“Inconsequential”: The Genesis album Phil Collins can’t stand
Although Phil Collins demonstrated his ability to succeed as a solo artist with a series of international hits in the 1980s, many fans of the Surrey native consider his best work to have occurred prior to this phase, during his tenure with the progressive rock band Genesis.
Collins has endured a tough time in the public eye during his unexpectedly successful career. Becoming an unlikely pop star was never on the cards for collins who had begun his foray into the music world as a bona fide musician. It was with Genesis that Collins would build enough respect and foundational understanding that would allow his pop career to flourish.
Collins was with the group for 12 albums and saw many personnel and stylistic changes occur during this arc. His first studio-length effort with them was 1971’s Nursery Cryme, with the final being We Can’t Dance, which arrived 20 years later. The most significant shift that Collins experienced in Genesis was when frontman Peter Gabriel left the band in 1975, which set them on a different path, leaving the spirit of the 1960s and their early more outwardly prog from behind.
Gabriel’s departure also saw Collins take the mantle as lead vocalist. His first outing as the frontman and drummer was 1976’s A Trick of The Tail, which was promptly followed by Wind and Wuthering later that year. However, the equilibrium was about to be shattered, with change afoot once more. In 1977, guitar hero Steve Hackett opted to leave, which prompted the band to consolidate itself as a trio of Collins, keyboardist Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford.
The new-look band released the album And Then There Were Three the following year. Although it contains one of their biggest hits in the closing track, ‘Follow You Follow Me’, Collins has made it clear that he thinks it is the worst Genesis album because of its musical quality and the unhappy period of his life that spawned it. He revealed all in Mario Giammetti’s book, Genesis: 1975 to 2021 – The Phil Collins Years.
The vocalist explained: “This is probably my least favourite record. But maybe that’s just because it wasn’t a particularly happy period in my life. I contributed little bits. But the songs were kind of short, a little inconsequential.”
Although he loved the hit single the record produced, it fell flat for him in every other aspect. Collins continued: “I felt, apart from ‘Follow You Follow Me’, which I thought was great. I remember writing some lyrics for different things. But certainly not the kind of lyrics I would go on to write a couple of years later [on Genesis’s next album, Duke], which were much more personal.”
“I suppose there are a couple of lyrics in there that I might have written based on personal experiences. But I was still writing some fantasy things, based on what the Genesis history was. As opposed to what I would become. I was always more direct, while Genesis were always more ’round the houses’ storytellers,” the ex-Genesis leader concluded.
Prog-rock, in general, can be considered somewhat “round the house” in terms of what it delivers and when, but in reality, the real reason Collins never connected with the album was that it didn’t reflect him. It’s a common situation for most artists, and Collins’ understanding of a record that felt far away from his personal life is replicated throughout history by artists who experienced a separation from their art.
Listen to And Then There Were Three below.
