1

I was reading the new issue of “Mojo” in Apple News+. Yes, it’s available there, but usually I don’t bother, the old acts are still old and over thirty-odd years they’ve written about them already and now all we have is people who weren’t there commenting, and I was.

But even worse is the record review section. Where there are some new albums, but they all get four stars. What’s the use in that?

Like I said, I don’t usually bother to read “Mojo,” but I’d just finished the new issue of “The Week” and you know how it’s impossible to get off your device. As for “The Week”…it’s genius, everyone should read it, to catch up on the news in a quick to read, digested format. If it’s not in “The Week,” it did not happen. And there are great book and TV recommendations too (music, not so much). I used to subscribe to the print edition, but not only is radically expensive, it arrives now on Tuesday, when the issue goes live online the previous Friday.

Anyway, after the new records section, they review the oldies/reissues.

Now truly, the best place to find out about these repackages, extended versions, etc., is in “Record Collector News”: https://recordcollectornews.com In most cases, if I didn’t read it in “Record Collector News,” I wouldn’t have known about it. But there’s still stuff that slips through.

So I’m reading the reissues page in “Mojo” and I see that there’s a four record set of Phil Collins’s “Face Value.” Now I must have read it too fast, because I thought there was new stuff in the package, more demos, and I immediately went to Spotify to hear them. But I found the usual extended version that had been available for a while, that I’d already checked out.

Now when I went back to “Mojo,” I read more comprehensively, and found out it was a four record VINYL version… Ah, I thought it was CD… Four CDs would represent a ton of newly available material, but not that much fits on vinyl.

However, on Spotify I did find a newly released live version of “The Roof Is Leaking,” from “The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball.” Cool, but I was never a huge fan of that song.

And then I found a two month old live take of “You Know What I Mean,” from Perkins Palace back in 1982.

And I wondered why I wasn’t there. Because I was such a huge fan of “Face Value.”

Now the truth is no one was lying in wait for “Face Value,” unless you were a huge Genesis fan. But Peter Gabriel left the band and a great number of fans went with him. However, the first post-Gabriel record, “A Trick of the Tail”…god, can I call it a masterpiece? No, that’s “Face Value”… Let’s just say it doesn’t have the experimentation of the Gabriel era, it’s more straight ahead, but it creates a mood and is enticing and listenable and there’s one cut, “Squonk,” that is heavy and if you play it loud…

So I became a fan. And bought the new albums in progression. And went back and picked up the old ones too.

Now the third Genesis album after Gabriel left, after Steve Hackett left, had the band’s first “hit,” “Follow You, Follow Me.” Yes, the LP was entitled “…And Then There Were Three,” and it was more mainstream than the previous two, and the band was criticized for this, as Gabriel was off testing limits.

And then 1980’s “Duke” hit with “Misunderstanding” and now the band could even play arenas, I went to see them at the Forum, but many prog-rockers had abandoned them.

And I’d like to tell you the albums were getting better, but this was untrue. Every post-Gabriel record was progressively worse. “Duke” wasn’t bad, after all it did contain the original “Turn It On Again,” which is superior in its live version on “Three Sides Live,” but if you were looking for envelope-pushing material, this was not really the place.

This was before the MTV Genesis, with the humorous innovative videos, when the band struck upon the formula of making it more simple instead of complicated, coming up with a new, very palatable sound.

All to the point that even those who had heard of Phil Collins confused him with Paul Collins, and unless you lived in L.A., you probably didn’t know Paul and his Beat and..

2

It wasn’t that I was expecting much, just that I was a Genesis fan and was interested in all that they’d done and were doing and Collins was now the lead singer and of course I was going to buy the LP.

Now the funny thing is all these years later, it’s about the drum sound in “In the Air Tonight.” But that was just another track on the album, albeit the opening track, ultimately it got some airplay, but really Phil didn’t connect commercially until his follow-up solo album, “Hello, I Must Be Going!,” with its cover of the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love,” which was all over MTV, when MTV was still the hot new thing. Phil ultimately became so big, that he was in both editions of Live Aid, in London and Philadelphia, and somewhere along the way, despite more hits, which some considered insipid, he became the most hated man in music. He was everywhere, and “Face Value” was a cut above everything else that followed. Kind of like he was shocked people were paying attention and didn’t know where to go from there. He’d composed this album at home, after his wife had taken the kids and left him, he was at loose ends and all his feelings and emotions were embedded in the LP. It was PERSONAL! And that’s always the best work.

Now as time has gone by, the legend of “Face Value” has never waned, even in the wake of Collins backlash.

As for Phil…

You think it’s all about being rich and famous… But he went on to more marriages, one ex-wife refused to leave the property, his back went bad, he had problems with alcohol…if you think money solves all your problems, beware.

And now there’s this new version of this old song. One that I’ve never seen written about, that does not have its own Wikipedia page, that no one has ever mentioned to me, but is my favorite.

3

Actually, it’s a two-fer.

The second side of “Face Value” begins with “I Missed Again,” the other big track on the album.

But from there…

The record gets very quiet, it’s just Phil at the piano and…

It delineates the story of his breakup, you can feel the pain at the heart of it, and when it ends the record segues into “Thunder and Lightning,” which…they said would never strike twice, but it did, and he was in love once again.

So listen to these two together.

But as good as “Thunder and Lightning” is, and it’s very very good, “You Know What I Mean” is spectacular!

“Just as I thought I’d make it
You walk back into my life
Just like you never left”

Breakups are so damn hard, and men never talk about them. Oftentimes you’re hanging on for dear life. It’s such a mountain to climb, an endurance test, and just when the sun starts to shine, she reappears… I’ve lived it.

“Just as I’d learned to be lonely
You call up to tell me
You’re not sure if you’re ready”

Convincing yourself that a relationship is truly over is in an incredibly difficult job, especially if you’ve been left, part of you believes that you could get back together, rekindle the magic, be happy once again.

“Oh, but ready or not, you’ll take what you’ve got and leave
Oh, leave me alone in my heart
Putting the pieces back together again
Just leave, oh, leave me alone in my dreams
I can do without you, you know what I mean”

The strength it takes to say this, to act on it, to soldier on, is incredibly difficult. To draw the line, to not go back, to move on… Most serious relationships don’t end on a dime, there are a few round of getting back together and breaking up again before it’s truly over. But at some point, that’s what you’ve got to do, make a clean break, and it’s incredibly difficult.

“Oh, leave me alone in my heart
It’s broken in two and I’m not, I’m not thinking too straight”

Not in today’s world, men are macho, there’s no vulnerability, too much music is surface, you can’t relate.

“Just leave, oh, leave me alone with my dreams
You’ve taken everything else, you know what I mean”

The money, the kids, his LIFE!

Phil’s being honest, in a world where so many pull their punches.

And I’d like to tell you this live version of “You Know What I Mean” is a revelation, but not really. It’s not that it’s substandard, not in any way, but the original was exquisite.

Having said that, the reason this live version is notable is that unlike in today’s world of fakery, it’s just Phil and his piano, he can sing just like on the record, there’s no sacrifice, it’s naked and pure and perfect.

Wow.

You know what I mean?