Mid Term

4 Pages 1088 Words

“You” Language, Factual Statements, and Feeling Statements
The song that I chose to dissect for this assignment is “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins. There is a huge misconception of the meaning of this song, which is a big part of why I chose it for this project. Many people have heard that Phil Collins wrote this song out of anger toward a camp counselor that he had as a child. The story goes that Phil attended a summer camp as a kid and there was a tragic drowning of one of the fellow campers. It is said that one particular camp counselor saw the child drowning, and for whatever reason did not go in to rescue him. Collins saw what the counselor did, and could not believe he would be so cold-hearted in letting the young boy drown. As it goes, many years later after Phil Collins had become established as an artist, he wrote a song about the incident. He tracked down the ex-camp counselor and mailed him front row tickets to his concert. That night he sang “In The Air Tonight” and stared into the eyes of the man who inspired the song. After the concert, the counselor, feeling horribly about the tragic accident, went and committed suicide. Don’t worry, this is simply myth. It is easy to see how one could get that meaning by the lyrics, but it is about something completely different.
The song is about an incident in Phil Collin’s life, but not the one that most people think. It was actually produced after the singer’s first wife, Andrea, left him. The public can only guess that she may have cheated on him. Regardless, both interpretations are equally emotional and communicative. I have decided to dissect it literally, using three terms from the text to elaborate on it’s meaning. The three main terms I am pulling from the text are “you” language, factual statement, and feeling statement. I will also include some of the other terms that appear in the song in lesser impact. These include: one-...