The uncanny collaboration Phil Collins called the “highlight” of his career
Most of Phil Collins‘ dreams usually centre around performing with musicians he loves, or ones who once shaped his own work and taught him everything from being a good storyteller to creating music that was both accessible and innovative.
Like The Action, “my favourite band, my favourite, absolute favourite,” he once said, recalling how performing alongside them was nothing short of “a dream come true”.
But while the band and their drummer, Roger Powell, influenced him immensely when he was a teenager, another that opened his eyes to the sheer magic of what music could actually be was Billy Cobham and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. But, weirdly, trying to imitate this style didn’t make Collins a better musician; it actually made him realise what he’s not to do, which is try something so far away from his own craft that it felt inauthentic.
“Their style of playing odd time signatures and complex rhythmic figures influenced our music,” he once said, adding, “Personally speaking, I feel I was trying to do a little too much on those early albums [Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound and Nursery Cryme]. I was trying to prove to people that I could play. In doing so, I wasn’t necessarily playing what the music required.”
These essential pieces of fundamental learning also mean that, most of the time, Collins doesn’t really see milestones for what they are: yes, there’s a satisfaction which comes with quantifiable or measurable success, and Collins would be fooling himself if he said he didn’t pay much attention to those metrics. But he also genuinely favours the connection music grants him, and how it’s often the collaborations that open his eyes up to more possibilities than mere commercial success.
For instance, when he was once asked about his ultimate career highlight, he acknowledged the fact that most people would expect him to list off his hits and go into how it made him feel to establish himself as a well-respected name in his own right. Obviously, he remains proud of those moments too, but his highlight was actually when he once collaborated with another blues-rock lover, Eric Clapton.
“There have been lots of wonderful moments,” he told UK Music Reviews.
Continuing, “I always say that playing with Eric Clapton in his band was for me one of the highlights of my career. Playing with great musicians in the four piece that we had in the late 80s was great musically. But most people would say ‘surely it was No Jacket Required’ or ‘surely it must have been Face Value’. So as you can see, on any given day I reserve the right to feel slightly different about it.”
Actually, this was less about what they could achieve together and more about how musically satisfied Collins felt, and while he also said he enjoyed making Going Back, he also recognised how he might’ve only thought that because, at the time, it had been his most recent project. Collins’ collaborative streak with Clapton (like on Face Value) might’ve not always been so smooth-sailing, but the spirit was always there, enough to override any underlying regrets lingering long after the fact.
And, above all, those moments of delicate reflection are only there because of other minor aspects like mixing and overproducing. All else falls away, leaving only memories of sheer musical excellence that continue to follow him and shape him even now.
