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From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Genesis died when Pete left
Message-ID: <1188@pyuxd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Jul-85 21:27:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxd.1188
Posted: Tue Jul  9 21:27:53 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 07:38:30 EDT
References: <288@cmu-cs-g.ARPA>
Organization: Whatever we're calling ourselves this week
Lines: 34

> Genesis died when Peter Gabriel left many years ago. I'm
> continually astonished that people continued to listen as they
> embarrassed themselves more and more without him. And Phil Collins
> is now another pop star like Michael Jackson or Prince! Sad.
> 
> Chris Koenigsberg

I don't agree with this precisely.  "Trick of the Tail" and "Wind and
Wuthering" are both really good albums, but for sure they died an
embarrassing death thereafter.  ("Seconds Out" did give us a chance to
hear Bruford and Collins together.  That makes two live albums on which
Bruford only played on a very small number of tracks out of the whole
album.  Name the other for a cookie.)

What's really embarrassing is how great Phil Collins could have been.
"In The Air Tonight" is a monster song, but little else of merit seemed
to follow.  What's really confusing is why a guy who basically looks like
an aging balding golf pro at the local country club would become such a
major pop star?  Phil Collins with a number one album?  I mean, Wham! I
can understand as a #1, but Phil Collins?

To think that he wasn't even going to sing for the band at all after Gabriel
left.  They placed ads in Melody Maker and auditioned dozens of singers to
replace Gabriel, none of whom worked out.  Ironically, his wife said to him
"Why don't you sing?" one day, and sure enough, he sounded enough like
Gabriel (rangewise and tonewise) to do the job!!  I say "ironically", because
years later it was his divorce from that same wife that led to his solo
career.  Do you ever get the feeling that Sting and Phil Collins would have
wasted away if it wasn't for those wonderful occurrences in their lives,
those horrid divorces and aftermaths at which they get to vent their
misogynistic rage?  A new genre:  divorce rock!!!  (You know Frida [AnnaFrida
ex- of ABBA] had Collins produce her LP [the one with "Something Going On"]
because she had just gone through a divorce and liked *his* album on the
subject.)