“Most of it”: the one Genesis song Phil Collins said was out of his range
No rock and roll vocalist is necessarily meant to be the next Pavarotti. The genre is known to have a diverse set of voices, but it’s much easier to be forgiving to someone like Bob Dylan if their voice serves the song rather than testing the limits of what a human can sing. Although Phil Collins did have a track record for phenomenal vocal performances with Genesis and beyond, he admitted that he had to be put through his paces before trying to get this massive section under his belt.
If we’re talking about Collins’ era of the group, there’s always going to be the elephant in the room surrounding Peter Gabriel’s first iteration. Despite both frontmen not having a problem with each other in the limelight, seeing Collins up there singing ‘Invisible Touch’ was a far cry from the cinematic scenes Gabriel would set up in the listener’s mind when making a tune like ‘Firth of Fifth’ or ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’.
When compared side by side, Collins has a much more dynamic range than his counterpart in some respects. Gabriel was absolutely perfect for the songs he brought to the group, but considering how he transitioned into becoming a pop star, there was no way that he was going to attempt to sing ‘Misunderstanding’ or get away with ballads like ‘Follow You Follow Me’.
Then again, Collins probably wasn’t prepared for the multi-part epics that Gabriel was used to doing like it was nothing. There were certainly moments where the group could stretch out on their records, but in terms of vocal ability, playing a song like ‘Supper’s Ready’ is the equivalent of going to the musical Olympics.
While Collins could certainly play the song well from behind the drumkit, some pieces are so intricate that it’s easy to miss them for the vocals. Despite Gabriel telling a story throughout the tune, being able to switch to 9/8 time during the apocalyptic section and still making it sound smooth is the kind of Herculean task that feels impossible to pull off.
Though Collins managed to make his way through most of the sections alright, he admitted that the section entitled ‘Willow Farm’ was well out of his grasp, saying, “There were certain things in the old stuff, sure. But I loved ‘Supper’s Ready’. Most of it, except for maybe ‘Willow Farm’, was well within my reach.”
This is strange, considering this is the moment when things start to calm down a little bit in the piece. Gabriel can bring everything back down to Earth at that moment, but listening to the way that every instrument bounces off each other, having the voice in the centre of it all and still being able to reach into that falsetto is the kind of skill that vocalists have to take a few years to master.
Although it’s comparatively easy from a purely musical perspective, it’s understandable that Collins could admit defeat on at least one tune from the old guard. It’s one thing to have the arithmetic of the rhythm down, but being able to suddenly have your brain switch to the vocals after years of bashing away is something that has to be programmed into any musician.
