"
Land of Confusion" is a rock song written by the band
GenesisGenesis are a Grammy Award-winning English rock band formed in 1967, and are among the top 30 highest-selling recording artists of all time with approximately 150 million albums sold worldwide, including 21.5 million albums sold in the United States. In 1988, the band won the Grammy Award for Best...
for their 1986 album
Invisible TouchInvisible Touch is the 13th studio album by Genesis, released in 1986. It reached #1 in the UK where it remained in the charts for 96 weeks, making it by far the most commercially successful album of their career, and eventually sold over 15 million copies worldwide...
. 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. It made #8 in the Netherlands. The music was written by the band, while the lyrics were written by
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
ist
Mike RutherfordMichael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford is an English musician. He was a founding member of Genesis, initially as a bassist and backup vocalist. In later incarnations of Genesis, he assumed the role of lead guitarist. He is one of only two constant members in Genesis...
. The lyrics, further emphasized by the music video (see below), discuss the greed and uncertainty of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
-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 ImageSpitting Image was a British satirical puppet show which ran on the ITV television network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one, for editing, in 1989....
.
Background
- "...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
This quote is inaccurate. Mike Rutherford penned the lyrics for this track and the song was released in 1986.
Music video
The song is widely remembered for its
music videoA music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the...
, which had heavy airplay on
MTVMTV is a cable television network based in New York City and launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs...
. 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 ImageSpitting Image was a British satirical puppet show which ran on the ITV television network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one, for editing, in 1989....
. After
Phil CollinsPhilip David Charles "Phil" Collins LVO is an Academy Award-winning English singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboardist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
saw a caricatured version of himself on the show, he commissioned the show's creators,
Peter FluckPeter Fluck is a caricaturist and one half of Fluck and Law , creators of the satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image.After Spitting Image finished he moved to Cornwall to work as an artist....
and
Roger LawRoger Law is a caricaturist and one half of Luck and Flaw , creators of the satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image....
, to create puppets of the entire band, as well as all the characters in the video.
The video opens with a caricatured
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
(voiced by
Chris BarrieChris Barrie is a British actor. He first achieved success as a vocal impressionist, notably in the ITV sketch show Spitting Image...
),
Nancy ReaganNancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and served as an influential First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was born in New York; her parents divorced soon after her birth and she grew up in Maryland, living with an aunt and uncle while her...
, and a chimpanzee (parodying Reagan's film
Bedtime for BonzoBedtime for Bonzo is a 1951 comedy film directed by Fred de Cordova. It revolves around the attempts of the central character, Professor Peter Boyd , to teach human morals to a chimpanzee, hoping to solve the "nature versus nurture" question...
), going to bed at 16:30. Reagan, holding a
teddy bearThe teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. It is an enduring, traditional form of a stuffed animal, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items.- History :...
, 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 WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
-era political figures in the swamp along the way (an
allusionAn allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication. M.H. Abrams defined allusion as "a brief reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place or event, or to another literary...
to
Motel HellMotel Hell is a 1980 horror comedy film directed by Kevin Connor and starring Rory Calhoun as farmer, butcher, and meat entrepreneur Vincent Smith. Often seen as a satire of modern horror films such as Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre because of its low budget nature, the original intent was...
).
Caricatured versions of the band members are shown playing instruments on stage during a concert:
Tony BanksAnthony George "Tony" Banks is an English composer, and multi-instrumentalist, who performs as a keyboardist and a guitarist...
on an array of synthesizers (as well as a
cash registerA cash register is a mechanical or electronic device for calculating and recording sales transactions, and an attached cash drawer for storing cash. The cash register also usually prints a receipt for the customer....
),
Mike RutherfordMichael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford is an English musician. He was a founding member of Genesis, initially as a bassist and backup vocalist. In later incarnations of Genesis, he assumed the role of lead guitarist. He is one of only two constant members in Genesis...
on a
four-necked guitarA double neck guitar is a guitar that has two necks.-Double neck guitars:The most common type has 12 strings on the top neck, while the bottom neck has the normal six. Combination six-string and 4-string are also used. Most are electric but there are also some acoustic versions...
(parodying Rutherford's dual role as the band's guitar and bass-player), and two
Phil CollinsPhilip David Charles "Phil" Collins LVO is an Academy Award-winning English singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboardist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
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 GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
and his aides (appearing like
Frank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the...
's '
rat packThe Rat Pack was a group of popular entertainers originally centered on Humphrey Bogart. In the mid-1960s it was the name used by the press and the general public to refer to a group that called itself "the summit" or "the clan," featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter...
'), and
Muammar al-GaddafiMuammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi
1 has been the de facto leader of Libya since a coup in 1969....
. Meanwhile, Reagan is shown putting on a
SupermanSuperman is a fictional character, a comic book superhero widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective Comics, Inc...
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 duckA rubber duck, rubber duckie, or rubber ducky, is a toy shaped like a duck, and is generally yellow. It may be made of rubber or rubber-like material such as vinyl plastic ....
floats by).
During the bridge, the Superman-costumed Reagan and a
MonocloniusMonoclonius was a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Judith River Formation of Late Cretaceous Montana and Canada. It is often confused with Centrosaurus, a similar genus of ceratopsian...
-type dinosaur (with punk jewelry) watch a television showing various clips (apparently from the
Spitting ImageSpitting Image was a British satirical puppet show which ran on the ITV television network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one, for editing, in 1989....
show itself), including
Johnny CarsonJohn William “Johnny” Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
,
Leonard NimoyLeonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. He is famous for playing the character of Spock on the original Star Trek series, and he reprised the role in various movie and television sequels.-Early life:Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to...
as Mr
SpockSpock is a character in the fictional Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek series, Spock also appears in the animated Star Trek series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, seven of the Star Trek feature films, and numerous Star Trek...
(with a
Rubik's CubeThe Rubik's Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik.Originally called the "Magic Cube", the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toys in 1980 and won the German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle that year...
), and
Bob HopeBob Hope, KBE, KCSG was an American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO tours entertaining American military personnel...
. This segues 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
allusionAn allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication. M.H. Abrams defined allusion as "a brief reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place or event, or to another literary...
to
2001: A Space Odyssey2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 science fiction film directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke...
).
As the bone begins to fall there is a sudden switch to Collins catching a falling phone which he 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 TownshendPeter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
is seen playing a chord on guitar and giving thumbs up for putative mentioning of his own song,
My Generation) and on the "we're not just making promises" verse the bone lands (on top of
David BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
and
Bob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...
). Reagan is then shown riding the
MonocloniusMonoclonius was a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Judith River Formation of Late Cretaceous Montana and Canada. It is often confused with Centrosaurus, a similar genus of ceratopsian...
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 TurnerTina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have earned her the title "The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
,
Michael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson , known as the "King of Pop", was an American musician and one of the most commercially successful and influential entertainers of all time...
,
MadonnaMadonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
, and
Hulk HoganTerry Gene Bollea better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American actor and retired professional wrestler....
singing along to the chorus of the song, in a spoof of the charity driven song "
We Are the World"We Are the World" is a song and charity single recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and co-produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album 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
snorkelSnorkeling is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a wetsuit may also be worn...
. After taking a drink (missing his mouth and, indeed, his face), 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 cloudA mushroom cloud is a distinctive pyrocumulus mushroom-shaped cloud of condensed water vapor or debris resulting from a very large explosion. They are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, but any sufficiently large blast will produce the same sort of effect. They can be caused by...
. Reagan then replies "Man, that's one heck of a nurse!" Nancy whacks him over the head with her snorkel. (This is somewhat reminiscent of the opening of
Far Out Space NutsFar Out Space Nuts is a Sid and Marty Krofft children's television series starring Bob Denver as Junior, a seemingly dim-witted but uniquely clever maintenance worker employed by NASA, and Chuck McCann as Barney, his grumpy, short-tempered co-worker. Patty Maloney played Honk, their furry friend...
when a "Launch" button is pressed, thinking it was labeled "Lunch".)
The video, directed by John Lloyd & Jim Yukich and produced by Jon Blair, won the short lived
Grammy Award for Best Concept Music VideoThe Grammy Award for Best Concept Music Video was awarded from 1988 to 1989. An award for Best Performance Music Video was also awarded in 1988 and 1989. Outside of these years the video category has been divided into awards for Best Short Form Music Video and Best Long Form Music Video...
during the
1988 GrammysThe 30th Grammy Awards were held March 2, 1988. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.- Award winners :*Record of the Year**Paul Simon for "Graceland"*Album of the Year...
. The video was also nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Video of the Year in 1987, but lost to "
Sledgehammer"Sledgehammer" is a hit song by Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So. It peaked at number one in Canada for four weeks on 21 July 1986, number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States on 26 July 1986, and number four in the UK singles chart, thanks in part to a popular and...
" by
Peter GabrielPeter Brian Gabriel is an English musician and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. More recently he has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering...
(coincidentally, Genesis' former lead singer). It also made the number-one spot on
The Village VoiceThe Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper in New York City, United States featuring investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts reviews and events listings for New York City...
critic
Robert ChristgauRobert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-professed "Dean of American Rock Critics". In print, he often abbreviates his name as Xgau....
'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 & JopThe Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
(again losing out to "Sledgehammer").
List of famous people and characters seen in the video
- Tony Banks
Anthony George "Tony" Banks is an English composer, and multi-instrumentalist, who performs as a keyboardist and a guitarist...
- Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins LVO is an Academy Award-winning English singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboardist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
- Mike Rutherford
Michael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford is an English musician. He was a founding member of Genesis, initially as a bassist and backup vocalist. In later incarnations of Genesis, he assumed the role of lead guitarist. He is one of only two constant members in Genesis...
- Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
- Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
- Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and served as an influential First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was born in New York; her parents divorced soon after her birth and she grew up in Maryland, living with an aunt and uncle while her...
- Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
- Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post....
- Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger , is a German-born American political scientist, diplomat, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the Nixon Administration....
- Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire, which collapsed after his death as a result of the fraudulent transactions he had committed to support his business empire,...
- David Owen
David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen CH PC FKC is a British politician and Chancellor of the University of Liverpool.He was one of the founders of the British Social Democratic Party . He led the SDP from 1983 to 1987 and the re-formed SDP from 1988 to 1990...
- Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English industrialist, best known for his Virgin brand of over 360 companies. Branson's first successful business venture was at age 16, when he published a magazine called Student. He then set up an audio record mail-order business in 1970...
- Prince Charles
- Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini,
KSMOM GCTE was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism. He became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by...
- Ayatollah Khomeini
- Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
- Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, serving in that position longer than anyone except Joseph Stalin...
- Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi
1 has been the de facto leader of Libya since a coup in 1969....
- Ed McMahon
Edward Leo Peter "Ed" McMahon, Jr. was an American comedian, game show host, announcer, and television personality...
- Johnny Carson
John William “Johnny” Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
- Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
- Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
- Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. He is famous for playing the character of Spock on the original Star Trek series, and he reprised the role in various movie and television sequels.-Early life:Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to...
- Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG was an American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO tours entertaining American military personnel...
- Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee Hawke, AC was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia and longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
- Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. One of the biggest box office draws in the world from the 1970s to the 1990s, Stallone is an icon of machismo and Hollywood action heroism...
- Prince
Prince Rogers Nelson is an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He performs under the mononym Prince but has also been known by various other names, most notably the unpronounceable symbol which he used as his stage name between 1993 and 2000...
(is seen backstage eating his own tongue as a hot dog, while Phil sings in the telephone)
- Grace Jones
Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model, and actress.-Early life:Jones was born in Jamaica, the daughter of Marjorie and Robert W. Jones, who was a politician and Apostolic clergyman. Her parents took Grace and her brother Randy to relocate to Syracuse, New York in 1965...
- François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand served as the President of France from 1981 to 1995, elected as representative of the Socialist Party . First elected during the May 1981 presidential election, he became the first socialist President of the Fifth Republic and the first left-wing head of...
- Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have earned her the title "The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
- Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss", is an American singer-songwriter. He records and tours with the E Street Band...
- Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...
- David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
- Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is a Golden Globe and Grammy Award winning English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, occasional film producer and actor, best known for his work as lead vocalist and frontman of The Rolling Stones.The Rolling Stones started in the early 1960s as a...
- Tammy Faye Bakker
- Thomas Gottschalk
Thomas Gottschalk is a famous German TV host. He is best-known for hosting the popular show Wetten, dass..?, which he has led to a huge success in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol....
- Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
(Whacking Erich Honecker with a banana. He is seen for a split second in the first TV segment)
- Erich Honecker
Erich Honecker was a German Communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic from 1971 until 1989....
(Being whacked with a banana by Helmut Kohl)
- Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland and later as President of Finland . Kekkonen continued the "active neutrality" policy of President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, which came to be known as the Paasikivi-Kekkonen Line...
- Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan is an American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private advisor and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC...
- Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the...
(not a puppet; photo on book Nancy is reading)
in crowd:
- Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers is an American comedian, actress, talk show host and businesswoman. She is known for her brash manner and loud, raspy voice with a heavy metropolitan New York accent, and numerous cosmetic surgeries...
- Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła served as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. His was the second-longest pontificate; only Pope Pius IX served longer...
- Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE , better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the rock group The Beatles. When The Beatles formed in 1960, Starr belonged to another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes....
- Yoko Ono
, , is a Japanese-American artist and musician. She is known for her marriage to John Lennon and for her work as an avant-garde artist and musician.-Early life:...
- Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American actor, film director, film producer and composer. He has received five Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and five People's Choice Awards—including one for Favorite All-Time Motion Picture Star.Eastwood is...
- Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson , known as the "King of Pop", was an American musician and one of the most commercially successful and influential entertainers of all time...
- Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first artist to have four top-five singles released from one album. Lauper has released 11 albums and over 40...
- Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as a composer, liberal political activist, film producer, and film director. She has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, and a Peabody all by the age of...
- Madonna
Madonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
(has a singing lipstick painted mouth instead of navel)
- Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou and, excluding a 15 year hiatus, has appeared in films ever since. She has won two Academy Awards and received several...
- Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress and comedienne, also known as The Divine Miss M. During her career, she has been nominated for two Academy Awards; and won four Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award.-Biography:In 1945, Midler was born in...
- Princess Diana
- Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best-known for her work in country music....
- Queen Elizabeth II
- Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American writer of contemporary horror fiction, science fiction, fantasy literature, and screenplays. An estimated 300–350 million copies of King's novels and short story collections have been sold, and many of his stories have been adapted for film, television, and...
- Mr. T
Mr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr...
- Walter Matthau
Walter John Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears...
- Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE , is an English singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings, McCartney is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music...
- Hulk Hogan
Terry Gene Bollea better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American actor and retired professional wrestler....
- Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, The Bill Cosby Show,...
- Sting
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of the state of California....
- Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band Boomtown Rats. Geldof was born and raised in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, and attended Blackrock College...
- Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
- Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard OBE is a British singer-songwriter and entrepreneur.With his backing group The Shadows, Richard dominated the British popular music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before and during The Beatles' first year in the charts...
- Boy George
Boy George is an English singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
- Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE is an English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist.In his four-decade career, John has sold more than 200 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single, Candle in the Wind 1997, has sold over 37 million copies, becoming the...
- Prince Philip
- Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, best known as the frontman of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his vocal prowess and flamboyant performances...
- Popeye
Popeye the Sailor is a fictional hero famous for appearing in comic strips and animated films as well as numerous television shows. He was created by Elzie Crisler Segar, and first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
- (For a brief moment at the end before President Reagan wakes, the real Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins LVO is an Academy Award-winning English singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboardist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
pops up and down in the crowd)
Singles track listings
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
12": Virgin / 608 632-213 (Germany)
- "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
Credits
- Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins LVO is an Academy Award-winning English singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboardist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
- DrumsA drum set is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person . The term "drum kit" first became used in the 1700s in Britain...
, PercussionA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration...
, Vocals
- Tony Banks
Anthony George "Tony" Banks is an English composer, and multi-instrumentalist, who performs as a keyboardist and a guitarist...
- KeyboardsA keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organs as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, Vocals, Bass pedals
- Mike Rutherford
Michael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford is an English musician. He was a founding member of Genesis, initially as a bassist and backup vocalist. In later incarnations of Genesis, he assumed the role of lead guitarist. He is one of only two constant members in Genesis...
- GuitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
s, Bass guitarThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
Live performances
The song was played on their
Invisible TouchInvisible Touch is the 13th studio album by Genesis, released in 1986. It reached #1 in the UK where it remained in the charts for 96 weeks, making it by far the most commercially successful album of their career, and eventually sold over 15 million copies worldwide...
,
The Way We WalkWe Can't Dance, recorded and released in 1991, is the 14th studio album by Genesis. It reached #1 in the UK, where it remained in the charts for 61 weeks...
,
Calling All StationsCalling All Stations is the 15th studio album by rock band Genesis. It was recorded following Phil Collins' departure from the band in 1996, and was released in 1997...
(with
Ray WilsonRay Wilson is a Scottish musician, best known as vocalist in the grunge band Stiltskin and Genesis in 1996/97.Wilson started off in a band called Guaranteed Pure in the early 1990s...
on vocals) and
Turn It On Again: The TourTurn It On Again: The Tour was a 2007 concert tour of Europe and North America by progressive rock band Genesis. The tour was notable for the return of drummer and vocalist Phil Collins, who left the group in 1996...
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
The Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts, and
Live Over Europe 2007Live over Europe 2007 is the sixth live album by British band Genesis recorded during the Turn It on Again: The Tour of 2007. It was released in North America by Atlantic Records on 20 November 2007, and in Europe on by Virgin Records on 26 November 2007....
. As well as on their DVDs
Genesis Live at Wembley StadiumLive at Wembley Stadium is a 2003 DVD featuring concert footage from a sold out Genesis concert at the titular London venue on 4 July 1987. It was first released in 1988 as The Invisible Touch Tour....
,
The Way We Walk - Live in ConcertGenesis - The Way We Walk - Live in Concert is a 2001 double DVD featuring live performances from the We Can't Dance tour by Genesis. The footage was filmed on 8 November 1992 at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, and first released on VHS in March 1993 as Genesis Live - The Way We Walk - In...
and
When in Rome 2007When In Rome 2007 is a live DVD by Genesis recorded at Circo Massimo, Rome, Italy, on July 14, 2007, during the successful Turn It On Again Tour. The concert was directed by David Mallet. The collection was released on May 26, 2008 in most of the world and June 10, 2008 in North America. The DVD...
.
Cultural references
"Land of Confusion" was also a track used for the final episode of the 1980s cop show
Miami ViceMiami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The show became noted for its heavy integration of music and visual effects to tell a story. The series starred Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in...
(in which
Phil CollinsPhilip David Charles "Phil" Collins LVO is an Academy Award-winning English singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboardist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
periodically played a minor role) called "Freefall" and was applied as the characters of the show
CrockettJames "Sonny" Crockett is a fictional character from the Miami Vice television series and film of the same name. The character is portrayed by Don Johnson in the television series, and Colin Farrell in the movie version of the show. He was introduced in the Miami Vice pilot in 1984 and appeared in...
(
Don JohnsonDon Johnson is an American actor known for his work in television and film. Johnson made his screen debut in the 1970 film The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart, but it wouldn't be until 1984 that Johnson would land his defining role...
) and Tubbs (
Philip Michael ThomasPhilip Michael Thomas is an American actor.Thomas' most famous role is that of detective Ricardo Tubbs on the hit 1980s TV series Miami Vice. His first notable role was opposite Irene Cara in the 1976 film Sparkle. Following his success in Miami Vice, Thomas appeared in numerous made-for-TV movies...
) were in the middle of a stakeout. The song was to imply the complexity of the story during the finale.
"Land of Confusion" was then-Delaware Senator
Joe BidenJoseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. , is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States under the administration of President Barack Obama. He was a United States Senator from Delaware from January 3, 1973 until his resignation on January 15, 2009, following his election to the Vice...
's campaign song during his brief run for President in 1987.
Notable covers
The song has been variously re-recorded as cover versions by several artists spanning a number of genres.
- One-time Genesis guitarist Daryl Stuermer
Daryl Mark Stuermer is an American musician who plays guitar and bass for Genesis during live shows, and lead guitar for Phil Collins during most of his solo tours and albums.-Biography:...
reworked the song into a jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
tune on his album Another Side of Genesis-Track listing:#"Follow You, Follow Me"#"Hold On My Heart"#"Taking It All Too Hard"#"Throwing It All Away"#"Since I Lost You"#"Land of Confusion"#"In Too Deep"#"Turn it on Again"#"Man On the Corner"#"No Son of Mine"#"Never a Time"...
.
- It has been covered by reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s.While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady. Reggae is based...
group Fourth DimensionIn physics and mathematics, a sequence of n numbers can be understood as a location in an n-dimensional space. When n = 4, the set of all such locations is called 4-dimensional Euclidean space....
.
- Swedish melodic death metal
Melodic death metal is a subgenre of death metal which combines the melody of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with the intensity of death metal. The genre is also known as Gothenburg metal, a reference to the city in Sweden where it originated...
band In FlamesIn Flames is a Swedish band from Gothenburg, formed in 1990. The band is considered to be a pioneer and major influence to the melodic death metal music genre. Since the band's conception in 1990, they have received numerous awards and released nine studio albums and one live DVD. The band has...
covered the song for their 2003 EP TriggerTrigger is an EP & second Single by the Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames, released in 2003 from their 2002 album, Reroute to Remain.-Track listing:Enhanced CD* "Trigger" * "Cloud Connected" -Video:...
.
Disturbed
The most recent cover version was by American
rockRock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....
band
DisturbedDisturbed is a Grammy Award-nominated American rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1996 when musicians Dan Donegan, Steve "Fuzz" Kmak, and Mike Wengren hired singer David Draiman. Since the band's formation, they have sold over 11 million albums worldwide, making them one of the most...
, from their third studio album,
Ten Thousand FistsTen Thousand Fists is the third album by American rock band Disturbed. The album was released on September 20, 2005 and became Disturbed's second consecutive number-one debut on the Billboard 200 in the United States, shipping around 239,000 copies in its opening week. The album was also the band's...
. The song became the fourth single from that album.
VocalistSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist...
David DraimanDavid Michael Draiman is a songwriter and the lead singer for the band Disturbed, from Chicago, Illinois.-Education and personal life:...
commented that the aim of covering the song was, "taking a song that's absolutely nothing like us and making it our own."
It was accompanied by a music video animated by
Todd McFarlaneTodd McFarlane is a Canadian cartoonist, writer, toy designer and entrepreneur, best known for his work in comic books, such as the fantasy series Spawn....
, known for his work with the
SpawnSpawn is a fictional comic book character, an undead superhero created by Todd McFarlane. Spawn primarily appears in a comic of the same name, published by Image Comics, and his first appearance was in Spawn #1 .-Overview:...
comic book series. McFarlane had previously animated the music videos for the songs "
Freak on a Leash|align="right"|"Freak on a Leash" is a song written and recorded by American nu-metal band Korn, the song is the second single from their third studio album, Follow the Leader. It was released as the album's second single in January 1999...
" by
KornKorn is an American rock band from Bakersfield, California, which formed in 1993. The band's catalogue consists of nine consecutive debuts in the top ten of the Billboard 200. To date, Korn has sold over 30 million albums worldwide while earning six Grammy nominations—two of which they have won...
and "
Do the Evolution"Do the Evolution" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by guitarist Stone Gossard, "Do the Evolution" is the seventh track on the band's fifth studio album, Yield . Despite the lack of a commercial single release, the...
" by
Pearl JamPearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
. According to McFarlane, the music video is "a big view of the corporate world and how it all ties into just one big beast for me... The world is run by one giant thing, which is driven by greed and lust."
The video starts out with the The Guy, Disturbed's mascot, falling to earth. It then shows military forces sporting a
dollar signThe dollar sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various dollar and peso units of currency around the world.-Origin:The sign is attested in business correspondence between the British, Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans in the 1770s, as referring to the Spanish-Mexican peso, known as...
within a circle of white that is within a field of red, followed by legions of black-clad soldiers reminiscent of
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
's
SchutzstaffelThe , abbreviated SS- or - was a major Nazi organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The SS grew from a small paramilitary unit to a powerful force that served as the Führer's "Praetorian Guard," the Nazi Party's "Shield Squadron" and a force that, fielding almost a million men ,...
, belonging to different countries. The video then shows The Guy, escaping bondage from chains, as the military forces continue to assault cities. Later on, leaders of various nations of the world are shown sitting at a table with the same dollar sign on it. Eventually The Guy confronts some soldiers, who sport patches with the dollar sign symbol, and stirs the people around the world to revolt and kill the soldiers, and then flags of various nations of the world are shown, with the final flag sporting the dollar sign. The Guy then leads the rebels to the
United Nations HeadquartersThe United Nations Headquarters is a distinctive complex in New York City that has served as the official headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1950...
where they slaughter the U.N. representatives and finally the overweight businessman who, when destroyed by The Guy, explodes into dollar bills.
Genesis version
| Chart (1986–87) |
Peak
position |
| U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks |
11 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
|
4 |
| UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 of this list...
|
14 |
Disturbed version
| Year |
Chart |
Position |
| 2006 |
Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks |
1 |
| Hot Modern Rock Tracks |
18 |
External links
- Genesis Music Video at VH1 Classic
VH1 Classic is an American television network started on May 8, 2000. It is operated as part of MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom. It primarily features music videos and concert footage from the 1970s through the mid-1990s, though it formerly included a wider range of genres and time periods...
- Genesis Music Video at MTV Music
MTV Music is a video/music sharing website launched on October 28, 2008 by MTV. The website offers a large collection of music videos that date back to the early 1980s...