Defend Phil Collins

i always get JR and JBR confused

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

Just picking this up since Moka quoted it, but people watching Twitch is just about the only fully comprehensible part of modern weirdness for this Generation X'er. A big part of the 80s for me was standing round in the arcade waiting my turn/watching other people's turns. One of the first things I remember doing when YouTube came along was looking at videos of 80s videogames I could never complete being completed. So this stuff seems totally natural.

this video rules

At some point in the 80s, I stumbled across Chester Thompson. He was backing Frank Zappa at the time but he was so good he wound up getting tapped to tour with Phil Collins' drumming-centric solo tours. https://t.co/IA0q2uukJ2

— Timothy Hensley (@geistweg) September 1, 2020

Yeah Thompson was/is a fine musician in his own right, as well as a very skilled interpreter of Collins's drumming. I understand that he didn't audition - Collins just called him up and asked, and he had that gig (Genesis/Collins) for like 30 years. There are a lot of really good drummers who wouldn't have fit as well in the role. Bill Bruford is good, but too different in style.

Anyway, map, I've watched that clip several times before and it's very satisfying. A couple things stand out.

At the beginning, Chester is playing that tuned-percussion ostinato live, with a real instrument, whereas it was most assuredly programmed on the record. I guess it makes sense that a band of that size, in a live setting, might not want to be chained to a sequencer. A human performer can adjust. It's cool, but almost sad when he stops playing it. (Could no one else on that stage have played it?)

The main floor-tom-based line is Very Phil; Chester is so focused on bringing it across with power. Mad respect, but there is also a longer, more sneaky fill (phill?) that starts on the higher toms and crosses the bar line - it's the one that ends on the china cymbal. The recording has it like twice; Thompson pulls it out rather more often - but with such assurance that the overall pulse never wavers.

And - BONUS SKLAR!

The Sklar the merrier.

There are few drummers quite as melodic as Phil Collins.

"Feed The World (Do The Know Its Christmas?)" is on a whole nother indefensible level but... I always liked Collins' drum track. There's a clip of him recording the final segue out of the bridge into the final chorus/outro:

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

Always loved the sound of those big bottomless Gretsch toms.

He used to be a Premier guy (same concert tom configuration and everything)...not sure why he switched to Gretsch.

He has such a great sound and approach, but watching him sit with his shoulders slumped, arrrg, Phil, sit up straight! Otherwise, you’ll have major back problems in the ‘00s!

That "Do They Know It's Christmas" song was apparently a first take from Phil!

I think it was because of ilx - maybe this thread, I dunno - that I bought (and even freaking READ) his cutesy-poo autobiography.

And I'm not even mad.

Dude is, probably, corny and choochy as fuck. But in his prime(s) he certainly brought something. That "something" will always be bracketed by "if you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you will like."

He has been supremely lucky, but to deny that he was gifted is churlish in the extreme.

I put his 80s ubiquity - and the reason why people got sick of sight of him - is that he just never said “no” to anyone. And was generally an affable guy who got on well with pretty much everyone inside the industry

(Granted, the Genesis and solo stuff is on him, for better or worse)

xpost I mean, you sort of hit on it inadvertently.

But in his prime(s) he certainly brought something.

And what was it someone observed/noted about Genesis? How each album sold more than the one that came before it? That's a pretty impressive feat.

Sorry to have put it that way, Josh. I shouldn't have taken the diminishing tone - I totally stan for phil as an artist and musician.

That downplays so much! In his prime he: played with Genesis, sang with Genesis, had a solo career,

Imagine how insane his resume would have looked if in addition to all of the above he also joined the Who and Zeppelin. Though I guess he did sort of do the latter.

I think he mentions in his memoir that Eric Clapton really had no idea who he was or that he was already a successful musician when he hired him, just that he was a good drummer and neighbor.

this is pretty intense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYV6KZpnEak

It might not be him that needs the defense:

https://boingboing.net/2020/10/20/phil-collins-ex-wife-has-allegedly-taken-over-his-mansion-with-armed-guards.html

Then in August, Cevey broke up with Collins again via text message, informing him that she had apparently gone to Vegas and married a businessman / musician 15 years her junior.

And now — according to a lawsuit filed by Collins — Cevey and her new husband, Tom Bates, are allegedly living in his $33 million dollar Miami beachfront mansion. And they've hired four armed guards to protect them. According to the Miami Herald:

The new couple are "threatening, implicitly and explicitly, to prolong their unlawful occupation of the property through force," the filing states. "An injunction is urgently needed to end an armed occupation and takeover of the Phil Collins home by his ex girlfriend and her new husband, the defendants in the action."

Ouch.

stay away from the pool

think twice

hello I must be staying

The People's Republic of Phil Collins's Mansion will not go down without a fight.

eh

I don't care anymore

He has a bunch of houses tho

Sounds like he's less worried about the house itself and more about the irreplaceable instruments and awards in it, which, I mean seems fair to be concerned about as a musician?

we always need to hear both sides of the story

another day in paradise

(Baby)Mama, please

Welcome to the home by the sea

Homeless (“Another Day in Paradise” demo)

She seems to have that invisible security force, yeah

Don't Change My Numbers

Take My Home

Dance Into The Litigation

Folks, let's not jump to any conclusions about this story. We don't know the whole situation...

I mean...

There must be some misunderstanding

but this is the world we live in!

It's always the same, it's just a shame

I think an amicable settlement of this is... against all odds.

I hear he’s living in a Stu-stu-studio.

Take My Home

― PaulTMA, Wednesday, October 21, 2020 2:20 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

the winner

I think a pretty solid defense of phil is that we have collectively spent 18 hours riffing on this, drawing on a pretty deep storehouse of memorable lyrics and song titles from 30 years or so, without much effort. Even if you hate him or think he's corny, the dude has left a pretty sizable cultural footprint.

Phil's great. His memoir is heavily and unintentionally Partridge, imo.

Subpoena's Ready

Joking aside, can't help but feel awful for Phil what's happened to him in recent years. This latest development is just.... fuck's sake.

it's going to end pretty badly for his ex-wife

lol but seriously

ok now we're in too deep here, c'mon guys

To think she could be in his house now just trashin' the camp.