Phil Collins outsold Genesis!?! And other related surprises.

Yeah I sure miss KFMH.

 

It's the Bee Gees effect isn't it, the public love you so much that they give you so many hits making you ubiquitous and then turn on you for being ubiquitous.

 

Or else there was a real decline in quality in Collins's solo work. The first two albums were soaked in the pain of his divorce, but also informed by his excitement at working the R&B he loved into a Genesis-type sound. Third and fourth albums were the streamlined commercial version of same, with tons of hits. After that (Both Sides, Dance into the Light, Testify) it really turned to mush.

 

Well there's 2 ways to take that, and neither really makes sense.

1 - if by "famous drum sound" he means the drum machine - well it was already there.

2 - If he meant the real drums, well they don't come in until less than a minute before the end of the finished track, plus I'm sure Phil would have been there to say "and this is where the big drums will come in..."

The idea was that half the Duke album would be group written and the other half solo written - 2 songs each. I can totally understand why they picked Misunderstanding as it was a probable hit, but I can't understand why they picked Please Don't Ask as pretty much everything that ended up on Face Value was better than that and In The Air Tonight most definitely was.

 

I still think you'd have to hear it, not just have it described to you.

It's hard to remember now what it was like hearing the song for the first time, but every other time you listen to it, the song is full of tension as you wait for the release of the drums. I really think if you heard a demo without that it just wouldn't have the same impact. The songs they chose for the Duke album have more of the kind of melodic movement you'd expect to hear on a Genesis album, even though they're not dense proggy songs. "Please Don't Ask" is not unlike the ballads Tony liked to write, though more simple.

When it came time for Abacab they were willing to put that type of song from Phil on with "Man on the Corner," though it hardly has the same impact...