I was digging through my Mp3 saves a couple days ago looking for something, and came across his "Golden Slumbers/The End" medley from George Martin's album. Sorry to say, I was not overwhelmed. "Whelmed", would be putting it fairly. Then again, he's always had my back from his "Tomorrow Never Knows" cover.
I think it stems from the fact that their music became more pop-oriented. For many fans of the more experimental work that defined the Peter Gabriel years, the pop leanings that made their music more accessible seem to have been off-putting. It’s the same thing I’ve seen with bands like R.E.M. (people jumping ship after the IRS years), U2 (bailing by the time ATYCLB was released), etc. I’m a bit like you here, though. My appreciation of the Genesis catalog really starts in earnest with Duke, and I liked that and every subsequent album up to and including We Can’t Dance (I’ve not yet heard Calling All Stations). As far as Phil getting the blame, though, I think that comes more from the pop stylings of his solo work. His solo career started in the 80s between Duke and Abacab, and Invisible Touch came a year after No Jacket Required. Unless one does the research, it makes it look like the guy with the pop career was probably the one driving the band’s transition.
Everyone was going pop in the 80’s though, look at Queen etc they get nothing but flack too, it’s revisionist history.
Oh, I know that everyone was going pop in the 80s. I'm just saying that absent doing the research, it's easy to point the finger at Phil Collins as being the party responsible for the shift. I also think that theory probably stems from him taking over as frontman. I was very surprised to learn that in spite of the mammoth success of his solo career, Phil Collins is very much on level footing with Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, and that the shift in sound was very much an equal effort.
I believe his debut solo album Face Value is his best work. What makes it impactful for me is knowing the back story of all the issues with his wife going on at the time. Just an emotional record. Otherwise, my favorite solo songs of his: If Leaving Me Is Easy Two Hearts Another Day In Paradise You Can't Hurry Love (I love his version so much)
Listening to the first Mike and The Mechanics album and Tony Banks' Soundtracks album alongside either No Jacket... or But Seriously will give you a good idea as to who/what drove the Genesis 80's sound. Phil explored more different musical styles than the other two in his solo work at that point.
I take that Phil Collins was always at the right places at the right time surrounded by the right people during decades enabling him to go forward in whatever he aimed for. A successful han‘s steam in all alleys. A creative musician, singer, actor and producer with the Midas Touch. Everything he touched turned gold. And he invented the unmistakably and immediately recognisable Phil Collins drum sound in the 80’s. It is in the nature of things that very much has been written about such a popular and prolific long-lived musician. An absolute media presence which surely led to a Phil Collins Overkill for some people. But that is secondary. What counts is his amazing personal musical legacy. And of course the impressive heritage of Genesis - one of the best and finest Progressive Rock groups ever!
Having a bit of a Phil Collins week....digging out the CDs (again, I do this every couple of years, I have always enjoyed his work even when he was close to overkill), putting together a deluxe of But Seriously (yes I know there is an official one), and finally making a start on his autobiography. I thought it might be too dull, but he sets out his stall in the prologue and so far, he's kept to it. Plus I find out he went to the same little Primary school as I did, albeit 15 years or so earlier, and the first chapter or two cover all the places I know from my own childhood. Which I wasn't expecting to discover (I only knew patchy details about his upbringing). Small world. EG.
It's a great read. I dig Phil. Certainly a lot of his 80s Genesis work (ie: Abacab, Genesis, Invisible Touch, Duke) and his first few solo albums I will always have plenty of time for. I'm also endlessly surprised on how often he pops up on a lot of my favourite artists work, eg: Eno, Fripp, Hackett, Gabriel, Rupert Hine, Robert Plant, Howard Jones, Clapton, Tears for Fears, McCartney etc.
Yeah, I obviously grew up with the 80s domination that began with Face Value/In The Air Tonight, and loved all the mid-80s albums and singles (No Jacket and Invisible Touch was an incredible one-two), but in recent times I've gone back and discovered the late 70s Genesis and really liked what I've heard. Phil's solo stuff, for me anyway, peaked with No Jacket....I wasn't a fan of the sound/production of But Seriously despite its crazy popularity (here in the UK, it was #1 for months). Some of the songs on it, I rate highly, but it signalled the end of his "imperial phase" to an extent. Commerically, the Dance Into The Light album was pretty much rejected by the British public, it really struggled. I still need to go back and re-evaluate that one. Hopefully reading the book will shed some extra insight into the records and I'll be itching to play them all again. EG.
Yes he was everywhere! They even did a boxset based on the stuff he did with other acts, and it barely touched the surface. One day I might do an expanded version of that. EG.
If it weren't for Phil taking on lead vocals in Genesis i wouldn't of fallen in love with A Trick of the Tail, or Wind and Wuthering. Really thought the band with Gabriel was boring. After Wind and Wuthering they lost me.
Huh? That’s brilliant and a highlight of the whole album. As was his superb Burn Down The Mission from the Elton/Bernie tribute album Two Rooms.
He does make a big boo- boo in claiming John Lennon said Ringo wasn’t the best drummer in the Beatles. I was shocked nobody corrected that.
He also gets the timeline of John's murder and his solo debut wrong....odd that he remembers (or has checked) so many dates, but mistakenly claims In The Air Tonight was denied #1 in the UK because Lennon was shot that week. There might have been a Lennon posthumous single at #1 (Woman perhaps?) but it's big event to have misremembered. EG.
Copy editors have the same access to faulty information as everyone. How many hundreds of books has Nesmith’s lie about outselling the Beatles and the Stones combined in ‘67 appear? Watched Monkees Behind the Music last night and one of the talking head experts they brought in repeated that lie.
I'm used to artists getting times and dates wrong, in fact I'm surprised when they don't. But Phil's book is otherwise very precise with dates of albums, and chart positions....he actually recites the chart run of In The Air.. as it climbed the Top 40....36-4-....2....but then has Lennon's death (from 2 months' earlier) somehow in the frame. But, like I said, that could be because it was another Lennon single which stopped him being #1. There's not a lot of insight or detail about most of the music he makes, which I'm getting used to with autobiographies. I don't read many, and the last 3 have all been like that. The only ones he goes into any depth at all - beyond the "and next we went into the studio to make X, and it was really successful, then we went on tour" etc - are Face Value and Both Sides. Which he reveals are really the only ones he is emotionally invested in, so I guess that figures. EG.
Mr Collins is incredible. Love his 80s drum sound. He also co-produced Eric Clapton's album August, which became a favorite of mine just recently.
