Watching VH1’s Guess The Year Night, two questions troubled me.
First, as the name suggests, the evening was supposed to follow the well-tried format of: listen to a song, argue a bit about the year it was released, find out at the end. Except our friends at VH1, purveyors of pop videos to those Not Quite As Young As They Once Were, didn’t do anything to hide the year appended after the album title. Shown in a caption at the start of every track.
Why did they do that, we asked? Why bother with the neat “What was the year” graphic at the end of each clip? At least they didn’t go to the trouble of hiring Simon Bates to do the “but what was the year” bit from his heyday. That would have been a waste.
Don’t worry – we developed a sophisticated system of looking away as each track started, but that’s the kind of hard work that video channels and technology were supposed to do away with long ago.
The second big question ran even deeper: why do we all dislike Phil Collins? By rights, the man should be hailed as great British musical genius; as lead singer Genesis he led the band to greater success than with Peter Gabriel and, by Gabriel’s own judgement, sang the old songs better than him. As a solo artist, he was even bigger – including that album, No Jacket Required – which I seem to recall featuring in every record collection of every house I visited for at least ten years, and every car for 15 years, from 1985 on. Then he won a Grammy, and an Oscar for his film work. All told, he’s jolly successful at writing music that lots of people like.
So why’s he so unpopular? Did it all start with the bleeding heart sentiments of Another Day in Paridise? Was it being quoted, in 1992, saying he’d leave the country if Labour won that year’s general election? [He denies being a Tory; he just didn't fancy Labour's tax plans. Which is maybe why he lives in Switzerland now.] Did that, and other politically motivated songs (Colours was about apartheid) earn him the potentially devastating reputation of being earnest? Was it that it was claimed (wrongly, he says) that he dumped his wife by fax?
Is it all a great misunderstanding? Will the papers be full of revisionist obits when he eventually goes? Why did they put the damned year up at the start of each song? Oh, I’ll never sleep now.
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COMMENTS / 9 COMMENTS
DONNA thought this on Oct 02 06 at 1:53 amI HAPPEN TO LOVE PHIL COLLINS. ALTHOUGH HE ISN’T AS POPULAR AS HE ONCE WAS, IN THE EIGHTIES HE HAD THE MOST CONSECUTIVE TOP 40 SONGS OF THE DECADE.CRITICS HAVE NEVER LIKED HIM MUCH, WHY I’LL NEVER KNOW AND I’M QUITE SURE HE DOESN’T CARE. HE HAS ALWAYS SAID THAT HE DOES NOT WRITE TO BE POPULAR OR MAINSTREAM HE WRITES FROM HIS HEART AND IF PEOPLE ENJOY IT THEN THAT IS A BONUS.I’VE SEEN HIM THIRTY ONE TIMES AND STILL HAVEN’T COME ACROSS A BETTER ENTERTAINER
DONNA thought this on Oct 02 06 at 1:53 amI HAPPEN TO LOVE PHIL COLLINS. ALTHOUGH HE ISN’T AS POPULAR AS HE ONCE WAS, IN THE EIGHTIES HE HAD THE MOST CONSECUTIVE TOP 40 SONGS OF THE DECADE.CRITICS HAVE NEVER LIKED HIM MUCH, WHY I’LL NEVER KNOW AND I’M QUITE SURE HE DOESN’T CARE. HE HAS ALWAYS SAID THAT HE DOES NOT WRITE TO BE POPULAR OR MAINSTREAM HE WRITES FROM HIS HEART AND IF PEOPLE ENJOY IT THEN THAT IS A BONUS.I’VE SEEN HIM THIRTY ONE TIMES AND STILL HAVEN’T COME ACROSS A BETTER ENTERTAINER
JAMIE thought this on Oct 02 06 at 10:01 amI HAPPEN TO THINK PHIL COLLINS IS A BALDY TWUNT THOUGH IF I AM BEING HONEST I HAVE TURN IT ON AGAIN BY GENESIS ON ITUNES AND I HAVE A SNEAKING REGARD FOR AGAINST ALL ODDS BY THE PHILSTER> >>BITE ME DONNA.
Jamie thought this on Oct 02 06 at 10:06 amJust kidding Donna. I think PC is unpopular for all the reasons mentioned above, not forgetting his involvement in jazz funk. He was unfortunate in the early 90s to become shorthand for ‘the old, crappy 1980s’, in much the same way as Simon Bates was for radio and Little & Large were for comedy.
Jackie Danicki thought this on Oct 02 06 at 2:52 pmHas anyone ever been taken seriously again after receiving the Chris Morris treatment?
Jack thought this on Oct 02 06 at 4:24 pmWeirdly, he’s lauded in hip hop circles. There was a profile of Ice T in the Face years ago which revealed that in pride of place at the front of his CD racks was every Phil Collins release, chronologically ordered. And somewhere I have a truly peculiar compilation album called Urban Renewal on which Phil’s hits are reworked by by R&B and hip hop people: Lil Kim and Phil duet on In The Air Tonight and Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s does a deeply disturbing cover of Sussudio. (I should point out I was sent this to review, I didn’t buy it.)
I think he’s due a revisionist compilation on a boutique label, to be honest – if some of his songs had been released by some obscure 80s Dutch art collective, or Godley and Cream for that matter, they’d be critically revered for the avant-garde production. Maybe.
Phil Collins is great thought this on Feb 16 07 at 3:11 pmIt is just in the UK that people seem to have forgotten how great an artist Phil Collins is. He is a fantastic musician and a great and award winning song writer that if you added up all the album slaes he has been involved with(including producing and guest singing) he has sold in excess of 350 million albums. Only the members of The Beatles have sold more. In the US he is still well liked and well respected especially by the R n B performers. I think it is a case of in the UK everyone thinks that it is important to be big in the UK with bands such as Oasis and singers like Robbie Williams. When in fact if you added up their album sales combined wouldn’t even make a third of what Phil Collins has sold. Lets face it in the US nobody has time for those type of bands. They save special reserve for artists like Phil Collins that deserve it
marketmama thought this on Mar 12 09 at 5:09 pmI think a lot of people in the UK hate Phil because of his alleged Tory ‘affiliations’.
Frankly, I don’t care and I hope neither does anyone who cares about music, because he has given us some very good tunes, he is an excellent drummer (watch his easy-drumming with Ringo in Harrison’s ‘While my guitar gently weeps’) and even with all the brouhaha about it being overtly ‘in your face’-'Another day in paradise’ is a brilliant song and will always continue to be one. And so is ‘In the air tonight’.
So, as long as his musicality is concerned, there’re many reasons why he should be respected if not loved (as that is personal choice).
As a crude aside, even Gustav Mahler, one of the greatest classical composers, was extremely foul-mouthed. But that has never been a topic when you talk about Mahler. He is one of the greatest and will always be, even if he is foul-mouthed, or if he supported the terrorists at that time (this is an example-get the drift..).
respectphil thought this on Oct 24 09 at 6:32 pmI agree with that. Respect to Phil Collins his one of the worlds greatest musicians.
“By rights, the man should be hailed as great British musical genius”
And i’m 17 years old boy not some household mom,.
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