Phil Collins 13: Going Back

Decades of onstage antics had taken their toll, and Phil Collins decided he might as well cap his performing career with an album celebrating the music he loved as a kid—specifically, Motown, and other ‘60s R&B nuggets often performed by mod bands at the Marquee Club in London and the like. Going Back was comprised of meticulous recreations of classic tracks, from the arrangements to the mixing, even getting some of the original Funk Brothers involved. Most of the tunes are from the Holland-Dozier-Holland team, with a few Stevie Wonder collaborations, some Curtis Mayfield, Goffin-King selections popularized by Dusty Springfield (including the title track), and one best associated with the Ronettes.

This was no big stretch for a guy who’d had one of his first solo hits with a carbon copy of “You Can’t Hurry Love”; his work on the Buster soundtrack was in the same spirit. His choices range from the obvious—“Uptight”, “Heatwave”, “Going To A Go-Go”—to not-so familiar ones we had to look up. “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” and “Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer” are both distinctly ‘70s, but fit. Most run around the standard two minutes and fifty seconds, cramming 18 songs into just under an hour. (An “Ultimate Edition” added seven more songs, including “Ain’t To Proud To Beg”, “Dancing In The Street”, and “You Really Got A Hold On Me”—plus “Ain’t That Peculiar”, which Peter Garbriel covered on his first solo tour back in 1977)—as well as a DVD chronicling the making of the album with four further downloadable tracks.)

It’s a fun listen, well capturing the spirit of the originals. But it does suggest that his creative well had run dry, just as his voice sounds thinner and weaker than ever, underlining his intention to make this his last album. The attention to detail is admirable, but the average listener is better off digging up those original Motown records, or finding a way to get some royalties directly to the artists.

When the album wrapped up his “Take A Look At Me Now” reissue campaign a few years later, the revision didn’t just update the cover art. Now called The Essential Going Back, the original album was pared back to 13 songs from the original 18, plus “Too Many Fish In The Sea” from the DVD. The Extras Live disc contained 16 songs recorded on the brief summer tour supporting the album, repeating some from the main program but substituting others, performed with nary a break between tunes, and thankfully not in the same order. His voice sounds better here too.

Phil Collins Going Back (2010)—3
2016 “Take A Look At Me Now” edition: “same” as 2010, plus 17 extra tracks (and minus 5 or 12 tracks)