Behind The Lines

It's about the Book of Love. The friend met in the lovestory looks empty and true persons are Behind the lines.

But the Story grabs you unasked. Will is the key to stay in the story and the story is Written in the book, meaning it is both powerful and deliberate to open, to an extend.

Wooh! How about that? I have known the song for 20-something years and thought likewise, it to be impossible to explain on interpret. But see above, it is there. Comments?

I always interpreted this song as about a failed marriage/relationship.

The singer is looking through a wedding album/scrap book and seeing the "Forever"/"Love you always", etc. type of lines and wondering what went wrong. He's calling out that there was a commitment/promise "written in the book".

There's then memories of trying to reconcile and work through the issues, not really understanding where the disconnect happened but realizing that there was some sort of serious misstep. He comes back to find her "heart is empty" and he eventually realizes that reconciliation isn't possible.

The last verse is a final plea and the overall song is a realization that there were conditions "Behind the lines" that he didn't account for.

In the context of the whole album, the next song, "Duchess" is about a performer who lives for the performance and lets the rest of her life turn to crap. Then "Guide Vocal" is a whole "I stood by you, supported you and you took it for granted" that could be the other party from "Behind the lines".

I may be reading more into it than was intended, but I see a pretty clear story of someone who chose career over relationship and regretted the consequences.

This is only speculation, but Phil wrote this as his marriage was on the rocks, largely due to the demands of his music career. It seems to be about the heavy realization that the relationship has reached a tipping point, one where no "talk" is going to be the antidote.

I think the "book" is the collection of memories of earlier, happier days, when the relationship was full of promise, when commitment was easy, because life was good.

And isn't it an ancient story that when one's relationship is on the rocks, that he transports back to those sublime days, to that 'Book of Love,' of lovelier, less complicated times, before returning again to wondering what went wrong?

When I first read the song title, "Behind the Lines," I first thought of war, meaning the "battle lines," meaning, what others cannot see looking superficially from the outside in.

It might also refer to the "lines" in the "book" referenced in the song. If their earlier scrapbook of their honeymoon phase contained love notes and photos and and sweet yet superficial overtures, then what is "behind the lines" is a more complicated story of 'life getting in the way," a spotlight shone on the realities of relationships post-honeymoon.

Now this one is a puzzle to me; if anyone can help, please do.

From what I understand, it could be a kid reading some fairytale, wanting to join in the actual story (kinda like neverending story style) but the rest just wards me off from that idea...

Ill keep searching for info on this one

No idea what the song is all about ... Great song, thou, as a live opener ... Great double drums, tempo shifts, then Phil came out from behind his kit and stepped upfront to sing ...

"Behind The Lines" is a point on a logical circle.

"All is fair in love and war." --> The book of love --> (To read) between the lines --> Behind the lines (war reference) --> [repeat logic]

Is anyone getting the possibility of a God vibe from this?

Hence "written in the book"?

and the discussed person is never revealed to be female or even a love interest

For starters, and as I understand it, Collins didn't write the lyrics for this, Rutherford did. So any idea that they are autobiographical should be shelved. Also, they have to be understood as part of the Duke Suite - the story of Albert. I think we have to read this as being spoken by Albert in relation to Duchess. I must admit, I don't really fully understand this part, as I have read more than once that the basic story goes like this: Albert meets Duchess, becomes her manager/svengali, her career takes off and crashes back down, they go their separate ways and he ends up a delusional depressive with only the television for company. I think the key to understanding might lie in Guide Vocal. I think there are two voices speaking in that song. The first stanza is Albert. The second is Duchess. It's also possible that different parts of BtL take place at different times. The first part is about how they come together. The rest belongs alongside Guide Vocal, at the disintegration of their relationship. Does their relationship disintegrate before her career nosedives? Not clear. Could be, though, that we're all reading too much into this and the reason they decided not to. present the whole thing as a suite was that it wasn't eribly coherent, lyrically.

if you look at the duke the story of alburt it was a 6 song rock opera. on the album it was split with three songs on each side of the album

  side one:  behind the line, duchess and guide vocal

behind the lines---that starts the story alburt is remembering his relationship with duches and it was witten in the book

duchess---alburts talks about the rise and fall of the duchess music adventrue

guide vocal--- alburt as he walks off is tell the duchess how he feels and no one must know what he did for her

to be contune