Drummers: Phil Collins

As long as I can remember Phil Collins has been something of a punch line. I can't find a video of it, but I remember Rosie O'donnell once mistaking Sting for Phil Collins and it getting a big joke. And I remember the cheesy pop music of the 80s he produced. More lately, I've read and heard lots of people put him down as a musician and a drummer.

In one of my drumming magazines last night there was a "10 things to like about Phil Collins" article. I guess that, by the time I knew Genesis and Collin's solo career...they were cheesy pop. But long before that, Genesis was prog. And prog in my mind means complicated. And I never would have put Phil Collins and complicated in the same sentence before.

But I learn more and more every day that what I never knew about the history of pop music far out-shadows what I do know. And that's what this blog has always strived to be all about...me educating myself about shit I should have known a long time ago.

So, I had no idea Genesis started in 1967 and Collins joined in 1971...taking over lead vocals in 1976. Follow You Follow Me is the first song I am aware of by Genesis that I am familiar with...and that was 1978.

Here's the kind of weirdness they pulled:


Checking the Billboard charts, I can see now why I didn't know anything about their early days. They didn't hit it big until "Follow You Follow Me".





Drummerworld

Collins drums in odd times...Dance on a Volcano in 7/8


Fifth of Fifth


Also Cinema Show, Suppers Ready, Los Endos and Lamb Lies Down on Broadway album