Defend Phil Collins

Leland Sklar is a GOD

Isn't Leland Sklar's nephew or something a long-term old school ILM poster?

just think how good Collins the drummer was that he played with Nathan East.

All anyone needs to do to hear what Collins brought to Genesis as a drummer is listen to Trespass and Nursery Cryme back to back. Or a version of 'The Knife' with Collins drumming. Collins' drumming swings and grooves more, and although his drumming is quite busy on the earlier stuff, his fills complement the material, rather than some of the lumpen, misplaced fills his predecessor does on Trespass.

When PC joined Led Zeppelin at Live Aid he has spoken about how Page tried to gaslight him before the performance.

Page asked him if he knew his cues and Collins said yeah and sang the bit prior to the guitar solo as an example and Page came back with 'No!....No!' which confused PC and put him massively on the back foot when he came to play, so he sits out that section and lets Tony Thompson completely fuck it up and then took most of the flak for the terrible performance.

For years I thought Page was a dick for doing that to Collins but after seeing this YT vid I wonder if he actually knew that it was likely going to be a car crash regardless of who was drumming, because it seems that a lot of people play that section completely wrong anyway, including Tony Thompson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhlLtd19szw

Phil's book has a whole section on Zep at Live Aid. He makes a pretty convincing case that he was the only one that had any clue what was going on, exacerbated in part by drugs (Page and Thompson), general assholery (Plant), totally shitty playing and singing (Page and Plant), and a complete lack of preparation (everyone but Phil).

Here's an intriguing quote from Plant on one aborted post Live Aid reunion btw:

“As much as he wanted to do it, it wasn’t the time for Pagey to do that,” Plant said in 1988. “He had just finished the second Firm record, and I think he was a bit confused about what he was doing…We did about two days. It was a most embarrassing moment, to have all that will and not knowing what to play. Jonesy played keyboards, I played bass a bit. It sounded like David Byrne meets Hüsker Dü.”

Robert Plant playing bass? David Byrne meets Husker Du!?

Lol that it is easier to count that way. Grouping it as odd time signatures (where downbeats are accented) still makes more sense to me. His first bar is fine but placing accents on the & of 4 in the next two bars seems crazy. I'd rather count 7/8, 4/4, 9/8. 2xp

Still, good analysis/transcription

(or the version he has around 4:06 works too)

Yeah, I don't think I agree with the guy in the video that it was meticulously worked out against a strict 4/4, I reckon they felt their way through after a lot of rehearsing or perhaps JPJ comped it up like you suggest sund4r.

It's fun watching the Live Aid clip as PC momentarily down tools and wipes his face with a towel while TT crashes through the section like a drunk rhinoceros.

haha man i'm watching this now, don't know if i've ever seen the whole set

jfc jimmy page a fucking mess

every time I see this bumped it gives me the impression that Phil is being physically attacked

Plant's not in good voice either. Clearly he was unused to yelling after the moody song-poems he'd sung for two years.

yeah he sounds rough too, though it's hard not to rubberneck at page jizzing semi-random pentatonic splatter all over the walls

Jimmy Page is the worst thing about that performance, to be honest... he's completely on another planet. The solo in particular is excruciating.

Also, Phil was used to doing drum duets live onstage with Genesis by that point - the difference being him and Chester Thompson were generally better prepared!

just saw that yeah, he's sitting down a lot on this tour. I mean, this is just sad looking:

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, October 23, 2018 2:08 PM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Because of his dodgy back, I think. He finds it very painful to stand for long periods, hence the seated performances.

Yeah, that's right - I've seen a couple of recent interviews where he's been medicated up to the eyeballs.

https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/phil-collins2.jpg

Turns up everywhere does Phil, here he is as a blacksmith on the cover of a Planxty album.

https://shop.totallyvinyl.com/img/uploads/images/planxty/PLANXTY_COLLECTION_LP_1.jpg

Just for the sake of the few that never heard the story:

Collins’ connection with the Beatles dates back to 1964, when he was hired as an extra in their first feature film, A Hard Day’s Night. Then just 13, he spent the day alongside hundreds of fellow teenagers instructed to shout at the top of their lungs during the climactic television concert scene. Unfortunately, his musical purism ended up costing him screen time. “They wanted kids that were screaming, and I just sat still, which is probably why I was cut out of the film,” Collins told Rolling Stone in 2016. “I remember thinking, ‘For crying out loud, will you stop screaming? Let’s listen to the music!'”

His second experience with one of the Fabs was equally disappointing. In 1970 he was booked to play congas on a session for “The Art of Dying,” to be included on All Things Must Pass. “One night, our managers called me and said, ‘You want to go down to Abbey Road?'” he remembers. “I said, ‘I’m a bit busy, I’ve just had a bath.’ And they said, ‘Well, it’s for George Harrison.’ I went, ‘I’ll get a cab.’ I walked in and there was Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Phil Spector, Klaus Voorman, Badfinger, (guitarist) Pete Drake, (Beatles road manager) Mal Evans and George. Spector was introduced in this brusque way. He was like, ‘Who is this young guy, thinks he can play with the Beatles?'”

Eager to prove his worth, the 19-year-old attacked the song with brute force during the run-throughs – and soon he had the scars to prove it. By the time the recording began, his hands were raw and he could barely play. “After 90 minutes, I had blood blisters. They took a break, and then Ringo’s chauffeur came and said, ‘You’re finished.'” The sound of congas, if they appear at all, can’t be heard on the final mix. “When All Things Must Pass came out, I looked through the credits and there was no mention of me,” he says.

Harrison himself remained unaware of Collins’ participation until 2001, when he was assembling a remastered package of the album in celebration of its 30th anniversary. He and Collins had become friendly in the intervening decades, so Harrison decided to have a little fun with the Genesis superstar. As an apology for not crediting him on the original release, he sent Collins a version of the song that he claimed featured his lost percussion contributions.

“I got a tape from George of the song that I played with the congas quite loud,” Collins told EW. “I thought, Oh, my god, this sounds terrible. In fact, it was a Harrison joke. He’d recorded (percussionist) Ray Cooper. (He said,) ‘Play bad, I’m going to record it and send it to Phil.’ I couldn’t believe that a Beatle had actually spent that much time on a practical joke for me.”

He spends about 40 minutes telling that last story in the more-Partridge-than-Partridge audiobook of his autobiography

It's a great joke

Can I just say again that I love that there's also a British filmmaker named Phil Collins trying to make very political films, and I'm just never able to take them seriously. His latest, Bring Down the Walls, about the power of house music to fight the prison industrial complex, is again very good indeed.

Two teenagers listening to Phil Collins for the first time are blown away... I ❤️ this! Phil Collins is a G... a Legend... The Truth! 💯 https://t.co/2kInJTclY7

— Cyrus McQueen (@CyrusMMcQueen) August 7, 2020

^ You can guess what's going to happen but it's still a great moment

that's cute!

early in lockdown i was walking around sadly through pandemic bedstuy and came across a group of oldder dudes smoking tons of weed and blasting the reggae cover of "one more night" from a jeep and it was the most beautiful moment, i had to stop and take it all in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Q_FlTlEoM

some "sad youtube" comments there .. catching a feeling again ... or should i say, phil-ing

lol. good stuff

Wait, the Busy Signal, balloon-man?

Great, kids. Now do it with "Don't Lose My Number."

the phil collins teens are my weekend inspiration tbh

check their "Jolene" video

I envy those kids getting to hear Phil Collins for the last time for the first time

I'm not sure I'll ever understand those reaction videos, but I do find the enthusiasm welcome. I liked the Vegas guys reacting to Rush's "YYZ."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B52bvzudAvQ

They even find a way to compare it to "Beat It."

lol with the drums

Wait, /the/ Busy Signal, balloon-man?

It hurts me when reaction channels pause the music.

We were just talking last night about how we Gen X'ers just don't get why people watch Twitch.

I think reaction videos fall into the same category. Maybe you need to have grown up with social media to be truly entertained by other people being entertained?

watching other people play video games is pretty darn relaxing

speedruns are a visceral thing

I get more insight into the music from Lost in Vegas than I do from a lot of printed music crit.

I haven't actually watched this Phil Collins thing, though.

he watched some guy let another guy drown

OK, that was definitely more basic but they have heart.

The kids with Phil Collins are the first good reaction video in history because you have the tension of knowing what's going to happen and waiting for it.

pitching a Youtube series of reaction videos to historical world events - teens see the Zapruder film for the first time!

I think reaction videos are more like unboxing videos? I do like watching speed runs and people playing video game, so my anecdotal survey of one, me, implies those are different things, but I can't say why. Maybe it's more like watching a sporting event or something?

how are GenZers so fucking chilled out and comfortable being on camera is what I want to know