All Comments on 'In the Air Tonight'

If we did, Anonymouse, it would be a large hole in the ground with a long-eared four-legged braying animal in it.

But to keep things equal, may I refer to you as 'arsehole'?

Lue

𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐓, 𝐒𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐀𝐆, 𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐍𝐓 and all the usual whiners: FUCK YOU AND YOUR MORONIC, ANNOYING COMMENTS. DIE SOON AND HARD.

Interesting tale. She did cheat. He got revenge. And got away with murder. In doing so lost his children. Everybody loses when cheating is involved.

Well written tale.

One thing. I hated Phil Collins. When visiting someone If his music was playing I would comment on being in "Phil Collins hell." Absolute true story.

There was no reason for it. The wife was not humiliated, nor insulted, nor called to the stand. I would say the kid should be glad his father was acquitted.

fodder? Is the gist of a lot of comments here. They are misguided..

Phil manned up and divorced his wife. Banged her a few times after but he liked that pussy. Doubtless, many hardcore btb ers would find some fault here but they go elsewhere. Many suggest he was innocent. Huh? Did you skip the part where he killed the guy?

Vanessa screwed up and never showed remorse. Thats absolutely killing folks.

The murder was never proven but the family knows of the anger and rage. There is no winner. The son sided with his pappy right until the end. He didn't mail the drumsticks before the trial. He heard the evidence the same as the jury. A child's version of reasonable doubt is going to be different than an adult juror. He obviously held his dad to a higher standard. Shame on him.

Really like this tale. 5*

What I said. Just a bunch of generic bullshit. Waste of time.

Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving to you!

This Thanksgiving, I am most thankful for anonies that are so grateful for the free entertainment we provide. It warms my heart.

Happy Thanksgiving! We're happy to provide you with entertainment. Maybe you can provide us with entertainment, someday. Maybe in your next comment. We're thankful that the community knows what an assclown you are and doesn't take you seriously as a writer, just a buffoon.

Not good enough...for me..

Leave more questions...why did his son turn against him? N why the whore is not punish...

He didn't kill the ass hole....his lazyness to learn how to swim killed him. It was an accident n he drown. I say Tom got away with it..but not for long. Good on that...but the whore got away scot free..she should have suffered.

3* just because the ass hole deserving died though regretfully by accident..

Would have been 5+* if the bitch Also suffers..

3*

His children turned against him because he was a MURDERER. When is it ever right to kill someone? As far as the wife, re-read the story. She suffered her entire marriage. She suffered humiliation through the song. What is wrong with you?

Did we read the same story? The kids father was just proven in a court of law that he did 'NOT' murder the guy. Forget about what we know what really happened. As far as everyone knew he was at the party but could care less about the guy. As far as anyone knew, the guy helped launched his solo career. Good story up to the end then the authors sense of his personally delivered karma screwed up the story. Besides, why were the ex-wife and his kids there? There'd be no reason for them to be in the courtroom. Seemed to be some pretty wild assumptions made to support swingerjoe's ending.

...in writing this story was assuming that I had included enough evidence for a reasonable observer to conclude that Phil committed the murder, but there wasn't enough evidence to legally convict him.

I wish I had included a scene between the son and the detective just before the jury returned with a verdict.

Oh, well.

Procrastinators rule!

Those who submit their stories too early regret at their leisure.

And for the Anonymouse who said 'The kids father was just proven in a court of law that he did 'NOT' murder the guy.", No. He was found 'Not Guilty'. That means there was not enough evidence to convict him 'Beyond reasonable doubt.'

The USA, like us in Australia, inherited the adversarial legal system from the English. The Scots were more sensible. They inserted 'Not Proven' in between 'Guilty' and 'Not Guilty'. That's what he would have been found in Scotland.

Continental Europeans were even more sensible. Their inquisitorial courts are required to discover the truth. He wouldn't have escaped unpunished in France.

Lue

Wife portrayed husband as cheater who was never home and was unsupportive of her. She was not happy. I bet she was happy with all the money she was spending and her lifestyle.

Aside from his wife's remarks, Phil came across as a decent guy whose wife cheated on him. True his punch led to guy's death but I would have only found him guilty of INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER-OR-RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT.

Fact is the punch is not what killed the guy, but his refusal to help the drowning man was the cause. If he had thrown the punch then immediately walked away, I would not thought him guilty of anything.

One more thing-Schilling was a predator simple as that. Having worked in construction industry for over 40 years, I know how susceptible houswives are to contractors and construction workers. She goes from feeling lonely to having good looking well-built guys walking around house and conversing with her. I have known a number of contractors that were predators. I even warned some of those housewives about getting involved with them, especially those who liked to brag

Then again, a certain segment of those females were themselves doing the chasing as I had to find ways to turn them down without them getting mad and falsely accuse me of making advances

Schilling's wife knew he cheated on her-she chose to stay with him for her own reasons.

I THINK SCHILLING DESRVED TO DIE

some children should be drowned at Birth, his son is one of them for sure.

Anytime you're curious how sick and depraved -- and just downright evil -- humanity can be, don't bother booking a flight to Syria. Just post a story on this site. Holy fuck, man. Racists, murderers, rapists, misogynists, homophobes, psychopaths, child molesters, mother fuckers (literally) -- they're all here. Incredible.

I felt the story followed too closely the Phil Collins song and the rumored reason behind that song. It was an easy step to fill in and fictionalize the lyrics. Personally I didn't like any of the characters very much but I don't normally downgrade a story for that reason.

To me the story felt almost like a diary. Instead of showing the reader, it told the reader in an almost police blotter way what went on.

Thank you for your hard work and please continue your efforts.

Woodmanone

You think this SJ story read like a diary and followed a constricting " police blotter" format in your relatively gentle but firm critique ? You have written some very affecting tales , but nuance and veiled intentions are not among attributes that I saw when five starring them. Good is good , and bad is bad in your world and conclusions are straightforward from that presumption.

I enjoy the process of your stories, but mystified at any given point ? Not in my recall.

SJ is tough for me personally to critique. He has gadfly persona in comment box, undeniable skills as author. He's too smart to fall into pronounced ruts , but definitely has an irksome agenda on some level . What a bastard. I hate the thinking he necessitates. Lol.

Schilling was a predator...Plain and simple. Men who break up the marriages and lives of another man do not deserve to live. All Phil did was to knock Tom Schilling into the pool. A coroner or medical examiner should have been able to verify that. I have zero simpathy when it comes to "justice for a predator" like Schilling. My verdict? NOT GUILTY!

Isn't that Phil gets away with manslaughter or that his son sees what the jury doesn't, it's that the crime never would have happened in the first place. After spending years channeling all his anger and bitterness into music, Phil's knee jerk reaction to being smirked at by the man he feels stole his family from him would have been to crank out a whole album titled, "The Smirk," and a series of music videos about an anguished wronged man (played by Phil, of course) still suffering the loss of his beloved family years after it was stolen from him. Watching his kids playing and graduating from school from a distance. Crying over pictures of them growing up without him in their lives because the ex wife poisoned their minds against him. Every scene punctuated by the presence of the smirking wife stealer. All sung by a man sobbing as he pounds in rage on his drums and fantasizes about beating the smirk off the wife stealer's face, but always ending with the tortured soul watching the devil incarnate leading his family away from him, arm around his haughty ex, looking back over his shoulder at him...and smirking. Instead of a brief explosion of primal anger with nobody to see, Phil would pummel Tom and Vanessa repeatedly in front of a global audience of already sympathetic fans of his music. Just like the real Phil.

re:

The real problem with this story

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Exactly, that is how songwriters deal with that kind of pain caused by others.

He would not end the other man's life but instead make him and his ex-wife suffer for years.

The people in the videos would have an amazing resemblance to the people that caused him pain (purely coincidental of course).

That seems like a big generalization to me. But this fellow Phil, he's got a history, and past history is usually a predictor of future behavior.

seems to me phil got shafted again and a cheating wife comes out on top or with everything that matters

it was ok. All you've really done is swing the pendulum all the way back the other way. It's just as boring and formulaic as the stories you hate.

You screw someones wife, you won't get any sympathy from me if you end up dead. Seems like karma balacing life. The ex wife is lucky she only had to deal with a slice of the pain her husband dealt with.

When a man goes to war and is ordered to throw an atomic bomb on a city that is going to kill thousands, that is justified because it was done in the name of what is good for the country or to shorten a war saving other lives in the process.

When a man kills a predator, who helped destroy his family by accident and in anger, he's a killer, and the cost is to be shunned by his children.

I guess, his primitive reaction should be to marry another fertile woman, who doesn't make a drama of a pregnancy, create a new family, and just ignore the traitorous former children who sided with the cheating wife who having a sitter, a nanny and money was so overwhelmed with loneliness that she gets a lover to fill her empty life... I'm overwhelmed with sadness for her. I didn't read in the story she worked to earn money one single day in her life. She even only finished one tour with the husband for living in hotels was not home. Poor traitorous woman! I give the story a 2.

That's both men by the way. The wife? I doubt that she's very happy either.

He didn't kill him, he just didn't save him. If he hit him, turned and walked away and left the party,he would not have known the guy was dead until just like everyone else...he saw it on the news.

You don't fuck with a man's wife and get off unscathed. He got what he deserved justice! Who says Justice is just? A fool!

Well written and not a normal LW story 4*

She set the whole thing in motion. If she was lonely she could have mentioned it to her husband.

hell, i don't know when.....So if I understand Huedogg......which I fucking don't. The asshole cheating husband who watched a man drown and did nothing to save him gets away with it.....but the kids are done with dad (understandably so)...(Fuck'em) the dad gets away scot-free...(no swingerjoe story is the same) and the lovers dead (eliciting cheers from the LW brutish crowd)....and this get (4) from most.......NOT. It should be much higher than 4.

Vanessa was probably only one of many wives good old Tom helped with "renovations". His wife probably stayed with him for the daughter. Eventually he would have brought her a present (STD) and they would have broken up anyway. Phil just saved other marriages by ridding the world of a predator.

Writer you made the choice to write a story and pretty much shot down all the evidence the DA had. Then you wanted to say the son by his actions knew his father kill the other cheater, nobody in the courtroom knew anything. The cheating ex-wife’s reasons for having an affair was shallow at best. Really there’s no good reason to have an affair! When he as found not guilty the ex-wife became the cheating bitch all over again too everyone including her children!

Too bad you proved he was not guilty in the eyes of the law and for no reason given would anyone except the dead guy know or think otherwise.

I don’t blame you, it seems YOU confused yourself.

The author commented the reason for the kids' anger was that Tom committed murder. He must have left something out of the story, because what happened wasn't murder. The dumbass drowned in still water without any help. Must have left out the intent to cause his children embarrassment too, because there's no way to correlate malice towards his children and the song he wrote. The story line is a bit less than honest, since Phil only fucks around after his wife, but in her story it happened the other way around.

What the son did at the end i think was a low blow. And spiteful towards himself if he spent his childhood practicing drums to be like his dad. It's plausible he turns his love as demonstrated in the beginning to hate, but is sort of his problem, not Phil's.

The wife of a musician is hardly something everyone can handle but the wife barely had an affair and wants a divorce...because either she doesn't love him or someone else...I don't remember. He called her every night and provided a maid and a nanny to help when he was gone, which is sort of not abandoning or insensitive. Yet she complains about diapers. The story sets things up and ignores them when expedient to reach a contrived ending.

The story is nice, but it distorts things to reach a predetermined end, despite the end being a bit unlikely. Some believable, some not.

This story kind of pissed me off. We see things from the Hubbys side of things and we KNOW he isn't cheating. Wife made assumptions and then turns her kids against him. Typical feminist BS. What's more is that Phil is portrayed as something evil to be destroyed. The authors attempt to portray the wife in a sympathetic light falls flat on its face. She's selfish and self centered and did nothing to communicate her concerns with her husband. Instead she turns into a nagging shrew and then cheats on him. She destroyed 2 families and doesn't even have the decency to feel bad about it. Phil Jr may be right about his dad killing the guy but to turn your back on your own blood like that is a wimp move.

I would request a followup story where Phil reconnect with his kids. At least the son. The daughters have shown they're just like their mother. But still they ARE his children. A father should always be in the life of his children.

think the wrong person died. this is an old story so probably wont read this but did u mean to write phil as an entitled asshole who neglected his family and kids emotionally and physically but oh no not financially lol by his own omission? he was surprised she cheated. true she should have divorced that guy in the middle of the 3rd tour instead of cheating. u actually had me routing for the wife in this story. cheating is a death sentence?

For reading these stories. Many male readers have felt the callousness of life without any mystical balancing of the scales. If the courts didn't reward cheaters, but held them to the same standards as other parties to contracts, men in these stories would have recourse to nonviolent solutions. Too bad critics, readers, writers don't have the insight to understand morality plays and the absolute need to achieve balanced fairness

Huge dramaturgy mistake!!!!!!!!!!!

The ex wife went to the trial to HUMULIATE the ex lover's WIDOW!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the author should have written only the ex husband's son had gone to the trial. So the ex wife was a SCUMBAG to the ex lover's wife and family. The presence of the ex wife wanted to show she had cheating affair with the lover after her divorce and her presence humuliated the widow because this was a open show she was following affair with the husband of the widow!!!!!!!!

I think one of the causes for the NOT GUILTY sentence can be such presence of the lover woman of the DEAD cheater husband of the widow on the trial..............

It would have been enough the son of the ex husband on the trial, AUTHOR's big mistake!!!!!!!

the children should have turned their backs on the mother and gone to the father. Pitiful when the children of a divorce go to and stay with the one that caused the break up of the marriage.

I should write a story about a young man in the late sixties. He had a good regular job, enjoyed himself but did not spend every penny. Bought his first car, only three years old, it was quite an achievement in those days. Always had two to three weeks wages in his wallet. At age twenty one had six months wages in the bank.Then he buggered it all up by getting married. Sometimes stories here bring back memories.

Remind anyone of a musician in particular? Is it just me, or was Phil Collins’ (drummer to rock band Genesis, for those who don’t know) music and lyrics WAaay better in the late ‘70s—‘80s, during the tumultuous times with his first and second marriages? Then 3rd wife, he’s happy, and his songs go pop-ie, and in the shitter. “I can’t dance” my ass. More like “l can’t write”.

Now, am I sad the man Phil Collins is satisfied with life? No. I don’t know him at all. So I’m not happy or sad. But I’m sad the music I loved, full of angst, pain, and longing was no longer being made.

Then again, some of the best music in the history of western music come out of pain. The best of Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, much of the Blues, Jazz, Bluegrass, and Country all come out of some form of pain. Perhaps one of the most soulful and mournful, yet beautiful pieces of music ever came from the horrors of the American Civil War - Taps.

Guess his pride and ego was more important than his kids love. He got the asshole but in doing so lost his kids. To me he lost a lot more than he gained.

During my swingerjoe experience, I have to revisit my favorite SJ story. This is so good that for a long time I did not recognise the author as "that" swingerjoe. It's still a good one, don't care who wrote it.

The good guy won as far as I'm concerned!

I thought the story was well written. The Phil character came across as a jerk, someone whose fame wasn't worn with a great deal of grace.

Though he wasn't convicted, the final paragraph with the son laying his drum sticks in front of his father was inspired. It captured the present and the probable future for Phil.

Again, a great ending.

Stupid

I'd have asked Art given his contractors propensity to fuck married women whether or not his wife had sucummbed and wether he had motive to kill the man

Well written, well told story. Unlike many it stayed within bounds of normal human reaction. Well documented from three perspectives.

The last paragraph ruined a great story. Drowning was what he deserved.

The last two paragraphs blew it for me. The kid saying he did it...come on....weak! Howver, this is fiction!

Till the end. And why is it that women never want their lover's family to find out. It's okay to break up your family but God forbid his should suffer. Just proves that all wo.en are lying, cheating sluts when they think they can get away with it.

Not a bad story for a.champion of the open marriage . Would.have been a *5 without the ending.

Were I his attorney I'd have asked every guest at that party if their wife had been fucked by the victim

And if my family turned their backs on me over such flimsy evidence I'd cut them off financially

Swinger Joe's best story. He burned the cheating wife's lover, but let the wife down too easy.

Why would the ex have brought their kids to the trial?

...was in the very late 1970s-early 1980’s, when he was having trouble with his marriage. As soon as he was happy again someone in the studio musta hit the “SUCK” button.

Thanks for the reminder. Now I gotta download Face Value from iTunes. I only have it on vinyl and cassette. Thank you very much.

5-stars.

1for you and no comment

this was a quite different take than the regular BTB stuff we see over here.

It is basically honest as to how the Justice System really works. You have to (have) beyond reasonable doubt to convict. This protects Innocents and the guilty.

Morally It was not Murder that Happened but for what ever reason the victim that drowned was not saved from drowning by the man whom hit him. We both realize from the story that one could think murder - Maybe in the mans mind that hit him he was in fear of a larger more powerful man thus drowning himself when he attempted a rescue. The human mind usually decides what happened and then tries to prove it. Instead of gathering facts and then decide on a course of action under the law.

I think that the pair of drum sticks was the worst punishment anyone can be dealt

Phil aught to use his money to hire hookers to fuck every one of his children's future long term relationship partners and send them the photos

I am understand the daughters but the son no

He son was a pussy basically in knowing his father got his respect and honor back

The cheating slut walked away unscathed. 1*

A rich piece of shit got away with murder. So, what else is new!

SJ probably didn’t mean to, but he wrote a great drown the cheating bastard story.

One of the few times I don't go to BTB.

That said, she had ample reason to divorce him: she was miserable, was publicallly betrayed by her husband's numerous affairs, no longer loved him and just plane wanted out.

Having the affair was a non-sequter.

This was a fatal flaw in an otherwise reasonable story plot as it unfolded. I gave it a 4 for could writing but I think, overall, it deserves, from my perspective, a 2 1/2.

Just another shitty story about how society don't deal with crimes that's are worse than murder.

Namely cheating, the intruder in the marriage got what's coming to him.

The kids are poisoned by their mother and can no longer distinguish right from wrong.

Good story, the end said it all, what he received from his son, was a far lengthier penalty than any judge could have given him for manslaughter. ( He was never a murderer) in all none of the main characters came out of it smelling or roses. I hate cheaters, so no sympathy for the drowned aldulterer. I had a little sympathy for the wife, he did treat her like s***,_I suppose all that type of stars behave like that, nobody could say she chased him for the glamour and money, they were an item when he had nothing.

Not a single redeemable character in this story. Every one of them was a low life piece of shit. They all deserved what they got. Even the cheaters wife was a piece of shit for taking him back.

Fit well with the song. D

Good story with a sad ending. Thanks.

Ed

Tom got what he deserved. Phil Jr. turning his back on his father made no sense whatsoever. If anything he'd resent his whore mother for cheating on his father and breaking up his happy family.

I really don't understand the last part with the son. But all in all, like somebody else stated, nobody, not even the children are worth a damn in this story.

In a group of shitty characters the son stands out above all the others. The ungrateful little prick disowns his dad but doesn’t have any problem with the cheating whore of a mother. The father should hold that kids head underwater until he stops kicking.

Well written, moved along nicely. Mildly interesting story.

That bullshit with his son at the end ruined it. It was a 5 until then.

Now, it gets a one.

I agree with the others that thought Junior turning his back on Phil was a lose. Phil was not a particularly heroic character, plenty of faults. I liked that he used his music to explain and get some payback. Phil seemed distant to most except Junior. Because only son? I think more because the shared music love. That should have been a relationship that held up more. The ex wife, how hard her life was, kids raised all alone because Phil was touring. Money, no job, nanny and house keeper yeah sucks to be her. This wasn't first or last affair for Tom, to practiced, so no sympathy. Toms family accepting it makes me not feel sorry for them.

after the trial he should have the family removed from the house and go N/C. Here yet another story where they turn on the husband but not on the whore that started it all. She's a whore but treated like a saint.

Went from dislike to average at son's action.

Otherwise MC definitely an asshole

Career then son then****** then wife and daughters

Total asshole

Added dislike immensely MC

Why did he get married when career love of his life

Dig two graves indeed. 5 stars.

Why were his kids so convinced of his guilt? Why were they so upset and effectively disavowed him? GOOD THING THEY WEREN'T ON THE JURY.

No reason to kill the would be lothario, instead use your money to ruin his business. Use your songwriting to further shame the straying wife. There's no need to dispatch him when this MC would have so many other options at his disposal, especially if his children have been turned against him.

Wow, it's amazing how an author writes a large pamphlet decrying bad tropes in BTB stories, then uses a far worse trope of the kids siding with the cheating wife instead of the wronged victim of cheating. 3 stars, for "best revenge is living well" mostly.

Also, there was a very well thought out BTB essay someplace on LE I recommend reading that explained why good BTBs (and sane people) concentrate on revenge on the cheater, not the person they cheated with - in short, because the 3rd party didn't break trust and promise fidelity to cheating victim. They are guilty of being an asswipe, but far LESS guilty than the cheating spouse. So, this uses the second bad trope, of the worst revenge reserved for the "lesser" offender.

Also, a note given both the story and some of your other comments. This is a site for **fiction**. The reason don't want "realistic consequences for revenge", is specifically because they can't get revenge in real life due to fear of such consequences. If I wanted to read a depressing story of how reality of what happens to cheating male victim, I'll just read real court cases or listen to real people. I - and many others - come to fiction story sites **for escapism**, not sad and depressing realism. We ALL know there are consequences to doing revengey-things, we don't need moralizing to tell us they are there. We want an entertaining story set in a world where those consequences don't exist, to distract us from reality.

Rubbish ending, spoilt the story. Slut wife was behind all the bad.

I keep wondering and I keep asking… IF YOU CANNOT FINISH THE DAMN STORY WHY POST IT???

SJ’s best story. A *5 because he dealt with the cheating wife’s lover with extreme prejudice. Screw the cheating wife and ungrateful kids. He doesn’t need them..

5 stars. Well done.

Looks like he won the case, but lost his son. Which is more important?

cheating wife seemed to come out well from it all

A Loving Wives story with a different twist, not bad. If this was a true story I'm wondering if the MC would ever feel any remorse about what he did or was he too narcissistic to ever let it bother him? The story never did cover how the divorce went, did the cheater get anything besides the kids?

Too bad the wife decided to turn slut for Tom, maybe he wouldnt have died.Always consequences from cheating.

Good story. Amazing how the btb trolls below can only focus on her having sex with Tom twice. The marriage was already on life support. Ohik was a terrible husband and father. He spent almost all his time on the road. Was caught by the paparazzi with his hand in the cookie jar multiple time (yes morons he was obviously cheating), and she was only staying in the marriage for the kids. Phil was a grade asshole.with a bad temper. And he got away with murder. And yet there are readers who cheer Phil on. What hypocritical knuckleheads. Like the ending where is estranged son gave him his drumsticks after he was acquitted. Closes their relationship forever. Interesting story with good perspectives. Yeah technically the wife coukd have divorced him before sleeping with Tom, but her part in the demise of their marriage was miniscule compared to Phil who was clearly living the high life on the road.

Good story, Swinger Joe. It shows a guy who when he spoke of the circumstances painted a good picture of himself. He was a S.O.B. in real life, but not through his eyes. Good thing the wife asked for a divorce first. Can't blame her. If she cheated, he cheated 10 times worse. Great Story. 5 Stars