From Genesis To Revelation

Phil Collins just announced that he has retired from music. This came as a big shock to pop fans, many of whom thought he retired about fifteen years ago.

Right. Anyway, the 60-year-old Collins, who suffers from hearing problems and has nerve damage in his hands, says he doesn't think he will be missed. He simply thinks he can no longer attract attention working among more current pop acts.

Phil Collins is either a pop genius or an overrated hack, depending on who's making the argument. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between. As the drummer for Genesis, he came up with some innovative playing. He also developed a breakthrough cymbal-free drum sound when, in 1980, he helped out his old bandmate Peter Gabriel (Genesis's original lead singer) on Gabriel's third solo album. As a frontman - he took over lead vocals in Genesis after Gabriel left the group in 1975 - he was less reliable, and Genesis's move from progressive rock to straight pop in the early eighties caused Collins to become exponentially more tedious thereafter.

Collins came up with the occasionally interesting single, both as a member of Genesis and as a solo artist - Genesis's "No Reply At All" and Collins's solo tune "In the Air Tonight," both from 1981, are about the best - but he grew blander with time. The sly charm of "One More Night" and the rambunctiousness of "Sussudio," both singles from his 1985 solo album No Jacket Required, dissipated with repeated listenings, and his 1982 cover of the Supremes's "You Can't Hurry Love" was noteworthy for re-creating the classic Motown sound without putting in any of the soul or the emotion that made the original record so wonderful.

He got a little desperate later in his career to cast himself as a serious songwriter. Collins, as a human being, is an individual who's deservedly revered for his commitment to causes such as ending homelessness. (He's played so many benefit gigs, he's practically a British Harry Chapin.) Collins, as a social commentary singer, leaves a good deal to be desired. "Another Day In Paradise," from 1989, tries to make people aware of the plight of the homeless in a gentle way and pales in comparison to Neil Young's biting "Rockin' In the Free World," released at the same time, which - as one critic noted - put the listener in the shoes of a homeless man in the middle of a harsh world. (Collins enlisted Young's friend David Crosby to sing backing vocals on "Another Day In Paradise" in an effort to legitimize himself as a politically aware artist, but if the result was a friendship between Crosby and Collins that led to their 1993 duet "Hero" - one of Crosby's finest efforts outside the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - I won't complain about that.)

Collins left Genesis in 1996 to concentrate fully on his solo career. Ironically, that's when the hits stopped coming for him. He's maintained a very low profile since then - the 2007 Genesis reunion tour with guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks (but, alas, without Gabriel or guitarist Steve Hackett, who left the band in 1978) was an exception - before finally deciding to quit.

Had he done so in the mid-nineties - when it was obviously time for him to quit - Collins might have bowed out more gracefully then than now.