Phil Collins - No Jacket Required

There was a period of time (it was actually pretty short when you look back on it - but at the time it seemed like forever) when Mister Collins was pretty much everywhere. Either with Genesis, or solo, or behind the kit just being a drummer (I saw him with Robert Plant, and there was little fanfare made about it). He first started making inroads with his early solo career, come on, who hasn't played air drums to "In the Air Tonight" but when Genesis took the world in 1983 with their self titled monster it seemed like everyone needed a little more Phil in their lives, and we got our Phil until we were all filled up.

No Jacket Required is the album where he and Hugh Padgham fitted all the sonic pieces together and where Phil's now patented gated reverb drum splat sound would practically define the 80s. The song where all of this sonic mayhem manifested itself on a grand scale was the ear-worm "Sussudio" a song that elicits a pretty strong reaction both positive and negative.

The song to me is a four and a half minute long steaming pile of incontinent pudding plops. Yeah, time and nostalgia haven't really softened my opinion of this thinly veiled reworking of Prince's "1999" with a middle aged Englishman wearing one of David Byrne's oversized suits dancing in a pub. Now, I do have to admit that I did look up the video for the song, and it is pretty good, and more entertaining than I wanted to admit. Watching Daryl Stuermer play his headless guitar, and the brilliant Leland Sklar mime playing bass on a song where there was only a programmed bass is pretty great. Dang, am I softening on this one? Is nothing sacred?

The album though is really good, and I will sheepishly admit to not skipping the first song when I played the album. My reasoning is simple - it's the first song, and once it's out of the way I can enjoy the album, and there's a lot to enjoy. I had a cassette copy back in the day (I can't remember why, as I never bought cassettes) and listened to it quite a bit.

I guess at the time Phil was a safe bet. He wasn't controversial, he was a cute little nebbish who seemed to have a sense of humour and didn't seem to take himself to seriously, but was a serious musician. He was basically a one man version of ABBA without the benefit of Agnetha Faltskog's posterior. I'm not sure what I was going for - I think I should have stopped at Phil being "safe" music that could be played in your parent's car, and you didn't have to worry about whether or not there'd be a Tipper Gore sticker on the album cover warning of bad words ahead.

One of the unsung heroes on the album was the previously mentioned Daryl Stuermer who is a monster player (I have a couple of his solo CDs in the cave) and is all over the record lending tasty licks and elevating the music. The other stalwart on the album is the wonderfully bearded Leland Sklar - he may not have been on "Sussudio" but when you hear a bass on the album, that's him.

It's a decent album with a few great songs. Not counting the "Sussudio" as a great song, but a huge hit, I will admit to being a sucker for "One More Night" and the album's closer "Take Me Home" is solid and even has Peter Gabriel and Sting on backing vocals. The rest are listenable but kind of just there. Oddly the lines kind of blur between what constituted a Genesis song and a Phil solo song and even here there are elements that would be at home with Tony and Mike, and in later Genesis efforts there was a lot more of Phil on them.

I've always gotten a kick out of the fact that Phil loves drum machines to create patterns and rhythms and will mix them along with his acoustic kit. So it was kind of funny to see a little disclaimer in the fine print proclaiming "There is no Fairlight on this record." Kind of reminded me of when Queen and Boston would proclaim they didn't use synthesizers.

Still whatever the reason this album came out at the right time and combined with a little luck made Phil a megastar. The album has gone on to sell more than 25 million copies worldwide (did you read that as Doctor Evil? If not, go back and read it again. That's 25 Meeeeellion!) which is incredible. He wanted people to take him home, and they did.

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again. I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the

Old Enough to Forget

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