Classic Albums - Phil Collins: Face Value

Starring:Arif Mardin, Phil Collins, Hugh Padgham, Shankar, Tom Tom Washington
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

After achieving stardom by taking over the lead vocals of Genesis from Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins released his first solo album, Face Value, in 1980. This installment of the Classic Albums series explores the making of this album in a one-hour documentary film, with Collins himself providing the bulk of the insightful commentary. From his home studio, he discusses how the lyrics to "In the Air Tonight" wrote themselves after his painful divorce and why a drummer would ever use a drum machine. Also interviewed are engineer Hugh Padgham, producer Ahmet Ertegun, Genesis colleagues Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, and many of the studio musicians. Songs such as "Behind the Lines," "I Missed Again," "The Roof Is Leaking," "This Must Be Love," and of course "In the Air Tonight" are excerpted in both home and concert footage (some of it previously unreleased), and Collins accompanies himself at the piano in a wrenching "Please Don't Ask," which was cut from the album. In the two decades between the original album's appearance and this 1999 video production, Phil Collins has gone on to become an international solo star, but many still consider Face Value his finest album. This excellent documentary shows you why. --David Horiuchi

Description

A rare and welcome insight into Phil Collins' prodigious musical talent and the fascinating story of his first solo record. Collins first enjoyed international success as the drummer of Genesis and then as lead singer after Peter Gabriel left the band. In 1981, however, Face Value launched him as a solo artist and remains, in many ways, his most exciting and unusual music offering. Face Value was immediately a worldwide hit, entering the British charts at Number 1, spending almost six years in the Top 75, and selling in excess of 12 million copies. The album went on to make the U.S. Top 10, earning a gold record. This documentary includes several previously unseen performances, as well as rare home movies, unique photographs and documents from Phil's own private archives, and insights into the music from an eclectic range of musicians who worked on the album.

Customer Reviews:

Serious Shadow.......2006-11-01

These days, the music industry really looks at the 1980's, and to see how wel so many great act have been influenced by Michael Jackson and Madonna. But for those acts then, some of them were just trying to fall upon their footing. Phil Collins was definitely one of those acts. Since his career on his own, and with Genesis Phil Collins has continued to thrive with his guilty pleasure fields of pop. But when his solo debut Face Value his the music industry, Phil really showed his footing as a giant and a real go-getter out of his shadow. This story really reflects on how deep the album turned out to be.

Classic Albums: Phil Collins Face Value, is a detailed and driven documentary that reflects on Phil's beginnings to what would be a legendary solo career. The stories behind Phil's crossroads within his ending first marriage, and how he transformed into his own, and aay fro beng a stepping stone from his era with Genesis as a lead singer. The movements are shown well here from each story behind songs like I Missed Again, the haunting In The Air Tonight, Phil's breakthrough smash, which was recently covered for the movie Miami Vice, and other great songs like This Must Be Love and Droned. There are also gripping interviews from Hugh Pagham, and from Phil himself on a landmark album that he made well.

All in all, I just absolutely wish that there could've been other records of Phil's that were highlighted like No Jacket Required and But Seriously. Nevertheless, it is just the absolutely great documentary, and a great buy for die hard Phil Collins fans. I loved watching this documentary on VH1 classic recently, and it is a really great buy.

Documetary: B+

Extras: B

Price: B

Overall: B 1/2+

Great DVD, and not expensive.......2006-04-27

This is a great look at Phil's first album. A really good example of how documentaries on classic albums should be done. First of all, points for which album was chosen. The easy choice would have been "No Jacket Required", but obviously this album was the better choice considering, A) First solo album, and B) Wide range of material, from R&B to jazz-tinged, Motown and Philly soul to the Genesis-influenced "In the Air Tonight". This album was a bit of a gamble, there was some risk involved, and that makes it a much more interesting album to cover than "No Jacket Required". Phil had no idea that this album would be as successful as it was, so it's even more fun to watch what went into writing the songs, what inspired them, and getting musicians' opinions on the music. I was lucky enough to get it used for $4, but its price new was just $10 where I bought it. Fans of Phil and Genesis should hunt down this disc. If you are familiar with "Face Value", you will NOT be sorry. Lots of Phil footage, and generous coverage with Hugh Padgham, too. Very informative. I won't give away anything, buy I'll bet you'll watch this and think, "I didn't know that" at least once.

Another wonderful DVD from the Classic Albums series!.......2005-05-07

This is a documentary (documentary being the key word here) that provides insight into the making of Phil's first solo release, Face Value. That means you'll be hearing from Phil, Hugh Padgham, Ahmet Ertegun and quite a few of the musicians involved in the creation of this outstanding album. For true fans of the music, and especially for musicians, this "behind the mixing board" type documentary is awesome! It's full of absolutely fascinating and entertaining commentary about how the songs were written, arranged, recorded, produced...basically how the entire album came together, from Phil's ideas and demos all the way through to Hugh's wonderful engineering techniques. It's a real treat to hear from the people directly involved (especially a lot of the musicians, like Tom Tom Washington and L. Shankar and Alphonso Johnson) talk about how such a great album is made. There's some un-released concert footage and short clips, but the real meat of the DVD (like all of the Classic Albums series) is the story you'll hear about the music. Being a musician, this type of documentary is very entertaining and informative for me...I own a few of the other DVD's in the Classic Albums series (Steely Dan - Aja, Fleetwood Mac - Rumours, and Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon) and those are also very good, but Face Value is one of my favorite recordings. It's really great that producer Nick de Grunwald and director Jeremy Marre went through the trouble of tracking all the people down involved in the making of Face Value and getting their stories for us to enjoy.

a little flawed & on the short side but overall pretty great.......2005-03-06

With its combination of deep emotions, eclecticism, & just-plain terrific songwriting, Phil Collins' 1981 debut solo album "Face Value" is one of the greatest albums of all time--in other words, it's certainly deserving of its place in the "Classic Albums" video/ DVD series. For the most part, this is a priceless documentary that gives you a terrific look at the making of the "Face Value" album as well as some other goodies. Phil, sometimes alone, and sometimes with assistant producer and engineer Hugh Padgham, dissects many of the songs from the album, and you get to hear some stuff that didn't end up on the album such as Eric Clapton's dobro playing on "The Roof Is Leaking" and Phil's early demo of "I Missed Again". The DVD features interview segments with many of the people involved in making the album including Shankar (violinist), Louie Satterfield (trombonist), Tom Tom Washington (who arranged the horns), Arif Mardin (who did the string arrangement for "If Leaving Me Is Easy"), and of course, Phil's long-time co-hort Daryl Stuermer; there's also Alphonso Johnson who discusses the sly bass guitar hook he came up with for "This Must Be Love". In addition to this, there are also bits from Phil's manager Tony Smith, his Genesis bandmates Mike Rutherford & Tony Banks, the legendary co-founder of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun, and former Virgin Records managing director Simon Draper. Phil is in typically great form on this DVD, full of his usual wit and intelligence, and you get segments of him on the drums as well as at the piano where he performs part of the extremely personal "Please Don't Ask" which, somewhat ironically, ended up on Genesis' 1980 "Duke" album and not on "Face Value". What makes this DVD even sweeter is that it has some actual footage from the original recording sessions which is a lot of fun to see. This DVD really makes it clear that, aside from simply being a brilliant artist, Phil was really a musician's musician which makes it all the more ironic that he's earned the level of scorn over the years that he has. On the downside to this video/ DVD, several songs from the album--"You Know What I Mean", "Thunder and Lightning", and "I'm Not Moving"--aren't even mentioned; this is probably in part because these tracks are presumably not among Phil's favorites, something he hints at near the end of the DVD. Also, there's a painfully and mind-bogglingly slow live version of "If Leaving Me Is Easy" from 1985 that gets spliced in among the discussion of the track, and it's THEN followed by a straight-through version of that same performance which goes on for over 7 minutes and isn't even over when it gets cut off on the DVD--this seems like a clear attempt to pad the video/ DVD to reach the hour mark. So, there are some gripes here, but it's still a must-have for any genuine Phil fan--if you can pick this DVD up for under $10, it's a great deal.

The Best Debut Solo Album Ever.......2002-10-06

Phil Collins is one of the best musicians in the world, and his first album is just a classic. This DVD is the perfect guide to Face Value. Interesting and entertaining, it's packed full of information about the making of the album with footage from concerts and Phil performing bits of them (on piano and drums). The only negative is the ommission of 'You Know What I Mean' which is my favourite song on the album.