A good friend of my once told me I had the “best and worst music taste” of anyone he knew. I’m not sure where We Can’t Dance by Genesis fits in there, but I honestly don’t care. As a kid, before truly discovering my own music taste and buying my own CDs, I would put on ones in my mom’s collection, and this album was one of my favorites. Though too young to fully appreciate the musicianship and the stories in the songs, the big, dramatic choruses and spacious instrumentation captured my attention like few other albums did.
Certain songs on the album I couldn’t quite decide if I should be allowed to like them, like “Jesus He Knows Me”. At the time, it wasn’t clear to me that the song was taking the piss out of the likes of TV evangelists and self-proclaimed men of God – I just heard a guy talking about Jesus knowing him, and my confused young brain worried this may be some form of Christian rock (not appealing to a young Jew). But the music was so propulsive, so immediate, that I hoped I was wrong and that it was okay for me to be jamming to the track.
In truth, it would have been all right either way, and I’ve only come to appreciate the track’s satirical bite the more worldly I’ve become over the years (sadly, false prophets like the song’s narrator are still in full supply). Enjoy this throwback from this very solid 1991 album below:
The Indy Review 