[AnotherUnixGeek]

The lyrics are famously misunderstood - I once heard Eminem babbling about his understanding of the song. Something about how Phil Collins witnessed a murder take place and then saw the murderer at one of his concerts - one of the dumbest things I've ever heard, and not unique to Eminem, others have stated the same thing. I always understood it to be something about Collins' troubled love-life and infidelity by whoever he was dating or married to in the early 80s.

It's always a mistake to pay too much attention to rock lyrics.

[dfwgator]

From the TV show ‘You’re the Worst’:

“Remember when Phil Collins drowned a guy.”

“That’s not the story at all. That didn’t happen. It was disproven a billion times.”

[HYPOCRACY]

Ha! The story is: Phil Collins saw a guy kill somebody but the guy didn’t know he saw him do it. So Phil always sent the guy a ticket to a front row seat at his concerts. The guy finally showed up and sat down and that’s when Phil sang the song to him and let him know that he saw what he did, saw it with his own two eyes.

The guy ran away and Phil Collins was arrested for not calling the police but inviting a murderer to front row seats at all his shows. Now you know the rest of the story.

[nickcarraway]

That urban legend started in the 80's, but I guess it's a testament to the power of the song.

It only made it to #19 in 1981, but it has become more and more successful. Over the years, it became popular with different groups, including rappers and Mike Tyson.