On The Road Again: Genesis "No Son Of Mine (Single & Video)"

sábado, 16 de mayo de 2020

Genesis "No Son Of Mine (Single & Video)"

"No Son of Mine" is a song by British rock group Genesis, released as the lead single from their 1991 album, We Can't Dance. It reached No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (the band's first to not break the top 10 since 1983's "Mama"). It was also a top-ten hit in several European countries and peaked atop Canada's RPM Top Singles chart for five weeks.

The song's lyrics tell the story of a boy who runs away from his abusive home, and—after some reconsideration—attempts to return, only to be rebuked by his father. In interviews, Phil Collins has said that the lyrics are deliberately vague as to whether the narrator or his mother is the victim of the abuse.

The song has a distinctive sound heard during the intro and before the second verse. Referred to by the band as "elephantus," the sound was created by Tony Banks recording Mike Rutherford's guitar with a sampler and then playing three notes on the bottom register of the keyboard, greatly lowering the pitch. The working title of "No Son of Mine" was "Elephantus". The sound is also featured in the opening of the "I Can't Dance" single B-side "On the Shoreline". A similar sound is heard in former Genesis member Peter Gabriel's song "I Grieve", which was released a few years later, on the soundtrack to City of Angels.

The single included the eighth track from We Can't Dance, "Living Forever", as the B-side. The radio edit fades out the song's extended outro a minute in advance and deletes part of the second chorus. The music video makes use of the complete album version.

The video for this song is melancholic, illustrating the scene in sepia tone. The video depicts what is discussed in the song, which is a conversation between a son and his father. During the last chorus, snowflakes begin appearing flying around the house; eventually, at the end, the scene pulls out to reveal that the scenes of confrontation have taken place in a snow globe that the son is holding.

The song was played live during the tours of The Way We Walk, Calling All Stations (with Ray Wilson on vocals), and Turn It On Again.

A live version appears on the albums The Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts, and Live Over Europe 2007, as well as on their DVDs The Way We Walk - Live in Concert and When in Rome 2007.

Former one-time lead singer Ray Wilson (who replaced Phil Collins) continued to cover the song on his solo live albums after his departure from Genesis.

Track listings

CD maxi