Land of Confusion
The band release Land of Confusion, the fourth single from the album Invisible Touch. The video is directed by John Lloyd & Jim Yukichm, with the band and world leaders shown in the style of the puppets on the UK satirical political show Spitting Image. Rutherford, who writes the song’s lyrics:
That was our favorite video to make, because we didn’t have to do anything. [As well as Ronald Reagan] we also made fun of Michael Jackson, Madonna and the Pope.
Follow You, Follow Me
The band release Follow You, Follow Me, from the album …And Then There Were Three. The music is written by Banks, Collins and Rutherford, with lyrics by Rutherford. Collins has described the song as a great rhythm track and claims it was not intended to be a hit single. Banks:
It was our only truly group-written number. Mike played the riff, then I started playing a chord sequence and melody line on it, which Phil then centralized around. It worked so well as a very simple thing; it was enough as it stood. I’d just written a simple love lyric for Many Too Many, and I think Mike was keen to try the same thing. Maybe Follow You Follow Me was almost too banal, but I got used to it. I think we find it much easier to write long stories than simple love songs.
Entangled
Entangled is released as a single in France, with Trick of the Tail on the B-side. Hackett:
It was really the psychiatrist couch. Whether you place it in a hospital or somewhere else, it was the idea of drifting in and out of consciousness. I remember when I first had the lyric ready and I showed it to Phil who was going to sing it and he said this has got a Mary Poppins feel to it … Over the Rooftops and Houses. Indeed, the whole world of Disney cartoons and the attendant music was a huge influence on Genesis. Certainly throughout the 70’s, beyond that … possibly less so for them, but then I really shouldn’t comment on what they did post Gabriel and post me…I was thinking on the lines of Crosby, Stills and Nash and I was thinking of Graham Nash’s voice. Funny enough, I’ve run into Graham a few times in recent years and very often in the same place in New York. When I think of harmony I often think of the sound of his very sweet high voice. I think if a band that has three part harmony and can have the sweet voice on the top then the sunshine can really come out of those harmonies. So I was thinking of that … working a song that was less dependent on the lead singer and more on a harmony sound. I often still take that approach myself. Entangled is a song that I’m really proud of.
Trick of the Tail
The band release the single Trick of the Tail, their first single featuring Collins, and the first to have an accompanying video. Banks wrote the majority of the song in 1972 and it was originally intended for Foxtrot. The lyrics are inspired by the book The Inheritors by William Golding. The video features the band playing around a piano, and appearing in miniature inside the piano. Collins:
Trick of the Tail is probably the most embarrassing video I have ever been in. It was a very small me running up and down a piano. You know when you look back and think, ‘Who told me to do that? whose lapse of taste was that? Was it mine?’ I think it was a mixture of me and the director…and the other guys. Everyone must be blamed.
