Posted on 08/05/2022 2:11:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Why Phil Collins didn't like Pink Floyd Thomas Leatham THU 4TH AUG 2022 13.30 BST
We mostly know Phil Collins for his remarkable solo career that spawned the 1980s hits, ‘In the Air Tonight, ‘Another Day in Paradise’ and the collaborative effort ‘Easy Lover’ with Earth, Wind & Fire’s Philip Bailey.
Yet, Collins is also known for his time in the prog-rock pioneers Genesis, whom he joined in 1970. When singer Peter Gabriel left the group in 1975, Collins took on singing duties, even though he continued to be their drummer. Gabriel had become disillusioned with the music industry and wanted to spend more time with his family.
Collins once opened up on his tastes – and distastes – for other prog-rock bands: “I was a big early Yes fan, less so. Even though I like the guys in the band, I didn’t relate to a lot of their music after the first two or three albums. Jethro Tull musically. Floyd, I was never a big Floyd fan.”
“I probably become more of a Floyd fan in later years than I was at the time, even though I saw them at the Marquee with Arnold Layne,” Collins added. “I was aware of what they were doing. But I never was really a fan. I was in a band that was kind of being always put in the same box as that lot. But never felt that we actually were in the same box. But we probably were.”
Genesis began to slightly lean towards a more pop-orientated sound with Collins on vocals, and the live shows became less theatrical with the charismatic Gabriel out of the picture. Many of the band’s previous albums had been inspired by fantasy, but from 1975 onwards, they wanted to move away from such inspirations.
Elsewhere, Collins also revealed his distaste for another English prog-rock powerhouse, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. He said, “I don’t like ELP. I don’t like the way they are as people. Emerson’s alright. I don’t like Carl Palmer’s drumming; I don’t like the music. It’s much too neurotic. And it’s too on one level.”
He added, “To be fair, I haven’t listened to that much ELP. But what I’ve heard, and I’ve seen backstage, I just don’t like them. I would never doubt the fact that they’re excellent musicians. I don’t like the kind of things [they] did. But the sound on the record is a fine sound. And of the three of them, I like Emerson, mainly because he used to say nice things about us.”
Sadly, IIRC he was getting arthritis in his hands, could no longer play, and despondent over this, offed himself.
Very true. I’m not familiar with the second one (which I will now go and find), but I’ve been playing the “Firth of Fifth” intro for some time and still haven’t mastered 100% of it and still need to have the sheet music handy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftVTWDrtrlc
Funny bit at the end. Alex would do lots of funny rants during the live versions through the years.
I was listening to an interview with Geddy and the guy asked him some question like “So do you still keep in touch with Alex?”
Geddy pauses and says “Oh, sorry - it took me a second for that to register. We have like 20 nicknames for each other. I haven’t used his real name in probably 30 years.”
Wakeman was better and Emerson was more flashy. But the early Yes music with Kaye was sublime.
Phil was an OK drummer. But like you said being up front with microphone brings out alot. As fare as his PF critique I think he is being kind of a hissy because PF is way more influential and popular to this day than him or Gensis. Just take a look at that BS video Land of Confusion. I remember when that came out and it was crap. I might be wrong but PF did not do videos for MTV so correct me if I am wrong.
Wow...what happened? (Besides rough aging.)
But the thing is, to the average casual listener PF only has two albums: Dark Side and The Wall. The rest are more for fans, maybe with the exception of Wish You Were Here. But most people don’t know of Meddle, or Obscured By Clouds, Animals or The Final Cut, or the Syd Barret-era albums.
Drinking.
I’ve been liking “Division Bell” lately. Songs 3 thru 10 is a great set for riding.
I think of those albums more as Gilmour solo albums than PF albums.
IIRC this turned out to be David Bowie’s last public performance.
Arnold Layne - with Gilmour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmvtsBPz6Io
You can definitely tell Bowie was influenced by Syd.
Cool - Bowie looks pretty good there. Way better than the little video clips that accompany this song when listening on Spotify - “Lazarus”. Have never watched the music video.
I think that was from around 2006, he was still recovering from his heart attack.
Good grief....that is a LOT of afflictions to deal with.
The movie version of Live at Pompeii just rocks. It’s on YouTube.
From Wiki -
“The official music video for “Lazarus”, featuring a shorter edit of the song lasting just over four minutes, was uploaded on 7 January 2016 to Bowie’s Vevo channel on YouTube.[15] The video was directed by Johan Renck (who also directed the music video for Bowie’s previous single, “Blackstar”) in November 2015; during the week of shooting, doctors reportedly informed Bowie the cancer was terminal and that they were ending treatment.
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