No Son of Mine

For the song by the metalcore group Every Time I Die, see The Big Dirty (album).
"No Son of Mine"
Single by Genesis
from the album We Can't Dance
B-side "Living Forever"
Released 21 October 1991
Format CD maxi, 7" single, 12" maxi,
cassette
Recorded The Farm, Surrey, 1991
Genre Rock
Length 4:41 (radio edit)
6:39 (album version)
5:44 (new edit – 1999)
Label Atlantic, Virgin
Writer(s) Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford
Producer(s) Genesis, Nick Davis, Robert Colby
Genesis singles chronology
"Throwing It All Away"
(1987)		 "No Son of Mine"
(1991)		 "I Can't Dance"
(1991)
We Can't Dance track listing
"No Son of Mine"
(1)		 "Jesus He Knows Me"
(2)

"No Son of Mine" is the first single by the British rock group Genesis from their 1991 album We Can't Dance, which reached No. 6 in the UK and No. 12 in the U.S., and was a top ten hit in most of continental Europe.

Lyrics and music

The song's lyrics tell the story of a boy who runs away from his abusive home, and—after some reconsideration—attempts to return, only to be rebuked by his father. In interviews, Phil Collins has said that the lyrics are deliberately vague as to whether the narrator or his mother is the victim of the abuse.

The video for this song is particularly melancholic, illustrating the scene in sepia tone. The video depicts what is discussed in the song, a conversation between a son and his father. During the last chorus snow flakes begin appearing flying around the house; eventually, at the end, the scene pulls out to reveal the entire confrontation scenes take place in a snow globe that the son is holding.

The song has a distinctive sound heard during the intro and before the second verse. Referred to by the band as "elephantus," the sound was created by Tony Banks recording Mike Rutherford's guitar with a sampler and then playing three notes on the bottom register of the keyboard, greatly lowering the pitch. The working title of "No Son of Mine" was "Elephantus".[1] The sound is also featured in the opening of the "I Can't Dance" single B-side "On the Shoreline". A similar sound is heard in former Genesis member Peter Gabriel's song "I Grieve", which was released a decade after this single.

The radio edit fades out the song's extended outro a minute in advance and deleted part of the second chorus. The music video makes use of the complete album version.

The single included the eighth track from We Can't Dance, "Living Forever", as the B-side.

Live performances

The song was played live during the The Way We Walk,[2] Calling All Stations (with Ray Wilson on vocals),[3] and Turn It On Again[4] tours.

A live version appears on their albums The Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts, and Live Over Europe 2007, as well as on their DVD's The Way We Walk - Live in Concert and When in Rome 2007.

Former one-time lead singer Ray Wilson (who had replaced Phil Collins) continued to cover the song on his solo live albums after his departure from Genesis.

Track listings

CD maxi
  1. "No Son of Mine" – 6:42
  2. "Living Forever" – 5:40
  3. "Invisible Touch" (live) – 5:00
7" single
  1. "No Son of Mine" – 6:36
  2. "Living Forever" – 5:38
Cassette
  1. "No Son of Mine" – 6:36
  2. "Living Forever" – 5:38
12" maxi
  1. "No Son of Mine" – 6:42
  2. "Living Forever" – 5:40
  3. "Invisible Touch" (live) – 5:00

Personnel

Charts

Peak positions

Chart (1991/92) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart[5] 29
Austrian Singles Chart[5] 7
Belgian Singles Chart (Flanders)[6] 12
Canadian Singles Chart[7] 1
Dutch Singles Chart[8] 7
Finnish Singles Chart[9] 20
French SNEP Singles Chart[5] 13
German Singles Chart[10] 3
Irish Singles Chart[11] 5
New Zealand Singles Chart[5] 36
Norwegian Singles Chart[5] 4
Swedish Singles Chart[5] 13
Swiss Singles Chart[5] 8
UK Singles Chart[12] 6
US Billboard Hot 100[13] 12
US Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks[13] 8
US Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks[13] 3
Zimbabwe Singles Chart[14] 11

End of year charts

End of year chart (1991) Position
Dutch Top 40[8] 93
End of year chart (1992) Position
US Billboard Hot 100[15] 68

References

  1. ↑ Collins, Phil; Banks, Tony; Rutherford, Mike; Gabriel, Peter; Hackett, Steve (2007). Genesis: Chapter & Verse. Macmillan. p. 331. ISBN 0-312-37956-0.
  2. ↑ The Way We Walk Tour Songs & Dates
  3. ↑ Calling All Stations Tour Songs & Dates
  4. ↑ Turn it on again Tour Songs & Dates
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "No Son of Mine", in various singles charts Lescharts.com . Retrieved 10 April 2008.
  6. ↑ http://swisscharts.com/song/Genesis/No-Son-Of-Mine-2342. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ↑ http://swisscharts.com/song/Genesis/No-Son-Of-Mine-2342. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. 1 2 http://swisscharts.com/song/Genesis/No-Son-Of-Mine-2342. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑ . 3 June 2009 http://suomensinglelistat.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/marraskuu-1991-november.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ German Singles Chart Charts-surfer.de . Retrieved 10 April 2008. Archived 17 June 2009 at WebCite
  11. ↑ Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie . Retrieved 10 April 2008. Archived 3 June 2009 at WebCite
  12. ↑ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com . Retrieved 10 April 2008.
  13. 1 2 3 Billboard Allmusic.com . Retrieved 3 September 2008.
  14. ↑
    • Zimbabwe. Kimberley, C. Zimbabwe: singles chart book. Harare: C. Kimberley, 2000
  15. ↑ "Billboard Top 100 – 1992". Archived from the original on 16 January 2010. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
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