Posted on 03/14/2023 4:03:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Many artists have one song they can’t escape, and Phil Collins is the same. At some stage, a creation stops being under the ownership of the artist who crafted it and becomes a part of the collective lexicon. Phil Collins’ pop behemoth ‘In The Air Tonight’ is one such piece that transcended the artist.
Following Peter Gabriel’s departure from the group, they desperately needed to reinvent themselves to survive, and Collins stepped up to become the band’s new singer. It was a decision which could have gravely backfired, but instead, it started the most commercially successful chapter of Genesis’ career, and for many, it’s their favourite era.
After his success as a swashbuckling frontman, Collins started a solo career in 1980 and announced himself with his debut single, ‘In The Air Tonight’. The track charted internationally and made him a star in his own right without the backing of Genesis. His drumming is perhaps one of the single most iconic fills to ever be extrapolated from the instrument and its a pattern that still stalks Collins to this day.
However, ‘In The Air Tonight’ is a painful reminder of a dark period in Collins’ life after the heartbreaking break-up of his first marriage. When he wrote the track, his mind was in a lonely place, and the artist used music as a form of therapy. Unexpectedly, it became the biggest hit of his career and continues to follow him everywhere he goes.
Speaking of the track to Rolling Stone, Collins said: “This song has become a stone around my neck, though I do love it. I wrote it after my wife left me. Genesis had done a tour that was far too long. She said to me, ‘We won’t be together if you do the next tour.’ I said, ‘I’m a musician. I have to go away and play. Just hold your breath when I’m over there.’ Then Genesis toured Japan. When I got back, she said she was leaving and taking the kids.
“At the time, Genesis had decided to change things up a bit, maybe rattle our cages. The idea was to record separately with these new Roland drum machines we’d been given. I set up a studio in the master bedroom of my house with a Fender Rhodes piano and a drum kit. One day I was working on a piece in D-minor, the saddest [key] of all. I just wrote a sequence, and it sounded nice. I wrote the lyrics spontaneously. I’m not quite sure what the song is about, but there’s a lot of anger, a lot of despair and a lot of frustration.”
He added: “Nobody knows what the song is about, and I kind of like the mystery. And now NFL players use it to work out. I saw a video recently of Steph Curry singing it in his car, and it was just in an ad for milk chocolate. Where will it end? But I’m not complaining. It paid for this house we’re in right now!”
While Collins views the song as “a stone around my neck”, he’s also gracious about the riches it has given him, including his luxury Californian mansion. Additionally, he’s acutely aware it’s better to be remembered for one song rather than none at all.
Not sure why people were glaring at you playing that song. It was a huge hit in the 80’s. How would they remember you as a one time customer 15 years later? Why would they play that exact song?
I totally agree! I have fond memories of cruising across the Airport Expressway heading to Miami Beach in my Porsche with that song blasting on the stereo on a Friday Night. No telling how the nite would go in “The Magic City! Great times!
Them’s the facts.
Make what you want of them.
I don’t feel writative.
The other one was Brothers In Arms on the episode with Bruce McGill as the cop who killed the perp and hid the body in a wall.
-PJ
-PJ
What part of the country were you in back then? Something doesn’t make sense.
What are you?
The hallway asshole?
“Keep It Dark” is my favorite song on Abacab.
Strange that feels that way given that he had 12 top ten hits and four number one albums after that song was released.
This is a “reaction” video by a couple of young black rappers who have never heard this Phill Collins / All My Life song before, and he’s not a familiar artist or genre for them. Starts slow, but their reaction to the instrumental break about halfway through is priceless:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l3-iufiywU
Phil didn’t start writing songs until 1980, so that was the first big hit he actually wrote.
Mike and Tony wrote almost all of the Genesis songs up to that point.
Howard Jones’ “No One Is To Blame” is another one.
He also drummed on Tears for Fears “Sowing The Seeds Of Love”.
Great song. I’m surprised he resents now.
I just want to know what bumfuck town you are in where in the 80s you pop in In the Air Tonight on the jukebox and everyone stops and turns to look at you. If I would have graduated 8 years earlier in 1980 that would have probably been the graduation song and definitely the song at the prom. Then to make the story more weird, you go back to this same place a decade and a half later and as soon as you sit down the song In The Air Tonight is playing. I don’t believe it.
Oh yeah, and that’s Izzy he’s got up against the wall who later went on to be eaten by the T-Rex while sitting on the can.
I did not know about the latter.
Artists often whine
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