'IN THE AIR TONIGHT' CONTROVERSY : PHIL COLLINS VERSUS TONY BANKS

#philcollins #genesis #intheairtonight
Why was "In the Air Tonight" released as Phil Collins's first single and not a Genesis release?
Phil and Tony Banks disagree on whether Phil actually played the song to him and Mike Rutherford when they were choosing which songs to put on the Genesis album "Duke".
#philcollins #genesis #intheairtonight #facevalue

[PakRT]

1:28-1:32 Tony: "I think it was probably a very good thing we didn't do it. If Genesis had done it, I think we would've complicated it up."

"In The Air Tonight" from Genesis "Duke" (1980): a 19-minute masterpiece made up of 4 sections - 1) "Drowned" 2) "Marriage Travels" 3) "Drum Apocalypse in 9/8" 4) "Marriage Ends"

[thebod]

Thanks for releasing these interviews John!

[davebellamy]

So it became the first track on Phil's first album and an epic start to Phil's epic solo career. So it all worked out nicely. Later, Mama was basically In Air Tonight with Genesis. Mama is ITAT 2.0 for my money.

[adamgordon]

Fortunately it's the first epic Phil's song. A legendary one. All the best!

[davebellamy]

So the reconciliation of this would be that Phil played a demo version to Tony while they were mixing Duke so he did play it to them but the album Duke was already recorded That would make sense. Tony's memory is the most razor sharp I would think out of just about anybody. Though they would have heard the two other songs first perhaps.

[mikearchibald]

Its hilarious that Genesis 'controversies' aren't about who slept with whose girlfriend, who stole somebodys wife, lawsuits, acrimony, political arguments, royalties or song credits but whether Phils song got played to Tony. Ok, well, I guess Steve Hackett and Peter have a few issues, but my two cents would be that IF he played it, it was so different that it didn't actually sound like In the Air Tonight. I don't know why it gets the accolades it does, it all seems to come down to that drum fill, which is a drum fill, come on. In an other interview Phil says it was just a drum fill and the ones before were completely different. But the "I don't know why I WOULDN"T have played it for t hem" is always a tenuous thread to hang a memory on.

But Mama isn't exactly 'complicated', thats ITS strength and Tony seems to have willingly gone along with it, so I'm not sure how true it is that they would have wrecked it.

But these are pretty entertaining little vignettes sticking videos together like this over issues. I've seen most of them but it would be interesting to see ones about Steve's leaving, but that may be TOO contentious, or Peters. Or even one where they just talk about the personalities of the others. But then maybe I should look because I just noticed this is a year old.

[fabriziocamisani]

Fortunately it didn't end up on Duke, they both agree Genesis would have overcomplicated it.

[aminahmed]

This is a wonderful interview have a great weekend

[davebellamy]

I want to know exactly when and where he wrote that song. Someone claimed to have heard Phil playing it with roadies in a soundcheck at a US 1978 gig but if he did I would think it was more likely 1980. It's interesting that the very early version for Against All Odds on the extended Face Value has keyboards that sound much like Genesis 1986-1978 . It sounds like Tony playing!

[mortuaryartist]

Hi john, being a follower of leyland. He has always made the usual vids. He mentioned his dogs today. I said it would be lovely to see him walking his dogs. Today we saw his dogs. That’s awesome.

[WintersWar]

Do you think Phil would have said he wanted the best song for his solo album instead of for Genesis if that was a possible intention? No, that would not have been revealed if it was a consideration.

[mrteroo]

It doesn't matter what Tony Banks says, he did play it to him.