Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight?

Question

What did he write this song about?

Answer 1

An urban legend has arisen around "In the Air Tonight". According to the legend, the lyrics are based on a tragic event Collins witnessed, usually a drowning (as in the song's lyrics), in which a man could have helped the victim, but did not do so. A common ending is that Collins invites this man to a show and sings the song to him, often with a spotlight pointed at him. Afterward, the man is arrested or, in some versions, is wracked with guilt and commits suicide. Some popular variations are:

Collins saw a man drowning but was too far away to do anything, but a man nearby who could have saved him did nothing. (Other versions of this rumor claim that the drowning was not an accident, but murder.)
While vacationing together, Collins' best friend went for a swim. He began to struggle in the water but Collins, having never learned to swim, could not help. Collins stopped and asked a passing jogger for help; the man refused and Collins' friend died.
While at camp as a child, Collins awoke to find his counselor missing. Looking outside, he saw the counselor standing by the lake doing nothing to help a drowning boy. (In some versions, the counselor is intentionally letting the boy drown.)
Collins witnessed the rape of his wife and, years later, saw the man drowning but refused to help him.
A young Collins and his best friend were at a lake when a man asked them if they wanted to go sailing. Collins had to eat dinner but promised to come back; when he did, his friend was missing and was never seen again.
Collins, while on a pier with his wife, went down the pier for a brief moment, leaving his wife at the other end. When he returned, he saw that his wife was drowning, but before he could do anything, his wife had died. Collins realized next that there was a man that had stood at the end of the pier and watched the woman drown.
When Phil was younger, he and friend had been playing by a water basin when his friend fell in. Phil, who hadn't learned to swim, ran to a neighbor's house for help. When the neighbor answered, he dismissed Phil's cries for help, as Phil had "cried wolf" in the past. When Phil returned to the basin, he found his friend had drowned in the meantime.
When Collins was young, he and a friend were playing on a lake that was frozen over. His friend fell through the ice and Collins tried to help but couldn't, but there was a man on a bench that just sat there and didn't help.
Most stories lead up to Collins finding the guy while singing live and the audience blocked him in and forced him to listen to the song.

Years later, Collins commented on the legends about the song in a BBC World Service interview:

“ I don't know what this song is about. When I was writing this I was going through a divorce. And the only thing I can say about it is that it's obviously in anger. It's the angry side, or the bitter side of a separation. So what makes it even more comical is when I hear these stories which started many years ago, particularly in America, of someone come up to me and say, 'Did you really see someone drowning?' I said, 'No, wrong'. And then every time I go back to America the story gets Chinese whispers, it gets more and more elaborate. It's so frustrating, 'cos this is one song out of all the songs probably that I've ever written that I really don't know what it's about, you know.

Answer 2

He says he doesnt really know what the song is about. He wrote it during an angry and sad time in his personal life. He was going through a very painful divorce. He said the song has reached "Urban Legend" status because of the darkness in the words,none of which were ever based on any truths! Believe me, I saw the interview more than once. See how easily rumors can spread?

Answer 3

It was written around the time of his divorce from his first wife.
He has said it has a lot of negativity from this period in this song.
As an aside , he had just finished some drum work on a peter gabriel song where he was asked to not play any cymbals, he thought the sound was cool and when he recorded this song he played with no cymbals.

Answer 4

Thats kinda how that's, you will have rescued me from drowning. Now its too previous due - i'm on 1000 downers now. i'm drowsy. And all i wanted replaced right into a awful letter or a call. i wish you be attentive to I ripped all your photos off the wall! i such as you slender! shall we've been at the same time, think of roughly it. You ruined it now, i wish you cant sleep and you dream approximately it, and once you dream i wish you cant sleep and you scream approximately it. i wish your experience of right and incorrect eats at you and you cant breathe without me

Answer 5

He wrote it about the end of his first marriage and the bitterness that it caused. It was not in reference to any specific event.

the urban legend is that he wrote it about watching someone drowning, someone raping his wife, someone killing another person (and him keeping quiet but eventually turning the person in after a number of years)

check out www.snopes.com for debunking all those lovely urban legends

Answer 6

Whatever the reason, it is his best song!

Answer 7

http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=11212

Answer 8

a boating accident where someone died