“Sussudio,” a song that 30 Rock once posited was created with the sole intent of confusing “Weird Al” Yankovic, is back to being on our minds all the time. Phil Collins released a demo version of the tune in celebration of his upcoming No Jacket Required reissue, which is due out on September 12 and being finalized amid his current health struggles. As with most demos, it alternates between familiarity and gibberish: The slick instrumentals that reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts are the same, but Collins is still working out, word-wise, what exactly the “Sussudio” in question is. (Did we maybe catch a C-3PO in there?) “This is one of those examples of improvising lyrics,” Collins, who recently had to dispute reports that he was in hospice care, said in a statement. “Sometimes you use the lyric, other times you’re in big trouble because what you write doesn’t mean anything. I set up this drum machine pattern, and I got some chords, and I started to sing into the microphone. And this word came out. Which was ‘su-sussudio.’” Tony Banks once told us how Collins employed the same technique for Genesis’s weirdest song, “Who Dunnit?,” which was formed from Collins repeating a “ridiculous lyric” to a backing sound. So if this still doesn’t inspire you to embrace “Sussudio,” well, don’t say the word.
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