The album was produced by English musician Phil Collins, who also played drums, keyboards, co-wrote and sang co-lead vocals.[10] Collins recalled first meeting Bailey during his The Hello, I Must Be Going Tour in late 1982 through the The Phenix Horns (formerly the EWF horns); as per Collins, Bailey liked how the former presented himself as a drummer & singer and thought he would be a good match for a future project. They crossed paths again in Los Angeles in Summer 1983, whilst Phil was touring with Robert Plant for The Principle of Moments; it was then that they discussed working on Bailey's next album, which Collins agreed to do in London.[11]
He started work on the album after completing work on Eric Clapton's album Behind the Sun in Spring 1984.[12] The recording took two months to complete.[11] However, Collins recalled a difficult start to the project whilst rehearsing; he felt that Bailey was confiding more in bassist Nathan Watts than him as the producer, and they were trying to make an R&B record at first which Collins was not comfortable with.[13] He considered stepping down as producer, but was eventually persuaded to continue, with Bailey agreeing to do an album of what they did best as opposed to a pure R&B record.[13]
Collins later said, "Bailey got a lot of flak for being produced by someone who is white. There was this paranoia that the album would not be played by black stations...The reason I was on the video for "Easy Lover" is that I knew it wouldn't be shown if it was just Phil Bailey."[14]
The album's second single was "Photogenic Memory", released in 1984. Released in March 1985, the third and final single "Walking on the Chinese Wall" reached number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100.[15]
Joe Brown of The Washington Post commented, "The spirit of Earth, Wind and Fire goes one step beyond on his second solo effort, guided masterfully by Phil Collins, who can't seem to make a misstep these days. Bailey's falsetto soars ethereally (and sometimes scrapes earthily) over Collins' glistening wall of exotic percussion and electronic textures".[19] With a 3 out of 5 stars rating, James Henke of Rolling Stone stated, "This is not as funky as Earth, Wind and Fire, but it's a hundred times more appealing."[18]
Writing for The Voice, music journalist Nelson George praised Chinese Wall, declaring it "the most solid album by a black male since Purple Rain". He described "the Phenix Horns' stratospheric horn chart...Collins drumming (this white boy is funky) and Arif Mardin's impeccable string charts", saying Bailey "singing breathier and deeper – projects his sensitivity in a more muscular baritone."[20]
Gary Graff of the Detroit Free Press wrote "Earth, Wind & Fire singer Bailey makes a wise bet by enlisting Collins to produce and play on his album. Besides a strong duet, "Easy Lover," the performances lift the album's quality above some inconsistent songwriting."[21] Lou Papineau of The Boston Globe found that, "This is a likable, undemanding album of lively uptempo struts and warm ballads."[22]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
