10 Creepy Myths Surrounding Popular Songs

Phil Collins’s classic ‘In The Air Tonight’ contains the lyrics “Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand…” They’re fairly ordinary lyrics, words that don’t exactly scream ‘conspiracy’ at you. But the references to drowning led some people to spread unsubstantiated rumours about perpetual punching bag Collins, specifically that he witnessed someone refuse to save a drowning man.

The story has been twisted and warped into various different versions, but the general ‘consensus’ seems to be that Collins was near a drowning victim, and attempted to help, while an even closer bystander simply stood and watched as Collins called for his aid. It’s a somewhat unsettling story, perhaps even more so because it’s completely untrue.

Why somebody would make up such a tale is perplexing, but the story gained considerable traction on the internet, leaving Phil Collins pretty aggravated by the whole ordeal:

“I don’t know what this song is about. When I was writing this, I was going through a divorce. […] So what makes it even more comical is when I hear these stories which started many years ago, particularly in America, of someone coming up to me and saying, ‘Did you really see someone drowning?’ I said, ‘No, wrong’. And then every time I go back to America the story gets Chinese whispers, it gets more and more elaborate. It’s so frustrating, ‘cos this is one song out of all the songs probably that I’ve ever written that I really don’t know what it’s about.”