TotW 06/19/2023 - 06/25/2023: GENESIS - Inside And Out

There's at least one live recording with Phil explaining in advance that this song is about a man who goes to a party, takes a girl home, and the next day she claims he raped her which lands him in jail for 20 years.

With that in mind, the lyrics are quite clear: The story begins with the release of that man who just spent 20 years of his life in jail despite being unguilty. He never learned why that woman made such a claim, yet he hopes for a real life after jail. The story jumps back 20 years to the party he was at; then the story fast-forwards 20 years after his release: he is an outlaw, everybody believes him to be a rapist, freedom is more brutal than jail, his whole life is ruined because of that woman.

Why does it matter that actual rape is far more common? A false accusation of rape is a sure-fire way to ruin any man's life and it does happen, however it doesn't get coverage as a topic terribly often. I personally always had a fear of this, which might even be a contributing factor for my own shyness issues towards women. So yes, I am glad somebody covers this topic for once.

Also, "Inside and Out" is quite a clever song name with its various connotations. There's the sexual allusion, then there's the in and out of jail subtext, and finally it might refer to the musical structure.

Being a non-native English speaker, I didn't pay attention to the lyrics at first, I just loved that song for its music, particularly its lovely chorus. Realizing what the song deals with lyricwise, I had a real huge "Oh" moment. Lyrics and music contrast a lot, another feature that makes this song great.

The story of a false imprisonment ruining someone's life is very compelling and does happen, often due to botched investigations and biases on the part of the investigators. The issue that makes me a little uncomfortable is basing the story around a false accusation of rape/assault; while that can happen, the far bigger problem are the rapes/assaults that don't lead to a just imprisonment.

Anyway, I'm curious if the story was based around any real-life case that might have happened then or that the band had read about.

Quote from Backdrifter

This is in my personal Genesis top 10, I've always loved it right from when it came out and my brother bought it.

In relation to earlier comments:

While I realise omitting Collins from the credits was an honest error, it's relevant in that we gather from Hackett that Collins wrote the lyrics. On the subject of which, as per foxfeeder 's comment, I don't get the disquiet about the story. First, I don't think the accusation is of rape but of molestation/sexual assault, apparently unjustified according to the "...she said put your hand here" line. It doesn't negate the fact that actual male on-female-sexual assault is much more common, nor does it preclude writing a song about it.

Indeed, anyone can write a song about anything they like - for me though it just displays a lack of judgement, or lack of maturity in some way. Which is forgivable, but it means the story is not a "world" I want to be in. Similar to Dreaming While You Sleep - I don't really want to be in that depressing story-world (my criticism of that track would be that it's too trite and obvious a treatment of the subject matter)

I'm sorry I&O fans, I've tried with this track, and it just doesn't do much for me. I do have a new found appreciation for it because of this thread (I hadn't known about the subject for example), and I like the choruses in the first part. But the moment Tony's solo kicks in.... It just sounds like someone's blasted a shotgun at a flock of very high-pitched birds that take off, flapping and shrieking in every direction. I'm fairly sure I kind of low-key grimace each time - you know the expression you make reflexively when you inadvertently take a great big bite of something that's clearly gone off? That one.

I have the same reaction to the part of Slippermen that sounds like that. It's a combination of the distinctive brassy tone, high notes, frenetic playing and perhaps the context of the song around it. It's just not for me. If I compare this track to the Genesis songs that I love the most, like Carpet Crawlers, Dance on a Volcano, Home By The Sea etc.... This is quite far behind.