The one “piss-take” Genesis song that changed Phil Collins’ life: “It was good fun”
Being an ageing rock star isn’t always easy. For as much fame as you were given in your early days, to lose it all is like removing a limb. For generations of ageing rock stars everywhere, Phil Collins was a beacon of hope for decades.
As one of the few musicians who were able to navigate through more than two decades of success while staying astoundingly relevant in pop culture, Collins had the kind of staying power that few others could match. He’s not finished yet, even if he is no longer a force of nature behind the drum kit.
Across that time, quite a few Genesis songs became yard markers for Collins’ evolving artistic voice. There was ‘The Musical Box’, the first song that Collins contributed to; ‘Hold the Barrell’, where Collins sang co-lead for the first time; ‘Follow You Follow Me’, the band’s first hit of their trio incarnation, and ‘Invisible Touch’, their only number one hit in the United States.
However, according to Collins himself, there was one Genesis song that was more impactful on his life than any of those. After achieving a peak of commercial success with 1986’s Invisible Touch, the band followed it up with the 1991 effort We Can’t Dance. The album’s title refers to the second single, ‘I Can’t Dance’, which Collins felt was the beginning of the end of the band.
“This began as a guitar riff of Mike’s,” Collins told Rolling Stone about ‘I Can’t Dance’. “We’d all taken our Fine Young Cannibals pills, imitating the way that Roland Gift sings, and joking about jeans commercials. It’s not about being unable to dance. It’s about guys that look good but can’t string a sentence together. Each verse is a piss-take at the scenario of a jeans commercial.”
Although the band were in on the joke, Collins wasn’t sure that the band’s fans were. “It was good fun, but the audience thought, ‘What does he mean that he can’t dance?’ They didn’t see the humour, and it killed the fun,” Collins claimed. “A few years later, I was doing promo for my [solo] album Both Sides. I told my manager, ‘I think I’ve done enough [with Genesis]. I’m living in Switzerland and I’m really happy domestically.’”
For Collins, though, the song provided a reminder that all things come to an end. It allowed Collins to comprehend life after the band, even after his own solo career. As he put it: “All bands dissolve. They aren’t meant to last forever.”
Genesis briefly attempted to forge ahead with new singer Ray Wilson, but the accompanying album Calling All Stations flopped so hard that Genesis never recorded another studio album again. Collins would rejoin the band for tours in 2007 and 2021, but now it appears as though Genesis have played their final number.
Check out ‘I Can’t Dance’ down below.
