About The Song
“Land of Confusion” is a song by the English rock band Genesis from their thirteenth studio album, Invisible Touch (1986). The music was written by the band, while the lyrics were written by guitarist Mike Rutherford. The song was the third track on the album and was the third track released as a single, reaching No. 14 in the UK in December 1986 and No. 4 in the US in January 1987. It also reached the top 10 in several other countries including Canada, Ireland, West Germany and the Netherlands. The song’s video featured puppets from the 1980s UK sketch show Spitting Image.
Billboard said it has an “anxious beat” and a “tentatively hopeful lyric.” Cashbox called it a “biting and aggressive cut” highlighted by “a tough electronic rhythm and Phil Collins’ searching vocal.”
The song is widely remembered for its music video, which had heavy airplay on MTV. The video features caricature puppets by the British television show Spitting Image. After Phil Collins saw a caricatured 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 (voiced by Chris Barrie), Nancy Reagan, and a chimpanzee (a reference to the 1951 movie Bedtime for Bonzo which starred Reagan), going to bed at 4:30 PM. Nancy is absorbed in reading His Way, Kitty Kelley’s unauthorised biography of Frank Sinatra. Reagan, holding a teddy bear, kisses the chimp goodnight, falls asleep and begins to have a nightmare, which sets the premise for the entire video. The video intermittently features a line of feet in combat boots marching through a swamp past the heads of Cold War-era political figures including François Mitterrand, Margaret Thatcher, Ferdinand Marcos, and Henry Kissinger.
Video
Lyrics
I must’ve dreamed a thousand dreams
Been haunted by a million screams
But I can hear the marching feet
They’re moving into the street
Now did you read the news today?
They say the danger’s gone away
But I can see the fires still alight
They’re burning into the night
There’s too many men, too many people
Making too many problems
And not much love to go ’round
Can’t you see this is a land of confusion?
This is the world we live in (oh, oh, oh)
And these are the hands we’re given (oh, oh, oh)
Use them and let’s start trying (oh, oh, oh)
To make it a place worth living in
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
This is the time, this is the place
So we look for the future
But there’s not much love to go ’round
Tell me why this is a land of confusion
This is the world we live in (oh, oh, oh)
And these are the hands we’re given (oh, oh, oh)
Use them and let’s start trying (oh, oh, oh)
To make it a place worth living in
I remember long ago
Oh, when the sun was shining
Yes, and the stars were bright all through the night
And the sound of your laughter as I held you tight
So long ago
I won’t be coming home tonight
My generation will put it right
We’re not just making promises
That we know we’ll never keep
Too many men, there’s too many people
Making too many problems
And not much love to go ’round
Can’t you see this is a land of confusion?
Now this is the world we live in (oh, oh, oh)
And these are the hands we’re given (oh, oh, oh)
Use them and let’s start trying (oh, oh, oh)
To make it a place worth fighting for
This is the world we live in (oh, oh, oh)
And these are the names we’re given (oh, oh, oh)
Stand up and let’s start showing (oh, oh, oh)
Just where our lives are going to