Posts by FeelItComing

  • Your next gig

    Opeth on December 14 - the week before Elton John!


    Seriously.... this is a band I knew nothing about until I started reading Prog magazine. I had a look at the tickets & got front row. You would not read about it - how could I turn that down? I suppose I will be untypical of their audience. I might wear my Land Of Confusion T shirt.

  • Leonard Cohen

    He was a very talented songwriter. But I always thought he tried 'too hard'. I get annoyed by the intrusive use of female backing singers & the word 'beauty' occurring in so many of his songs (including the sacred Hallelujah). Having said that I like Suzanne, Democracy, The Future, Bird On A Wire, So Long Marianne, First We Take Manhattan, Take This Waltz etc a great deal. I just feel there are many other songwriters who weren't so heavy handed in what they tried to say.

  • Artist's name OR title on cover

    Quote from martinus

    What about the 1983 album by our favourite band?


    It just says Genesis on the cover, but is it called Genesis and have they left out the band name, or is it just the band's name? Same question for Abba (1975), Big Blue Ball (2008) ... and many other albums where the title is the band's name (or vice versa).


    Enya's Watermark does not have the title on the cover, IIRC. Neither do Neneh Cherry's Raw Like Sushi and the original version of Stiltskin's She.

    If you're going to include albums where the title is the band name, then:


    Eagles

    The Beatles (White Album)

    Crosby, Stills & Nash

    Elton John etc etc

  • First record or CD you ever owned

    When I got my first CD player in 1986 I bought about 10 CDs. They included Band On The Run, Brothers In Arms, Dark Side Of The Moon & Beethoven's 9th conducted by Karajan.


    I have no idea when I started buying Genesis related CDs. I would have bought We Can't Dance when it was released. I have found some old diary notes which state that I bought Invisible Touch on 15/5/92. These notes also state that I bought But Seriously on 6/12/89 and Us on 16/10/92.

  • Your favorite PHIL COLLINS studio album

    Quote from Fabrizio

    Not the first time an artist feels strongly about an album and fans don't respond to it equally enthusiastically. When Phil released I can't stop loving you which is not his but he thought it was a good idea to cover, I remember thinking that if he had released that song in the 80s, at the peak of his success, when I was in my 20s, I would have probably loved it. After all, who hasn't had a teary good-bye at a railway station? When it came out though, I simply dismissed it, it simply wasn't for me anymore but apparently as far as Phil's music was concerned, time had stood still. As I sad, too many sappy love songs can make you deaf and insensitive, even when it's real.

    The only thing I would say about I Can't Stop Loving You is that I would rather listen to it than the Motown stuff. Peculiar choice of a minor song.

  • Your favorite PHIL COLLINS studio album

    Quote from Harold

    You got a point here

    But ... stuff like We're Sons Of Our Fathers and Survivors wasn't something I was expecting at the time. I like both tracks because they are quite unique.

    I do like both of those songs, but the line in We're Sons Of Our Fathers about wondering if there was more 'respect' when Phil was younger made me cringe somewhat. 'It was better in my day.... those young ones don't know they're born' etc. It made him sound like the Tory voter people accused him of being.

  • Your favorite PHIL COLLINS studio album

    Quote from Fabrizio

    I believe it would be very hard for any fan to maintain that he has ever reached the peaks of ITAT again. That is a classic and though he has written some very good songs, I don't think he was ever able to replicated that kind of intensity and uniqueness but obviously that's me, There was another point I didn't bring up because it was even more subjective than the ones I mentioned, I might as well though. Someone said love songs are the easiest to write, good love songs though, are the most difficult ones. I'd agree and the reason is simple: they work better when they are heartfelt. Phil was going through some changes in his life and felt the need to pour his heart out on a record, I can totally see why for him the thought of going back to Genesis and sing Tony's lyric had become unbearable but IMO and it really is a personal assessment, as a writer, he lacks the depth needed to make those songs really compelling. So, you are a middle-aged pop star, going through another divorce and rekindling an old flame. I can see why it is important to him, others might not relate.

    You listen to something like Please don't ask and anybody who went through a divorce knows exactly what he is singing about. It's straightforward, plain but it works because it's heartfelt and that is palpable, it works with his angry songs too btw. as long as they are real. Phil, as far as I'm concerned, cried wolf too many times in his career, too many sappy unrequited love ballads made ME less receptive when it was finally about something real. I never really rated him as lyricist, I must say and for me it only worked when he was really angry: I don't care anymore or really down: You know what I mean otherwise he would mainly write cliches-ridden stuff and it would apply also when he would have a go at social issues: Another day in Paradise or tragedies: Singe I lost you.

    Yes. Well said. Those later songs, 'real' though they were, didn't SOUND 'real'.

  • Your favorite PHIL COLLINS studio album

    Regarding Both Sides you can read some of my comments earlier in the thread. Regardless of how 'personal' an album is to the artist himself, it isn't necessarily going to come over that way to the fans. To me it just sounds like the same songs he had already written, which were more powerful, more angry & far superior musically. I have tried & tried to put myself in his shoes while I listen to it & I just can't. But I can do that for the first four albums, especially Face Value.


    Regarding the 'anger' stuff - those songs, such as Do You Know, Do You Care & I Don't Care Anymore are far more effective than the weary resignation of I've Forgotten Everything., If that says more about me than it does about Phil, it can't be helped. He did something unique with the earlier songs - and ITAT, of course. He doesn't do that with the Both Sides songs.

  • Your favorite tracks on ... "Calling All Stations"

    I voted for both Congo & Shipwrecked, which are great songs, plus the title track.