‘In The Air Tonight’ – Phil Collins
According to ‘urban legend’ and the internet, the epic Phil Collins track ‘In The Air Tonight’ was one of the darkest pop anthems of all time. Apparently it was about watching another man drown and doing nothing to save him. Phil Collins saw this himself, and after the song was released, he invited that man to the show and sung it to him. The story spread like wildfire and Eminem even mentioned it in his hit “Stan,” with the lyrics “You know the song by Phil Collins, ‘In the Air of the Night’ (sic) about that guy who coulda saved that other guy from drownin’, but didn’t, then Phil saw it all, then at a show he found him?” In truth the song doesn’t really have a storyline, it was just Phil’s stream of consciousness and musings after his divorce. You couldn’t make this stuff up!
In The Air Tonight Phil Collins
‘American Girl’ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
“American Girl” will go down in history as one of the late, great Tom Petty’s most beloved tracks. The song was hailed as a rock classic, offering the perfect fusion of 1960s guitars with edgy 1970s punk . In fact, Tom closed every concert with it and for years, these fans misinterpreted it as a a girl who committed suicide by throwing herself from a tower block at the University of Florida. Nonetheless, Tom Petty clarified in his 2005 book that this was just an “Urban legend. It’s become a huge urban myth down in Florida”. The real story was that “I was living in an apartment where I was right by the freeway. And the cars would go by. And I remember thinking that that sounded like the ocean to me. That was my ocean. My Malibu. Where I heard the waves crash, but it was just the cars going by. I think that must have inspired the lyric.” Ok then!?
American Girl Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
