Farewell to Phil

i have a special place in my heart for phil's everywhere. first off, it means they have awesome parents who named them "philip" in the first place. wise move. and then somewhere along the way, philip was like, yo, this "philip" shit is too stuffy. it's time to get casual. it's time to CHILL. and thusly "phil" was born. some people couldn't make the jump to casual. like philip seymour hoffman. but you know what? he's the greatest living actor, so he's allowed to do what he wants. phil hoffman doesn't have nearly the same weight, and he's gotta worry about being taken seriously as an actor. we respect that.

i made the jump from philip to phil in 6th grade. it was the first day of school and the teacher had made the fateful statement: "if you go by a nickname or something else, please let me know so i can change it on the roll." as we neared the end of the alphabet, sweat pouring down my face, ready to change my identity forever, i spoke the word: "PHIL". and i've been chilling hard ever since.

anyway, i digress. this isn't the purpose of my blog today. i wanted to talk to you about one of my all-time favorite phils.

the one and only: phil collins.



phil collins is pretty much amazing. he wrote a ton of hit songs. his catalog is a karaoke goldmine. he's a pop genius.

he started off playing drums in genesis and then peter gabriel quit. i'm sure genesis was like.. "oh fuck, we just lost peter gabriel, arguably one of the greatest pop male vocalists of the past 40 years." what did phil collins do? he was like "hey guys.. if you don't mind.. i'll give it a try." from BEHIND THE DRUMS, this fucking dude became the frontman and singer for genesis. and here's the thing: he fucking kicked ass at it. i can name a lot of great drummers. i can name a lot of great singers. not a lot of people are both. phil collins was both.

check out this sweet ass video of "something in the air tonight":



anyway, the reason i'm posting all this about phil collins is that he has announced that he is retiring from music. i'm obviously saddened, but back the decision. lately phil collins has been doing a lot of disney movie soundtracks and let's be honest, it's been a little bit whack. but phil, you've made enough awesome music that it doesn't matter.

from one phil to another. we'll miss you.