BECAUSE I WAS THAT LITTLE BOY THAT DROWND!!!

“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.”

In any instance, this is alot of bullsh**. Phil Collins wrote this very powerful song about his divorce with his first wife, Andrea. This is obvious in the lyrics, and Gene has been kind enough to break it down for all you who believe the bull about the drowning kids and the man at the concert getting arrested and all that baloney.

It is inevitable that great songs with alot of metaphorical usage will get taken literally or have their true meanings destroyed my urban legends fueled by falsified stories and figments of peoples imaginations. I will say however, that the urban legends add a very dark and painful aura to the song, and some of the legends make it that much better because some of them suit the lyrics very closely.

Phil Collins is the only one who truely knows what the song is about, and therefore his word is the closest thing to the truth you will get next to being inside his head. To anyone who thinks he is lying, where the he** do you get off on thinking so? What information is provided that supports anything less than what he says? You were never part of any of the legends, so his word should be considered the truth because any other meaning you can think of for the song what formed by a bunch of he said-she said BS that was initiated by some sick individual who felt the need to destroy a great song by undermining its real meanings with horsesh** they made up late one night after hearing the song. If you would all please quit overanalyzing the song, and quit trying to make the lyrics make sense for your individual theory but rather apply the lyrics to the actual reason Phil Collins has given, you will see the song makes perfect sense.

Over and out.

Justin

I hope this clears everything up.