10 Greatest Phil Spector Songs (Part 3)

Continued from last post

7) The Ramones- Do You Remember Rock N' Roll Radio

The Ramones' "End Of The Century" was the last full album that Phil Spector has produced up until this day. (April 15th, 2009) It was made in 1980 and its sessions were famously tense, with the band members disastisfied with a lack of input and complaints that Phil had pulled a gun on them. Pulled a gun on them. ("If Socrates leaves his house today he will find the sage seated on his doorstep. If Judas go forth tonight it is to Judas his steps will tend". Maeterlinck said that. "We prophesize ourselves, Phil will pull a gun again"- I said that). Although individual members of the band didn't like this record I think it's great. "I Can't Make It On Time" is one of the best Ramones songs ever, the cover of the Ronnette's "Baby I Love You" is as good as the original, and "Do You Remember Rock N' Roll Radio" is a classic Phil Spector single. Joey was an awesome lyricist who could take a simple phrase and in the context of the song make it very powerful. "It's the end, the end of the '70's. It's the end, the end of the century" is a hell of a line and as pretty close to perfect as it gets. An arrangement that could have edged over into being bombastic (and I'm sure some people think it is) instead just ends up sounding huge. It was what Phil was good at, huge but with a heart beating solid at the center. And if Joey didn't have the voice of Ronnie or Darlene he was always just as sincere about the great truths of life; like John Lennon, T.Rex and 'Ol Moulty. (The 'Ol Moulty in the lyrics refers to an obscure 1966 song by the Barbarians about their drummer Moulty who lost his arm in an accident. A lost classic, remembered lovingly by Joey and the boys).






8) Walking In The Rain- The Ronettes

There are so many incredible Ronette's songs that narrowing them down to a couple to put on a list doesn't do them justice at all. Almost everything they ever recorded with Phil is worth listening to, (I say almost not because I know of some that aren't but just in case there are some that I've never heard) and almost every one sounds like a top ten hit to me. But just to set the record, here's some more Ronette's songs that I'm not putting on the list but are just as good as anything on it. ("Baby I Love You", "So Young", "You Baby", "Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love", "Do I Love You", "You Came, You Saw, You Conquered", "The Best Part Of Breakin' Up", "When I Saw You", "I Can Hear Music" and whatever others I'm forgetting right now). There's something more than epic about this song though. The whole structure of the song feels somehow strange and beautiful. "Full fathom five thy father lies, of his bones are coral made, those are pearls that were his eyes, nothing of him that doth fade but doth suffer a sea change into something rich and strange" wrote Shakespeare, walking through his own Tempest. And the storm in that play is the rain that Ronnie loves. Rich and strange, like blue opals and white pearls piled up in heaps on a crysal sea floor. Tempests like this are rain worth walking through. We are such stuff as dreams are made on; like walking in the rain, and wishing on the stars up above, and being so in love.




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