;)
With "Not Dead Yet," took his critics head on. Phil Collins will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday — and for the second time.
Collins joined Genesis in the rock hall in 2010. This year, he’s being inducted as a solo singer with a gazillion hit pop singles. I would like to suggest he’s being added as a drummer, too.
Sadly, we’re unlikely to see Collins perform at his induction. As this New York Times profile confirms, Collins is suffering from a variety of health issues that have kept him from drumming in recent years, and now, even standing for any extended periods. And that’s a shame, because I’d love the world to see what few realize: Collins was a terrific drummer.
I love the five-album stretch after Peter Gabriel left Genesis in 1975, when Collins added lead-singer duties to his drumming. Those albums — ”Trick of the Tail,” “Wind & Wuthering,” “... And Then There Were Three …,” “Duke” and “Abacab” — showcase a band slowly transitioning from deep prog to pop. But even as they softened the musical and lyrical noodling so evident on their first few albums, the band refused to completely hide its chops.
Case in point: “Down and Out” from “... And Then There Were Three …” This album opener perfectly showcases Collins’ talents. This driving rocker moves in mostly 5/4 and 4/4 time signatures, with occasional half-beats into 9/8. Collins’ drumming is relentless, and even more remarkable when seen in this drumming tutorial video by Sterling Patrick Fuentes.
This drum pattern is tricky, yet Collins makes it sound easy. Instead of abrupt stops between five-beat verses and four-beat choruses, Collins uses rapid fills to smooth the transitions between time signatures. And the kick-drum part is subtle but sneaky hard given all the work his arms are doing. Fuentes is a great drummer, but I do think he's "cheating" with his use of a drum trigger starting at about 1:30, where he's hitting an electronic drum with his left stick, triggering a sample of a quick four-stroke fill. Given that Genesis recorded this song in 1977, I don't think that sampling technology existed then (please correct me if I'm wrong). that makes Collins' performance all the more impressive.
And let’s not forget the complex intro, where Collins enters on the “one.” It’s so confusing to many listeners and musicians that a separate YouTube video explains in detail how Collins pulled it off.
“Down and Out” is just one of many examples of Collins’ chops, whether in other Genesis songs or solo hits like “In The Air Tonight.” Then there’s his pummeling beat that drives Band-Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” a critical bit of musicianship that kept that song from slipping into a puddle of sentimentality.
Rock snobs have ridiculed Collins for years, pigeonholing him as a hack whose string of Disney soundtrack ballads robbed him of what little respect he was given as a proggie. But let’s celebrate him for what he is: A successful songwriter, excellent vocalist, and one of the very best rock drummers of all time.
Still don’t believe that last point? Let’s let Fuentes drive home my argument with his tutorial video of Collins’s performance on “Dukes Travels” and “Duke’s End,” the closing tracks from the 1981 album “Duke.”