Land of Confusion
| "Land of Confusion" | |
|---|---|
| Song |
Land of Confusion is a pop rock song written by the band Genesis for their 1986 album Invisible Touch. The music was written by the band, while the lyrics were written by guitarist Mike Rutherford. The lyrics, further emphasized by the music video (see below), discuss the greed and uncertainty of the Cold War-era 1980s, but evoke a sense of hope for the future.
The song's meaning
The song opens by discussing the detente and open negotiations with the Soviet Union towards nuclear disarmament, but Collins takes a pessimistic view of the situation:
Now did you read the news today
They say the danger's gone away
But I can see the fires still alight
Burning into the night
The chorus, which repeats throught the song, asks the listener to take a stance towards improving the planet, and says that mankind must "start trying to make it a place worth living in".
Collins then says that things are degrading, and world leaders (implying Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, and others) are only making things worse with each passing day. He eventually decides to take charge, and lead "[his] generation" to solve the world's problems. He also takes a stab at politicians and the political process, claiming that they will not "make promises that [they] know [they'll] never keep".
The music video
The song is widely remembered for its music video, which had heavy airplay on MTV. The video features puppets by the British television show Spitting Image, after Phil Collins saw a disfigured version of himself on the show. He commissioned the show's creators, Peter Fluck and Roger Law, to create puppets of the entire band, as well as all the characters in the video.
The video opens with a (caricatured) Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, and a gorilla (possibly to parody Reagan's film Bedtime for Bonzo), in bed. Reagan, holding a teddy bear, goes to sleep and begins to have a nightmare, which sets the premise for the entire video. The video intermittently features a line of stomping feet, illustrating an army marching through a swamp, and they pick up random heads in the swamp along the way. Caricatured versions of the band members are shown playing instruments on stage during a concert; Tony Banks on the synthesizer, Mike Rutherford on a four-necked guitar, and Phil Collins on the drums and singing.
During the second verse, the video features various world leaders giving speeches on large video screens in front of mass crowds; the video shows, among others, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. Meanwhile, Reagan is shown putting on a Superman suit, fumbling along the way, while Collins sings,
Oh Superman where are you now
When everything's gone wrong somehow
The Man of Steel, these men of power
Are losing control by the hour
This is meant to visualize critics' statements that Reagan attempted to "save the world" from Communism. Meanwhile, the "real world" Reagan is showing drowning in his own sweat (at one point, a rubber duck floats by).
During the bridge, a triceratops and stegosaurus are shown forcing Reagan to watch a television with various "news clips", showing then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, and other news figures engaged in various activities. One interpretation is that Reagan is oblivious to the world around him, and must be forced to see what his actions are leading towards. Meanwhile, the gorilla from the introduction is shown throwing a bone in the air (an obvious reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey).
As the bone lands, it turns into a phone that Collins uses to inform the person on the other end that he "won't be coming home tonight, my generation will put it right". Reagan is then shown riding the aforementioned stegosaurus through the streets while wearing a cowboy hat and wardrobe (a reference to Reagan's down-home nature and ranch).
At the end of the video, Reagan awakens from his dream, and surfaces from the sweat surrounding him. After taking a drink, he fumbles for a button next to his bed. He intends to push the one labeled "Nurse", but instead presses the one titled "Nuclear", setting off a mushroom cloud. The video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Video of the Year in 1987, but lost to "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel (ironically Genesis' former drummer and lead singer).
Cover versions
The song has been covered by various artists spanning several genres. Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames provided a notable cover on their 2003 EP Trigger. American heavy metal group Disturbed covered it on their most recent album Ten Thousand Fists, but changed one line ("and the sound of your laughter/as I held you tight" was altered to "in the wake of this madness/as I held you tight"). It has also been covered by reggae group Fourth Dimension. One-time Genesis guitarist Daryl Stuermer reworked the song into a jazz tune on his album Another Side of Genesis.
Track listings
UK 7" listing
1. Land of Confusion - 4:45
2. Feeding the Fire - 5:54
UK 12" track listing
1. Land of Confusion (Extended Remix) - 6:55
2. Land of Confusion - 4:45
3. Feeding the Fire - 5:54
UK CD single track listing
1. Land of Confusion - 4:45
2. Land of Confusion (Extended Remix) - 6:55
3. Feeding the Fire - 5:54
4. Do the Neurotic - 7:08
US promotional 12" track listing
1. Land of Confusion (Extended Remix) - 6:55
2. Land of Confusion - 4:45