The Voice

Oh fuck, was Phil Spector on to something good. Before he went insane, grew that killer afro, held the Ramones captive in the studio and pulled a gun on Leonard Cohen (a buddhist?), he locked Ronnie Spector up in a castle somewhere in L.A. In light of Spector's other famous hollywood hills incident, Ms. Spector got off pretty easy. But before Flip could lock Ronnie up he had to discover her along with the Ronettes, produce the living daylights out of them and then marry her. Going with the obvious - post-castle lock up he felt the need to try and take everything away from Ronnie Spector. But there was one thing, no maybe two, he would never be able to take away from her: That Voice and that unwavering spirit.
But enough about Phil "I've never done anything sane in my life since I was 23" Spector. Ronnie Spector and that voice represent everything great about this country and her new album, "The Last Of The Rock Stars" proves this without missing a beat or Whu-Uh-Oh note. There aren't enough words in this writers' vocabulary to give praise to Ms. Spector. I have never heard her sing anything I didn't want to repeat forever and if the little voice in my head could sound like that then the mundane would be amazing and everything else would be a packed beach or a drive to the burger joint. Oh wait that's Brian Wilson's imagination.
Ronnie began her career as a Ronette. Was there a better girl group? If so please let me know or keep it to yourself because you'll ruin the post. After the Ronettes, she released a few solo L.P.'s and a bunch of E.P.'s (one produced by Joey Ramone and the other made up of Marshall Crenshaw songs - does it get any cooler for the record geek than that?). I beleive there are also is a 45 of Bruce and the E-Street band backing her up. If anyone has access to this please inform me. Maybe its the fact that Ms. Spector has never oversaturated us with music over the last several decades and the result is a craving for her to sing just about anything.
So the point of this post was to highlight Ms. Spector and her new album which finds her playing with the Greenhornes, Patti Smith, Joey Ramone, The Raveonettes and Keith Richards (a duet no less). This is a post of the lead off track Never Gonna Be Your Baby. Any song where she sings "baby" is bound to be a good one. Also included is a take of You Can't Put Your Arm Around A Memory by Johnny Thunders (Richard Hell, I'm the guy passing you every afternoon on the east river).
The new record displays the full circle of Ronnie Spector's music and the music of the wall of sound girl groups which after traveling across the country to the West Coast morphed into the type of music the Beach Boys made popular. After criss-crossing the country again that little bit pop, tiny shake of harmony, and lots of attitude found its way into the New York early punk scene with the Ramones, The Dolls, JT & The Heartbreakers, and many other bands. From there, what the Ronettes did has been tweaked and altered so many times that I'm sure there are a few bands out there that don't even realize the impact Ronnie Spector and her girls had on their band and its' sound. I could be wrong about that but for sure the landscape of modern music would be a little less fun without the influence of Ronnie Spector.
If there is one important tidbit to take away it is this: The sound that comes out of Ronnie Spector is bliss and one that no one else can produce. It's a reminder of everything pure about music and growing up in this country, in that Beach Boys, Everly Brothers sort of way (in a time where it is sometimes hard to be an American in a global context these folk make it worthwhile). And honestly, Ronnie Spector doesn't seem to get the recognition she deserves, even by critics whose occupation it is is to remind us of things we need to listen to and consume, So I propose that like Roy Orbison we try and get Ronnie Spector a stamp (for godsakes she put up with Phil Spector and deserves us to stick her to an envelope and send her all over the globe so no one in Denmark can forget. In summation, Ms. Spector's been around since the dawn of rock and roll and its time we appreciate her for her contributions.