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MOJO's Rock Couples #4
12:42 PM GMT 24/03/2009
Where to start? Phil's insistence that Ronnie drive around LA with a dummy of himself in the passenger seat so as not to look "available"? Or the couple's visit to a gospel church where he carried a gun and wore a huge afro wig for the occasion? Phil and Ronnie's uniquely dysfunctional marriage is most entertainingly documented in her autobiography, Be My Baby. No one comes out of this story well but for a short time at least, theirs was one of music's most glamorous and intriguing pairings.
Husband and wife between 1968 and 1974, the triumphs of their producer/singer partnership were largely behind them (though he did win his only Grammy for The Ronettes' (Walking) In The Rain in 1965 - for best sound effects) when the couple started their married life in Phil-imposed exile, holed up in his Los Angeles home with the lights dimmed to conceal his increasing hair loss. He spent their wedding night at his mother's (whom he hadn't yet told about the wedding). Certainly Ronnie's side of the story does not suggest anything approaching a happy marriage but as a cautionary tale of how a controlling relationship can be fruitful in the studio but disastrous in private, it's invaluable. [JB]
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 12:42 PM GMT 24/03/2009
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