Phil Collins – Take Me Home

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  General Comment:Track written by Billy Joel ?? Huh, thats news to me!
  
  As for performance: ah yes, the drummer for Genesis out on his own for some years now, eh?
  
  [Funky beat using synth drums]...
  " Hot sun beating down, burning my feet just walking around.
  Hot sun making me sweat, 'Gators getting close, hasn't got me yet
  I can't dance, I can't talk. The only thing about me is the way I walk.
  I can't dance, I can't sing I'm just standing here selling everything."
  
  How unusual and interesting when a drummer becomes a singer / songwriter and producer. (Okay, he is a multi-instrumentalist, but started mainly as a drummer). According to wiki, he sings and also plays keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, trumpet, and violin. From Wiki: "Collins is one of only three recording artists (along with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson) who have sold over 100 million albums worldwide both as solo artists and (separately) as principal members of a band."
  
  Genesis' loss of Peter Gabriel was such a BOON for fans, in the gaining of Peter Gabriel's long and prestigious solo career and the development of Phil Collins both in Genesis and on his own.
  
  Production credits: Adam Ant's "Puss in Boots', Howard Jones "No one is to blame", Frida Lyngstad's "I know there's something going on". I am sure there is more.
  
  He used a variety of drums and cymbals over the years, then increasingly made use of synthesizers, drum machines, vocoders, etc.
  
  I know this is a mixture of fact and opinion, but I thought it would be a good summary for those who -- like me -- are not as familiar with Phil and his work as his "big" fans.

  Flag txnuke1201on March 02, 2013   Link

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  Memory:This song holds a very dear place in my heart. I can relate to it because to me it summarizes my journey to rediscover my faith and my relationship with God by returning to church camp after not going for five years because of being bullied. This is how I interpret it as thus:
  "Take that look of worry, I'm an ordinary man" - Exactly what it says, I'm just ordinary guy.
  "They don't tell me nothin', so I find out all I can." - No one told me what to expect, so I needed to find out on my own.
  "There's a fire that's been burning right outside my door." - Describes how I knew there was something missing from my life, and it was within my grasp all this time.
  "I can't see but I feel it, and it helps to keep me warm." - Describes the will of God: You can't see it, but you know it's there, and it makes you feel good to know there's someone looking out for you.
  "Seems so long I've been waiting, still don't know what for." - Again, describes how I knew there was something missing from my life, and I was never really sure what.
  "There's no point in escaping, I don't worry anymore." - Describes how nervous I was about returning and about how scared I was that history would repeat itself, but how I no longer needed to worry, as it would never happen again.
  "I can't come out to find you, I don't like to go outside." - Describes the fear I once lived in of being bullied there.
  "They can turn off my feelings like they're turning off the lights." - Describes how my experience with bullies ruined my original perception of camp.
  "But I don't mind." - Describes how I buried the bad memory by returning and how it doesn't bother me anymore.
  "Take that look of worry, mine's an ordinary life: working when it's daylight and sleeping when it's night." - Again, exactly what it says: just an ordinary guy who lives an ordinary life.
  "I've got no far horizons, I don't wish upon a star." - Again describes how I knew something was missing from my life, and how I no longer wish for something.
  "They don't think that I listen, Oh but I know who they are." - One final message to the bullies: that I forgive them, and thanking them...because if they hadn't targeted me in the first place, none of this would have ever happened.
  "Well, I've been a prisoner all my life, and I can say to you." - Describes how sometimes we feel lost in our everyday lives, and how we need to get away from the world once in a while.
  "But I don't remember; take, take me home." - Describes me wanting to forget about the hardships of real life for a while and wanting return to the camp, which has indeed become a home for me.
  
  Just take me home. =)
  
  (I know this seems like some uber-religious anecdote, but I had to post this somewhere; I'm not some super-religious nuthead myself, but this was a major turning point in my life, and I just had to share it.)

  Flag BJA18on September 22, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I relate to so much of this song

  Flag pirate87on February 26, 2012   Link

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• +2
  My Interpretation:My friend told me that I should see Phill Collins farewell tour "Finally". So I did.
  It was fantastic!!!
  I knew Phil's music, but I was not "a fan".
  I have read Dr. Michael Newton's book "Journey of Souls".
  When I was watching the farewell tour's last song "Take Me Home" something struck me! I felt that the lyrics are about feelings we feel while living on Earth in human bodies, and feeling that our real home is somewhere "up" there. That our souls will return to the "real" home after death.
  When Phil was thanking all the musicians and told that they "gotta go home", they left the stage one by one. It was so simbolical for me. It was like people were leaving (dying) this life on Earth to be reunited once again in another world. I felt that sooner or later we all will meet again.
  You know, how close we feel during concerts. Just look around while being in the crowd. Phil and his team made us ONE again here on Earth! He TOOK US HOME! :)

  Flag erglis19on October 16, 2011   Link

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    Hmm.... yes I like it very much. I have never seen him "live", but I have seen a couple of his concert DVD's and they are incredible (as DVD's go).
    
    Gehenna (which has been transliterated and/or translated into our word "hell") was an actual place in Israel where the poorest dirtiest people lived. Sewage emptied into that area, and the homeless, unbalanced and criminals congregated there. "Much weeping and gnashing of teeth" to put it one way. Difficult to rise above, but not inescapable.
    
    Life is one thing and death is only a door. Personality is temporary and essence is eternal. Growth can span many lifetimes.
    
    Just my 2 cents.

    Flag txnuke1201on March 02, 2013  

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    Hmm.... yes I like it very much. I have never seen him "live", but I have seen a couple of his concert DVD's and they are incredible (as DVD's go).
    
    Gehenna (which has been transliterated and/or translated into our word "hell") was an actual place in Israel where the poorest dirtiest people lived. Sewage emptied into that area, and the homeless, unbalanced and criminals congregated there. "Much weeping and gnashing of teeth" to put it one way. Difficult to rise above, but not inescapable.
    
    Life is one thing and death is only a door. Personality is temporary and essence is eternal. Growth can span many lifetimes.
    
    Just my 2 cents.

    Flag txnuke1201on March 02, 2013  
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  General Comment:You know listening and reading the lyrics it sounds like the dull life that some people lead. Working day in and day out like a mouse in a wheel; going around and around with no real life inside of them, no dreams, no passions. The person is slowly losing their mind because they're chronically unhappy and spiraling downwards in despair and hopelessness. Time become distorted: hours run together and soon days run together and then it seems years slip by with no definition to them and so he "can't remember."

  Flag EverestManon July 31, 2008   Link

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    +2

    EverestMan, I think you are right. I think he is comparing people in such a situation (just going through the motions and not really "living" life) to people in insane asylums. The first half of the song is about the person in the mental institution and the second half about the bored working class person.

    Flag Zepfreakon January 10, 2009  

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    I also think you're right. When I heard that Phil himself said the song is about some person in a mental institution, I couldn't believe it. I interpreted it like you. Also when you look at the video, that supports your thoughts. He is just a normal guy,"Working when it's daylight And sleeping when it's night", he isn't living a spectacular life or so. The days are the same, ever and ever again, so he is bored. He lives an "ordinary life", his existence in the world doesn't matter in some way. So he wishes to see something of the world. He wants to travel all those interesting places in the world, wants to get to know something of what is happening around him. He just wants to break out of his boring every day life, wants to search for a deeper sense.

    Flag Highlander24on March 06, 2009  

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    ... I absolutely love all three of you right now. *beams.*

    Flag Reedstaron June 04, 2009  

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    Another glimpse of the madman across the water.

    Flag txnuke1201on March 02, 2013  
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  General Comment:^ That's a good interpretation.

  Flag Lateralus518on June 26, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:actionfrank, I can see where it could apply to shy people, like someone with social anxiety or avoidant personality disorder. They have created their own prison, sort of like Pink Floyd's The Wall.

  Flag Zepfreakon May 16, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:An insane asylum? That's very sad and a great shame. I always thought it was about shy people, and in some ways I still apply the song to myself today, even seven years out of high school. However, if you watch the video you can see that an originally dark theme has evolved into something much more for most people.

  Flag actionfrankdollon July 04, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:yeah thanks leartist. phil collins is great and so is this song.

  Flag kholdon March 31, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:wow blimpy i didn't know that.that's cool because they are great artists also.this is definately my all time favorite collins song!!!i'm glad Leartist clarified the meaning because i didn't have a clue either as to what it meant.THX!!!!!

  Flag ThE $aNdMaNon March 27, 2006   Link

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