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.”
Roger reminds me of a classic routine by the late Bill Hicks (one of the few lefty comedians I though were occasionally funny)
“Ooh, you know what Rogers’s doing now? He’s going for the righteous indignation dollar. That’s a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We’ve done research – huge market. He’s doing a good thing.”
Wish You Were Here holds up real well, especially with a good pari of Beyerdynamic headphones.
And I never listened to much PF at the time.
Exactly. By the late 70s, prog and music in general was looking increasingly long-winded, overindulgent and overblown. Disco came out and for all its mindless simplicity it at least had a upbeat new energy about it. Punk I hated and still do, but it had a raw energy too.
I love 70s prog. I wish it never went away, and I still listen to that stuff more than anything else.
But even I can see how after a while, bands like Genesis, Moody Blues, and Yes were like...you know what...we've already done these gigantic symphonic epics...let's see if we can write a catchy pop song. Or a ballad. Which is actually more challenging than it looks.
I totally get the reaction of older guys who, say, got heavy into Journey from 1974-1977 and then completely tuned out when Steve Perry joined. But us slightly younger folk grew up loving the hits first and were then led back to the early stuff in amazement.
If you hear the interviews of the guys back then, in many cases they were quite ready to make a change from extended guitar solos and try something Motown-inspired with a horn section.
And of course the raw talent of the musicians means that their pop hits aren't exactly as simple as they seem. Escape and Invisible Touch are two absolutely killer albums that I personally think have stood the test of time.
Yeah, I love the comments
“That’s All” may be a pop song, but it’s a damn good one.
” but I read all the words to The Wall and it’s pretty Nazi apologist to me.”
The movie or the album?
“Carl Palmer was a more mechanical technical drummer which may have bugged Phil.”
Carl Palmer Was great when he was with ELP but when he and Steve Howe got to Asia, it was like they were on Meth
Maybe you’re right about Phil not writing much...I haven’t checked writing credits recently.
But yeah, good point about Chicago. And I think the public’s mood changed between the decades as well. The dreary dark and dirty 70s were over, in comes the fresh and sparking neon 80s with Reagan’s optimism.
And after Nixon resigned, Bobby Lamm ran out of things to write about, LOL!
Oh Lamm was one of those, eh? LOL
Brand X
Oh yeah, Chicago was very left. Bunch of anti-war songs.
I liked him but his anti-American crap got ELP banned from the Albert Hall! I was there for their not so triumphant return. God Save the Queen
“The Wall” did not age well - sounds to preachy and whiny.
I prefer “Meddle”.
A big Genesis fan from their inception - even their “pop” stuff was pretty good.
ELP- was a big fan in my early teens, but a tough listen nowadays. Not a good band for picking up chicks, let us say.
Agree about “The Wall”, but strangely enough “The Final Cut” has grown a bit on me over the years.
I like side two of that album - a great jazz groove.
Trespass is a great album, and it was the album before Collins and Hackett joined. I also have some of the Ant Phillips solo albums, Phil even sang on a couple of songs.
Meddle was great.
I get choked up when I watch Gilmour and Wright perform “Echoes” for the last time.
In the interview I saw Gilmour had nothing bad to say about Syd, he talked about Syd imagining and hearing music no one else could hear. He never said anything like that about Waters.
I think that describes the music of Pink Floyd to a tee. Most of their albums slug heavily along and then you are lifted to absolute ecstasy with tracks like "The Great Gig In The Sky" and "Comfortably Numb."
I guess it would not be too out of place to say that Hitler would have been a big Pink Floyd fan had he lived longer. He would have been 84 when "Dark Side Of The Moon" came out.
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