{"id":976954,"date":"2026-05-22T03:53:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/976954\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T03:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:53:17","slug":"how-three-men-with-beards-in-vegas-left-phil-collins-fulfilled-in-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/976954\/","title":{"rendered":"How three men with beards in Vegas left Phil Collins fulfilled in 2004"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Genesis,<\/p>\n

Credit: Philippe Roos<\/p>\n

In 1966, Phil Collins<\/a> sat in his room, only 15 years old, attempting to write his first-ever song.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He wanted to write a heartbreaking love song<\/a>, and so he decided to use the key of D minor, a note which is described as \u2018the saddest of chords\u2019. The track he ended up putting together was titled \u2018Lying, Crying, Dying\u2019, and if you\u2019re a big Phil Collins fan, then no, this isn\u2019t an unreleased gem that you can go and dig up. Collins first effort never made it to public release, and all we have is his description of said track: \u201cA very naive but heartfelt ballad\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While he may not have been an expert at the art of the love song in the \u201860s, he did eventually work out how to perfectly put them together, so much so that in 2004, he decided to release a compilation album consisting purely of the different love songs that he\u2019d written over the years. Love Songs: A Compilation\u2026 Old and New stands as a testament to Collin\u2019s ability to convey emotion with music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe album has been something I\u2019ve been working on on-and-off for four or five years,\u201d he said, \u201cIt\u2019s putting together in one place, love-songwise, what I think is my best work, and then some things that you may have missed, because they\u2019re on albums that didn\u2019t do that great.\u201d <\/p>\n

38 years, and finally, Collins had enough love songs for an album. Of course, that statement alone seems a tad unfair, as during that period, he did a lot more than just write some odes to longing here and there. When he worked as part of Genesis, he was responsible for putting together some of the greatest prog and art rock music to ever hit the airwaves. He admitted once that when he first started with the band, he focused predominantly on arranging, but then eventually found his feet as a songwriter<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spirit of Genesis was Tony, Mike and Peter,\u201d\u00a0said Collins, \u201cI didn\u2019t regard myself as a songwriter then. But there were things in Genesis I was highly influential in. My strength was arranging [\u2026] I was very into the first line-up of Yes, the one with [guitarist] Peter Banks. I remember listening to them and loving the way they took other people\u2019s songs [\u2026] And did something different with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was able to take those lessons from Genesis and apply them perfectly to his solo career. The songs he released during this period moved away from the more chaotic, complicated structure of a lot of Genesis numbers, and instead were pretty wonderful nods to pop. Collins gained plenty of fans when making this kind of music, but a lot of critics hated this more simplistic approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Collins looks back at his career and examines the different pieces that he made throughout it, he doesn\u2019t feel a great deal of regret.<\/a> Whether he was making complicated prog rock tracks, pop songs, or love ballads, they all appealed to a different group of people. He likes the fact that his fanbase is pretty limitless in that regard, and it was on one night in Vegas, as he looked out to his audience and received the nod of approval from different ranges of people, he knew he had done something right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, my audience is the man on the street, which is what I am,\u201d he said, \u201cI just did a show in Vegas, and I looked down and in about the sixth row were these guys with white beards and overalls. They looked like truck drivers [\u2026] When I saw them, they lifted their beer bottles to me. But at the same show were six-, seven-year-old kids, then teenagers. It\u2019s not just \u2018old people\u2019 who like what I do. That, in the end, gives me a lot of satisfaction, like I\u2019ve done a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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