Customer Reviews

Phil Collins: Face Value (Classic Albums)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a must for all true fans! I have watched it 7 times in a row and can't get enough of it. It's almost like being part of making the album. If you ever wondered what the origional title of "I Missed Again" was, you will get a chance to hear a bit of the origional demo tapes. If you want to hear "Hand in Hand" being played backwards on a track of "Tommorow Never Knows" this is it! There is so much detail! Hugh Padgham, the Engineer, sits with Phil and plays back individual tracks from the original tapes...and they explain how it was done. Includes guitar by Eric Clapton and strings by Ravi Shankar! It even has a previously unrelaesed full length music video of "If Leaving Me is Easy" as well as a clip of Phil at the piano doing "Plaese Don't Ask"...so emotional he almost cries! If you want the standard music videos watch VH1. If you want to really know how one of the greatest albums of the 20th Century was put together, GET THIS DVD!

An excellent production that has Phil (in very high quality recent footage) walking us through how the famous "Face Value" album was put together. Comments from most of the session musicians featured. Very high quality production, much better than I expected, well worth it for any Phil Collins fan who thinks the first album was in many ways the best. Recommended.

Face Value is a classic album and this shows why. I loved the way the whole documentary was put together. The insight into tunes like 'The Roof Is Leaking' and others was a thrill for this long time fan. Unfortunately, one also understands why this album will never be topped. Most major artists have their own 'White Album' - timeless and risky. Face Value was Phil's.

If you are looking to find out all about Phil Collins and how he became a star then this is what you want. If you buy this DVD hoping to be treated to a great concert then absolutely forget Face Value

This documentary is a very insightful look at Phil Collins' first solo album. It is a rare look into the events surrounding the writing and recording of this "classic album." It includes candid interviews from the musicians who played on the album and Phil's own comments and memories of the session. No, it is not a collection of music videos, but if you are interested in the real story behind Phil's greatest work, it is a must!

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.

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+

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.

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.

I loved every moment of the movie, wish I could get his concert on DVD.