I heard that there was a story behind the song. Anyone know?
2006-12-19 22:39:03 · 8 answers · asked by badbrad1 2 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music
An urban legend has risen around "In the Air Tonight" and its lyrical reference to drowning. Some popular variations are...
You can read about them here:
(And also what Phil Collins has to say about the song)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_The_Air_Tonight#Urban_legend
2006-12-19 22:43:47 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Phil Collins Drowning Story
2016-11-04 12:15:51 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Collins wrote this about the anger he felt after divorcing his first wife Andrea in 1979. He was so devastated that he left Genesis for a short time.
Collins explains the lyrics, "If you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand," by saying the drowning is symbolic.
The meaning of this song became a pervasive Urban Myth. The story, which is not true, is that Collins watched as a man who raped his wife drowned. Another version has Collins writing this about about a man who watched another drown, and singing it to him at a concert. Yet another variation claims that when Collins was a young boy, he witnessed a man drowning someone but was too far away to help. Later, he hired a private detective to find the man, sent him a free ticket to his concert, and premiered the song that night with the spotlight on the man the whole time. We repeat, these stories are not true. (thanks, katie - somewhere, NJ)
This was Collins' first single as a solo artist. All the original songs on the album, including the followup hit "I Missed Again," were intended to be "messages" to his first wife in an attempt to lure her back to him.
2006-12-19 22:41:32 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm sure I remember Phil Collins once saying that the drumbeat rhythm in the middle of the song suddenly came into his mind out of the blue at a time when he was feeling extremely bored.
Another story is that it's the song with the second-longest fade-out coda, second only to the Beatles' Hey Jude.
2006-12-19 22:45:14 · answer #4 · answered by Robert C 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Collins commented on the city legends about the music in a BBC international service interview: "i don't recognize what this music is about. at the same time as i develop into penning this i develop into dealing with a divorce. And the in effortless words element i am going to assert about that is that it truly is of direction in anger. it truly is the indignant part, or the bitter fringe of a separation. So what makes it even more beneficial comical is after I hear those thoughts which began many years in the past, really in u . s . of america, of someone come as a lot as me and say, 'Did you rather see someone drowning?' I stated, 'No, incorrect'. and then each and every time i flow decrease back to u . s . of america the tale receives chinese language whispers, it receives further and further problematic. that is so not undemanding, 'cos it is one music out of all the songs likely that i have ever written that i rather don't recognize what it truly is about, you recognize. "
2016-11-27 22:07:52 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Please, God, not that stupid story about finding the guy who watched Phil's brother drown and did nothing to save him. It's an urban freaking legend. STOP THE MADNESS.
2006-12-19 22:41:31 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yeah the story is about a bloke who saw another bloke from drowning, tried to save him but couldn't.
2006-12-19 22:41:32 · answer #7 · answered by kieren.hipkiss 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Check out "urban legends"... I was truly ripped to find ...... nothing more than top lyrics to a great beat!
2006-12-19 22:44:40 · answer #8 · answered by renclrk 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋