extensively on Spector productions of the Ronettes’ songs like “Be My Baby”, Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” and the Beatles’ “Let It Be” album.
Today, Dr. John believes the Wall of Sound was all about charging the labels more money. At the time, he found Spector’s methods confusing.
“You know, Phil used to keep all the strings in one room. Now, this is two different rooms he’s hiring out for the session and all of the rhythm section in another room. And maybe two or three horns and I could never figure that one out. And I was like – what is this? Because all the keyboard players would be playing and like “dinkle, dinkle, dinkle” and all the guitar players would be playing something else. It just didn’t make no sense to me.”
Dr. John’s new album “Skat-Dat-De-Dat: The Spirit of Satch” will be released Tuesday, August 19th and available at Amazon.com and on Dr. John’s website, NiteTripper.com
