The 1980 Genesis song that Tony Banks couldn’t stand: “It just seemed rather insubstantial”
Every artist always tends to have that one song that doesn’t resonate with them that much. Even though it may connect with millions worldwide, there will always be songs that feel more like a chore to play whenever an artist takes the stage to deliver their greatest hits.
While Genesis has had several sonic detours throughout their career, Tony Banks admits that one of their most popular tunes has overstayed its welcome.
When looking at the formation of the prog rock giants, though, Banks is the one who can claim to have seen it all. Formed when most of the band members were still in school, the entire band construction began when Banks came into Peter Gabriel’s band, only for them to form their outfit with schoolmate Mike Rutherford.
Although their shot at pop songwriting on From Genesis to Revelation quickly fell on deaf ears, their luck began to change when they incorporated more complex musical arrangements into the mix. Starting with the album Trespass, the band would begin reinventing themselves as one of the most complex rock outfits of the 1970s, creating songs that had extravagant storylines and often breached the standard radio single length.
However, as the band brought their music to stadiums, tension began brewing between Gabriel and the rest of the group. Wanting to spend more time with his family, Gabriel left the fold after The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, leading to drummer Phil Collins taking over behind the microphone. Although the band could still deliver letter-perfect prog rock, they started shifting into pop territory with songs like ‘Follow You Follow Me’, only for Collins to start having his issues.
Taking a break from the band to work on his failing marriage, Collins eventually cut ties with Genesis for a while. Though the drummer may not have wanted a solo career, he started to create his first stabs at songs by accident, making his solo debut Face Value comprised of various letters that he was writing to his estranged wife with tracks like ‘In The Air Tonight’.
By the time the band got back together in the 1980s, though, Collins still had songs left over from his solo sessions, including a massive hit in the making called ‘Misunderstanding’. Although the band saw the potential that came from having a huge hit, Banks never quite settled into the song’s groove.
When talking about the track later, Banks recalled not being that big a fan of the track, saying, “I’m not that keen on ‘Misunderstanding’. If it had never been brought out as a single, I’d probably like it better. But when you take it out of context and make it ‘The Single’, in other words representing the whole album – it just seemed rather insubstantial”.
Banks’ reservations highlight a broader tension within the band at that point in their career. As Genesis moved further toward a streamlined, radio-friendly sound, not every member was entirely comfortable with how certain songs came to define their output. A track like ‘Misunderstanding’ may have succeeded commercially, but for Banks, it lacked the depth and complexity he associated with the band’s identity.
That disconnect is often the trade-off when a group evolves. What resonates with a wider audience does not always align with what satisfies the musicians themselves. In this case, ‘Misunderstanding’ stands as a reminder that even the biggest hits can feel slightly out of place to those who created them, depending on how they reflect the band’s original vision.
Although Genesis would have far more substance on Duke, the rest of the 1980s would show them delving deeper into the pop realm, even scoring one of their biggest successes with the album Invisible Touch just a few years later. Taken with the rest of the album, though, it’s hard not to see ‘Misunderstanding’ as a simple Phil Collins tune that just happened to be thrown onto a Genesis project.
