“Incredible”: The song Phil Collins said had the greatest drum sound in the world
The entire mentality behind getting a great rock and roll song starts with the drums. The backbeat might be the last thing that some people think about unless they’re avid Rush fans or worship at the alter of John Bonham, but even if the beat is secondary, it’s a lot easier to appreciate a tune when the percussion is hitting you in the face with every single hit. And while Phil Collins has become more known for syrupy ballads throughout his career, he always knew the importance of getting the right smack out of his kit.
Because, really, anyone who ever made something as iconic as the ‘In the Air Tonight’ drumfill will be in someone’s drumming Hall of Fame. The whole premise of that tune was about rage and anger, but when producing the record, Collins knew that he wanted to illustrate the difference between a drum machine and real playing, taking the entire kit and putting that signature gated reverb on that would become synonymous with the 1980s.
But even before he became the darling of 1980s music, his work in Genesis already showed him to be one of the finest rock drummers ever. It was clear that Peter Gabriel was the star of the show in the early days, so the best way around his lavish stage costumes was for everyone to play their asses off, and Collins certainly didn’t disappoint when tearing through albums like Selling England by the Pound.
And while Genesis did “sell out” in most people’s minds in the 1980s, Collins never lost his chops, either. There were a few moments where the drums took a back seat, but even in his solo career, an album like Face Value had songs like ‘Hand in Hand’, which is basically an extravaganza of any instrument Collins could get his hands on.
Although most prog bands avoid throwing cover tunes on their records, Collins was stepping up to the big time when covering The Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. The drum part may have been significantly different from what Ringo Starr played, but that was probably because Collins was far too reverent to Starr to even attempt to match something that was that precise on his own record.
When talking about cutting the album, Collins felt that the drum sound that captured should have been the norm going forward, saying, “When I recorded `Tomorrow Never Knows’ I went after a Ringo drum sound, which I’ve always felt, thanks to George Martin, was one of the great drum sounds of all time. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know him and have told him, ‘The things you did with four tracks were incredible. I wish things were that way today.’ And he said, ‘No, it’s really much better now. Back then you had to live with those limitations and with a very compressed drum sound, because with four tracks that’s the only way you could record drums.’”
Even with the different instruments becoming more separated with the invention of stereo, there’s something about Starr’s drum groove that is irreplaceable. Maybe it’s the performance itself or the atmosphere in the room, but for a song that’s all about throwing different warped effects on top of each other, Starr knew the importance of having that bottom to the record so that everything else can work up top.
Although Collins has had more than a few drum hero moments since learning his chops from Starr, there’s no real point in him trying to recreate ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ note-for-note. His version was considerably slower than before, but any drummer would know not to try and outdo perfection when faced with this tune.
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