"I look at sound like a painting, you have a balance and the balance is conceived in your mind. You finish the sound, dub it down, and you’ve stamped out a picture of your balance with the mono dubdown. But in stereo, you leave that dubdown to the listener—to his speaker placement and speaker balance. It just doesn't seem complete to me."
Quote By Brian Wilson
Phil Spector,not the usual star of the time found in pop music,he was not a performing artist but a producer and song writer.A visionary,an insane genius and an egomaniac,rolled into the one fragile mind.
His genius lay in the structure of a song and how it should sound,from 'Be My Baby' by the Ronnetes to 'Imagine'by John Lennon,and oh yes John Lennon,the man Spector held at gunpoint to finish his abysmal 'Rock And Roll' Album,not even Spectors magic could save it.As motivation in the studio goes,Phil Spector was a breed apart.
Spector had a vision,that vision came to life in the studio,instead of a standard five or six piece band to record simple pop songs,he used up to thirty musicians,and so began making his infamous 'Wall Of Sound'.
But Why Mono?
I once seen an interview with Sterling Morrison,one time guitarist with the Velvet Underground,he stated with regard to their debut album,'The Velvet Underground & Nico',the only original way of listening to it is in Mono,the way it was recorded,as the album has more power and more contrast .
He had a point,albums in Mono are as close to replicating what happens in the studio,a fact little known is that originally Stereo was a concept record companies believed would never take off.The then stereo mix put onto releases were done by apprentices in the studio and not the actual fully qualified in house engineers.Which why in recent years so many re-releases of albums have gone on the market which boast tidied up original mixes,the reason being a lot had to be.
The difference between stereo and mono can be heard first hand on recordings such as 'Eleanor Rigby' by the Beatles,where the main vocal after the original chorus slips over to one speaker,in the mono mix it is centred,same point for 'Purple Haze' by Jimi Hendrix,the vocal out one speaker the music out the other,again the mono mix has them centered giving the song a lot more power.In fact the Beatles recordings are littered with nuances lost in the stereo mix,rectified however thankfully with the 2009 releases.
I try as much as I can to pick up a Mono release especially when buying pre 1970 releases,from the Kinks to the Small Faces and even recently Scott Walker,to me the music flows and no instruments are lost as the sound rolls out of the speakers.Phil Spector was a troubled man,his demise overshadows what he achieved when his name is mentioned,but he saw a future in the Mono format,and many would agree he was actually right.Even with the power,engineers and money,he still preferred to record in the original format...Mono.
