The album “No Jacket Required”, released in 1985, still moves people today. This is also where the worldwide hatred of Phil Collins began. For Collins’ opponents, who perhaps didn’t even exist before 1985, the record became one of the most useful in music history: many listeners project the supposed missteps in Collins’ career into this work, even the songs and images that were only released after the release of the album factory. Phil, the little criminal from “Miami Vice”, the “tongue-in-cheek” bouquet bearer from the film “Buster”, the lead singer who is gradually losing hair, the building society contract in general, the Genesis Golf, the comedian with the zebra crossing walk from “I Can’t Dance”, the Concorde passenger who didn’t want to miss a festival, and of course the songs from “No Jacket Required” itself, which played in tanning salons and dentist waiting rooms in the mid-80s. “One More Night” and “Take Me Home.”
The album only has two real weak points, and these are, of all things, two US number one hits. The fanfare from “Sussudio”, critics are right, is very similar to the Prince song “1999”, released in 1982. And if you try hard, you can see a similarity to Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” in “One More Night”. The remaining eight pieces are good, if not particularly good; Only the fragile-sounding, Beatleesque “We Said Hello Goodbye”, the CD bonus track, recalled the personal crisis, Collins’ divorce from his wife, which he mentioned on “Face Value” (1981) and “Hello, I Must Be Going! (1982) processed.
More drama, baby! Unfortunately, the risk is missing. The almost manic verse melodies of “Don’t Lose My Number” or “Inside Out” lead to conciliatory choruses, and the uncontrollably sung “Only You Know And I Know” leads with its line “I open up, give you everything / Then “You say, OK what else?” leads nowhere.
Phenix Horns only in the background
The 1986 work, which won the Grammy as “Album Of The Year”, went to number one in almost every country, and the “Musikexpress” invented the pun “Much Collins”. In fact, there was probably no musician who had as many Top 5 hits in the British or American charts as him in the 80s, whether solo or with Genesis. From 1981 to 1991, the man had a hit every year, from “In The Air Tonight” (1981) to “That’s All” (1983), “Invisible Touch” (1986) and “Another Day in Paradise” (1989). ) to “I Can’t Dance” from 1991. A long stretch that should rarely be found a second time in pop music. Michael Jackson only released two albums in the 80s, Prince got better and better from 1984 to 1988, but also increasingly unsuccessful.
But they were all real pop stars, not everyman figures like Phil Collins. Who cared how well he could play drums and sing? People hate him because he continued to look like you and me during his greatest successes. So why does he manage to have such a career and everyone else doesn’t?
The fact that Collins made fun of himself in “I Missed Again” in 1981 because his wife cheated on him with an electrician – even he probably had more star appeal – still drives some people crazy today. When it was announced a few years ago that Collins was playing percussion on George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” at the age of just 18, people’s lights finally went out.
Collins has always been aware of the dislike, but he can no longer joke about it. After his career slowed down in the mid-nineties, he suffered from depression; today he only performs irregularly due to illness. Collins will never drum again. Unfortunately.
Phil Collins actually only made one mistake in his career: playing the air trumpet or air saxophone, like in the video for “I Missed Again,” which is really not funny. Just as unfunny as suddenly dancing nuns or old grandparents making french fries and singing metal songs.