When I heard the song “Voodoo,” by Godsmack, it brought back memories. The percussion I felt had a definite early 80’s Phil Collins sound. Strong, but eerie, much like “in the air toinight” combined with “I can’t dance.”
Genesis originally was an overblown progressive 70’s band. Then they had the hit “Follow you Follow me.” A simple, more percussion strong song that ushered a change. Phil Collins, the drummer became more prominant and the material became, for me, much stronger. Abacab is a classic. Phil’s first solo album is a classic. He even took an old Genesis song, “behind the lines,” picked up the tempo and made it sound completely new.
What happened? Now he does musical scores for animated features and it is mellow drivel. Sting has mellowed with age but he still puts out decent stuff. Phil Collins has abandoned his percussive roots and really sucks now. Maybe the other members of Genises can kidnap him and make him funky again.
I guess I prefer Old Genesis more than Older Geneses.
Peter Gabriel continued to get better as well, he also took a cue and increased the rythm of his music. Haven’t heard much from him lately, but I can’t see him going as low a Phil. Maybe he just quit when he was ahead.
Oh boy Coldfire am I with you on this one. Everytime I hear a Phil Collins song on the radio I ask myself “what the hell happened to him?” and I ain’t comparin what I’m hearin’ to Abacab, that’s for sure. I’m thinkin’ more along the lines of Supper’s Ready, Cinema Show, The Knife, and the entire Lamb, etc. etc. not to mention his work with BrandX.
I’m all for a thread on this subject,(and in fact, I have this conversation with all my Old Genesis fan friends often) but the OP is like saying “What happened to Paul McCartney? He was making such great music with Wings”
Phil’s last album, “Dance Into the Light” tanked. He wondered why. Let’s see, from 1980 til about 1993 IIRC, either Phil (duets and solo) or Genesis were on the charts. I think the pop music fans just got sick of him. I know I did. I still enjoy his music as well as his work with Genesis. I’ve even started getting into the Gabriel-era Genesis as well. It’s also possible that the way he divorced his second wife (by FAX!) may have been a factor.
He just plain wore out his welcome. Just like Billy Joel. Who conveniently switched to “classical” music just as his pop career nosedived.
aaahhhhhhhh. That felt good.
Mostly I play “Supper’s Ready” at high volume, though.
I was just thinking of starting a thread like this myself the other day, when I heard a Robert Plant song on the radio an it suddenly occurred to me that it was Phil playing drums on that album…
Now, if Plant ever starts to write Disney music, I’ll be waiting for the plague of frogs next…
I only liked one Phil Collins Album - “Face Value”. And it’s a classic album. It’s also strange in that it’s absolutely nothing like anything else he did since. He was going through a hard breakup at the time, which helped curb his tendency towards light, sappy music.
If you want to hear a good, recent Phil Collins performance, check out his version of the Beatles’ “Carry that Weight” on that George Martin Beatles tribute album. It’s great.
Did anyone catch the South Park episode after Phil won the oscar. It has Phil as an evil manipulator who always carries the oscar around lest anyone should forget how important he is. Funny, funny stuff.
Genesis used to be a great band. ‘Seconds Out’ is one of the best albums ever. But they went lame after ‘Trick of the Tail’. And Phils solo stuff is the worst kind of tripe. And I don’t know WHO told him he could act…
