Land of Confusion

Infobox Single
Name=Land of Confusion


Caption=Original single cover parodying 1963s "With the Beatles"
Artist=Genesis
from Album=Invisible Touch
Released= flagicon|US start date|1986|10
flagicon|UK start date|1986|11
Format=US: 7", UK: 7", 12"
Recorded=The Farm, Surrey; 1985 – 1986
Genre=Rock
Length=4:45
Label=flagicon|US Atlantic
flagicon|UK Virgin - GENS 3
Writer=Music: Genesis
Lyrics: Mike Rutherford
Producer=Genesis
Hugh Padgham
Reviews=
Last single="Throwing it All Away"
(1986)
This single="Land of Confusion"
(1986)
Next single="Tonight, Tonight, Tonight"
(1986)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Invisible Touch
Type = studio
prev_track = "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight"
prev_no = 2
this_track = "Land of Confusion"
track_no = 3
next_track = "In Too Deep (song)"
next_no = 4"Land of Confusion" is a rock song written by the band Genesis for their 1986 album "Invisible Touch". The song was the third track on the album and was the fourth track from the album to become a single, which reached #4 in the US and #14 in the UK in 1987. 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 is remembered by many Genesis fans because of its video, which featured puppets from the 1980s UK sketch show, Spitting Image.

The music video

The song is widely remembered for its music video, which had heavy airplay on MTV. The video drew controversy for its portrayal of Ronald Reagan as being physically and cognitively inept. 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 shows 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 (voiced by Chris Barrie), Nancy Reagan, and a chimpanzee (parodying Reagan's film "Bedtime for Bonzo"), going to bed at 16:30 (4:30PM). 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 heads of Cold War-era political figures in the swamp along the way (an allusion to "Motel Hell").

Caricatured versions of the band members are shown playing instruments on stage during a concert: Tony Banks on an array of synthesizers (as well as a cash register), Mike Rutherford on a four-necked guitar (parodying Rutherford's dual role as the band's guitar and bass-player), and two Phil Collins puppets: one on the drums, and one 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 Mussolini, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Mikhail Gorbachev and his aides (appearing like Frank Sinatra's 'rat pack'), and Muammar al-Gaddafi. 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 men of steel, the men of power":"Are losing control by the hour."

Meanwhile, the "real world" Reagan is shown drowning in his own sweat (at one point, a rubber duck floats by).

During the bridge, the Superman-costumed Reagan and a Monoclonius-type dinosaur (with punk jewelry) watch a television showing various clips (apparently from the Spitting Image show itself), including Johnny Carson, Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock, and Bob Hope. This seques into a sequence apparently set in prehistoric times, where the Monoclonius-type and a Theropod-type dinosaur (wearing a bow-tie) meet up with Ron and Nancy Reagan and a rather outlandish mammal eats an egg and reads a newspaper. At the end of this part, the ape from the prologue is shown throwing a bone in the air (an allusion to "").

As the bone lands at the beginning of the final verse (on top of the Rolling Stones), it turns into a telephone 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" (which is when a caricature of a 1980s Pete Townshend is seen playing a chord on guitar and giving thumbs up for putative mentioning of his own song, "My generation"). Reagan is then shown riding the "Monoclonius" through the streets while wearing a cowboy hat and wardrobe (a reference to Reagan's down-home public persona and ranch). As the video nears its climax, there are periodic scenes of a large group of spoofed celebrity puppets, including Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Hulk Hogan singing along to the chorus of the song, in a spoof of the charity driven song "We Are the World".

At the end of the video, Reagan awakens from his dream, and surfaces from the sweat surrounding him; Nancy at this point is wearing a snorkel. 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 "Nuke", setting off a mushroom cloud. Reagan then replies "Man, that's one heck of a nurse!" Nancy whacks him over the head with her snorkel. (This is somewhat reminiscient of the opening of "Far Out Space Nuts" when a "Launch" button is pressed, thinking it was labelled "Lunch".)

The video, directed by John Lloyd & Jim Yukich and produced by Jon Blair, won the short lived Grammy Award for Best Concept Music Video during the 1988 Grammys. [ [http://80music.about.com/library/grammy/bl_1987.htm 1988 Grammy Awards information] . About.com. Retrieved March 4, 2006] The video was also nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Video of the Year in 1987, but lost to "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel (coincidentally, Genesis' former lead singer). It also made the number-one spot on "The Village Voice" critic Robert Christgau's top 10 music videos in his year-end "Dean's List" feature, and number three on the equivalent list in his annual survey of music critics, Pazz & Jop (again losing out to "Sledgehammer"). [ [http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/deans86.php Robert Christgau: Pazz & Jop 1986: Dean's List] ; [http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres86.php Robert Christgau: Pazz & Jop 1986: Critics Poll] . Robert Christgau's Web Site. Retrieved June 19, 2006]

"Land of Confusion" was also a track used for the final episode of the 1980s cop show "Miami Vice" (in which Phil Collins periodically played a minor role) called "Freefall" and was applied as the characters of the show Crockett (Don Johnson) and Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) were in the middle of a stakeout. The song was to imply the complexity of the story during the finale.

"Land of Confusion" was Delaware Senator Joe Biden's campaign song during his brief run for President in 1987.

List of famous people and characters seen in the video

* Tony Banks
* Phil Collins
* Mike Rutherford
* Ronald Reagan
* Pete Townshend Fact|date=December 2007
* Nancy Reagan Fact|date=December 2007
* Jimmy Carter Fact|date=December 2007
* Margaret Thatcher Fact|date=December 2007
* Henry Kissinger Fact|date=December 2007
* Robert Maxwell Fact|date=December 2007
* David Owen Fact|date=December 2007
* Richard Branson Fact|date=December 2007
* Prince Charles Fact|date=December 2007
* Benito Mussolini Fact|date=December 2007
* Ayatollah Khomeini Fact|date=December 2007
* Mikhail Gorbachev Fact|date=December 2007
* Leonid Brezhnev Fact|date=December 2007
* Muammar al-Gaddafi Fact|date=December 2007
* Ed McMahon Fact|date=December 2007
* Johnny Carson Fact|date=December 2007
* Walter Cronkite Fact|date=December 2007
* Richard Nixon Fact|date=December 2007
* Leonard Nimoy Fact|date=December 2007
* Bob Hope Fact|date=December 2007
* Bob Hawke Fact|date=December 2007
* Sylvester Stallone Fact|date=December 2007
* Prince Fact|date=December 2007
* Grace Jones Fact|date=December 2007
* Francois Mitterrand Fact|date=December 2007
* Tina Turner Fact|date=December 2007
* Madonna Fact|date=December 2007
* Bruce Springsteen Fact|date=December 2007
* Bob Dylan Fact|date=December 2007
* David Bowie Fact|date=December 2007
* Mick Jagger Fact|date=December 2007
* Tammy Faye Bakker Fact|date=December 2007
* Thomas Gottschalk Fact|date=December 2007
* Helmut Kohl Fact|date=December 2007
* Urho KekkonenFact|date=December 2007
* Frank Sinatra (not a puppet; photo on book Nancy is reading)

;"in crowd:"
* Joan Rivers
* Pope John Paul II Fact|date=December 2007
* Ringo Starr Fact|date=December 2007
* Yoko Ono Fact|date=December 2007
* Clint Eastwood Fact|date=December 2007
* Michael Jackson Fact|date=December 2007
* Cyndi Lauper Fact|date=December 2007
* Barbra Streisand Fact|date=December 2007
* Jane Fonda Fact|date=December 2007
* Bette Midler Fact|date=December 2007
* Princess Diana Fact|date=December 2007
* Dolly Parton Fact|date=December 2007
* Queen Elizabeth II Fact|date=December 2007
* Stephen King Fact|date=December 2007
* Mr. T Fact|date=December 2007
* Walter Matthau Fact|date=December 2007
* Paul McCartney Fact|date=December 2007
* Hulk Hogan Fact|date=December 2007
* Bill Cosby Fact|date=December 2007
* Sting Fact|date=December 2007
* Arnold Schwarzenegger Fact|date=December 2007
* Bob Geldof Fact|date=December 2007
* Faye Dunaway Fact|date=December 2007
* Cliff Richard Fact|date=December 2007
* Elton John Fact|date=December 2007
* Prince Philip Fact|date=December 2007
* Freddie Mercury Fact|date=December 2007
* (For a brief moment at the end before President Reagan wakes, the real Phil Collins pops up and down in the crowd)

ingles track listings

7": Virgin / GENS 3 (UK)

# "Land of Confusion" – 4:45
# "Feeding the Fire" – 5:54

7": Atlantic / 7-89336 (US)

# "Land Of Confusion" (Edit Of Remix) - 4:45
# "Land Of Confusion" (LP Version) - 5:54

12": Virgin / GENS 3-12 (UK)

# "Land of Confusion" (Extended Remix) – 6:55
# "Land of Confusion" – 4:45
# "Feeding the Fire" – 5:54

CD: Virgin / SNEG 3-12 (UK)

# "Land of Confusion" – 4:45
# "Land of Confusion" (Extended Remix) – 6:55
# "Feeding the Fire" – 5:54
# "Do the Neurotic" – 7:08

12": Atlantic / PR 968 (US)

# "Land of Confusion" (Extended Remix) – 6:55
# "Land of Confusion" – 4:45

* Remixes by John Potoker

Credits

*Phil Collins - Drums, Percussion, Vocals
*Tony Banks - Keyboards, Vocals, Bass pedals
*Mike Rutherford - Guitars, Bass guitar

Quotes

* "...Phil offers thoughtful, well intentioned lyrics which tackle the world's problems of war and chaos;...Phil's worries in 1987 have a prophetic ring to them." ~ Welch, Chris. "The Complete Guide to the Music of Genesis". 1995 ed [Welch, Chris. The Complete Guide to the Music of Genesis. London: Omnibus Press, 1995.]

This quote is inaccurate. Mike Rutherford penned the lyrics for this track.

Live performances

The song was played on their "Invisible Touch" [ [http://www.genesis-movement.org/php/listtour.php?tourid=15&addcommentsall= Invisible Tour Songs & Dates] ] , "The Way We Walk" [ [http://www.genesis-movement.org/php/listtour.php?tourid=16&addcommentsall= The Way We Walk Tour Songs & Dates] ] , "Calling All Stations" [ [http://www.genesis-movement.org/php/listtour.php?tourid=17&addcommentsall= Calling All Stations Tour Songs & Dates] ] (with Ray Wilson on vocals) and "" [ [http://www.genesis-movement.org/php/listtour.php?tourid=18&addcommentsall= Turn it on again Tour Songs & Dates] ] tours, though always transposed down a key to account for the deepening of Phil Collins's voice over the years.

It also appears on their live albums "", and "Live Over Europe 2007". As well as on their DVDs "Genesis Live at Wembley Stadium", "The Way We Walk - Live in Concert" and "When in Rome 2007".

Cover versions

The song has been variously re-recorded as cover versions by several artists spanning a number genres.

*One-time Genesis guitarist Daryl Stuermer reworked the song into a jazz tune on his album "Another Side of Genesis". [ [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:8hl67ur010jd Track Listing for "Another Side of Genesis" by Daryl Steurmer] . AllMusic.com. Retrieved March 4, 2006.]

*It has been covered by reggae group Fourth Dimension. [ [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gn6htr2yklkx Track Listing for "Around the World" by Fourth Dimension] . AllMusic.com. Retrieved March 4, 2006]

*The American electronic band Interface has covered the song, performing it in concert and recording it for the upcoming 2 CD compilation Machines Against Hunger.

*A cover of Genesis' Land of Confusion was also done by the Swedish Melodic Metal band In Flames in their 2003 EP "Trigger".

*In 2004, Swedish pop group Alcazar released a partial cover of the song, entitled "This is the World We Live in", which keeps only the chorus (from which the title is derived).

*The American bluegrass band Greensky Bluegrass has numerous times done a cover of this song during concerts.

Disturbed cover version and video

Infobox Single
Name = Land of Confusion
Artist = Disturbed


from Album = Ten Thousand Fists
Released = October 2, 2006 flagicon|USA
Format = CD 12" Picture LP
Recorded = Groovemaster Studios, Chicago, Illinois
Genre = Alternative metal, hard rock
Writer = Genesis
Label = Reprise
Length = 4:50
Producer = Johnny K
Reviews=
Last single= "Just Stop"
(2006)
This single= "Land of Confusion"
(2006)
Next single= "Ten Thousand Fists"
(2006)The most recent cover version was released by the band Disturbed in July 2006, as the fourth single from their album "Ten Thousand Fists". Except for a different style of singing and rock-styled driving pace, the only difference between the songs would be the bridge, replacing Genesis' synthesizer with a guitar solo, and the lyric "and the sound of your laughter" with "in the wake of this madness"."

It was accompanied by a music video animated by Todd McFarlane, known for his work with the Spawn comic book series. McFarlane had previously animated the video for "Freak on a Leash" by Korn, "Do the Evolution" by Pearl Jam, and the "Land of Confusion" video has a very similar style.

The video, credited to McFarlane and Terry Fitzgerald, is a spiritual sequel of sorts to the original Genesis video. However, where Genesis used the "Spitting Image" caricature puppets to parody the Cold War and its leaders, McFarlane uses dark imagery and much more direct attacks on the G8 leaders to get his point across.Fact|date=June 2007

The video also portrays a world where a global military attacks free nations around the world, reflective of the fears of many in the post 9/11 world about the rising police state activity in nations such as the US and UK as well as fears of globalization for the purpose of satisfying business interests, such as banks, and the centralization of power, such as a world military. Amidst the chaos of the attack, however, "The Guy", (seen on the cover of the albums "Ten Thousand Fists" and "Indestructible"), unites the survivors in order to bring down an incredibly oversized businessman who is implied to be profiting from the military attacks.

Charts

Genesis version

Disturbed version

Notes

External links

* [http://www.vh1classic.com/view/artist/1077/18140/Genesis/Land_Of_Confusion/index.jhtml "Genesis" Music Video] at VH1 Classic