WALL OF SOUND

'Wall of Sound' is a phrase used to describe the effect created by the music production techniques of record producer Phil Spector.

Contents

Description

Criticism

Other references

Wall of sound in other hits

Shoegazing

Sources

Description

Spector usually worked at the Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles because of its exceptional echo chambers, essential to the Wall of Sound technique. To create the effect, Spector arranged the songs for large groups of musicians playing instruments traditionally associated with orchestras (such as strings, woodwinds, and brass), as well as instruments not generally used for ensemble playing (such as the electric guitar). Microphones in the recording studio captured the sound, which was then transmitted to an echo chamber—a basement room outfitted with speakers and microphones. The signal from the studio would be played through the speakers and would reverberate around the room, being picked up by the microphones. The echo-laden sound was then channeled back to the control room, where it was transferred to tape.
One of the elements of the Wall of Sound was a group of Los Angeles based Session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew. Members of this group included Hal Blaine, Glen Campbell, Tommy Tedesco, Carol Kaye, Leon Russell and Jack Nitzsche.
The natural reverberation and echo from the hard walls of the room gave his productions their distinctive quality and resulted in a rich and complex sound when played on AM radio, with an impressive depth rarely heard in mono recordings.
Songwriter Jeff Barry, who worked extensively with Spector, described the Wall of Sound as:
:"basically a formula. You're going to have four or five guitars line up, gut-string guitars, and they're going to follow the chords...two basses in fifths, with the same type of line, and strings...six or seven horns, adding the little punches…formula percussion instruments — the little bells, the shakers, the tambourines. Phil used his own formula for echo, and some overtone arrangements with the strings. But by and large there was a formula arrangement."
The Wall of Sound may be compared with “the standard pop mix of foregrounded solo vocal and balanced, blended backing”. In contrast, “Phil Spector's 'wall of sound' (‘one mike over everything’) invites the listener to immerse himself in the quasi-Wagnerian mass of sound:
:"…he buried the lead and he ''cannot stop'' himself from doing that…if you listen to his records in sequence, the lead goes further and further in and to me what he is saying is, 'It is ''not'' the song...just listen to those ''strings''. I want ''more'' musicians, it's ''me''”
(again Jeff Barry, quoted in Williams 1974, p.91).
:This can be contrasted with the ''open'' spaces and more ''equal'' lines of typical funk and reggae textures [for example], which seem to invite the listener to insert himself in those spaces and actively participate.
(Middleton 1990, p.89).

Criticism

The Beatles' album ''Let It Be'' was re-produced by Phil Spector and is cited as a famous example of his "Wall of Sound". Paul McCartney claimed that the production had ruined the work, particularly McCartney's composition "The Long and Winding Road", and a "de-Spectorized" version of the album was released as ''Let It Be... Naked'' in 2003. George Harrison and John Lennon ostensibly favored the production style, continuing to use Spector on various solo projects. Though Harrison's ''All Things Must Pass'' and Lennon's ''Imagine'' and ''Rock 'n' Roll'' albums featured Spector's production techniques subsequent to the ''Let It Be'' release, each musician would later echo McCartney's misgivings over the style.

Other references

The term "wall of sound" (also known as "sheets of sound") was also frequently used to describe the improvising style of tenor sax player John Coltrane, particularly his way of running through scales rapid fire—the individual notes blurring into a larger pattern. Also, the sound system the Grateful Dead used on their 1974 tour was called the Wall of Sound, which included 89 300-watt solid-state and three 350-watt vacuum-tube amplifiers generating a total of 26,400 watts RMS of audio power.
In the 1990s, English Rock Band Oasis rose to fame, and their trademark sound became known as the "wall of sound."
Raymond Scott nicknamed the vast array of homemade sequencers and synthesizers that took up a wall of his studio the "wall of sound".

Wall of sound in other hits

"Be My Baby", a 1963 hit for The Ronettes, written by Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich and produced by Phil Spector, is often cited as the most perfect expression of the Wall of Sound. The Ronnie & The Ronettes version of "Sleigh Ride" - one of the better known versions of the song - also heavily used the effect, while Swedish pop group ABBA used a similar technique in one of their most famous songs, "Dancing Queen". Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's landmark ''Born to Run'', which includes more than 30 guitar tracks has also been described as incorporating Spector's "Wall of Sound". The most recent example of the Wall of Sound technique was in Mariah Carey's holiday hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You". In fact, the song was produced so similarly to Phil Spector's Christmas productions of the 1960s that many are unaware that the song is in fact an original composition.
Another famous example of the Wall of Sound technique was Harry Nilsson's hit "Everybody's Talkin'," which became the theme song for ''Midnight Cowboy.''

Shoegazing

Shoegazing, a style of alternative rock, is heavily influenced by Wall of Sound. Common musical elements in Shoegaze are distortion and fuzzbox, droning riffs and a Phil Spector-esque wall of sound from noisy guitars. Typically, two distorted rhythm guitars are played together and give an amorphous quality to the sound. Although lead guitar riffs were often present, they were not the central focus of most shoegazing songs.

Sources

★ Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music''. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.

★ Williams, Richard (1974/2003). ''Phil Spector: Out Of His Head''. Abacus. ISBN 0-7119-9864-7. Cited in Middleton (1990).