I always thought this song was about why he left Genesis. The lyrics, in second person apart from the chorus, seem to describe the aftermath of a nervous breakdown of someone who strived for achievement beyond reality. Ant was the one with the driving force in the early days of Genesis, and then quit at the age of 18. Not only was it stage fright, but a bunch of other things: mono and later pneumonia, his girlfriend dumped him and they weren't getting great turnouts at their early gigs. All these things combined eroded his confidence away. All this was a lot for a teenager to go through, in a band struggling to make it, living on the road and stuff.
I always thought this song was about why he left Genesis. The lyrics, in second person apart from the chorus, seem to describe the aftermath of a nervous breakdown of someone who strived for achievement beyond reality. Ant was the one with the driving force in the early days of Genesis, and then quit at the age of 18. Not only was it stage fright, but a bunch of other things: mono and later pneumonia, his girlfriend dumped him and they weren't getting great turnouts at their early gigs. All these things combined eroded his confidence away. All this was a lot for a teenager to go through, in a band struggling to make it, living on the road and stuff.