Comments on: In Defense Of ‘Stupid’ Song Ideas https://tonyconniff.com/in-defense-of-stupid-song-ideas/ Songwriter, Producer, and Coach, based in New York City. Fri, 25 Oct 2019 04:07:35 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Rusty Rogers https://tonyconniff.com/in-defense-of-stupid-song-ideas/#comment-7641 Fri, 25 Oct 2019 04:07:35 +0000 http://tonyconniff.com/?p=4395#comment-7641 Sonny Bono told a story about Phil Specter. Bono was a percussionist and Yes-Man for Specter. Specter was listening to playback of some classic, like, “Da Doo Ron Ron.” And Specter says, “This is just so dumb!” Bono-the-Yes-Man doesn’t get it. And he says something like, “Yeah. It’s really stupid, Boss. But we’ll record something better tomorrow.” Specter stops him, and says, “No. We’re listening to Pure Gold!”

From The Baltimore Sun: (Bono, talking about Specter.)

Is it dumb enough?

“He was saying, ‘Is it simple enough communication to be just totally understood in just plain language?’ and he summed all of that up in, ‘Is it dumb enough?’ ” Bono told the Los Angeles Times, one of innumerable newspapers that published Is-Sonny-Stupid? stories after he was elected to Congress in 1994.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-01-07-1998007141-story.html

I think I got the Da Doo Ron Ron story from the linear notes of the Specter Boxed Set, “Back to Mono.” I wouldn’t buy the set today. Because now I know what a psychopath Specter is and was. And yes, that clouds and taints my impressions of his music, even his production. I can’t listen to PYT by MJ for similar reasons. Maybe I need to buy, “Let It Be: naked”? But I like the strings. I enjoy the goop. I like the Wah-Wah, even if I don’t need it.

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