Phil Spector-Back To Mono (1958-1969) (1991)

 

Artist:  Phil Spector

Title:  Back To Mono (1958-1969)

Label: ABKCO

Format: 4CD Box Set

Cat #: 7118-2

Year of Release: 1991

Country and Year of Edition Issue:  US 1991

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 1/18/21

Sell Price: $29.99

Discogs Last Sold: 1/17/21 NM/NM $29.99

Low: $6.39 VG/VG

Median: $26.77

High:  $42.68

Current low price: $35 NM/VG

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 36

Have/Want: 1442/211

Where Sold:  Northville, MI

Time it took to sell: 5 years

Where and When Bought: internet late 90's early aughts

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A+

Sad To See It Go: Yes

"Ben Spector.  Father. Husband.  To Know him was to love him."-Ben Spector's tombstone 4/49

"As I said many times while he was alive, he was a brilliant producer,  but a lousy husband"-Ronnie Spector 1/17/21

One can only imagine the impact on Spector looking at his father's tombstone at the age of 9.  His father was an ironworker who committed suicide.  These chiseled words became a driving force behind Spector's international hit as guitarist and producer of his short lived band the Teddy Bears.  

Listening to Back To Mono over 4 discs today was often mind blowing.  Yes, Spector was sick.  That's part of what made him a potential God among men.  What happens when a sickie gets immersed in a sick culture?  You hope he gets stuck in a studio busy with work and really wish he didn't have access to firearms as John Lennon and the Ramones could famously attest to many many years before it became his downfall.  Sadly,  in this life as in all lives are no Gods, only emperors without clothes.

Perhaps the ultimate song on the whole box is "He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)” by The Crystals.  It says more about life than just about any song you can think about.  You can look at it metaphorically or literally.  You can look at it as a feminist anthem or see it as the brainwashed parroting the will of their abuser.  The Spector world is made up of willing participants that evolve into unwilling ones.  Performers, wives, casual dates and I'm sure many many others played Russian roulette for a trip to the sun.  The whole world was a complicit story to his suffering.  Until it wasn't. 

The hits will endure.  The decade plus encompassed on this record transcend race, gender, genre.  Even the Christmas album that is included, whose songs individually are almost unlistenable in their annual overexposure--at least 75% of 'em.   A Phil production can even find sexual depravity with Santa.   One can only wonder if Mommy did a lot more than kiss Santa after Daddy was six feet under.  Maybe even before.   Nobody wants to hear Phil's creepy "Silent Night", which sounds from the heart.  A psychopath's Christmas wishes it turns out are very much like the Christmas wishes of everyone else.   

I have a deep consternation with the $29.99 I got for this box.  I really feel like I should've got 50 or 60 which is closer to what I paid for it 20-30 years ago.  I immediately looked at the pricing when Spector passed and saw that I was still above many of the copies for sale.   I know the biggest runs on an artists catalog comes immediately after they die.  I was lazy when Bowie passed but I was early in listing my collection and got high prices for most of his catalog within 12 hours of his passing.  5 years later, my prices are dropped strategically over time to goose the stock since Discogs dutifully sends a reminder whenever someone adds or changes price to a title on someones want list.  Even pricing UP can sometimes result in a sale for this reason.   Yes, the copy before me of Back To Mono also went for $29.99 in similar shape, but it was still gnawing at me as I left the price alone.   Within a day mine was gone.   One might pat me on the back for pricing well played in line with market rate, but I was still disturbed.   Then I noticed I had put the title up in the wrong section not realizing Back To Mono was released in 3-CD without the Christmas album and 4-CD editions.  Well I checked the 4-CD box and the low end was $35 there.  The Back To Mono box on Discogs is a shitshow full of missing cds, boxes, booklets.   Someone could very well replace a damaged part with a good one, much like a car.  I proved this when I had an extra disc 2 of the 4 disc Nuggets box.  Someone bit on that for $10.  I don't think I gave more than a cursory flip through the booklet.  "I'll spend more time with that someday" I thought to myself.  A quarter century later I still didn't have time to read the booklet before it went out the door, but I did rip the discs as WAV files for this listen, something I rarely bother to do.  Figures I didn't bother to headphone listen, just played it through computer speakers as I did some tedious spreadsheet work that was done around disc 3.

I'm gonna run the hits by you of the top of my head without cheating or looking at the track list.  "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Spanish Harlem," "Be My Baby," "River Deep Mountain High," "He's So Fine," "You've Lost That Loving Feeling," "Unchained Melody,"....ah I can't think of any more until I can.  There was a nice Beatle cover of "Hold Me Tight" by The Treasures that I never really noticed before.   Dylan clearly got something out of "Corrine, Corrina" by Ray Peterson.  Of course, the Ramones had their hand with Spector on End Of The Century and took a crack at The Ronettes "Baby, I Love You."  

I still feel like I could've gotten 50 or 60 if I jacked it up and held out a bit.

To know him is to love him.

And I do.