The Tabletop members have their air drums ready as they tackle Phil Collins’ debut solo album, “Face Value,” and one of the most iconic drum fills in history. Plus, there’s not a dry eye around the table as the group delves into the melancholy world that is the Phil Collins love song.
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Really enjoying this episode, but I was surprised there was no mention of I Missed Again being the lead single. This song, and not In The Air Tonight, was our introduction to Phil as a solo artist. I loved it at the time — and still do — and it signaled that we were in for something quite different from Genesis.
I forgot about that, you are right.
In The Air Tonight became popular because of the movie Risky Business, right?
I’d forgotten it was in Risky Business. In my memory, its popularity really took off after it was in Miami Vice.
https://tigermothtales.bandcamp.com/album/pete-jones-plays-genesis-seven-stones-turned-charity-release
Speaking of a unique cover version of a Genesis tune, listen to this take on Invisible Touch that I did not recognize.
Oh Wow, thanks for this find! I rarely like covers, but his “follow you follow me” is WAY better than the original, for me, and I’m talking about the parts he is actually doing the song.. the surrounding mash makes it even better.
His vocals are just in the middle between Gabriel and Collins. Undertow is so interesting this way!
His en-steve hackett’ed “invisible touch” is just brilliant. He acts Steve’s mannerisms accurately and tastefully.
Thanx for recognizing the old fans like me that have different memories of this cd. I heard this when it first came out and loved it and all the variety on it. Especially, Roof is Leaking. The second cd has special meaning because it came out when I met, dated and fell in love with my wife:) Listen to Revolver, it is awesome and is overlooked because of Sgt. Pepper’s.
Nice talk about Face Value! I actually had the import version of “In The Air Tonight” before Face Value was released. It featured comic-book style artwork by Phil’s brother, Mike that gave a sort of light-hearted synopsis of the history of Phil in Genesis up to that point. I still have it in a little box back home in Ohio…
Also, don’t forget that Anni-Frid Lyngstad, a.k.a. Frida from Abba, recorded her own version of “You Know What I Mean” for the 1982 album Something’s Going On. As Phil put it in a TV interview, “Frida and I had something in common as far as our divorces were concerned. We were both the injured party.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something%27s_Going_On
I also remember a radio interview with Phil sometime after the album was released where tracks were played and Phil elaborated on their creation. “Tomorrow Never Knows” had been an album track, or “deep cut” from the Beatles’ Revolver album (and interestingly to me, as on Face Value, it’s also the final track on Revolver). Phil opined that it had been a great track that had somehow gotten overlooked, so that’s why he did it. In the radio interview, the track of course ends with the first two lines of “Over the Rainbow”… or so I thought… then, surprisingly to me, it continued with the rest of that song with Phil being accompanied by an acoustic guitar, presumably played by Daryl Steurmer. This made my ears perk up as obviously it wasn’t included on the album proper. I’ve since only heard it a couple of other times. Then today, I did a YouTube search, and voila! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ-kWLbYf2g
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As I work through the back catalog of this podcast, I enjoyed your discussion of Face Value. I was a Genesis fan in the 1970s. One day I walked in to my favorite record store with money burning in my pocket. I spoke to the clerk (who I knew was a prog fan) and asked “what’s new? Point me to some new music”… he showed me Face Value and said it was the best new album out right now. I took it home and loved it immediately. Unfortunately, over the years, it became the symbol of everything that had gone wrong with Genesis for me. ATTWT and Duke had gone too far in to the direction of pop music. I gave up when Abacab came out. To me, Genesis had become the Phil Collins Band. As I have commented elsewhere, thanks to your podcast I have gone back and found a new appreciation for Abacab, (shapes) and Invisible Touch, so too have I re-found my love for this album.
I feel like I want to say I loved it before it was cool… but I do remember seeing an interview and performance of “In the Air” on the Tom Snyder Tomorrow Show and 1:00am….
“I’m not Moving” is totally a Beatles send-up..
On the re-listen, “Thunder and Lightning” was very moving to me. As a man in my 50s, who has been through divorce and then found a new love in my life, I can attest that lightning can strike twice.