Genesis: Abacab Meaning

Song Released: 1981

Abacab Lyrics

Look up on the wall, there on the floor,
Under the pillow, behind the door.
There's a crack in the mirror.
Somewhere there's a hole in a window-pane.
Do you think I'm to blame?
Tell me do you think I'm to blame?

(When they do it) you're never...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   May 15th 2014 report

   The song is about infidelity. It opens by describing things that seem out of place at the flat, but that he didn't do... "Crack in the mirror, hole in the windowpane"... "Tell me, do you think I'm to blame?" Then talks about the actual act... "When they do it you're never there..." Later refers to it directly... "Taken someone else's girl".... Then, and this is a stretch, I think he talks about torturing/killing them via asphyxiation while they are asleep in bed... "Covered in cellophane... You know there's a hole in there somewhere!"
   
   Pretty f'd up for the guy who wrote the Lion King !
2. anonymous

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   Oct 6th 2022 report

   I am with #1 the way it sounds it’s like he is suspicious about someone taking his place when he is not there.
3. anonymous

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   May 15th 2021 report

   I thought it was about some sort of idea about God, but when he sang "dosent really care I knew it was wrong.
4. anonymous

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   Mar 10th 2020 report

   This song if had no words is not easy to shut off or out older folks may not like its repertoire by its source of sound but title of song means probably nothing it could be made up after fact how it was interviewed interpreted by band only they know truth to that or not?
5. anonymous

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   Dec 5th 2018 report

   I never thought too hard on it. Sounded like about suspicion,and consequence. A mystery of some sort. Or a metaphor. Good song.
6. BillyJ

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   Mar 13th 2018 report

   According to Phil Collins, ABACAB was a way of remembering the sequence of the song:
   
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KhF52l83M8
   
   A was the verse
   B was the chorus
   A was the verse
   C was the bridge
   A was the verse
   B was the chorus
7. anonymous

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   Oct 25th 2017 report

   According to all the members of Genesis in an interview available on the 1976 to 1982 blue box set. A refers to verse 1. B refers to chorus 1. A refers to verse 2. C refers to chorus 2. A refers to verse 3. B refers to back to chorus 1. The word abacab totally refers to the songs arrangement. If I was going to give the word abacab a meaning it would be " to be wrongfully blamed for something you did not do." Because the lyrics suggest that in the chorus before abacab is used.
8. anonymous

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   Nov 2nd 2016 report

   Letting out his feeling to his wife that cheated on him. Abacab is just a crazy sense he was in when he found out, and what that crazy sense would think about doing to her. But there's a hole in there somewhere....
9. kooljohn176

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   May 20th 2016 report

   A great tune with a tight beat sung by GENISIS singer PHIL COLLINS that was probably not meant for ''Abacab'' to have a meaning or any sense like many songs that are just meant to ryme with words to create a great sound. Unless ''ABACAB'' is used as a ''Metaphor'' for a Invisible entity or as the intruder that came into his life by thoughts that haunt him psycologicly when he found out or was told that his loved one was fooling around or seeing someone else on the side. So he seems to be freaking out and imagines what's going on that caused these ''mentally created thoughts'' coming through walls,ceiling and mirror cracks made to feel even worse and paranoid looking at the pictures of her. Anotherwords, when, Out of love for someone you love, sometimes a person compromises against his principles to keep the love going that never really loved him back to the point that to many haunting entities are trying to come in through the cracks that the love is not filling anymore.
10. anonymous

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    Jan 19th 2016 report

    It's about Phil's wife at the time who was cheating on him...this came from Phil himself. BTW Phil didn't write Lion King that was Elton John!
11. anonymous

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    Aug 9th 2015 report

    No meaning? Are you kidding... No insight.. Phil was losing his wife.....She was no doubt cheating on him... If this wasn't the intent then it clearly points to a similar type of case...
12. anonymous

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    Aug 21st 2014 report

    Beating, murder and wrapped up.
13. anonymous

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    Jul 5th 2013 report

    It is the progression of chords in the song. A B A C A B.
    The rest of the lyrics are so non sensical to have any real meaning other than that they were high and drunk when they wrote them to the music they had been jamming on. They aren't supposed to be any kind of profound hidden revelation to anything at all. Just a series of sentences that fell out onto the sheet at a time of creativity.

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