Originally published at: Phil Collins explains the iconic "In the Air Tonight" drum fill | Boing Boing
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Oblig mini documentary on the gated reverb drum sound that is used to such great effect in that fill:
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“I was his (Brian Eno’s Edit: Peter Gabriel; thanks @some_guy) drummer for a while when he couldn’t afford American musicians.”
I don’t think he meant that to be funny, but it got a legit LOL from me.
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He mentions “Intruder” from that Peter Gabriel LP, and of course it is that same sound.
It never occurred to me that particular tune led directly to him using that sound on other records, I guess I assumed he came up with the sound on his own and Gabriel liked it, but then if I remember correctly Peter Gabriel dictated he was to forego using cymbals on that LP.
It sounds great on those records but “gated reverb” became a real 80’s cliche.
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The best part of “In the Air Tonight” is how the entire song sounds like the introduction to a song that just never starts. It makes the Eternal Jukebox version so much fun.
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18 seconds of brilliance.
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the legend about the lyrics may not be true, but they sure fit. i reject your reality and substitute my own!
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I think he’s talking about Peter Gabriel there, not Eno. FWIW.
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Ha! You’re right. Edited.
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Thought this was a “why not both” moment but, yeah, you’re right, he meant Gabriel there. Just for fun, here he is with Eno, anyway:
Here I was still thinking that some credit for the drum sound was due to Public Image Ltd. & their engineer/producer, Nick Launay. Guess I’m misremembering that Phil Collins wanted/got the “In the Air Tonight” drum sound after hearing Flowers of Romance (also recorded at the Town House), but both recordings followed that 3rd Peter Gabriel album (Launay had worked for Hugh Padgham). Although apparently Collins, after hearing PiL, knew that Launay could get that kind of sound & hired him for it later on:
This may not have been you, but I once head John say in an interview that Phil Collins had stolen the PiL drum sound! Apparently, after hearing the drum sound on ‘Flowers’ Collins requested the same engineer that PiL used and set up the drums exactly the same! Is this true? Was it you!
Yes, this is true, and it was me. John is correct but there is a bit more to it. I learnt how to get that “kind” of drum sound by watching Hugh Padgham record in the same Stone Room at the Townhouse. Hugh recorded Peter Gabriel’s 3rd album and if you listen to a song called ‘Intruder’ you will hear what I’m talking about. When It came to doing the PiL album I used similar methods to achieve a similar sound. During the making of the ‘Flowers of Romance’ I bumped into Phil Collins in the corridor of the Townhouse, I had worked as an assistant on his first LP, and he was very inquisitive about how I was surviving working with the evil Johnny Rotten! I told him John was a top class geeza, and promised to introduce them if he was keen.
Later that day me and John went to the Townhouse canteen to eat boiled cabbage and mash, and in walked Phil so I introduced them. Much to all our surprise they got on like a house on fire! Anyway back to the drum story… Much later Phil was producing a Chris [sic] Bailey* (of Earth Wind and Fire) album, and he wanted THAT drum sound, but Hugh was off working with the Police. Phil had by then heard snippets of the PiL album. So, the day we were in mastering the ‘Flowers’ single remix at the Townhouse cutting rooms next door, I got a call from Phil saying HELP! So I went in for an hour or so and dialed it up!
*(I’m guessing he meant the Phillip Bailey album.)
(Source)
Anyway here’s Flowers of Romance. I about wore out the tape, back in '87.
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My absolute favorite version of this song
He literally plays the crowd, slowly walking around for five minutes and 20 seconds before a drum kit rises up and he sits down and the crowd goes completely insane. Whoever came up with the choreography deserves an award.
I only wish I’d attended a concert to hear it live before he retired.
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I’d heard some version of that story before. Forgot about it. My brother played that album a lot when we were kids.
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Thanks for this!
It’s funny, I remember deciding some decades ago that Genesis live albums were boring because they were copies too perfect of the studio versions. This was definitely not that.
From what I remember of his sense of humor over the years, a throwaway like that was 100% meant to be funny – if you were watching for it.
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Pretty sure it may have been exactly this track – the drums have as much a face-punch as they do at the end of “In the Air Tonight”, but they go right from the start!
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