Phil Collins picks his favourite song by The Who
Former Genesis maestro Phil Collins has never hidden his adoration for The Who, particularly their late drummer Keith Moon. Collins continues to hold The Who in the highest regard, and he even offered up his availability to the band following Moon’s death. However, they chose to go down another avenue regarding his replacement.
Moon, who died in tragic circumstances in 1978 when he was only 32 years old, left a huge gaping hole within the internal organs of The Who upon his death. While they’ve continued to sell out stadiums and put on a rock ‘n’ roll show of the highest calibre, it’s impossible to deny they’ve never been the same band since Moon departed the world.
Upon hearing about the vacancy, Collins offered himself to the band, but they’d already decided to employ Kenney Jones, formerly of The Faces. “Absolutely would have joined The Who. I would have left Genesis to join The Who,” he told The Guardian in 2016. “But they’ve got a great drummer now in Zak Starkey, he’s fantastic. Someone with the balls that Keith Moon had.”
He also told Classic Rock: “I played Uncle Ernie in Tommy [in a 1989 concert with the Who], which I loved doing, though it was very politically incorrect – playing a paedophile. But it was great because I was with the Who. I was working with Townshend just after Moon died [in 1978], and I said to him, ‘Have you got anybody to play the drums? Because I’d love to do it. I’ll leave Genesis’. And Pete said, ‘Fuck, we’ve just asked Kenney Jones’.”
Things could have turned out differently for The Who if they chose Collins as the replacement for Moon, but their decision undeniably worked out favourably for the Genesis drummer.
Despite his rejection, Collins has continued to speak positively about the group and labelled one of their tracks as one of the “all-time” best in classic rock history during an interview with BBC Radio 6 in 2016.
After naming Moon as one of his favourite drummers, he said of the band’s finest moment: “I think that one of the classic rock tracks of all time is ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’. And I remember seeing them on TV; they were televised from Charlton’s football ground. I saw him with this gaffer tape around his head, with his headphones, you know. It hurts to take it off if you’re foolish enough to put it around. The way he played, there was no orthodoxy at all.”
The track, released as the closer on Who’s Next, remains one of The Who’s most popular creations and continues to be performed by the group. However, singer Roger Daltrey has a complex relationship with ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, telling Vulture: “With the maturity I have now and looking back on life, I’m more connected to our songs than ever. The only song I get bored with playing because it’s immovable from its arrangement is ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’.”
Listen to ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ below.
