No Son Of Mine

"Soon I was living with the fear everyday/Of what might happen that night"

Anyone who grew up in an abusive household should be able to relate to this. My father was an alcoholic who abused my mother frequently. I can remember being in Catholic grade school and sitting alone in the bathroom stalls feeling the anxious dread of knowing what the night would bring.

This is definitely about physical abuse towards a child. The lyric: "They say time is a healer / And now my wounds are not the same," implies that the child who goes back to his father now has emotional wounds, whereas before he had physical wounds. Therefore, he was being physically abused.

Generally speaking, if a father is beating his kids, he's beating his wife, too, but just because the mother is crying here does not necessarily mean she was being beaten; she might simply be crying because the child is being beaten. If I had to put money on it, though, I'd say she was being abused, as well.

Sadly, even though the child eventually left to get away from the abuse, the mother did not go with him, and he still instinctually seeks the approval of his scumbag of a dad. Great song.

This was released as the advance single, before the album came out. At the time Phil Collins said of the lyrics, "It's about a young man. You don't really really know what's going on but the father is a bit of a bastard".

I've always felt that this is about someone who left home as a teenager after suffering abuse. It's not clear whether the man of the house was abusing the boy, or the mother...maybe both. The boy escapes to various "hiding places", probably never settling in a home of his own...constantly full of thoughts about his childhood. Eventually he confronts his father intending to "talk it over" but is angrily told "you're no son of mine".

In short, a song about an abusive dad. Possibly deliberately vague, open to interpretation like so many Genesis lyrics.

I think its about general abuse in your family. No matter if its physicaly or mentaly.

This is a song about child abuse - the need to deal with your experiences and an abused child growing up and dealing with those experiences and trying to sort out and fathom the realationship with the abuser - here a parent - so there's a love / hate thing going on

yeah i think its a safer bet to go with the second opinion here. theres nothing to say this father figures hand was raised against anyone but the mother. i agree entirely with the rest of the song bein the need to find out whether things had changed due to the son leavin and this bein proved right by the father not accepting the childs existance on his return. i guess the father figure was blind to the reasons for him son leaving instead taking it only to be a sign that the child didnt respect the family enough to be part of it anymore. good video for this one.

If you don't want the father to be the bad guy, the song could just mean a run away, rebellious son. He was going through standard teen issues and decides to run away. The mother crying is just her disappointed with her son, probably because he has been in trouble. The father just refuses to accept the son back for abandoning the family and running away from his problems.

Something did go wrong there, how can you explain "I didn't think much about it til it started happening all the time soon I was living with the fear everyday of what might happen that night" with the last explanation?

Phil Collins himself says this one that it is indeed about abuse by the father - it is deliberately left open whether it is upon the child and/or the mother.

I totally agree with you, Timboh. I think it's about a father abusing his son; but it could just as well be a husband abusing his wife. I thought the lines "I didn't think much about it til it started happening all the time soon I was living with the fear everyday of what might happen that night" ment every night he was afraid his father would hurt him; but that's just my opinion.