There are two songs from the 'Invisible Touch' album which are believed to contain hints of this. For instance, the title track is believed to be describing drugs as a woman with lines like "She seems to have an invisible touch, she'll take control and slowly tear you apart" and says that, although she'll "mess up your life" you'll "want her just the same".
Another line from the song goes on to say "and now it seems, I've fallen, fallen for her" which suggests that he was battling addiction himself at the time.
The other song from the album is 'Tonight,Tonight,Tonight'.

or it could just be about a woman

You'd have to know the writing credits and who wrote the lyrics for these 2 songs etc. cos Genesis I'm sure wrote Genesis stuff as a "band" rather than Phil Collins. So if it's a euphemism for drugs it could also easily be about Mike Rutherford or Tony Banks experiences.

They probably all dabbled in the 1970s early 1980s

See my thread called "Modern Music's Connection With Drug-Taking" Started 05/07/08

[Edited 6/17/10 5:38am]

[Edited 6/17/10 5:39am]

I don't think he was. Probably a dabbler but nothing more than that.

Oh please! You can read all sorts of things into song lyrics, but Invisible Touch is hardly the tortured plea of a strung-out heroin casualty, is it?

I mean, it's hardly in the same ballpark as, say, Alice In Chains, is it?

Yes there are drugs in modern music. There are drugs in modern fast food service. There are drugs in modern accountancy. There are drugs in most walks of life, and in the worlds of art, music and so forth, of course they have influences - both bad and, sometimes (though it's not cool to admit it maybe) good.

That's not to say all musicians are crack-addled train-wrecks, though. Some of them do just write about some bird that's pissed them off a bit, you know?

rocknrolldave said:

Oh please! You can read all sorts of things into song lyrics, but Invisible Touch is hardly the tortured plea of a strung-out heroin casualty, is it?

I mean, it's hardly in the same ballpark as, say, Alice In Chains, is it?

Yes there are drugs in modern music. There are drugs in modern fast food service. There are drugs in modern accountancy. There are drugs in most walks of life, and in the worlds of art, music and so forth, of course they have influences - both bad and, sometimes (though it's not cool to admit it maybe) good.

That's not to say all musicians are crack-addled train-wrecks, though. Some of them do just write about some bird that's pissed them off a bit, you know?

Exactly

You were more to the point, I was trying to be nice but you're damn right.

I'm still amazed how people STILL think "In the Air Tonight" was about Phil seeing a man who saw another man who drowned but didn't save him when he was really just saying words because he couldn't come up with lyrics to describe how pissed off he was that his wife was leaving him with his children.

rocknrolldave said:

Yes there are drugs in modern music. There are drugs in modern fast food service.

Yeah because that KFC double down sandwhich with chicken breasts as the bread had to be some drug addled craziness to come up with that.

xlr8r said:

rocknrolldave said:

Yes there are drugs in modern music. There are drugs in modern fast food service.

Yeah because that KFC double down sandwhich with chicken breasts as the bread had to be some drug addled craziness to come up with that.

"If I told you crack was in Krispie Kreme doughnuts, you go 'I knew something was up, I knew something was wrong, got me knocking at the door at 2 in the morning, come on man get me one more donut, I'd do anything, I'd suck your dick!'" - Chris Rock

Timmy84 said:

xlr8r said:

Yeah because that KFC double down sandwhich with chicken breasts as the bread had to be some drug addled craziness to come up with that.

"If I told you crack was in Krispie Kreme doughnuts, you go 'I knew something was up, I knew something was wrong, got me knocking at the door at 2 in the morning, come on man get me one more donut, I'd do anything, I'd suck your dick!'" - Chris Rock

KK's were my shit...

He was mates with John Martyn, played drums and helped on a few of his albums, so he may have had his moments, but hardly likely he would've been an addict without the British press sniffing it out.

Autobiographical though lyrics may be, there is a distance between the life of the author and the art that seeks to construct meaning. Y'know, the difference between the physical author and a first person, authorial narrator that gives us the lyrics.