“Did something different”: The Yes songs that shaped Phil Collins’s sound
When you think about the giants of progressive rock, there’s always a handful of names that crop up as being the greatest examples, with the likes of King Crimson, Rush and ELP always floating towards the top. Given the obsessive and pernickety nature of prog fans, it’s hard to argue with this predetermined hierarchy of the genre’s titans, and if you were to perhaps try to argue for the inclusion of Pink Floyd or Frank Zappa, you might get shot down by one of the gatekeepers who will snootily inform you that they’re “not strictly prog”.
A little less disputable among the ranks of the best progressive rock acts of all time are Yes and Genesis, both mainstays in the genre who are about as prog as you can get and also masters of the extended multi-part songs and complex time signature changes that often characterise other groups in the same lane as them.
With Yes having first emerged in 1968, while Genesis had their genesis (if you will) in 1967, both released their first albums in 1969, and would go on to produce some of the most ambitious and widely acclaimed albums of their respective careers during the 1970s. With Yes, many of their masterworks came after a few lineup changes had taken place, while Genesis also chopped and changed members, including switching drummer Phil Collins to lead vocalist after original member Peter Gabriel departed the group.
Despite both being hard at work at the same time, the two groups were acutely aware of each other’s activities, and Phil Collins would even go so far as to say that the early works of Yes were influential on how Genesis sounded early on in their careers.
Speaking to Prog Magazine, Collins declared his love for Yes’ self-titled debut album, saying how he “was very into the first line-up of Yes – the one with Peter Banks.” Expanding on what it was in particular that stuck out to him about their first incarnation, he stated that he was particularly a fan of their interpretations of songs they hadn’t written themselves.
“I remember loving the way they took other people’s songs – ‘Something’s Coming’, ‘Every Little Thing’ – and did something different,” Collins explained. “I thought, “That’s something I could do,” so I brought that influence into Genesis.”
Referring to their covers of the Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim classic taken from the West Side Story soundtrack, as well as their interpretation of the Beatles’ lesser-known cut from Beatles For Sale, both of Yes’ versions of the selected songs transform the original versions into wild and sprawling epics, something that the band would continue the tradition of on later releases with covers of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘America’, and using excerpts of works by classical composers such as Johannes Brahms and Igor Stravinsky.
While Genesis weren’t known for covering other people’s songs, Collins did attest that hearing Yes do this was what inspired him to begin contributing his own material for the band, and breaking the mould that had been set where Gabriel, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford had been the principal songwriters. “I was this interesting square peg in a round hole,” Collins jested. “I was the joker, the class clown at the back. But I was also the only person who played with other people! I really was Genesis’ only contact with the outside world.”
