If you wanted another proof that prison is not a good place to age, some very shocking pictures of Phil Spector have been floating around the internet these past days… they are simply scary as hell, terrifying as death,… yeah I see death when I look at this famous face, ravaged by whatever happened in jail, like loneliness, isolation, rumination… I don’t know what can go through Spector’s head these days, but remember, he was sentenced to 19 years after being found guilty for the murder of his girlfriend Lana Clarkson, so it can’t be pleasant.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel much compassion for the guy, he should have been arrested long ago, when he was threatening with guns artists and musicians he was working with, when he was hitting and abusing women… if you read anything about the guy, you’ll have no doubt he was a complete asshole, a gun freak with a dangerously violent temper. Unfortunately, what happened to Lana was highly predictable.
So remove the wigs and add to this face 5 years in jail and you get this Gollum entity with giant ears and eyes looking straight at you, embodying all your worst childhood nightmares… it makes you almost regret these big afros he was wearing during the trial.
However, this is the face that gave The Beatles’ ‘Let it Be’, The Ronettes’ ‘Be My Baby’, Righteous Brothers’ The Unchained Melody’ (and so many other classics) to the world. He represents the perfect example of this constant dilemma of mine, the hard task to separate the man from the art, the pervert from one of the most influential shapers of today’s music.
