George Harrison of the Beatles

George Harrison (February 25, 1943 – November 29, 2001), the Liverpool-born British musician best known as the lead guitarist for the Beatles, would turn 70 this February 25th if he were still alive today. Harrison, having started playing guitar several years earlier, was recommended in 1958 by his schoolmate Paul McCartney as a prospective member of the Quarrymen, the band led by John Lennon that McCartney had joined the year before. Lennon initially refused to allow Harrison to join as he thought he was too young, but eventually relented due to Harrison’s guitar playing skills. By 1962, the group had become the Beatles. With the addition of Ringo Starr on drums, they went on to become the most successful popular music group in history.

George’s main role in the early years of the Beatles’ recording career was that of lead guitarist and backing vocalist for Lennon and McCartney. However, he did at least one lead vocal on each of the group’s albums. At first these were covers or songs written for him by Lennon, but soon he began writing his own songs. In the group’s later years, he also occasionally played other instruments such as organ and bass. Most famously, he played sitar on a number of tracks beginning with Lennon’s “Norwegian Wood”, doing perhaps more than any other musician to introduce this instrument to Western audiences, merely by virtue of his immense fame as one of the Beatles.

Harrison’s first songwriting efforts were relatively slight, with his tracks on With the Beatles and Help being among the weakest ones on those albums, though “I Need You” from Help was decent and even his first song, "Don't Bother Me" from With the Beatles, was okay. His writing improved fairly quickly, however, with his songs on Rubber Soul being quite solid, and his three songs on Revolver were only slightly outshone by the incredible brilliance of the best of McCartney and Lennon’s contributions to that album full of amazingly good music. “Taxman”, the first Harrison song to feature as the opening track on a Beatles album, exhibited Harrison’s sardonic humor and “I Want to Tell You” made interesting use of dissonance. The third of Harrison’s songs on Revolver, “Love Me To” was his first Indian-style composition, a direction he further pursued with his sole contribution to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the excellent “Within You Without You”. Two other songs written around this time but only released in 1969 on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack were the tongue-in-cheek “Only a Northern Song” and the chaotic “It’s All Too Much”, both of which were solid efforts. While “Blue Jay Way” from Magical Mystery Tour was a tad monotonous, Harrison’s third Indian-flavored song, “The Inner Light”, was another very good composition, and the first to appear on a Beatles single, if only as a B-side.

Four of Harrison’s songs appeared on the double album The Beatles (aka The White Album), the greatest number to be used on any of the group’s albums (though in terms of ratio, Revolver had the most Harrison songs). These included the classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, which featured Harrison’s friend Eric Clapton on electric guitar, and the biting social comment of “Piggies”. The bluesy songs “For You Blue” and “Old Brown Shoe” were released on Let It Be and as a B-side respectively. Another Harrison song to appear on Let It Be was “I Me Mine”, which was the last Beatles song to be recorded (though Lennon wasn’t present), since it was recorded after Abbey Road, unlike all the other tracks on Let It Be (some overdubs were done to the title track at the same recording session). Other than the session at which “I Me Mine” was recorded, the last Beatles recordings were those that appeared as Abbey Road, and it was on this album that Harrison demonstrated beyond question that he could equal Lennon and McCartney as a songwriter, with his songs “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun” being among the best on the album. “Something” was the first Harrison song to be the A-side of a Beatles single and has reputedly gone on to be the second-most covered Beatles song after McCartney’s “Yesterday”, while “Here Comes the Sun” is widely regarded as one of the group’s classic songs.

Harrison had briefly left the Beatles in early 1969 during recording sessions for what became Let It Be after arguments with McCartney and Lennon, and in this period he started working with other musicians (having already contributed one of his compositions to Jackie Lomax, he also co-wrote “Badge” with Eric Clapton for Cream’s last album, playing rhythm guitar on the recording). When the group finally broke up in early 1970, Harrison immediately embarked on his solo career. In the last few years that the Beatles had been together, Harrison had built up a backlog of unused compositions, so he decided to record a triple album (though the third record consisted of fairly routine jams and tends to be ignored). This album, All Things Must Pass, was released in late 1970. It featured the hits “My Sweet Lord” and “What Is Life” as well as numerous excellent album tracks, such as “Isn't It a Pity”, “Wah-Wah”, “Beware of Darkness”, “Art of Dying” and the beautiful title track. The album was a massive success both critically and commercially, and is still regarded by many (including myself) as one of the best solo albums by a solo Beatle. “My Sweet Lord”, which topped charts in the US and the UK as well as many other countries, did receive some negative notoriety in later years when Harrison was successfully sued over the song’s similarity to the early song “He’s So Fine”, but this has done little to tarnish the album’s legacy. In the year following the release of All Things Must Pass, Harrison made history by organizing the first large scale superstar charity rock concert, The Concert for Bangladesh.

Harrison’s first studio album following All Things Must Pass was 1973’s Living in the Material World. While not quite the artistic and commercial success that his debut was, it sold well and contained a lot of good songs, such as the US No. 1 hit “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)” and the excellent “Don't Let Me Wait Too Long”. His next album, 1974’s Dark Horse, was marred somewhat by the laryngitis that Harrison was suffering from during the recording and by slightly weaker material. His next few albums, Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975), Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976), and George Harrison (1979) are generally regarded as hit and miss, with a fair amount of average material mixed in with some high quality songs such as Extra Texture’s "You" and “This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)”, Thirty Three & 1/3’s “Crackerbox Palace” and “This Song” (a humorous reflection of the plagiarism case surrounding “My Sweet Lord”), and George Harrison’s “Blow Away” (the latter album also contained the first formal release of the White Album outtake “Not Guilty”, though the Beatles’ rough but harder-edged version recorded in 1968 and released in 1996 on Anthology 3 is superior). After John Lennon’s murder in 1980, early the next year Harrison released “All Those Years Ago”, a tribute to Lennon that Starr and McCartney also appeared on. This was included on Somewhere in England that same year, though that album contained few other notable tracks and didn’t sell particularly well. Harrison’s next album, 1982’s Gone Troppo, was the poorest selling of his career, and he stopped recording for the next few years to concentrate on other interests, such his movie production company Handmade Films (originally founded to help fund Monty Python’s Life of Brian), which produced films like Time Bandits and Shanghai Surprise.

Harrison made a comeback in 1987 with his album Cloud Nine, produced by Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra. This featured a surprise US No. 1 in his reworking of James Ray's“Got My Mind Set On You” and a second hit in his excellent Beatles pastiche “When We Was Fab”, as well as some good album tracks like “Devil’s Radio”. The year after Cloud Nine was released, Harrison formed the Traveling Wilburys with fellow superstars Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. The group released a pair of albums (though Orbison was only on the first, as he died soon after its release) in 1988 and 1990, with each Wilbury credited under a pseudonym (Harrison was variously known as Nelson Wilbury or Spike Wilbury). In 1989 Harrison also released a compilation album, Best of Dark Horse, which included a couple of new songs. But subsequently, other than occasional guest appearances, Harrison pretty much stopped releasing music for the following decade. He underwent surgery for throat cancer in 1997 and in 1999 he was stabbed by a psychotic “fan” who had broken into his house and only survived because his wife Olivia succeeded in knocking the attacker out by hitting him with a lamp (it was no doubt fortunate for Harrison that he lived in the UK, so his attacker did not have a gun – unlike the psychotic “fan” who shot Lennon in the US). Despite these difficulties, Harrison had continued to work on and off on a new solo album. Unfortunately a recurrence of his cancer eventually proved fatal, with Harrison succumbing in late 2001. His final album, Brainwashed, was assembled by Jeff Lynne and Harrison's son Dhani and released in late 2002, a year after Harrison’s death. This proved to be his best album since All Things Must Pass, with virtually all the tracks being good and several being excellent, including “Any Road”, “Stuck Inside A Cloud”, “Looking For My Life”, and “P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night)”.

Harrison, like the other Beatles (except possibly McCartney), was not necessarily technically the best at his instrument, but was nevertheless innovative and highly influential. His slide guitar playing in particular was highly regarded. Harrison was as essential to the group’s chemistry as any of the rest, and his deadpan humor was an important part of the group’s charisma. In fact he may have ensured that the group got a recording contract when, after George Martin said to the group “Is there anything you’re not happy about?” and Harrison responded “Well, I don’t like your tie,” cracking Martin up and convincing him that they were worth taking a chance on. That same droll humor appeared in many of Harrison’s songs over the years.

As noted above, Harrison’s songwriting improved rapidly over the Beatles’ career. His very best songs with the group rank with the best by Lennon and McCartney, and by the end he was become more prolific as well. However, his solo career seems to indicate that he had difficulty writing top-notch material at the same rate that Lennon or McCartney could (though Lennon actually released slightly less material in the last decade of his life than Harrison did in the same period, many would argue it was somewhat more consistent than Harrison’s; McCartney, despite having a fairly large proportion of mediocre songs, released so much that even if the weak tracks are discounted he had about half a dozen albums worth of good songs in that same time period). One reason for the success of All Things Must Pass was that he had a backlog of unused songs from the last years before the Beatles broke up; it also helped that he hit a peak as a writer in this period. While he was able to more or less keep up the pace for a couple of years after the breakup, his writing fell off as the 1970s wore on, so that while he still wrote some very good songs, most of his albums were a mixed bag. It is almost certainly no coincidence that his last two albums, especially the final one, were marked improvements over those from the late 1970s and early 1980s, as they came after long breaks in which he had more time to come up with great material. Nevertheless, Harrison’s very best solo albums, All Things Must Pass and Brainwashed, and to a lesser degree Living in the Material World, are among the best Beatle solo albums. Harrison also wrote some great material for others, particularly Starr, with “Photograph”, the song he co-wrote with Starr for the latter’s best solo album Ringo, ranking among the best Beatle solo tracks.

The first list below includes all of the songs Harrison wrote for the Beatles. Not all of these were great and I originally intended to list only the best of them, but only two or three were less than very good and so I ended up just listing them all. The second list includes thirty of Harrison’s best solo songs (plus one by the Traveling Wilburys). Though I’ve heard all of Harrison’s solo albums at one time or another, the only ones I have copies of are All Things Must Pass, Living in the Material World (which I only acquired recently), and Brainwashed, plus his Best of Dark Horse compilation covering 1976-1989, so my familiarity with some of his material is limited. It’s possible that some of my choices might change on further listening, and as usual with such lists even my favorites among the more familiar songs are not set in stone.


George Harrison with the Beatles
(All songs written by George Harrison and performed by the Beatles)

Don’t Bother Me
I Need You
You Like Me Too Much
Think for Yourself
If I Needed Someone
Taxman
Love You To
I Want to Tell You
Within You Without You
Blue Jay Way
The Inner Light
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Piggies
Long Long Long
Savoy Truffle
Only a Northern Song
It’s All Too Much
For You Blue
Old Brown Shoe
Something
Here Comes the Sun
I Me Mine
Not Guilty


George Harrison Solo
(All songs written and performed by George Harrison except where otherwise noted)

All Things Must Pass
What Is Life
My Sweet Lord
Beware of Darkness
Art of Dying
Isn't It a Pity
Wah-Wah
Bangla Desh
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)
Don't Let Me Wait Too Long
The Day the World Gets Round
Dark Horse
You
This Guitar (Can't Keep From Crying)
Crackerbox Palace
This Song
Blow Away
Faster
All Those Years Ago
Life Itself
Gone Troppo
When We Was Fab (Harrison/Lynne)
Devil's Radio
Got My Mind Set on You (Clark)
Handle with Care (Traveling Wilburys [primarily Harrison]; performed by the Traveling Wilburys)
Cockamamie Business
Any Road
Stuck Inside a Cloud
Looking For My Life
P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night)

Honorable Mentions: Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll), Apple Scruffs, Sue You Sue Me Blues, Hari's On Tour (Express), The Answer's at the End, That's the Way It Goes, Wake Up My Love, Cloud Nine, Heading for the Light (Traveling Wilburys [primarily Harrison]; performed by the Traveling Wilburys), Cheer Down (Music: Harrison; Lyrics: Harrison/Petty), Pisces Fish, Marwa Blues, Horse to the Water (George Harrison/Dhani Harrison; performed by Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra featuring George Harrison)

Peter Gabriel: From Genesis Frontman to Pioneering Solo Artist

Peter Gabriel (born February 13, 1950) was a student at Charterhouse in England when he first met Tony Banks and began playing music with him. The two of them joined with Anthony Phillips and Mike Rutherford to form Genesis, with Gabriel become the group’s lead singer. After the band’s first album, From Genesis to Revolution (1969), they began to move in the direction of what was then known as art rock and is now commonly called progressive rock. Soon after the release of their second album, Trespass, they added Phil Collins on drums and replaced the departed Phillips with Steve Hackett, creating what is commonly considered the band’s classic five-man lineup.

In live performances, Gabriel began telling stories to fill the gaps between songs while the others were tuning their instruments. He began to experiment with stage makeup, and in 1972, he appeared on stage in a fox head mask and a red dress. This and other elaborate costumes helped the band get attention from the music press and contributed to their growing popularity. On the downside, the increasing focus on Gabriel began to create some tension in the band, as they felt the music and their own contributions were being ignored. At the same time, Gabriel felt increasingly constricted by working in a band format, since he often found it difficult to persuade the others to go along with his ideas. These tensions came to a head during the recording of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974), and during the tour to support that album, one that featured an elaborate stage show in which he played the album’s protagonist, Gabriel made the decision to leave the group.

As noted earlier, Gabriel’s stories and costumes played a major role in raising the group’s profile. On record, aside from his vocals, he played flute, oboe and some percussion, though generally his instrumental contributions were limited (he was a capable keyboardist and also played some drums, but those roles in the band were more than adequately filled by Banks and Collins respectively). However, he contributed a great deal to the songwriting. Determining exactly how much is somewhat tricky, as on all the albums released while he was with the band the songs are credited to the group as whole (some sources do give individual credits for From Genesis to Revolution that seem to be accurate, though that is their least significant album). The band has talked about who wrote what in various interviews, though there are quite a few songs that they have not talked about, so there is still a lot of guesswork involved in parsing individual contributions. Gabriel certainly wrote a lot (though not all) of the lyrics, and he is known to have written or co-written the music for some tracks as well.

In their first two or three years, Genesis tended to write most of their songs in pairs, with Banks and Gabriel forming one pair and Phillips and Rutherford the other. Banks and Gabriel, for example, wrote the A-sides of the band’s first two singles, “The Silent Sun” and “A Winter's Tale”, as well as many tracks on the group’s first album. It seems likely that on these songs Banks tended to write more of the music and Gabriel more of the lyrics, though on many songs they seem to have shared responsibility for both. One track on From Genesis to Revolution, “Am I Very Wrong?”, is credited to Gabriel/Banks rather than Banks/Gabriel, which if accurate would seem to indicate that Gabriel was the main writer. On Trespass (1970), Gabriel wrote the opening section of “Looking for Someone” in addition to the lyrics for that track, and he and Banks wrote “The Knife” together (Gabriel said in the interviews the band did for Trespass that he started the song on his own and Banks helped him finish it). On Nursery Cryme (1971), Gabriel wrote “Harold the Barrel” mostly on his own, except for some help on the lyrics from Collins (who also sang in unison with Gabriel on the track), and he wrote lyrics on several other tracks. On 1972's Foxtrot, he wrote the lyrics for the group’s 23-minute opus “Supper’s Ready” and he wrote the music for the “Willow Farm” section of that song. He also wrote the lyrics for “Get 'Em Out by Friday” and contributed musically to “Watcher of the Skies”. On Selling England by the Pound (1973), he wrote the opening section of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” and parts of “The Battle of Epping Forest” as well as the lyrics for both of those tracks. Since "Aisle of Plenty" is musically a reprise of the opening section of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight”, it can also presumably be attributed to him. He also wrote the lyrics for “I Know What I Like” and he and Collins wrote the melody for the verses. On the double concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Gabriel wrote the story and all the lyrics with the exception of one track, and wrote the music for “Counting Out Time” and most of the music for “The Chamber of 32 Doors”. He and Banks wrote the music for the title track together. Gabriel also wrote the melody for “Carpet Crawlers” based on a chord sequence by Banks and Rutherford. He probably contributed musically to other tracks here and there, both on The Lamb and elsewhere, but detailed information is lacking.

A look at the songs that Gabriel wrote on his own or mostly on his own for Genesis indicated that he specialized in somewhat quirky, humorous pieces like “Harold the Barrel” and “Willow Farm”. On other tracks like “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” he came up with the initial ideas that were expanded into a longer song by the rest of the band. While he didn’t compose as much for the band as Banks, he seems to have composed at least almost as much as Rutherford, and more than Hackett or Collins. Lyrically, he was the biggest contributor, though Banks and Rutherford in particular also wrote many of the group’s lyrics. He was also arguably the band’s best lyricist, though the others also wrote some good lyrics and he occasionally wrote some that weren’t so great, or were at least overly obscure. But ultimately, despite his important role in Genesis, Gabriel’s departure was probably a good thing. The group went on to make a lot of music that was just as good as anything they did with him, and he was free to embark on a solo career free of the restraints that the band placed on him.

After leaving Genesis in 1975 and taking a short break from music, Gabriel came out with his first solo album in 1975, titled simply Peter Gabriel (it’s also sometimes referred to as Car, for the picture on the album cover of Gabriel sitting in a rain-covered car). It included the hit song “Solsbury Hill”, inspired by his departure from Genesis. He released his second album, again labeled simply Peter Gabriel (it is also known as Scratch, for the scratched picture of Gabriel on the cover) in 1978 and a third, again untitled (generally called Peter Gabriel 3 or Melt, for the melting image of Gabriel on the cover) in 1980. Phil Collins, who had taken over as lead vocalist in Genesis after Gabriel’s departure, played drums and percussion on several tracks on Gabriel’s third album, and together with engineer Hugh Padgham and producer Steve Lillywhite the two of them developed the gated reverb drum sound that Collins further popularized on his own solo albums. This album featured the hit “Games without Frontiers” and the anti-apartheid anthem “Biko”, which heralded Gabriel’s increasing interest in human rights issues (he became a prominent supported of Amnesty International) and world music. He cofounded the world music festival WOMAD (World of Music and Arts) in 1980, with the first festival taking place in 1982. It was initially a financial disaster, and Genesis performed a reunion concert with Gabriel to help pay off the resulting debts, but since the festival has become one of the world’s most prominent international arts festivals.

In the meantime, Gabriel continued his solo career, with his fourth album (titled Security in the US) being released in 1982 (he also released German versions of both this and his third album). “Shock the Monkey” from this album became Gabriel’s first US top 40 hit. Following the release of the soundtrack for Birdy in 1985, Gabriel released his most commercially successful album, So, in 1986. This featured the hits “Sledgehammer”, “Big Time”, “Don’t Give Up” (a duet with Kate Bush), “In Your Eyes” (later prominently featured in the movie Say Anything) and “Red Rain”. “Sledgehammer”, which featured a groundbreaking video that became the most played video in the history of MTV, was Gabriel’s first and to date only US No. 1 hit, ironically knocking “Invisible Touch” by his former band Genesis off the top spot. In 1989, Gabriel released Passion, his soundtrack for the movie The Last Temptation of Christ, which featured music inspired by the traditional music of the Middle East. He also co-wrote “Shaking the Tree” with Youssou N'Dour, a version of the song appearing on a 1990 greatest hits compilation of the same name. In 1992, he released Us, his first standard studio album since So, featuring the hits “Steam” and “Digging in the Dirt”. It was not until 2002 that Gabriel, a famously slow worker, released his next studio album Up, though in the intervening period he’d released the soundtracks OVO (2000) and Long Walk Home (2002). He has not released an album of new material since, but in 2010 he released Scratch My Back, an album of orchestral covers of songs by artists ranging from Paul Simon, David Bowie and Randy Newman to Radiohead, the Magnetic Fields and Arcade Fire. He had the innovative idea of pairing this with an album in which those same artists covered his songs (to be called I’ll Scratch Yours) but unfortunately some of the artists declined to participate so the second album was put on hold, though some of the tracks recorded for it have been released on iTunes. In 2011, Gabriel released an album of similar reworkings of his own songs called New Blood.

Peter Gabriel has without question had the most pioneering and adventurous solo career of any past or present member of Genesis. He has said that he is happiest when he is trying new things and pushing the boundaries, and he has shown it in his solo work. Aside from his wide-ranging musical explorations, he has produced groundbreaking music videos, nearly all of which are included in the video collection Play. On the downside, Gabriel’s work is not always very accessible, as he has a tendency to produce music that is somewhat abstruse and requires repeated listening to get into. Partly for this reason, I don’t necessarily prefer his solo albums to the best ones by his erstwhile bandmates; in addition to the sometimes difficult nature of Gabriel’s music, I prefer Collins’s voice, at least for certain types of songs, and I think Collins and Banks in particular often come up with melodies that are stronger than many of Gabriel’s. But Gabriel’s music remains very enjoyable, and while Genesis and the solo ventures of members like Collins deserve greater critical respect than they generally receive, Gabriel’s work deserves all the critical plaudits it has received.

The first list below includes the Genesis songs that Gabriel is known to have had a hand in composing (according to quotes from him and other band members and in some cases secondary sources such as books on the band), though there are no doubt others, and there are certainly many more that he wrote the lyrics for. The second list includes a selection of thirty of his solo tracks. As I don’t have every one of his solo albums (I have his first and third albums, So, Passion, Scratch My Back, and Hit, and I once had Security on cassette tape), my choices are slightly biased towards the tracks I am more familiar with, though I have included selections from all his major releases of new material. In any case, most of these appear on the compilation Hit, which is an excellent overview of his solo material.


Peter Gabriel with Genesis
(All songs performed by Genesis)

Am I Very Wrong? (Gabriel/Banks)
Looking For Someone (Music: Gabriel[opening section], Banks/Gabriel/Phillips/Rutherford[closing section]; Lyrics: Gabriel)
The Knife (Gabriel/Banks)
Harold the Barrel (Music: Gabriel; Lyrics: Gabriel[primarily]/Collins)
Willow Farm (from "Supper's Ready") (Gabriel)
Dancing with the Moonlit Knight (Music: Gabriel[opening section]/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
I Know What I Like (Music: Hackett[basic riff], Banks[chorus melody], Gabriel/Collins[verse melody]; Lyrics: Gabriel)
The Battle of Epping Forest (Music: Gabriel/Banks[primarily]/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Aisle of Plenty (Music: Gabriel[primarily]; Lyrics: Gabriel?)
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (Music: Banks/Gabriel; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Counting Out Time (Gabriel)
Carpet Crawlers (Music: Banks/Rutherford[chord sequence], Gabriel[melody]; Lyrics: Gabriel)
The Chamber of 32 Doors (Music: Gabriel[primarily]/Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)


Peter Gabriel Solo
(All songs written and performed by Peter Gabriel except where otherwise noted)

Solsbury Hill
Moribund the Burgermeister
Down the Dolce Vita
Here Comes the Flood
On the Air
D.I.Y.
Games Without Frontiers
Intruder
I Don't Remember
Family Snapshot
Biko
Shock the Monkey
San Jacinto
Wallflower
Sledgehammer
Red Rain
In Your Eyes
Big Time
A Different Drum
Zaar
Shaking the Tree
Digging in the Dirt
Steam
Blood of Eden (duet with Sinead O'Conner)
Washing of the Water
Father, Son
Signal to Noise
Growing Up
I Grieve
Cloudless

Honorable Mentions: Modern Love, Slowburn, Mother of Violence (Peter Gabriel/Jill Gabriel), No Self-Control, And Through the Wire, I Have the Touch, Don't Give Up (duet with Kate Bush), Passion, Kiss That Frog, More Than This, The Drop, Burn You Up Burn You Down (Gabriel/Sparkes/Wallinger)

Steve Hackett of Genesis

Steve Hackett (born February 12, 1950), formerly a member of a group called Quiet World, joined Genesis in 1970 after the departure of Anthony Phillips and soon after the addition of Phil Collins on drums. He remained with the group for six studio albums and two live ones, departing in 1977. Along with Collins and founding members Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, and Mike Rutherford, he was part of the classic five man lineup of Genesis that produced the group’s most well-received early albums.

To more casual fans of Genesis, Steve Hackett is probably the least familiar of the group’s longer-serving members. Peter Gabriel left the group earlier, but aside from having a much more prominent solo career, his role as former lead singer is usually mentioned in even the briefest biographies of the band and Gabriel himself. Even those who are mostly familiar with the 1980s incarnation of Genesis will generally know that Gabriel was once with the group, but many of them may not even have heard of Hackett. On the other hand, to a rather vocal group of fans, Hackett was, along with Gabriel, what made the band great, to the extent that they will claim it was no good after his departure.

Hackett certainly played a very important role in Genesis in its art rock heyday in the 1970s. His guitar playing created a distinctive atmosphere that was very important to the group’s sound, and this was something that they lost with his departure. Mike Rutherford soon became a solid lead guitar player, but his strong point was always writing great riffs that songs could be built around, rather than atmospheric guitar solos. After Hackett was gone, Genesis had to rely much more heavily on Banks’s keyboards for atmosphere. This was not a bad thing, as Banks’s keyboards had always been at the center of the group’s sound, but Hackett had complemented Banks well and so there was still a noticeable change when he left.

On the other hand, Hackett’s importance to Genesis is sometimes overstated. By his own admission, his songwriting contributions were fairly minor, at least for his first few albums with the band. With some help from fellow new member Phil Collins, he wrote the song “For Absent Friends”, which appeared on his first album with the group, 1971’s Nursery Cryme. He wrote the brief Bach-derived classical guitar instrumental “Horizons” that served as a prelude to “Supper’s Ready” on Foxtrot (1972), and he recently stated that he was the main writer on “Can-Utility and the Coastliners” (presumably the opening song section, as the instrumental sounds like a group composition, and Rutherford has said it was written in the rehearsal room). On Selling England by the Pound, he was the main writer of the instrumental “After the Ordeal” and a guitar riff he came up with served as the starting point for “I Know What I Like”, though much of the final song was written by other members of the group. A better illustration of Hackett’s role in Genesis is seen on “Firth of Fifth” from the same album. Hackett’s guitar solo on this song is justly praised as one of his greatest moments with Genesis. But the song itself was written by Tony Banks and even the solo itself is, as Hackett said, “Tony’s melody, which I tried to interpret in kind of…[a] Middle Eastern way.” On this song as well as many others from this period, Hackett’s main role was to add color, which he did very effectively. In terms of actual composition, he remained in a role subordinate to senior members Banks, Gabriel and Rutherford. On 1974’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Hackett is known to have composed the music for “Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist”, and he probably was also the main composer on a few others such as “Cuckoo Cocoon” and “Hairless Heart”. However, he still composed less than Banks and Rutherford, though his playing on tracks like “Fly on the Windshield” was obviously vital to the sound.

It was only around the time of Peter Gabriel’s departure from Genesis and the release of Hackett’s first solo album Voyage of the Acolyte in 1975 that Hackett became more prolific as a writer. In addition to writing almost all the music for his solo album, on the first post-Gabriel Genesis album A Trick of the Tail he was the main writer of the song “Entangled” (he wrote the music for the verse sections and all of the lyrics, while the music for the chorus was written by Banks). On Wind & Wuthering, he made significant musical contributions to “Eleventh Earl of Mar”, and with Mike Rutherford he co-wrote the instrumental “Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers…” and co-wrote its companion piece “…In That Quiet Earth” with the rest of the band. But his biggest contribution was “Blood on the Rooftops”, of which he wrote the music for the verse sections and all the lyrics, with Collins contributing the music for the chorus and the song’s title. However, despite his substantial compositional input, Hackett was discontented at this point. He had a lot of ideas at this point and felt he should get a larger share of the songwriting. In 1977, during the mixing of the live album Seconds Out, he quit Genesis for a solo career.

Most of Hackett’s early songwriting contributions to Genesis were pleasant interludes rather than major compositions. While tracks like “For Absent Friends”, “Horizons” and "Hairless Heart" were lovely little pieces of music, they were largely overshadowed by the longer tracks the band did. None of the songs that Hackett played a major role in writing while Peter Gabriel was still in the band are among the more widely cited tracks on their respective albums. The only possible exception would be “Can-Utility and the Coastliners”, though it’s not clear how much of this should be attributed to Hackett. On the post-Gabriel albums, however, Hackett contributed two very significant tracks in “Entangled” and “Blood on the Rooftops” (though it shouldn’t be forgotten that Banks and Collins respectively wrote the choruses to these songs). “Blood on the Rooftops” in particular is a great track, one that I consider the best song Hackett wrote with Genesis, followed by “Entangled”. Though Hackett didn’t write many lyrics with the band, both of these songs have very good lyrics, with “Entangled” displaying some of the sardonic humor he has shown in interviews (for instance, in talking about his first gig with Genesis, he said, “I felt so humiliated doing that gig, I just wanted to die. I think dying would have been easier. I’ll let you know once I’ve died.”).

So how much of a loss was it for Genesis when Hackett left? I think they really did miss his playing at first, as their first post-Hackett album …And Then There Were Three… really could have benefited from it. He had also given the band an extra dimension with his songwriting. But by the 1980s, Banks, Collins and Rutherford developed into a very tight musical unit, and while they produced music that was quite different from what they would probably have done if Hackett had stayed, it was in my opinion just as good. In any case, given the different directions they were headed in, Hackett’s split from the group was probably inevitable, and it freed both sides to do what they wanted to do without any of the tension that had existed while they were together. Speaking of which, much is made by some of the supposed conflicts between Hackett and Banks. It is true that on his departure Hackett complained about Banks having too much control in the group, and that Banks didn’t like some of the tracks that Hackett contributed, such as “After the Ordeal” (though in that case it wasn't so much Hackett's composition that he disliked as it was his own playing on the track). But Banks praised Hackett’s songwriting on “Entangled” and “Blood on the Rooftops” as well as his guitar playing, and noted that in some areas they were in greater sympathy than others in the band, such as a liking for more complex, romantic music (also Hackett, like Banks, occasionally opposed Gabriel’s singing over instrumental passages). For his part, Hackett seems to have gotten over any hard feelings, and even approached Banks about playing on his Genesis Revisited project in the late 1990s, though Banks, after being initially receptive, turned him down due to fears of a conflict with Calling All Stations, the Genesis album they were working on at the time.

As for Hackett’s very prolific solo career, unfortunately I have only heard a relatively small proportion. The only album I have is his first, Voyage of the Acolyte, which featured contributions by Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, and Hackett’s brother John. This is not bad, though some of it seems a bit undeveloped, and a few tracks use keyboard sounds that I don’t care for (particularly “Star of Sirius”, the song Collins sings on). I’ve listened to Please Don’t Touch (1978) and Spectral Mornings (1979) a couple of times each, and my overall impression is that they are quite good, and noticeably better than his first, though there are a few weaker tracks. Interestingly, these two albums also have a lot of songs that don’t really fit the “art rock” or “prog rock” classification, despite Hackett’s popularity with prog purists. For these early albums Hackett used guest vocalists, though he sang on a few songs (regrettably in some cases with annoying vocal effects, like on his one vocal on Please Don’t Touch). I’ve also listened to most of his two albums that are said to be the most “pop”, Cured (1981) and Highly Strung (1982). These made less of an impression on me that his late 1970s albums, though they have good moments and he does do the vocals himself on these. As a singer, my impression is that he’s better than Mike Rutherford and not quite as good as Tony Banks (who has a more interesting voice), though of course none of them come close to Gabriel or Collins. Still, it’s always interesting to hear the writer sing his own songs. Finally, I listened to a few (very well done) tracks from his classical album Bay of Kings (1983) and the 1986 hit song from GTR, his collaboration with Steve Howe, the rather formulaic “When the Heart Rules the Mind”. Several of the albums I listened to I liked well enough that I may make an effort to get them, though I don’t think I’m likely to end up preferring them to most Genesis albums. A couple of them do have the potential to end up ranking among my favorite solo albums by members and former members of Genesis, though probably not in the top few spots.

The first list includes all of the Genesis songs which Steve Hackett is known to be or at least said to be the primary songwriter, or which he made significant writing contributions to. The second list is a sampling of his early solo work, though it’s by no means comprehensive.


Steve Hackett with Genesis
(All songs performed by Genesis)

For Absent Friends (Music: Hackett; Lyrics: Hackett/Collins)
Horizons (Hackett/Bach)
Can-Utility and the Coastliners (Music: Hackett[song?]/Banks/Collins/Rutherford/Gabriel; Lyrics: Hackett[primarily?])
After The Ordeal (Hackett/Rutherford)
Fly on the Windshield (Music: Banks/Collins/Hackett/Rutherford; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Cuckoo Cocoon (Music: Hackett[?]; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Hairless Heart (Music: Hackett[?]; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist (Music: Hackett; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Entangled (Hackett/Banks)
Blood on the Rooftops (Hackett/Collins)
Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers... (Hackett/Rutherford)
…In That Quiet Earth (Hackett/Rutherford/Banks/Collins)


Steve Hackett Solo
(All songs written and performed by Steve Hackett except where otherwise noted)

Ace of Wands
The Hermit (vocals: Steve Hackett)
Racing in A (vocals: Steve Walsh)
How Can I? (vocals: Richie Havens)
Hoping Love Will Last (vocals: Randy Crawford)
Icarus Ascending (vocals: Richie Havens)
Every Day (vocals: Peter Hicks)
The Virgin and the Gypsy (vocals: Peter Hicks)
Spectral Mornings
Hope I Don't Wake (vocals: Steve Hackett)
Cell 151 (vocals: Steve Hackett)
The Journey

Honorable Mentions: Shadow of the Hierophant (Hackett/Rutherford), Clocks - The Angel of Mons, Can’t Let Go (vocals: Steve Hackett), Camino Royale (Hackett/Magnus) (vocals: Steve Hackett), When the Heart Rules the Mind (Hackett/Howe) (GTR; vocals: Max Bacon)

Phil Collins of Genesis: Drummer, Singer and Solo Star

Phil Collins (born 30 January 1951) is a (currently retired) musician and songwriter who first became famous as a member of Genesis and then as a solo artist. He acted as a child, appearing on stage as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! and appearing as an extra in the Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night. He began playing the drums as a young child and joined several bands as a teenager. As a member of Flaming Youth, he made his first appearance on record on their 1969 album Ark 2, on which he played drums and also sang lead vocals on “Changes” (along with Gordon Smith), “Space Child” and the “Jupiter” and “Saturn” sections of “The Planets”. Collins also played percussion in sessions for George Harrison’s “The Art of Dying” in 1970. Later that same year, he successfully auditioned for Genesis, becoming the group’s fourth drummer.

Collins’s drumming ability made an immediate impact on Genesis’s sound. Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Peter Gabriel all have spoken frequently about the boost his skills brought to the band, and even Anthony Phillips, the co-founder of the group who left before Collins was recruited, has said that his own departure was a good thing for Genesis in that it ultimately resulted in Collins joining. Banks said that Collins contributed a lot to the arranging of the songs, as he would suggest different ways to play music that the others had written. The examples of great drumming by Collins in his early years with Genesis are too numerous to cite in any numbers, but songs like “Watcher of the Skies”, “Supper’s Ready” (particularly the “Apocalypse in 9/8” part), and the second half of “The Cinema Show” all have some great drumming, not to mention numerous tracks on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Interestingly enough, Collins has said that he didn’t think they sounded good on record until The Lamb because, while a drummer’s best take would usually be the second or third one, Genesis did so many takes that he would be playing it safe on the one that got used. Nevertheless, what did get recorded still sounded pretty impressive. As Gabriel said, “Phil is a very gifted musician. He’s someone who can pick up any sort of instrument and instantly produce something that feels good.”

Aside from his drumming duties, Collins also became the band’s primary backing vocalist behind lead singer Peter Gabriel, with his vocals on some songs almost as prominent as Gabriel’s. He sang lead vocals on two songs while Gabriel was still with Genesis. The first was “For Absent Friends” from 1971’s Nursery Cryme, his first album with Genesis, a very short track with music by fellow new member Steve Hackett and words by Hackett and Collins himself. The second was “More Fool Me” from 1973’s Selling England by the Pound, a song co-written by Collins and Mike Rutherford. Aside from these tracks, Collins did not do a great deal of writing in this period, except in group compositions (“Apocalypse in 9/8” and the second half of “The Cinema Show”, for example, were written by Banks, Collins and Rutherford, foreshadowing the later version of Genesis, while much of The Lamb was written by Banks, Collins, Hackett and Rutherford together or in various combinations). He apparently did write – or at least co-write – a song called “The Light”, which the group played live in the period just after he joined. This song was never recorded in the studio in its original form, but the opening section of it got turned into the verse sections of “Lilywhite Lilith” on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

In 1975, Peter Gabriel left Genesis. After the band has auditioned many possible replacements without finding anyone, Phil Collins somewhat hesitantly stepped into the role, and immediately proved himself more than adequate (Gabriel remarked in an interview that he was surprised that the band didn’t think of using Collins sooner). The first album to feature Collins as lead vocalist was 1976’s A Trick of the Tail, followed by Wind and Wuthering at the end of that same year, the live album Seconds Out (on which the band was augmented by drummers Bill Bruford and then Chester Thompson when Collins was out front singing), and then, after the departure of Steve Hackett, 1978’s And Then There Were Three.

Collins still was not writing a lot for Genesis in this period, though he made important contributions to group compositions like “Los Endos” (an instrumental that by some accounts grew out of something he wrote) and co-wrote tracks like “Wot Gorilla”. He wrote the music of the chorus for “Blood on the Rooftops” and came up with the title, though the rest of the song was written by Steve Hackett. He wrote the lyrics for “Scenes from a Night's Dream” and co-wrote “Vancouver” with Mike Rutherford. He was also keeping busy outside Genesis. He co-founded the jazz fusion group Brand X, recording several albums with the group between 1976 and 1982 and doing some very impressive drumming on tracks like “Nuclear Burn” and “And So to F” (the latter was credited as a Collins composition). He contributed lead vocals to solo albums by Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips and played drums on several albums by Brian Eno, such as the critical favorite Another Green World.

The collapse of Collins’s first marriage at the end of the 1970s gave him the impetus to start writing songs on his own. He recorded demos for over a dozen new compositions at his home in this period. Two of these, “Misunderstanding” and “Please Don't Ask” he contributed to Genesis’s 1980 album Duke, with the former giving the group their first US top 20 hit. Most of the remaining songs appeared on Collins’s first solo album, Face Value, which was released in 1981. Led by the atmospheric “In the Air Tonight” and its iconic drum break, the album was a huge success, outselling all previous Genesis albums, and popularizing the gated reverb drum sound that Collins had developed with Peter Gabriel, engineer Hugh Padgham and producer Steve Lillywhite while playing on Gabriel’s third solo album. Much to the surprise of almost everyone, including Collins himself, he was now a star as a solo artist. However, he remained with Genesis, alternating between albums with the group and his solo work.

On Duke, Banks, Collins and Rutherford had written much of the material as a trio, with each additionally contributing a couple of individually written tracks. On 1981’s Abacab, they decided to write nearly all the album together, with each member contributing only one individually written track. Collins’s solo composition, “Man on the Corner”, was a minor hit for the group. While the band written songs were generally composed by all three equally, sometimes one member’s contributions would be more apparent than the others, and for all the group compositions the one who felt most motivated by the song would write the lyrics. Thus while Collins contributed to all the group compositions, on some his contributions were somewhat greater than others. This was also true of songs on the subsequent Genesis albums, the eponymous Genesis (1983), Invisible Touch (1986) and We Can’t Dance (1991), all of which were written by the trio together in the studio. Collins wrote lyrics for a lot of the songs from these albums, with songs like "Driving the Last Spike", "No Son of Mine" and "Jesus He Knows Me" (not everyone's favorite, but I think it has some great lines) from the last one being among his best lyrical efforts.

In this period, Collins’s solo career was also thriving. His second solo album, 1982’s Hello I Must Be Going, also sold well, though slightly less than his first. But in 1984, “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)”, a ballad that Collins had left off Face Value and rewritten for a movie soundtrack, was released and became a No. 1 hit in the US (it subsequently won a Grammy and was nominated for an Academy Award). His duet with Philip Bailey, initially released in the US at the end of 1984, hit No. 1 in the UK and No. 2 in the US the following year. Later in 1985 he released his third solo album, No Jacket Required, which included two US No. 1s, “Sussudio” and “One More Night”, as well as top 10 hits “Don't Lose My Number” and “Take Me Home”. Also in 1985, “Separate Lives”, his duet with Marilyn Martin (composed by Stephen Bishop) also hit No. 1 in the US. He appeared in both the US and UK Live Aid shows, and the following year’s Genesis album, Invisible Touch, contained 5 top 5 US singles, including the number one title track. It is no wonder that Collins seemed ubiquitous in this period, such that one radio station in the city where I grew up had a special “No Phil Collins Day”. He did suffer from overexposure in this period, though he can't really be accused of deliberately courting publicity, unlike many celebrities.

In 1988, Collins starred in the movie Buster and sang several songs for the soundtrack. One was a cover of the drippy 1960s hit “A Groovy Kind of Love” and the other was a new song written with the great Motown producer Lamont Dozier titled “Two Hearts”. Though both were US No. 1s, they weren’t Collins’s best moments. In 1989, he released the album …But Seriously, which contained the number one anti-homelessness song “Another Day in Paradise” and the gospel-flavored “I Wish It Would Rain Down”, which featured his friend Eric Clapton on guitar. In 1993, Collins released the highly personal Both Sides, which he wrote and performed entirely on his own. Though “Both Sides of the Story” and “Everyday” were moderate hits, the relatively dark, non-commercial tone of the album meant it didn’t sell as well as his previous releases. The more upbeat Dance into the Light (1996) sold even less, as Collins’s commercial profile had diminished considerably. His soundtrack to the Disney movie Tarzan in 1999 was more successful (the song “You'll Be in My Heart” even won an Academy Award), though his last studio album of original songs, 2002’s Testify, also only sold moderately. In 2003, he made his last solo concert tour, titled jokingly the “First Final Farewell Tour”.

Collins had quit Genesis in the mid-1990s, but after participating in various retrospective activities over the years, in 2007 Banks, Collins and Rutherford, together with longtime touring members Chester Thompson and Daryl Struemer, launched a reunion tour. Subsequently Collins revealed that he had dislocated some vertebrae in his neck during the tour, so that it had become difficult to drum (he had also started to lose his hearing in one ear). In 2010, he released an album of Motown covers titled Going Back and played several shows to support the album. In 2011 he announced his retirement from music.

Phil Collins has been blamed by some self-proclaimed Genesis fans for the changes in the band’s sound in the 1980s. It is certainly true that albums like Genesis and Invisible Touch sound very different from ones like Foxtrot or even A Trick of the Tail, but leaving aside the subjective question of whether they are not as good (I would say that Genesis, at least, is as good as the earlier albums), how much Collins was responsible for the changes is debatable. It is true that the change took place around the time Collins began to participate more equally in the writing, and his fondness for more simple pop songs like those from Motown had something to do with the simplification of the group’s sound. However, the change also had more to do with the changes the band made in their writing process. Whereas in earlier years someone would present a song or idea that the others would build on, on the later albums they were writing from scratch by improvising together. The use of drum machines and the gated drum sound also made a difference. Finally, both Banks and Rutherford also changed their approaches to writing to some degree. It’s worth noting, for instance, that Rutherford wrote almost as many of the band’s love songs as Collins did (“Follow You, Follow Me” and “Taking It All Too Hard” being just two examples), and a song like “That’s All” owed its melodic sound largely to Banks, as Collins’s vocal melody was just an elaboration on what Banks played. The change in direction was something that all three band members wanted, not because they were deliberately aiming for commercial success, but because they wanted to do things differently. Only those ignorant of how the band worked would lay all or even most of the blame (or credit) on Collins.

Another related criticism of Genesis in the 1980s is that it is indistinguishable from Collins’s solo work. Again, no one who has really listened to both can reasonably make such an assertion. Of course there is a superficial resemblance because Collins is the vocalist. What’s more, as in the jam sessions in which the Genesis songs were written Collins would sing over whatever Banks and Rutherford played, the vocal melodies were largely Collins’s responsibility, particularly on the songs he wrote the lyrics for (on the others the lyric writer would usually flesh out the basic melody ideas that Collins had come up with in the initial jam). But Banks and Rutherford composed music that was quite different from the kind Collins wrote on his own, and even when Collins wrote the melodies, he was doing so over chord combinations that were not typical of his own writing, as noted above in the case of “That’s All”. In fact, with the exception of a few of the ballads, it’s hard to imagine Collins on his own writing any of the songs on the Genesis albums. Even the most “pop” Genesis songs have an underlying complexity that few other pop songs, including Collins’s, have. There is also greater variety in the Genesis material.

So how would I assess Collins’s solo career? As noted earlier, he was an incredible drummer, though this comes through most clearly in some of the recordings he did in the 1970s rather than on his solo albums. He was also a good singer, with a particular knack for more soulful material. He was a decent interpreter of other people’s songs, with his covers of classic songs like the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Golden Slumbers”, the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love”, Elton John’s “Burn Down the Mission”, Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colours” and Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin'” all being worthy of comparison to the originals. The main criticism of his own material is that it was very “middle-of-the-road” or that it was just plain bland. There is some basis for this assertion. Most of his songs are not all that adventurous in terms of composition, arrangement or production, and many of them tend to sound a bit similar, which is why I prefer the musical variety to be found on Genesis albums to Collins’s solo material. Another problem with some of Collins’s solo songs (and a few Genesis songs from the same period) is a sometimes excessive reliance on drum machines. But most of Collins’s songs are enjoyable to listen to, even when they aren’t exciting. He’s a solid if not brilliant lyricist, and his melodies are generally appealing. On the occasions when he did try something different, such as “The Roof Is Leaking”, "Long Long Way to Go" or “I Wish It Would Rain Down”, the results were usually worth listening to. His very best songs, such as “In the Air Tonight” and “I Wish It Would Rain Down”, are among the best songs of the 1980s. While it’s been years since I would have rated him among my very favorite artists, I still like a lot of his music and think he deserves much more credit than he usually receives – though he has gotten recognition from some in the R&B and hip-hop community, including a tribute album called Urban Renewal.

Phil Collins for some reason has gotten an enormous amount of criticism from all sorts of people, ranging from Genesis fans who hate songs like “Misunderstanding” because it’s a catchy, Beach Boys-style pop song (as if there’s anything wrong with catchy, Beach Boys-style pop songs) to people who attack him for his personal life or even his appearance. Since taste in music is highly subjective, reasonable people can say they aren’t fans of his songs, though anyone who claims they hate everything he ever did almost certainly hasn’t given his music a fair hearing, if they’ve even heard most of it. But some of the personal attacks are practically slanderous and are certainly ignorant. For instance, he was falsely accused of divorcing his second wife by fax. He was accused of moving to Switzerland because he was a diehard Conservative who wanted to escape high taxes, when in fact he moved because he met and married a Swiss woman (he has said he is not a Conservative – not that it would be as bad as being a Republican in the US if he was). Like other stars who talk about social problems such as Bono and Sting, he has been criticized for talking about issues like homelessness when he has great personal wealth (never mind that drawing attention to such problems is a good thing or that Collins has actually donated quite a bit to charity, not to mention that he does not live the life of a high roller). Regrettably, many reviewers seem to feel compelled to take some sort of cheap shot at Collins along these lines, and trolls on comment boards just insult him. In fact, having watched a lot of interviews with him, I would say Phil Collins seems like an affable, easy-going person with a good sense of humor. His interviews are always entertaining to watch because he’s always laughing and joking. There are many people in rock and pop music whose music I love but who I suspect would be difficult or even unpleasant people in person. But Collins seems like one of the few who would be fun to hang out with at the local bar.

The first of the lists below focuses on the Genesis songs that Collins wrote or played a major role in writing, as well as his first recordings as a lead vocalist for the band. I haven’t tried to include all the songs featuring great drumming, as these are too numerous. Obviously on the later Genesis albums he had a significant role in writing everything, so for those I’ve chosen the best songs that he is known to have written the lyrics for, especially those that he seemed to have a major influence on musically (though this can be hard to tell; on “Mama”, for instance, the drum machine riff was actually created by Mike Rutherford, not Collins, though I still included the track because Collins's vocals and lyrics are also key elements). Among the tracks that got left off this list are "Harold the Barrel", a Peter Gabriel composition that Collins helped write the lyrics for and sang in unison with Gabriel; "Match of the Day" and "Me and Virgil", two mid-period songs that Collins wrote the lyrics for but later stated that he disliked; a few of the less interesting album tracks; and several songs that I couldn't confirm he wrote the lyrics for, such as "Behind the Lines", "Abacab" and the non-album track "Hearts on Fire". For the second list, I’ve chosen 25 of what I consider his best or most interesting solo songs, though I’ve left out ones that he did not write himself, so no “You Can’t Hurry Love” or “Separate Lives”. Neither of these lists includes his work with Brand X, much less his session work with other artists, some of which is also certainly worth a listen (examples range from the abovementioned Brian Eno albums to Peter Gabriel’s third album to his production job on Howard Jones’s “No One is to Blame”). The only exceptions, both listed among the “Honorable Mentions”, are “Easy Lover” (recorded with Philip Bailey) and “Hero” (recorded with David Crosby), as he co-wrote these songs and sang on them. I don't have Testify or his Tarzan soundtrack, though I have listened to them a couple of times. My choices from these albums might vary if I listened to them more. For that matter, as is usual with these things, several of the "Honorable Mentions" could easily replace several of the songs in the main list.


Phil Collins with Genesis
(All songs performed by Genesis; lead vocals on tracks 1 and 4 by Peter Gabriel)

The Light (Music: Collins [primarily?]; Lyrics: [?])
For Absent Friends (Music: Hackett; Lyrics: Hackett/Collins)
More Fool Me (Rutherford/Collins)
Lilywhite Lilith (Music: Collins [verses]; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Dance on a Volcano (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford/Hackett; Lyrics: Rutherford)
Los Endos (Collins/Hackett/Rutherford/Banks)
Wot Gorilla? (Banks/Collins)
Blood on the Rooftops (Hackett/Collins)
Scenes from a Night's Dream (Collins/Banks)
Vancouver (Collins/Rutherford)
Misunderstanding (Collins)
Please Don't Ask (Collins)
Man on the Corner (Collins)
No Reply at All (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins?)
Paperlate (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)

Mama (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)
That's All (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)
It's Gonna Get Better (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins?)
Invisible Touch (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)
Tonight, Tonight, Tonight (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)
In Too Deep (Music: Collins/Banks/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)
I'd Rather Be You (Music: Collins/Banks/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)
No Son of Mine (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)
Jesus He Knows Me (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)
Driving the Last Spike (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)
I Can’t Dance (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)
Hold On My Heart (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)
Since I Lost You (Music: Banks/Collins/Rutherford; Lyrics: Collins)


Best of Phil Collins Solo
(All songs written and performed by Phil Collins except where otherwise noted)

In The Air Tonight
The Roof Is Leaking/Droned
I Missed Again
I Don't Care Anymore
Thru These Walls
Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart Away
Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)
Sussudio
Long Long Way to Go (Backing Vocals: Sting)
One More Night
Take Me Home
We Said Hello Goodbye
Another Day in Paradise
I Wish It Would Rain Down
All of My Life
Find A Way to My Heart
Both Sides of the Story
Everyday
We Wait and We Wonder
Dance into the Light
Lorenzo (poem by Michaela Odone)
You'll Be in My Heart
Two Worlds
Wake Up Call
Don’t Get Me Started

Honorable Mentions: Hand in Hand, You Know What I Mean, Like China, Easy Lover (Vocals: Phil Collins & Philip Bailey; Music: Bailey/Collins/East; Lyrics: Collins), Don't Lose My Number, Do You Remember, Heat on the Street, We Fly So Close, Survivors, Hero (Vocals: Phil Collins & David Crosby; Music: Collins; Lyrics: Crosby), It’s in Your Eyes, River So Wide, Strangers Like Me, Testify, Driving Me Crazy

Album Review – Abbey Road by the Beatles

Album Title: Abbey Road

Artist: The Beatles
Release Date: September 26, 1969

Side One
Come Together (Lennon)
Something (Harrison)
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (McCartney)
Oh! Darling (McCartney)
Octopus’s Garden (Starkey)
I Want You (She’s So Heavy)

Side Two
Here Comes the Sun (Harrison)
Because (Lennon)
You Never Give Me Your Money (McCartney)
Sun King (Lennon)
Mean Mr. Mustard (Lennon)
Polythene Pam (Lennon)
She Came In Through the Bathroom Window (McCartney)
Golden Slumbers (McCartney/Dekker)
Carry That Weight (McCartney)
The End (McCartney)
Her Majesty (McCartney)

Note On Song Authorship: Credit is given according to the primary writer of the song (even though Lennon and McCartney songs are official credited to both).

Abbey Road was the last album recorded by the Beatles before the group split up (Let It Be was not released until the spring of 1970, but nearly all of it had been recorded in early 1969). While the band was falling apart, they managed to pull together one last time and come up with yet another masterpiece, one that is almost universally ranked among the best albums of all time, along with Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Beatles (aka The White Album).

By the time Abbey Road was recorded, John Lennon’s relative apathy toward the group had left Paul McCartney as the group’s de facto leader. Paul asked the group’s long-time producer George Martin, who had distanced himself from the Get Back sessions that would ultimately end up being released as Let It Be, to come back and help them make one more album. McCartney and Martin wanted to link the songs together in a suite, as had been done for some tracks on Sgt. Pepper. Lennon, who was less interested in heavy production and concept albums, disagreed, wanting each track to be separate. In the end a compromise was reached, with side one the way John wanted and side two the way Paul and George Martin wanted it.

While Abbey Road may not be quite as strong song for song as Revolver, have had the historical impact of Sgt. Pepper, or cover as much ground musically as The Beatles, it outdoes even these albums in certain respects. For one thing, the individual Beatles reached a peak in their playing on this album, with all four delivering outstanding performances. The production is seamless; no other Beatles album can quite equal this one in terms of sheer sound quality. The album comes across as a unified effort, even if this was something of an illusion (rarely were all four Beatles together in the studio at the same time). And while the songs might not all reach the almost impossible standard set by those on Revolver, it comes pretty close, with all the songs being good and some among the best the group ever wrote. George Harrison in particular contributed two of the best songs on the album after years of playing second fiddle to John and Paul. The medley on side two was brilliantly conceived and executed, with Paul in particular putting in some brilliant work. Despite having drifted away slightly, John contributed several great tracks, and Ringo (with some uncredited help from George) contributed his second composition for the group and recorded his first drum solo. The album also features the first ever hidden track. Finally, there is the iconic album cover (the basic concept for which was originally sketched out by Paul) that has been imitated countless time by numerous artists, not to mention tourists who can be seen daily trying to replicate it at the crossing on Abbey Road in London outside Abbey Road Studios (which was originally named EMI Studios but was renamed in 1970 after the album).

Producer George Martin supposedly said that Abbey Road was his favorite Beatles album. Both Paul and Ringo spoke positively about it, with Ringo saying he particularly liked the medley on side two and also saying that it and The White Album were his favorites. John, on the other hand, said he liked side one but was dismissive of side two. George said at the time of release that he thought it was very good. For my part, while I might not go as far as George Martin (I would give Revolver the edge by a narrow margin), I certainly regard Abbey Road as one of the very best Beatles albums – maybe even a little better than Sgt. Pepper and The Beatles, or at least equally good – and therefore one of the best popular music albums of all time. Both the separate songs on side one and the suite on side two work great, with even the lesser songs being well done and the medley building to a great climax that served as a fitting "End" (so to speak) to the Beatles’ recording career as a band and an inspiration for numerous artists that came after them.

Abbey Road Song by Song

Come Together: This funky classic from John starts off the album off with a bang. The lyrics may be nonsense but they’re good nonsense, and the song really grooves, with Paul putting in some great bass playing. The song is deservedly one of the best known on the album.

Something: George delivered his first big hit with this much covered love song, his first to be released as the A side of a single. While I personally prefer a few of the other songs he wrote for the group, this was definitely a great one, and was yet more evidence that he could write songs that were as good as those of John and Paul. At the time it came out, Paul said it was his favorite song on the album, and it later became a standard, covered by numerous artists, including Frank Sinatra, who called it “the greatest love song of the past fifty years”.

Maxwell’s Silver Hammer: This song of Paul’s got a mixed reception, not only from critics and fans, but also John and George (in their case partly due to the time Paul made them spend working on it). While it’s far from the best song Paul ever wrote and it is slightly weaker than most other tracks on the album, it’s playful and well performed, so it makes a decent album track.

Oh! Darling: This soulful track from Paul is one that even John praised as “great”, though he thought he could have sung it better. This may be true, because it was more John’s style, but Paul turns in an impressive performance nonetheless. This is possibly my favorite song on the first side.

Octopus’s Garden: This is the second of the two songs Ringo wrote for the Beatles (George seemingly gave him a hand on it, though he wasn’t credited). It’s a pleasant sing-along that works well as a children’s song. I wouldn’t rank it among the better tracks on the album, but it is a solid album track, much like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”.

I Want You (She’s So Heavy): This song of John’s is perhaps the heaviest track the Beatles ever recorded, as well as the longest (excluding the sound collage “Revolution 9”). Lyrically it’s an exercise in minimalism, with only twelve words, but musically it is a powerful wall of sound, featuring some great playing by each member of the band. The way it builds up and then cuts off suddenly, bringing side one to the end, is also cleverly done.

Here Comes the Sun: George’s second contribution to the album has also become a classic. A beautiful acoustic guitar based song, it is one of the best songs on the album and one of the best George ever wrote.

Because: This song of John’s has some great harmonies sung by John, Paul and George. George said it was his favorite track on the album and Paul also rated it highly. It’s certainly John’s best song on side two.

You Never Give Me Your Money: An excellent melodic track from Paul combining several different bits. The lyrics refer to the money problems the Beatles and their company Apple were going through. This song, "Here Comes the Sun" and the closing medley are the peaks of side two.

Sun King: The next song in the medley was this one of John’s, which he called “a piece of garbage”. In fact it’s not a bad song and has some interesting bits, though it is probably the weakest track on the album.

Mean Mr. Mustard: John also called this one of his “garbage”, but in fact it’s a good song, though not the greatest thing on the album. It certainly is effective in the medley and leads directly into…

Polythene Pam: Almost like a second part to “Mean Mr. Mustard”, this song of John’s is another short little rocker that may not be much in and of itself, but sounds good in the medley.

She Came In Through the Bathroom Window: Though John’s “Polythene Pam” segues directly into it, this rocker is one of Paul’s, and it’s a very good one. Like in the case of “Come Together”, the lyrics are cool-sounding nonsense. In at least one rehearsal of the song, John did the lead vocals.

Golden Slumbers: This melodic ballad by Paul opens the final medley on the album. Some of the lyrics are taken from a 17th century poem by Thomas Dekker.

Carry That Weight: This next song in Paul’s closing medley has a rousing chorus sung by all four Beatles and a middle section sung by Paul, John, and George that reprises “You Never Give Me Your Money”.

The End: The closing part of the final medley on the last album recorded by the Beatles is appropriately called “The End”. Written by Paul, it features the only drum solo Ringo recorded for the Beatles, followed by Paul, George, and John, in that order, trading guitar solos, and then ends with a final line (praised by John as “a cosmic, philosophical line”) sung by Paul. Taken together, the “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End” medley is one of the best parts of the album, and a brilliant conclusion to the Beatles’ recording career.

Her Majesty: This 23-second long song, written and performed by Paul on acoustic guitar, is the shortest recorded Beatles song. It was also to my knowledge the first “hidden track” ever, as it was not listed on the album cover and it appeared after 14 seconds of silence that follow “The End”. It’s an amusing little song, though it’s slightly unfortunate that its presence means “The End” isn’t technically the end of Abbey Road (but perhaps as a hidden track "Her Majesty" shouldn’t really count).

Anthony Phillips and Early Genesis

The British band Genesis had a long history before it entered its present state of dormancy. In previous articles, I have discussed the only two members of the group to remain for its entire existence, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, and next year I intend to cover the best known of the other members of the group, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, and Steve Hackett. Another somewhat less well known former member who played an important role in the group’s formative years was Anthony Phillips (born December 23, 1951), who along with Banks, Gabriel and Rutherford was a founding member of Genesis. Though his early departure meant that the vast majority of the band’s best songs were written and recorded without any input from him, it seemed appropriate to do a brief overview of the early years of Genesis with an emphasis on the significance of Phillips in this period.

As noted in my article on Rutherford, he and Phillips became good friends at school and started playing music together, just as their schoolmates Banks and Gabriel did. Soon after arriving at the school in 1965, Phillips formed a group called Anon (sometimes referred to as “The Anon”, even by Mike Rutherford, though Phillips insists that there was no “the”) with bassist Rivers Job, vocalist Richard MacPhail, and drummer Rob Tyrell. Rutherford joined soon after, and the band, whose only recorded song was Phillips’s "Pennsylvania Flickhouse" (a R&B style tune very different from later Genesis songs, though Phillips maintains that the studio demo was not the best version of the song), played together with various lineups until the end of 1966 before splitting up. Rob Tyrell afterwards joined Sour Milk Sea, whose lead singer for its last few months of existence was Freddie Bulsara – later known as Freddie Mercury. Phillips, meanwhile, had started to spend more time playing music with Banks and Gabriel, and began attempting to write songs with Rutherford. Sometime in 1967, Phillips and Rutherford got together with the intention of recording some songs, and Phillips asked Banks to come and play piano. Banks suggested that he and Gabriel also record one of their songs and that Gabriel do the singing, as he had the best voice. So Genesis was born.

The four schoolmates managed to attract the interest of Jonathan King, a pop impresario who had once attended their school, with their demo. King signed them to a contract, gave them their name, and produced two singles and an album for them. The group’s first two singles, “The Silent Sun” and “A Winter’s Tale”, were released in 1968 and were mainly the work of the Banks/Gabriel partnership, with Philips and Rutherford only writing “That’s Me”, the B-side of “The Silent Sun”. On the group’s first album From Genesis to Revelation, recorded in 1968 while they were still at school and released in early 1969, the songs were still fairly simple and pop-oriented. According to Phillips, Banks and Gabriel dominated the songwriting on the first album, though he also contributed a number of songs, some with help from Rutherford and some on his own. An early composition by Phillips was the instrumental “Patricia”, which had appeared on the group’s first tape. Lyrics were later added, apparently by Gabriel, and the song was recorded as “In Hiding” on From Genesis to Revelation. Another song written mainly by Phillips that appeared on the album was “A Place to Call My Own”. According to Tony Banks, this song was one of the first long songs with separate sections done by the group, though they only used the last section on the album. (Note: Though the releases of From Genesis to Revelation that I know of credit all the songs to Genesis, several sources give individual songwriting credits for the songs; only a few of these individual credits are directly backed up by quotes that I’ve seen from the band members, though the few direct statements they have made about the authorship of the songs are not inconsistent with the individual credits given)

After their first album failed to make any impact, the members of Genesis, after some hesitation, made the decision to devote themselves to developing their music. According to Rutherford, Banks and Gabriel were the more hesitant ones, while he and Phillips were more certain that music was what they wanted to do, with Phillips perhaps being the most determined. Phillips and Rutherford began writing songs together on 12-string guitars, creating a sound that became one of the group’s signature sounds, along with Banks’s keyboards. The Phillips/Rutherford team, or Phillips alone, wrote a number of important songs in this period. Phillips had written “Visions of Angels” on piano at the time of the first album, and Phillips and Rutherford wrote “Dusk” and “White Mountain” together, as well as parts of “Stagnation”, though Banks and Gabriel also contributed to the latter. All these songs appeared on the group’s second album, Trespass, released in 1970. But according to Banks, another key early track, though one that was not released until it appeared on a later box set, was “Going Out to Get You”, and while all of them worked on it, Phillips wrote the song part of it. The unreleased song “Pacidy” also may have been a Phillips/Rutherford collaboration, as part of it was included in a piece on a Phillips solo album called “Field of Eternity” and credited to Phillips and Rutherford. Phillips no doubt wrote or co-wrote a number of the other early unreleased songs by the group, but no information on the other songs is available.

Unfortunately, by the time Trespass was released, Phillips had started suffering from debilitating stage fright, and he eventually decided to quit the band. As he had been very important to the group, his decision almost caused the others to give up, but in the end they decided to continue, and in addition to looking for a replacement for Phillips also find a new drummer. The drummer they ended up recruiting was Phil Collins. As Phillips said, “There was a huge silver lining for Genesis which was that me leaving meant…they got Phil. I mean, it’s got to have been worth it to have got Phil.” While getting a replacement for Phillips himself took longer, the person they finally got, Steve Hackett, would also prove to be a good choice for the group. But even after Phillips had left, he still had an influence on Genesis in that some songs that he had been involved in writing remained in their repertoire and in some cases were recorded. The most notable example was “The Musical Box”, which appeared on the first post-Phillips album, 1971’s Nursery Cryme, and became one of the group’s most popular and highly regarded songs from the early part of their career. While, like all the songs on early Genesis albums, it was officially credited to the band (meaning the current group as of the time of the recording), a significant part of the music, particularly the opening sections, had been written by Anthony Phillips (possibly with Mike Rutherford), as can be heard from listening to his 1969 instrumental demo entitled F#, which was released on his Archive Collection Volume 1 (a further development of what became “The Musical Box” can be heard in the Genesis archive track “Manipulation”).

In the years after he left Genesis, Phillips and Rutherford continued to play and write together on occasion. In fact, they originally had intended to release an album together, but because of his Genesis commitments, Rutherford found it difficult to find time to work with Phillips. The music they wrote together was finally released as Phillips’s first solo album, The Geese and the Ghost, along with a number of songs and instrumental pieces composed by Phillips alone. Phil Collins also participated, doing vocals on two songs. A third collaboration between Phillips, Rutherford and Collins was “Silver Song” (named for John Silver, the drummer for Genesis at the time of From Genesis to Revelation), which was recorded to be released as a single but was then shelved, only getting released in 2007 on a re-release of The Geese and the Ghost.

Phillips was clearly very important to Genesis in its early years. He helped push the band in the direction of art rock (or progressive rock as it is now called), though it was a direction all of the group were interested in, and he was at first the most determined to make a career of music. Gabriel, Banks and Rutherford have all stressed his impact on Genesis, with Gabriel going so far as to call him “in many ways the most musically gifted of all of us” and Banks saying that “Anthony for me was kind of the group leader”. He certainly had a major role in the writing during his time in the band, probably about equal to (but not greater than) Banks and Gabriel, though Rutherford had pretty much caught up by the time Phillips left. Though even on the first two albums Banks and Gabriel stand out the most to me as performers (Phillips himself called Banks “the fulcrum of the group”), as I noted above the excellent 12-string guitar playing in tandem that Phillips and Rutherford (and occasionally Banks) did on Trespass became a signature sound of the band, one that they continued to use to good effect in later years. Since I don’t consider either From Genesis to Revelation or Trespass to be as good as the albums that followed it (though the addition of Collins and Hackett and improved performance by the others also have something to do with that), it’s hard for me to consider his departure a disastrous loss for Genesis, but there are still some good songs on those albums (Phillips's "Visions of Angels" is one of the better songs on the latter one), and “The Musical Box” is one of the group’s best early tracks. I can’t judge most of Phillips’ solo recordings, as the only album I’ve heard in its entirety is The Geese and the Ghost, though as far as that one is concerned I concur with some who point out that while it has some beautiful guitar playing and is enjoyable enough to listen to, it is somewhat lacking in drama, which is something that Banks and Gabriel in particular (and later Collins and Hackett as well, at least as performers) contributed to Genesis. For that matter, even Trespass seems weaker in part because it is somewhat softer and less dynamic than the later albums. But it’s also true that without the acoustic guitar passages contributed by Phillips and Rutherford (and later by Rutherford and Hackett), Banks’s keyboards would quickly become overwhelming. Like with most great bands, it was the balance between the different group members that made them good, and it was fortunate that the softer, more acoustic music pioneered by Anthony Phillips remained part of Genesis even after he left.

Anthony Phillips with Genesis
(All songs performed by Genesis except where otherwise noted)

Pennsylvania Flickhouse (Phillips; performed by Anon)
Patricia (Phillips)
That's Me (Phillips/Rutherford)
In Hiding (Phillips/Gabriel [?lyrics])
A Place to Call My Own (Phillips/Gabriel[?])
In the Beginning (Phillips/Gabriel[?])
Window (Phillips/Rutherford[?])
Visions of Angels (Phillips)
White Mountain (Phillips/Rutherford)
Dusk (Phillips/Rutherford)
Going Out to Get You (Phillips[song section], [?Banks/Gabriel/Rutherford])
Pacidy (Phillips/Rutherford[?])
The Musical Box (Music: Phillips/Rutherford[opening section], Banks/Rutherford[final section]; Lyrics: Gabriel)
Which Way the Wind Blows (Phillips; performed by Anthony Phillips with Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford)
Silver Song (Phillips/Rutherford; performed by Anthony Phillips with Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford)

Let’s Put the Beatles Back Together Again 1970-2010 by Jeff Walker

As today is the 22nd anniversary of the murder of John Lennon on December 8, 1980, it seems like an appropriate time for another Beatles-related article. Earlier this year I bought a copy of the book Let’s Put the Beatles Back Together Again 1970-2010: How to Assemble & Appreciate the 2nd Half of the Beatles' Legacy by Jeff Walker, and I finished reading it a month or two ago. As the title indicates, the author assembles solo songs released by the various ex-Beatles in the decades after the group broke up into Beatles albums. This is of course not a new idea – I have done something similar myself, though I only got as far as the mid 1970s (at least so far) – but Walker is the first person to publish a comprehensive book on the subject.

The first part of the book is devoted to arguments about why it makes sense to assemble the best of the individual Beatles' post-1970 output into Beatles albums. Walker has a tendency to belabor the point about, repeating arguments a little more often than necessary, but he makes a good case. One good point is that the Beatles had already released quite a bit of material that did not involve all of the four and in some cases only involved one. As far back as Paul McCartney's solo recording of "Yesterday" there had been songs released in the Beatles' name that didn't include all of them, and by the time of The Beatles (aka The White Album), many of the songs were recorded without the participation of one or several of the group. In this sense, the post-1970s recordings are just a continuation of this trend, especially since individual members still sometimes recorded together, though of course far less frequently than even in 1968 and 1969, and with far more help from other musicians.

While it is apparent that there is plenty of solo material that is not up to the standards of that released by the Beatles, Walker makes the point that there were at least a few songs released under the Beatles moniker that weren't all that great, and that there are some solo songs that are superior to even decent Beatles songs. I do have a minor problem with one of his examples; while I agree that in the cases of the examples he cites for Paul ("Run Devil Run" vs "Another Girl"), George Harrison ("Any Road" vs "If I Needed Someone"), and Ringo Starr ("It Don't Come Easy" vs "What Goes On") the solo songs are at least slightly better, John's "Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)", while certainly one of his better songs from that period, is by no means equal to "And Your Bird Can Sing" (there are a number of weaker Beatles songs written by John that would have been better examples). Also I disagree with a few of his examples of solo songs that he regards as not "Beatles-worthy", such as "Crackerbox Palace" and "Crippled Inside", with the former in particular being actually quite good. But of course these things are subjective, and the reader can accept his overall argument without agreeing with all his specific examples.

Before he gets down to details on the post-breakup material, Walker gives his reconfigurations of the 1960s albums for CD. While it makes sense to put the singles onto the albums from the same period, I wouldn't go nearly as far as Walker does in messing with the original track sequences, nor would I eliminate as many songs as he does. In fact, I'm not sure that any really should be taken off; while a few early tracks are basically filler, none are truly terrible, and there is some virtue in every track on their later albums (yes, even "Revolution 9"). Admittedly, even Walker does little more than add contemporary singles to the albums from Help on, with the exception of Magical Mystery Tour and The White Album, and it makes sense to assemble a more chronologically-accurate version of Magical Mystery Tour. But I am so used to albums like Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's, and Abbey Road opening and closing as they do in the original formats that I would have trouble getting used to hearing them differently (even if it does make more sense for Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever to be on Sgt. Pepper's than on Magical Mystery Tour), and in the case of even the less unified White Album it would seem a bit odd to hear the track order changed so much. But those who don't want to mess with the original albums can safely skip this section.

Next Walker devotes two chapters to reassessing the Get Back sessions and the material that came out of them. He argues strongly that the negative views of this material and the claims that the sessions were a disaster are wrong. While I agree that some of what has been said and written about the Get Back sessions is excessively negative, Walker overstates his case to some degree. While the Beatles were able to get along better than is often portrayed, the tensions were also quite obvious, and while a much better album could have been assembled from the Get Back sessions than the botched effort by Phil Spector that finally came out as Let It Be, it is still true that overall the songs weren't quite up to the standards of their previous few albums, with a few exceptions like "Let It Be", "Across the Universe" and "The Long and Winding Road". But Walker does provide an alternative viewpoint to the usual critical views of this material.

Though it only starts two-fifths of the way in, the meat of the book is of course the sections on the Beatles' post-breakup songs. Walker uses a fictional alternate history in which the songs that in reality were released on various solo albums instead were released by something he calls the Beatles Releasing Collective (BRC for short), masterminded by a fictional manager named Arnold Zonn (as Walker puts much of the blame for the breakup on the conflict over choice of managers and bad handling of affairs by Allen Klein). I think he spends too much time setting up the BRC concept, which after all is fictional, and I don't agree with the way he groups the releases. While in Walker's fictional timeline singles were released more or less at the same pace as in reality, all the BRC albums are grouped into box sets: Black Box (1973; 3 discs), MoonDogs (1982; 2 discs), Covers (1999; 2 discs), 45 (2000; 3 discs), Live (2009; 4 discs) Singularity (2010; 3 discs) and several bonus sets. Even if the Beatles had agreed to something like the BRC, it is highly unlikely that their songs would have been released in box sets. Box sets were not all that common before the CD era, and I can't think of any significant original releases (as opposed to compilations of previous released material or unreleased outtakes) that were box sets. Furthermore, I'm sure the individual Beatles would have been too impatient to get their songs out on the market to wait years between sets. Of course the advantage to grouping the songs this way is that Walker has a wider selection to pick and choose from, and he can sequence the albums with more freedom. Nevertheless, I prefer my own way of putting together this material, as single albums released more or less annually in the early years and then with less frequency afterwards, though some individual songs might end up getting held back for later release.

Inevitably, I disagree with some of Walker's individual song choices. For one thing, though he argues strongly for Paul being every bit John's equal, something I agree with him completely about, and for both George and Ringo having a lot to contribute as well, his song selections are unbalanced in favor of John's songs. He includes as many or more of John's songs as he does Paul's, even though Paul released far more songs than John. This means he neglects great songs by Paul like "Listen to What the Man Said" in favor of relatively obscure songs by John. I can't judge the merits of all the songs he picks, since there are some I don't have (in particular I don't have the John Lennon Anthology), but from the ones I do know I don't think that the ratio on Walker's sets is justified. It would make more sense to simply decrease the number of John's songs on the later sets when there is less of his material to choose from, or to add more songs by Paul (and to a lesser extent by George and Ringo), to reach a more reasonable ratio. It's also interesting to note that Walker has a definite preference for certain albums. He includes most of the songs on albums such as Paul's Flaming Pie and George's Brainwashed in his sets, while including little or nothing from other albums. I don't necessarily have a big problem with this (Flaming Pie and Brainwashed are certainly among the best solo Beatles albums), but there are still albums that are unfairly neglected. Also, while Walker does have a very useful index of songs which indicates the source albums for each and for the truly dedicated a list of suggested edits (some of which, at least, would probably significantly improve the songs in question, though I'm not likely to take the time necessary to do them), it would have been nice to also have a list organized by source albums, which would incidentally show which ones he got most of his selections from, giving those who haven't bought all the solo albums a clearer idea of which ones would be good starting points. Despite these issues, Walker's choices will be useful references for me to consult when I get around to putting together my own Beatles collections for the later years, and I may even be inspired to reconsider a few of my choices on the ones I've already done.

One of the book's strong points is that Walker talks about every song he has chosen for the main sets in varying degrees of detail. Some of the entries focus on the songs themselves, while others are mainly devoted to background stories. Some go off on tangents with only the remotest connection to the song in question, but for the most part they are still very interesting reading. The entries on John's songs are the longest, and are the places where he most often goes into biographical anecdotes. The only problem with these is that Walker seems to use his various sources rather uncritically, repeating occasionally gossipy stories from different biographies, some of which have been criticized for inaccuracy. One exception to Walker's uncritical use of sources is the entry on "Watching the Wheels" where he mentions the possibly biases of May Pang and Elliot Mintz (who he refers to as Yoko Ono's paid "spin-master"). He is rightfully skeptical of John's claim to have seen a UFO, as related in the entry on "Nobody Told Me", but uncritically relates some dubious stories about John's death. Even if some of them are of questionable accuracy, the background stories are still very interesting, and most fans of the Beatles will learn something new from them. For one thing, the overall picture one gets of John and Yoko's relationship is not nearly as rosy as either Yoko or John when he was alive portrayed it. Interestingly, while Walker doesn't blame Yoko for the Beatles' split, he does make a case for her preventing a reunion, as when John was still with May Pang he was contemplating going to drop in on Paul's recording sessions for Venus and Mars, but when he got back together with Yoko this idea was abandoned, and though for a while afterward he was still fairly positive about the idea of a reunion he soon dropped out of music altogether. The stories he relates (some of which I've heard elsewhere) also tend to portray Yoko as cold and manipulative, though he has some positive things to say about her and her music (among his bonus CDs are ones pairing her songs with those of John's sons Julian and Sean).

While I have focused on a number of flaws and areas of disagreement, I still have to conclude that Let’s Put the Beatles Back Together Again 1970-2010 is a worthwhile purchase for any Beatles fan. For all the books written about the Beatles, there are very few that cover the solo releases of all four of them comprehensively. Fans who have not listened to much of Paul, John, George and Ringo's solo output will find this a very useful reference, and while I (and many other fans) might quibble with some of his choices, I have no doubt that anyone who actually assembled Walker's BRC sets would find them to be truly enjoyable albums on par with most of what the Beatles released in the 1960s.

[Update: For a look at a similar book, see my post from the end of 2015 on Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of the Beatles’ Solo Careers by Andrew Grant Jackson. Also check out more of my own post-break up Beatles albums.]