"No Son of Mine" is the first single by the British rock group Genesis from their 1991 album We Can't Dance, which reached #6 in the UK and #12 in the U.S, and was a top ten hit in most of continental Europe.
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 essentially depicts what is discussed in the song, which is a conversation between a son and his father. During the last chorus snow flakes begin appearing flying wildly around the house, eventually at the end the scene pulls out to reveal the entire confrontation scenes take place in a snowglobe 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". A similar sound is heard in former Genesis member Peter Gabriel's song "I Grieve", which was released a decade after this single.
We've drained full confession booths
Polluted drinking wells with our repentances
And then stood grinning with our arm
Around our shoulders of a rotting child
Hold that pose, provisional arrogant little pigs
Who devour their siblings
Shoot that dog if we can't afford to feed
Shoot that dog if we can't afford to feed
Famine fathered a moth
Famine fathered a moth that begot our fathers
Keep your voices down, I'm sneaking out
Hey, what's the big idea?
Keep your fucking hands off the insight
That rat has got it's mother's eyes
That rat has got it's mother's eyes
Breeding and nausea
They are pouring themselves into the sea
Stop thief, stop thief, stop thief, stop thief
Stop thief, stop thief, stop thief, stop thief
Leave your drunken accident at the prom
It'll grow to mend your broken heart
Don't sign the dotted line
Every house is a little bit of Hollywood
Don't sign the dotted line
Every house is a little bit of Hollywood
The world is too incredible
To bring such ugliness into it
The artist is sneaking down the hall
To impregnate the last of its kin
Indiscernible mute in a swarm of derivatives
I deny any part, I deny any part
Deadbeat, godfather
Deadbeat, godfather
Deadbeat, godfather
Deadbeat, godfather
Bite your tongue, who taught you those words?
Blaspheme, when you are under my roof
Don't ever say rock and roll