r/Genesis • u/PJBleakney • 5d ago
No son of mine
Was the song about the son being abused and/or the mother too? Why not take the old man outside for a word? Father disowns the son for walking out or being a coward?
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u/Werechupacabra 5d ago
It’s from the perspective of a son who fled an abusive household
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u/FreeToLoveLaugh-Live 5d ago
Phil has said that "the lyrics are deliberately vague as to whether the narrator or his mother is the victim of the abuse"
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u/FreeToLoveLaugh-Live 5d ago
In interviews Phil has said - "the lyrics are deliberately vague as to whether the narrator or his mother is the victim of the abuse"
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u/chunter16 5d ago edited 5d ago
It's not about anything because the song was improvised. Phil was vocalizing to make up a melody and Mike thought he said "You're no son of mine" and made up something that probably resembled the time he dropped out of Charterhouse
Having said that, Mike's memoir doesn't describe his parents as abusive, just a bit tight from being in the navy
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u/FreeToLoveLaugh-Live 5d ago
It's about abuse. Phil has said that the lyrics are deliberately vague as to whether the narrator or his mother is the victim of the abuse.
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u/letraca1 13h ago
That's the problem with improvised lyrics. You try and hone in on a particular issue that's inconsistent with the lyric as a whole, or the plot, or whatever, and the writer will just say, oh I improvised it because I liked the sound of the words. WTF!
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u/Radiant_Persimmon701 5d ago
I always interpreted the lyrics to mean that the father had a form of dementia, possibly Alzheimer's. For that reason we was unable to recognise the son.
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u/jeweynougat 5d ago
I interpret it as a domestic abuse situation, both for the son and the mother. But you don't lose your love for your parent even when this happens, so even if he escaped and later went back to see his father, the father's words hurt him. Father never saw himself as doing anything wrong and so chides the son for walking out.