I Eat Music

Songwriter Ellie Greenwich has died aged 68 from a heart attack, following a bout of pneumonia, her niece told reporters yesterday.

Born in Brooklyn in 1940, Greenwich, with her husband Jeff Barry, became known as one of the most successful pop songwriters of the 60s, working out of the Brill Building in Manhattan, which also provided working space for other songwriters, including Carole King, Burt Bacharach, Hal David and Phil Spector.

Amongst a string of hits, she and Barry penned songs such as ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ and ‘Then He Kissed Me’ for The Crystals, ‘Chapel Of Love’ for The Ronettes (written with Phil Spector), ‘Doo Wah Diddy Diddy’ for Manfred Mann, and ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ for Ike & Tina Turner. One of the couple’s most famous songs was ‘Leader Of The Pack, a collaboration with producer Gordon ‘Shadow’ Morton, which was a hit for The Shangri-Las in 1965. The couple were inducted into the US Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1991.

Greenwich had begun writing songs as a teenager, and her first commercially released work was ‘Silly Isn’t It’ in 1958, which she performed herself under the name Ellie Gaye for RCA. She released her first solo album, ‘Ellie Greenwich Composes, Produces And Sings’ ten years later, as an early project for Pineywood Music, the writing and production company she set up with Mike Kashkow in 1967, following her divorce from Barry. She also provided backing vocals for artists such as Dusty Springfield, Bobby Darin and Frank Sinatra in the 60s and 70s and continued to produce other artists, including Neil Diamond.

In 1984, many of her 60s songs were given a new lease of life by the musical ‘Leader Of The Pack’, written by Anne Beatts, with a story based on Greenwich’s life. It transferred to Broadway’s Ambassador Theater in 1985 and ran for 120 performances.

Greenwich is survived by a sister.

Phil Spector’s publicist Hal Lifson has released letters written by the producer from prison in which he says that he fears for his safety amongst “all these lowlife scumbags, gangsters and Manson types”, which I’m sure will make them all warm to him all the more.

However, making friends may not be so important, as he adds that he is trying to get himself transferred to “a better prison with people more like myself in it”. To be honest, I’m not sure there are that many people like Phil Spector out there. Although it is possible that’s because they’re all filling up one US prison.

One of the “Manson types” Spector refers to is actually Charles Manson. As previously reported, Manson recently contacted Spector about making some sweet prison music together (not a euphemism, I mean he actually wanted to make some music). Spector told Lifson at the time that he was worried about the effect being associated with Manson might have on the appeal against his 19 year sentence for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

Despite all this, he said that his spirits were kept up visits from his wife, Rachelle, who makes the round trip of 800 miles to the prison from their Alabama home twice a week. He said: “She’s a real trouper – all in all, it’s like a dream come true having her by my side again”.

Spector also added that food parcels she brings him help him to feel safer, as it means he doesn’t have to go to the dining hall with the other inmates: “I know it is a chance to get out of my cell going to the dining room but the less I see of the inmates, the better and safer I feel”.

		While Damon Albarn has said he’d like to let Blur go out on a high after the recent reunion shows, Graham Coxon has other ideas: "I’m up for doing another [album] – it would be a really interesting thing to do. I don’t want it to be like ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’ or nostalgic bollocks. I want it to be a development. There’s nothing saying there’s a great big ‘No’. My gut feeling is, ‘Why not?’"
		According to Phil Spector’s publicist, Hal Lifson, prison isn’t actually that nice: "Phil Spector was always a highly productive, creative person and now he’s in a five by nine foot cell with no windows and maybe a half hour outside to walk around. It’s essentially solitary confinement. It’s a terrible existence for a millionaire record producer who lived in mansions and most recently in a castle, a 35-room home"
		The Game says he’s ready for war over derogatory lyrics on Jay-Z’s new album, even though Jay-Z says they’re not about him and rap feuds are silly: "He’s slick, man. You gotta watch that cat, man. I’m probably the only rapper in this world besides Nas that’s really not scared to go at this dude’s neck. He knows if he goes to war with me, then it’s going to be never ending, man"
		Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden reveals that he’s working on an autobiography, probably (it’s due to be published next year): "I’m lightly working on one, but I don’t want to put a book out there if it’s not actually meaningful. I’m not going to go there unless I can deliver. If I put a book out, I want it to be something that matters to me. It has to be real, you can’t just put a book out to put a book out"
		Ian Brown reveals he’s written songs for Kanye West and Rihanna. And where can we hear these songs? Er, Ian Brown’s new album: "We wrote this song called ‘Vanity Kills’ [for Kanye] but we were a bit late sending it in, so I’ve kept it for the album. ‘Stellify’, we wrote for Rihanna, but as we got to the end of writing it I thought, ‘You know what? I’m gonna keep this for myself, we’ll give her another one’"
		David Byrne takes a shot at U2 for perhaps not being as right on as they’re always telling us to be: "Those stadium shows may possibly be the most extravagant and expensive (production-wise) ever: $40 million to build the stage and, having done the math, we estimate 200 semi trucks crisscrossing Europe for the duration. It sure looks just a wee bit out of balance given all the starving people in Africa and all"

These quotes, as regular readers should now be aware, were taken from the 31 Jul 2009 edition of CMU Weekly. In it we gave away a Chris Isaak Christmas DVD. Imagine! Read it in full here.

Phil Spector’s publicist has revealed that the noted producer and murderer isn’t having much fun in prison because there’s not a lot to do. Turns out it’s not like a holiday camp, after all.

Hal Lifson told the BBC 6 Music: “He’s doing fair, at best, if not worse than fair. He’s not doing great. He’s in a horrible situation with virtually nothing to do all day. Phil Spector was always a highly productive, creative person and now he’s in a five by nine foot cell with no windows and maybe a half hour outside to walk around. It’s essentially solitary confinement. He doesn’t have computer access, he only recently got a little TV. It’s a terrible existence for a millionaire record producer who lived in mansions and most recently in a castle, a 35-room home. It’s a huge, huge change of life for Phil Spector and a devastating turn in his life”.

Yeah, he’s got a point. Celebrities should probably be allowed to go to a special, more fun celebrity prison, or just serve their sentences at home.

Lifson also said that Spector was worried about reports in the press that he had been contacted by that other murdering chap Charles Manson about a possible musical collaboration. Quite rightly, he thinks that an association with Manson might not cast him in the best light when he comes to appeal his sentence next year. The publicist said: “Phil Spector has been very, very alarmed and scared at the notion of Charles Manson contacting him for any reason. He is very worried that any association be made between himself and Charles Manson. He mentioned that he used to get phone calls from John Lennon and Tina Turner and now it’s Charles Manson calling, so he said, ‘Go figure’. It was kind of a dark humour comment”.

Speaking about the producer’s appeal, he said that he will take his case to state court next year. If that appeal fails, he will go to the federal court of appeal in Washington.