The song that made Phil Collins’ hands bleed
Imagine you’re a young musician trying to make it work. You’ve jumped between a bunch of different bands, but none of them have gone the distance. You’ve even tried to make it as an actor, but that was a bust, too. Then, one day in 1970, the phone rang, and it was one of The Beatles on the phone. In this scenario, you are Phil Collins, and the question is, how hard would you work?
Before joining Genesis, Phil Collins was moving between a series of loose ends, collapsed bands, failures to launch and surrenders. But through it all, this strange kismet connection seemed to tie him to The Beatles. When he took the chance and dropped out of college to pursue the arts, his first role behind the camera was in A Hard Day’s Night. It was an uncredited, unnamed and unspeaking role, but it was a job either way. So Collins’ first break in the arts came when he played a screaming teenage fan at a Beatles show.
Later down the line, the band threw him a bone again, but after their split. Once all four members had gone off into their own corners to work on their solo projects, each building towards the high-stakes release of their debut albums and each on a mission to prove themselves as individuals beyond the world-renowned collective, George Harrison gave Collins a call.
At this point, Phil Collins still was not a known name. He’d drummed in a few bands, including securing a record deal for his group, Flaming Youth, but nothing had ever taken off. He was, however, known in the session musician world as a good drummer and hard worker, which, in an industry of players who simply have to come into the studio and do the job well, gets you far.
It clearly got him far enough that Phil Spector knew his name, and when he suggested adding congas to the track ‘Art of Dying’, Collins got a call.
This raises the question again: If one of The Beatles was in front of you, asking you to play for him, how hard would you work? The answer is ‘very’. Suddenly planted in the studio with one of the all-time musical greats, Collins gave everything to that session and tried to prove himself to one of his heroes, including giving his blood.
In a classic case of Phil Spector being an insane, toxic perfectionist, he demanded that Collins do take after take after take of the track, playing in total for 90 minutes. By the end of it, after battering his hands against the drums, there was blood on the congas as his hands were all blistered and burst.
But he did it. Leaving that day, no doubt the drummer felt like, finally, things were happening. He’s just played for George Harrison, and he’s been in a session with Phil Spector. He tried his best, given his literal blood, sweat and probably some tears, but likely left feeling like he’d proved himself or at least that after all that effort, he’d get the payoff of seeing his name listed in the liner notes on what would become one of music’s most iconic and respected debut albums.
When the record came out, he ran to the shops, ready to see his name, but it wasn’t there. After all of that, Spector used a take that Collins didn’t even play on. After literally spilling blood for the song, his congas weren’t even on it.
