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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
This book caught me by surprise. I've been a huge, long time fan of Genesis, loved Face Value, and watched from a distance as for years Collins appeared to be everywhere and working with everyone, including his over-the-top ubiquity of performing on two continents in the same day for Live Aid.
Collins has a delightfully self-depreciating sense of humour as he charts his interest in music through the sixties, his progression as a musician through the different incarnations of Genesis and as a solo artist, and his work with other musicians. There's some great foreshadowing as we move through the busiest portion of his career and the conflict between his desire to work and be a 'family man.'
I'm fascinated by Collins' relationship with musician John Martyn and suspect there's another book on this topic alone.
I didn't know about Collins' more recent health challenges, and his retirement lifestyle choices were, to put it mildly, quite sobering. I found the book an engrossing read filled with humour and nuggets of insight.
A thoroughly enjoyable read, though quite disturbing toward the end. Two thumbs up, with much to think about.
Collins has a delightfully self-depreciating sense of humour as he charts his interest in music through the sixties, his progression as a musician through the different incarnations of Genesis and as a solo artist, and his work with other musicians. There's some great foreshadowing as we move through the busiest portion of his career and the conflict between his desire to work and be a 'family man.'
I'm fascinated by Collins' relationship with musician John Martyn and suspect there's another book on this topic alone.
I didn't know about Collins' more recent health challenges, and his retirement lifestyle choices were, to put it mildly, quite sobering. I found the book an engrossing read filled with humour and nuggets of insight.
A thoroughly enjoyable read, though quite disturbing toward the end. Two thumbs up, with much to think about.
Tremendous fun, and probably a plus that it's not overly revealing. Reading the book sent me back to Genesis records I hadn't listened to in ages, and I'll never tell if it also made me spin a solo PC record or two...
Phil Collins new memoir, “Not Dead Yet”, does not disappoint. The one thing that really surprised me in this book was Collins apologizing for how visible he was during the 80s. Looking back on the decade he realizes that he spread himself too thin and that is why many people now don’t really appreciate him. As he discussed all that he was involved in I could only wonder what the coverage of him would have been like now during the social media age?
Being a great songwriter it should not be a surprise that Collins does a great job of getting his story down on paper. The book reads easily and stays in a good chronological order. A few times Collins will mention a topic and then say that it will be discussed a little more later in the book.
As great as it is to read about everything that happened in his career, it is disappointing to read about Collins’ personal life. I can understand why on the business side Collins keeps doing more and more because an artist never knows when the offers are going to stop coming. Especially in the music industry where an artist or group is hot today and forgotten tomorrow. It is the mentality of “striking while the iron is hot” or regret it later. It is obvious that Collins is a workaholic and would put work opportunities above his family time and again.
About the last third of the book, when he starts describing his alcohol problems while writing for the Broadway musical “Tarzan”, that it becomes amazing that Collins is still alive to write this memoir. It is good to read that even though Collins is dealing with some physical ailments that it appears his life is back on track. He is again getting back into music and it is interesting to see what the future holds for him.
Being a great songwriter it should not be a surprise that Collins does a great job of getting his story down on paper. The book reads easily and stays in a good chronological order. A few times Collins will mention a topic and then say that it will be discussed a little more later in the book.
As great as it is to read about everything that happened in his career, it is disappointing to read about Collins’ personal life. I can understand why on the business side Collins keeps doing more and more because an artist never knows when the offers are going to stop coming. Especially in the music industry where an artist or group is hot today and forgotten tomorrow. It is the mentality of “striking while the iron is hot” or regret it later. It is obvious that Collins is a workaholic and would put work opportunities above his family time and again.
About the last third of the book, when he starts describing his alcohol problems while writing for the Broadway musical “Tarzan”, that it becomes amazing that Collins is still alive to write this memoir. It is good to read that even though Collins is dealing with some physical ailments that it appears his life is back on track. He is again getting back into music and it is interesting to see what the future holds for him.
Great book, love that Phil is quite honest about the ups & downs of his life.
Also amused to discover he had the same operation as my husband at one stage. Poor soul.
Good read if a fan of Genesis or/and his solo career
Also amused to discover he had the same operation as my husband at one stage. Poor soul.
Good read if a fan of Genesis or/and his solo career
Thoroughly enjoyed the story of Phil Collins' life thus far. While extremely talented in the musical arts he was less so in the area of romantic relationships, something he admits with regret and honesty. That's something a lot of us can probably identify with. He takes you through all the highs and the lows of his life and the near-death experience that would seem to have given him a new lease on life at the age of 65.
Something I did that made this a unique reading was that I did not confine myself to reading. It occurred to me that I had most of his songs in my iTunes library or could listen to them on YouTube, so whenever he mentioned a song title I would stop and pull it up to listen and enjoy. It made the reading take a bit longer, but it was fun to do and added to the story, for me.
Something I did that made this a unique reading was that I did not confine myself to reading. It occurred to me that I had most of his songs in my iTunes library or could listen to them on YouTube, so whenever he mentioned a song title I would stop and pull it up to listen and enjoy. It made the reading take a bit longer, but it was fun to do and added to the story, for me.
This one took a while to get through - as with a lot of other musician's memoirs, it was a little all over the place and lacked a clear linear narrative. BUT - as with any good memoir, it was a really in depth look into Phil's life, journey and career and I appreciate that it included all the gritty details, even if they weren't particularly flattering or heroic. The behind the scenes stories about other musicians and various household names were the best. The chapter that focuses on Phil's exclusion from the live Beatles performance video as well as the saga that went with his percussion work for George Harrison is a story I've already told so many times to fellow music lovers, even though I'm far from a huge Beatles fan. Even the tales of projects that never came to fruition, like those with Adele and Danny Devito, were really interesting tidbits that make me feel like I could SLAY some Phil Collins trivia if I had to.
Overall, despite its structure, I enjoy the on/off year or so I spent with this memoir and it makes me appreciate all that Phil is still doing musically even more.
Overall, despite its structure, I enjoy the on/off year or so I spent with this memoir and it makes me appreciate all that Phil is still doing musically even more.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read it over two days and was entertained all the way through. I love books written by musicians, et al, because I am always intrigued by the artist’s history and the inspirations behind some of my favorite songs. If you are a Phil Collins and/or 80’s music fan, I think you’ll be entertained.
I remember being introduced to Genesis when I was…13? Fell in love with Trick of the Tail, and loved every album the band put out. Got to see them in concert, albeit from far right field at Philly’s Veteran’s Stadium.
Never knew of this book until it was mentioned in an article on their reunion tour.
Phil Collins certainly led quite the life, and he’s very candid about both the highs and lows. I felt the joy and the sadness, success and disappointment. I never knew what the next page might bring; I was along for his ride. And the music! Good memories!
Phil Collins…a complex man, a complex story.
Never knew of this book until it was mentioned in an article on their reunion tour.
Phil Collins certainly led quite the life, and he’s very candid about both the highs and lows. I felt the joy and the sadness, success and disappointment. I never knew what the next page might bring; I was along for his ride. And the music! Good memories!
Phil Collins…a complex man, a complex story.
Not many people could go through relationship, children, alcoholism, heath issues and still be one of the biggest rock and roll stars of the 80's and 90's. A truthful telling of a sobering tale
I always get a bit confused reviewing biographies - what exactly am I reviewing - the quality of the book, or the quality of the person. I've seen many negative reviews about famous folk more because people do not like what the stories reveal versus whether its a good book or not.
So I'm going to try and cover both.
First of all the style of this book is a relatively factual, dry-ish but revealing summary of Collins' life. It's a fairly fast paced summary of Collins' early years, musical career and personal life. While some early moments were frankly a little boring, its hard not to get a little caught up in the various debacles within this book and for the most part it was hard to put down this book as it was well structured and timeframed.
What struck me a little is it felt very 'at arms length' more on this later but I had sense that often events were glossed over, sometimes with a dose of humour, sometimes more in the mad rush which appeared to be Collins' work schedule.
I felt that a big fan of Genesis and Collins would probably get a lot out of this book if they already felt very familiar with the music and evens of each era - as somewhere aware of, but not really knowing much about the man at first it was still a good read, but sometimes it felt very much like the information that Collin wanted to present about himself rather than true insight.
So as to the life of Phil Collins I was actually quite shocked. I guess I had (perhaps like many) thought of Collins as a kind of kindly uncle of music. The first red flag was mention of 3 marriages - but I figured that many famous musicians make for poor husbands for various reasons so didn't frown too much.
However as the story progresses Collins revealed that he punched a wall and true a can of small change across the room during a breakup with his 1st wife, he also wholesale moved countries to stalk her after the breakup (in his words he thought we was going to win her back which is a common perspective of abusers stalking their exes). I wasn't too surprised to find that after a brief Google his first wife's account is that Collins was angry and unhinged and unfair balancing his musical career with his family.
The red flags continued to fly as Collins continues to cheat his way through a 2nd marriage, eventually pursuing a woman half his age who at the time of writing is divorcing him for the second time. He disturbingly reconciled with her after an illness or accident left her paralyzed (attracted to vulnerability much)
Collins drug and alcohol concerns also fit this pattern, erupted or emerging once his career ended due to physical ailments.
Now obviously Collins is hardly the most toxic musician in the world, and perhaps in some respects might seem tame in comparison, but what struck me is the way that Collins describes everything as a sort of whiny victim who can't understand why endlessly working and neglecting his families is resulting in divorce, the way he has been able to tell his story - often to the hurt of his exes is all deeply problematic. Again plenty of musos have strings of problematic behaviour but its usually more a sense of immature egotism - whereas Collins gives the impression of having a black hole inside himself that when music stopped filling it he turned to drinking and pills. While he puts a lot of effort to present himself as sympathetic his story is filled with justifications, minimizations and as mentioned a strange arms length from empathy.
So in summary Not Dead Yet is a very strange read - probably not what many might expect, but at the very least a highly interesting look at Collins life.
So I'm going to try and cover both.
First of all the style of this book is a relatively factual, dry-ish but revealing summary of Collins' life. It's a fairly fast paced summary of Collins' early years, musical career and personal life. While some early moments were frankly a little boring, its hard not to get a little caught up in the various debacles within this book and for the most part it was hard to put down this book as it was well structured and timeframed.
What struck me a little is it felt very 'at arms length' more on this later but I had sense that often events were glossed over, sometimes with a dose of humour, sometimes more in the mad rush which appeared to be Collins' work schedule.
I felt that a big fan of Genesis and Collins would probably get a lot out of this book if they already felt very familiar with the music and evens of each era - as somewhere aware of, but not really knowing much about the man at first it was still a good read, but sometimes it felt very much like the information that Collin wanted to present about himself rather than true insight.
So as to the life of Phil Collins I was actually quite shocked. I guess I had (perhaps like many) thought of Collins as a kind of kindly uncle of music. The first red flag was mention of 3 marriages - but I figured that many famous musicians make for poor husbands for various reasons so didn't frown too much.
However as the story progresses Collins revealed that he punched a wall and true a can of small change across the room during a breakup with his 1st wife, he also wholesale moved countries to stalk her after the breakup (in his words he thought we was going to win her back which is a common perspective of abusers stalking their exes). I wasn't too surprised to find that after a brief Google his first wife's account is that Collins was angry and unhinged and unfair balancing his musical career with his family.
The red flags continued to fly as Collins continues to cheat his way through a 2nd marriage, eventually pursuing a woman half his age who at the time of writing is divorcing him for the second time. He disturbingly reconciled with her after an illness or accident left her paralyzed (attracted to vulnerability much)
Collins drug and alcohol concerns also fit this pattern, erupted or emerging once his career ended due to physical ailments.
Now obviously Collins is hardly the most toxic musician in the world, and perhaps in some respects might seem tame in comparison, but what struck me is the way that Collins describes everything as a sort of whiny victim who can't understand why endlessly working and neglecting his families is resulting in divorce, the way he has been able to tell his story - often to the hurt of his exes is all deeply problematic. Again plenty of musos have strings of problematic behaviour but its usually more a sense of immature egotism - whereas Collins gives the impression of having a black hole inside himself that when music stopped filling it he turned to drinking and pills. While he puts a lot of effort to present himself as sympathetic his story is filled with justifications, minimizations and as mentioned a strange arms length from empathy.
So in summary Not Dead Yet is a very strange read - probably not what many might expect, but at the very least a highly interesting look at Collins life.