The Motown artists Phil Collins called his “big idols”
Being a progressive rock musician usually means having a more diverse music taste than the person next to you. Even though there are a lot of great rock and roll bands who could roll over and make the kind of record that would satisfy everyone who’s heard a couple of Rolling Stones records in their lifetime, it takes a true craftsman to make a 20-minute song interesting, especially when it goes through eight different sections and features long fantastical storytelling. While Phil Collins was more than equipped to deal with that when drumming for Genesis, that complexity was only one string to his bow.
After all, no drummer could get into Collins’s position without doing some serious jazz homework, and hearing him work in Brand X was reserved for those who wanted a bit more out of their rock and roll than blues licks. Here, Collins could make his own fusion drum lines, and when he eventually took over as the lead singer in the band, he took a lot of those elements with him on A Trick of the Tail.
When Collins moved into his solo career, no one was quite prepared for what they heard on Face Value. Since this wasn’t expected to come out, this openhearted take on pop songs was far different than what Genesis had flirted with on ‘Follow You Follow Me’. It still had the standout hooks, but Collins was more than happy to show off his funky chops, even having a few tunes where he was able to break out the horns.
While having a brass section wasn’t out of the question with fusion or even a handful of rock bands, Collins wasn’t going to have a saxophone on the record for the hell of it. If he wanted to come correct, he was going to make the kind of record that would make his soul contemporaries proud, and that meant delving back into his favourite Motown artists to see how they created their masterpieces.
Since Collins was always a drummer first, some of Motown’s greatest success stories could be considered a rhythmic paradise. Listening to how old Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye records were put together, the biggest names on the session scene were always responsible for the low end, practically making that musical stew that the main melody could sit on top of whenever they played.
Although Collins was enough of a fan to record songs like ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ later, he admitted that it was the session players that opened his eyes back in the day, saying, “Motown artists like drummer Benny Benjamin and bassist James Jameson were big idols of mine, and their playing is still a source of inspiration. The idea of doing `Can’t Hurry Love’ was to see if [producer] Hugh Padgham and I could duplicate that ’60s sound. It’s very difficult today because most recording facilities are so much more sophisticated than they were back then.”
When looking at the way that Genesis eventually turned towards pop, it’s not hard to see the Motown features in there, either. Even though people classify the genre of Invisible Touch as lame and leave it at that, songs like ‘Anything She Does’ have the kind of groove that is indebted to those early days when soul was first emerging.
While Collins’s love of R&B did result in some travesties like ‘Sussudio’ down the line, it’s safe to say that Motown has done more good than harm when it comes to his drumming history. Anyone could spend their lives training like an Olympian to get the right drum sound, but Collins knew that if it didn’t have a good pocket behind everything, why even try?
