As for being "wacko," I prefer the term "genius." If you look at people like Patty Duke, Ted Turner, Buz Aldrin, Johnathan Winters, James Taylor (and many more), you will see where people with "mood disorders" that make them appear "wacko" when they are on drugs or alcohol are quite likely going to be the same people who will invent the better mousetrap.
Phil's use of overdubbing was waaaaay ahead of its time (The Wall of Sound), as were many of his abilities. People like the Beatles don't hire someone to produce their albums based on whether they are a half bubble off of level (as who in blazes isn't when they're 3 sheets to the wind)!
Phil is and was a private man, one taken into himself to find his inner strength and inspiration...a trait not uncommon to many geniuses. Einstein was one given to sleeping a couple hours and then getting up to do his mathmatics thing.
It seems to be a natural thing for people who are linear-thinking to scorn the intuitive thinker(s).
Having met the man, I can say he was an incredible reader of human nature and people, spent many hours listening to people in groups of one kind and another, and when my "second dad" became is bodyguard back in 1968, Phil was lecturing about the recording business and life in general to standing-room-only crowds.
To get real glimse into this fellow, read his biography entitled "Out of His Head," and then come back from reading our all-too-prevalent "yellow press" coverage of what happened. And in case memory doesn't serve me correctly, wasn't the line "innocent until proven guilty" somehow applicable to information?
Or did that only apply to court findings and not the press...
Onward & upward,
Gordon
aka "A Friend of Phil"
