"I Can't Dance" is the fourth track from English rock band
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book o ...
's fourteenth studio album, ''
We Can't Dance'' (1991), and was released in December 1991 as the second single from the album. The lyrics were written by drummer
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...
and the music was written by the whole band. The song peaked at number seven on both the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and the
UK Singles Chart, and also received a
Grammy Award nomination for
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals in
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
. In Europe, the song reached number one in Belgium and the Netherlands, while peaking within the top five in Austria, Germany, and Portugal.
Background
During one recording session,
Mike Rutherford first created the main riff of the song he called "Heavy A Flat", to which
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...
suddenly improvised the basic concept for "I Can't Dance!". The riff was actually inspired by a Levi Strauss & Co. TV commercial (in the studio, the song was created under the working title "Blue Jeans") that used
The Clash song "
Should I Stay or Should I Go". Originally, the band did not think of it as anything more than a joke recording that would be discarded quickly, because the song was too simple, too bluesy, and completely unlike Genesis' style.
Tony Banks said in an interview: "It was one of those bits you thought was going to go nowhere. It sounded fun but wasn't really special".
It was not until Banks decided to add keyboard sound effects to complement Rutherford's playing that "I Can't Dance" took on a whole different feeling. The band came to appreciate the sly humor inherent in the song and chose to not only record it properly, but to put it on the album as a single.
Banks also said in an interview that the recording of a song that featured minimal production indicated a direction Genesis could have gone in to make themselves stand out better against the rising popularity of
alternative rock: "Opposite to what Genesis has done as general practice, which is taking an idea and turning it into a long or complex composition, it was just taking an idea, and leaving it alone".
Critical reception
The Daily Vault's Christopher Thelen found that "I Can't Dance" is "a goofy number that features
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book o ...
mocking themselves for being un-hip. (Best line from this song: "Ooh, she's got a body under that shirt"—dirty old man alert!)" He added, "If you ever get a chance to view the video, watch it; it's hysterical." Sally Margaret Joy from ''
Melody Maker
''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...
'' wrote, "Phunny
Phil, the Maker's Phavourite Phella, grinds and huffs his good self over one of those minimal, stab, crunch, plink, rock numbers. It seems to be a bit of a dig at those jeans ads that feature divine male bimbos." A reviewer from ''
People Magazine'' described it as a "melodically fetching, radio-ready track", and "a simple slammer with an arrangement that shows off the group’s remarkable facility for aural atmospherics." Kara Manning from ''
Rolling Stone'' declared it as "a gritty, tongue-in-cheek anthem for the average guy." Ted Shaw from ''
The Windsor Star'' wrote that "I Can't Dance", "with its bluesy melody and metallic effects, is unlike anything the band has ever done, and it's a wonderful pop creation."
Music video
The accompanying
music video for "I Can't Dance" (directed by frequent collaborator Jim Yukich) illustrates the artifice and false glamour of television advertisements. Collins commented that the video was designed to poke fun at the models in
jeans
Jeans are a type of pants or trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth. Often the term "jeans" refers to a particular style of trousers, called "blue jeans", with copper-riveted pockets which were invented by Jacob W. Davis in 1871 and paten ...
commercials, and each
verse
Verse may refer to:
Poetry
* Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry
* Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza
* Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme
* Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...
refers to things that models in these commercials do. During the first verse, he portrays a
hitchhiker on a remote desert road in
Hi Vista, California. A woman speeds past in a
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in german: Neunelfer) is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and origin ...
, then backs up to Collins and lets a
lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...
at his feet get in; she drives off, leaving him stranded. Collins is seen on a beach in the second verse, trying to pull his jeans away from a sunbather's angry dog; for the third, he loses them in a pool game at a bar.
These scenes are intercut with footage of the band and film crew members setting up the areas as if to shoot a series of commercials. The video ends with a parody of the video for the
Michael Jackson song "
Black or White," in which Collins imitates Jackson's erratic dancing. Banks and Rutherford eventually arrive to escort Collins off the set, at which point he goes limp and they have to drag him away.
The song created the "'I Can't Dance' dance" (a series of stiff, stylised motions). Collins explained in an interview that when he was at stage school, he would see kids that would always use the same hand and the same foot when they were tap dancing, meaning they could not co-ordinate. He then copied their movements and the 'dance' was born.
Collins told ''
Rolling Stone'' that the music video and the song were a joke about male models in jeans commercials who could not dance or talk, but could only walk in their jeans. He also said the audience was confused and could not figure out the joke because clearly Phil Collins can dance, as he dances at the end of the video.
Release
Single releases contained an extended
remix
A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...
entitled "Sex Mix". This was later released on the ''
Genesis Archive 2: 1976–1992'' box set retitled as the "12" Mix". The remixers were brothers Howard Gray and Trevor Gray of
Apollo 440.
The B-side, "On the Shoreline", was also included on ''Genesis Archive 2: 1976–1992''. The song features a sample of guitarist Mike Rutherford's guitar playing that was captured by Tony Banks during a jam session. The peculiar sound (dubbed "elephantus" by the band) was also used in the song "No Son of Mine." Several chord passages also appeared in "Living Forever." ''Rolling Stone'' commented that "On the Shoreline" is "enjoyable in an un-ironic way. Here, as usual, Phil Collins sounds most comfortable at the raspy apex of his vocal range, pushing his voice to the breaking point as Tony Banks' synths drift through like mists."
The "
Jesus He Knows Me
"Jesus He Knows Me" is a song by English rock band Genesis from their 14th studio album, ''We Can't Dance'' (1991), released in July 1992 as the album's fourth single. The song is a satire of televangelism, released in a period when several tele ...
" CD single also included a version titled "I Can't Dance (the other mix)" with a running length of 5:59.
Live performances
"I Can't Dance" was played live during ''
The Way We Walk
''The Way We Walk – Live in Concert'' is a 1993 live video from the ''We Can't Dance'' tour by Genesis. The footage was videotaped on 8 November 1992 at Earls Court in London, and first released on VHS in March 1993 as ''Genesis Live – The W ...
'', ''
Calling All Stations'' (with
Ray Wilson on vocals), ''
Turn It On Again'' and
The Last Domino? tours. On the band's ''Turn It On Again Tour'' and ''The Last Domino? Tour'', it was included as an encore. During live performances, the song was transposed to a lower key to accommodate Collins' deepening voice.
A live version appears on their albums ''
The Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts'', and ''
Live over Europe 2007'', as well as on their DVDs ''
The Way We Walk - Live in Concert'' and ''
When in Rome 2007''
Rutherford and
Daryl Stuermer accompanied Collins doing the walk across the stage.
Ray Wilson continued to cover the song on his solo
live album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
after his departure from Genesis. His version is a bluesier rendition, closer to the original.
Track listings
* 7-inch and cassette single
# "I Can't Dance"
# "On the Shoreline"
* 12-inch and CD single
# "I Can't Dance"
# "On the Shoreline"
# "I Can't Dance" (sex mix)
* Australian CD single and Japanese mini-album
# "I Can't Dance"
# "On the Shoreline"
# "
In Too Deep" (live)
# "
That's All" (live)
* US CD single and Japanese mini-CD single
# "I Can't Dance" (LP version) – 4:00
# "I Can't Dance" (sex mix) – 6:59 (7:02 in Japan)
* US maxi-CD single
# "I Can't Dance" (LP version) – 4:00
# "On the Shoreline" – 4:45
# "In Too Deep" (live) – 5:28
# "That's All" (live) – 4:54
# "I Can't Dance" (sex mix) – 6:59
Personnel
*
Tony Banks – keyboards
*
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...
– vocals, drums, drum machine
*
Mike Rutherford – electric guitars, bass guitar
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Covers
In the 1990s,
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...
created a parody of the video for "I Can't Dance" for his series ''
Al TV
''Al TV'' is an American comedy TV series created by and starring singer-songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic, which aired as periodic specials on MTV and VH1, beginning in 1984.
Overview
The premise of the show is that Yankovic uses his private s ...
'', in which he appeared alongside the band. He added shots of himself to several of the band shots.
In 2007, German death metal group
Debauchery recorded "I Can't Dance" and released it on their fourth album, ''
Back in Blood''.
In 2014, Finnish metal band
Sonata Arctica released a cover of "I Can't Dance" as a bonus track on their album ''
Ecliptica: Revisited; 15th Anniversary Edition''. The band made a promotional video which features all of the band members dancing in cities that they visited during their Pariah's Child tour.
References
* Fielder, Hugh (2000). ''
Genesis Archive #2: 1976—1992''
D liner notes
D, or d, is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''dee'' (pronounced ), plural ''dees''.
History
The ...
Gelring Ltd.
*
External links
Genesis official site*
{{authority control
1991 songs
1992 singles
Atlantic Records singles
Blues rock songs
Dutch Top 40 number-one singles
Genesis (band) songs
Songs about dancing
Songs written by Mike Rutherford
Songs written by Phil Collins
Songs written by Tony Banks (musician)
Virgin Records singles