Wow!! Time really does fly. But I didn't realize it flew quite so fast. My last post was in May, and boy do I feel dumb. Anyways (love when people say that), guess it's not too late to start again. Especially with this topic...
Phil Collins is the most heart wrenching "you broke up with me" lyricist ever (well at least in multi-selling, popular music that was played all over the radio in the early 80's.)
If you're like me (and be thankful you aren't, I am after all writing a blog post about Phil Collins), the album "Face Value" probably comes to mind. This is the divorce album, and you like him or not, you can really feel his pain all over this one. "You Know What I Mean." "I'm Not Moving." "If Leaving Me is Easy." And so on.
BUT WAIT!!
I'm here to make a case for "Hello, I Must Be Going" being even more emotionally satisfying — if heartbreak and tortured souls are you're thing. And I am willing to offer just two pieces of evidence. Exhibit A) "Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart Away." And Exhibit B) "Why Can't It Wait Til' Morning?"
This is the kind of album the writer in me had to get through the songs a little snippet at a time (forward, rewind, forward, rewind, forward... etc.) so that I could write down the lyrics with a pad of paper. Probably made Phil cry just seeing them in the album sleeve. Oh, and yes, there was a girl involved. Ahh, college. So young. So emotionally vulnerable. So Phil Collins.
Please rip my heart out, again. Thank you.
Added Bonus: Heard this story on This American Life. Starlee is one of my favorites, but she really comes through on this one.
Starlee Kine wants to write a breakup song. So who does she ask for advice? You bet! Phil Collins himself. This is soooo funny.
I love that Starlee Kine piece. Mr. Collins also has the world's largest collection of Alamo-era documents and artifacts. Including some bad ass swords. So it was smart to write this post: stay on his good side.
ReplyDeleteI had a nice (what I thought) comment on your post, but it got expunged when I got re-directed to sign in to Google+. %&^^%%$#& It had to do with Face Value, Hello, I Must... and "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues. It was a lively and very thoughtful post, as would be coming from me, but after I write things, I tend to forget how to replicate them if I don't automatically copy them to a billboard .
ReplyDeleteDamn!