MickyDolenz said:

Cinny said:

Has nothing to do with Blues or Rock. The answer is, he made "soft" rock, lite rock, and was overplayed. Even I couldn't appreciate him until years later.

No one has said that Phil made blues music.

You guys kept discussing "the B in R&B" and getting deep. He made soft, often-cheesy, lite .. pop! Not even rock, man. But it's damn good!

Cinny said:

MickyDolenz said:

No one has said that Phil made blues music.

You guys kept discussing "the B in R&B" and getting deep. He made soft, often-cheesy, lite .. pop! Not even rock, man. But it's damn good!

I dunno if I'd go that far. But on his own and with Genesis he made some grooves.

Gunsnhalen said:

To be honest... Phil is probably one of the only artists i can think of. That is hated by white, rock gurus. And loved by Black and Asian communities. And happens to be white

I can't really argue with that.

I'm not a Collins fan myself. To me, he was a symbol of rock music losing its more challenging qualities in search of big hits. There were a lot of examples of this during the 1980s but he was one of the most famous ones.

And there is a level of hatred it is possible to reach for artists whose work you don't like but cannot avoid, that is beyond the realm of rational analysis. There reached a point around 1986 where IF I HAD TO LISTEN TO THAT BALD HEAD MOTHER FUCKER SAY WHOOOOOOOA! ONE MORE TIME I WAS GOING TO DRIVE MY CAR INTO THE OCEAN.

That audio pollution, where certain artists became inescapable, is mostly a thing of the past. I'm hardly ever in environments where I am forced to listen to music today. It used to happen almost every day. I don't hate any modern pop stars. I don't necessarily like their stuff, but it doesn't bash me in the earhole and I can just be vaguely uninterested in it. There's not much out there WORTH hating it seems.

And however much I may dislike his sappier stuff, I could never deny that he used to be one of the best drummers ever.

bobzilla77 said:

There reached a point around 1986 where IF I HAD TO LISTEN TO THAT BALD HEAD MOTHER F SAY WHOOOOOOOA! ONE MORE TIME I WAS GOING TO DRIVE MY CAR INTO THE OCEAN.

That's just "pop", man.

and namepeace, I was not including Genesis in this discussion at ALL.

I heard a story the other day that when Collins' "Against All Odds" from the movie of the same name was nominated for an Academy Award, the producers refused to let him sing it at the awards ceremony.

Their reason?

They'd never heard of Phil Collins!

That's ice cold.

Back in the 80's Patti LaBelle would open her concerts singing "In the air tonight" from backstage with the lights out. The 80's is when Patti was at her most Powerful best(untouchable)...The intro to the song had her singing at the VERY top of her register.....I heard a tiny recorded clip years ago and Phil would've been amazed and I think Proud.

and feeling rejected and unloved by the music world.

Seems a little much doesn't it? Like he's walking past the punk rock club and all the kids stop and point at him and yell "SOO SOO SOODIO!" and laugh, and he walks off with a single tear under his eye.

Sure there are guys like me that enjoy taking him down a peg but he could afford to have me eaten alive by 120 ravenous dogs if he really wanted to.

and feeling rejected and unloved by the music world.

Seems a little much doesn't it? Like he's walking past the punk rock club and all the kids stop and point at him and yell "SOO SOO SOODIO!" and laugh, and he walks off with a single tear under his eye.

Sure there are guys like me that enjoy taking him down a peg but he could afford to have me eaten alive by 120 ravenous dogs if he really wanted to.

Cinny said:

bobzilla77 said:

There reached a point around 1986 where IF I HAD TO LISTEN TO THAT BALD HEAD MOTHER F SAY WHOOOOOOOA! ONE MORE TIME I WAS GOING TO DRIVE MY CAR INTO THE OCEAN.

That's just "pop", man.

and namepeace, I was not including Genesis in this discussion at ALL.

Got it.

In the UK, a couple of the reasons why rock critics probably hate him is the whole fax divorce "scandel" in the mid 90's and the fact he was EVERYWHERE for a good 10-15 years too. He was very popular for a long time.

That and the silly rumour he was a tory (right winger) and fled the UK for tax puroposes. We don't like that here LOL

Here's a recent interview Phil did in Miami

MickyDolenz said:

Here's a recent interview Phil did in Miami

He says that Adele contacted him to write songs together, so he's working on that - cool! I thought he was completely retired from music.

bobzilla77 said:

and feeling rejected and unloved by the music world.

Seems a little much doesn't it? Like he's walking past the punk rock club and all the kids stop and point at him and yell "SOO SOO SOODIO!" and laugh, and he walks off with a single tear under his eye.

Sure there are guys like me that enjoy taking him down a peg but he could afford to have me eaten alive by 120 ravenous dogs if he really wanted to.

LOL

That IS how sad and pathetic he seemed in that article I had read - it made me want to have sex with him out of sympathy, just to try to cheer him up or something.

But you're right - I'm sure his many millions of $$ cheer him up, and I don't need to do anything drastic.

artist76 said:

He says that Adele contacted him to write songs together, so he's working on that - cool! I thought he was completely retired from music.

I don't know if that means Phil is gonna perform himself though, or that he can play drums. Someone convinced Garth Brooks to come out of retirement though, to perform in Vegas.

[Edited 1/14/14 10:59am]

I'm probably one of the few people who enjoyed his stuff all the way up to the last decade or so, including a few of his Disney singles. But I've always enjoyed artists who've had a range of material, it's strange to hear some of the early stuff Phil played drums on and then watch the evolution of him as a drummer/lead artist of a band, to his solo material, to penning songs for children's movies. I'm sure he knew what the detractors would say, and he said "screw it" and did it anyways. Doesn't make it good, but it doesn't make it bad either. I've heard worse music, that's for sure.

As for people who just dump on his stuff from the 80's and the change in course Genesis took (essentially not much different from Collins' solo material), well... what can you say? Some people like it and some don't, but I don't understand the hate either. He made music that no longer appealed to them, but it opened up Genesis and Phil Collins to a whole new generation AND a whole new demographic.

[Edited 1/14/14 14:56pm]

artist76 said:

MickyDolenz said:

Here's a recent interview Phil did in Miami

He says that Adele contacted him to write songs together, so he's working on that - cool! I thought he was completely retired from music.

I just read that Adele is writing for Madonna, so when is she going to write her follow-up album?

According to this new 2014 interview, Phil is starting to work on a new album and is writing a book.