Land of Confusion – Vote! Start trying to make America a place worth living in.#MusicisLife #TedTocksCovers #Genesis #Disturbed

There are several versions of Genesis. Fans of the band each have their own preference and can back up their reasoning quite effectively while citing songs and pointing to the band’s personnel. I will cheat a bit here and profess my love for the era beginning at their origin in 1969 that featured ‘From Genesis to Revelation’ through to ‘Abacab’ in 1981. They were at their best when Steve Hackett was on guitar, but the ever-present Mike Rutherford is an astounding musician and songwriter, and few keyboardists rival Tony Banks for virtuosity. As the ‘80s moved on, the band became much less progressive and more pop oriented. To me at least, this does not reflect the true Genesis sound.

Part of the criticism of Genesis in the ‘80s stems from the perception that there was very little difference between the solo work Phil Collins was doing at the time, and the openly commercial pieces Genesis produced. This album is a perfect example. When you look at the singles you get not only the title track but, ‘In Too Deep’, ‘Tonight, Tonight, Tonight’, and ‘Throwing it All Away’. Each of these songs were collaborative in every way but the presentation seems more in line with Phil Collins’ approach than the Genesis we used to know. Based on this quote by Mike Rutherford it seems this common perception is mostly based on osmosis.

We had done so much work outside the band, it seemed we had gone through a lot more musical changes, although the development is largely unconscious.”

Mike Rutherford

Genesis at the time, still consisted of Collins, Rutherford and the ultra-talented Tony Banks. Each member had taken some time off from the band in order to pursue solo projects.  When they got back together, they seem to have slipped seamlessly into the songwriting groove. So, maybe the end result was just a natural evolution? This consideration has more merit when you consider that when the band entered the studio in October of 1985, they had no material. Everything you hear on ‘Invisible Touch’ was created through group improvisation while in session. An interesting observation.

The result was ‘Invisible Touch’ becoming a worldwide smash album. The title track hit #1. The only Genesis song to ever reach the pinnacle. The perfect storm of creativity enabled Genesis to be the first foreign act to ever have five singles from one album appear on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Mixed in with the four mainstream songs I mentioned was a Mike Rutherford protest song called ‘Land of Confusion’. For Rutherford, this was one of two songs on the album that resided as an open condemnation of global politics, and the consequences of the actions of world leaders. The other was ‘Domino’. Ironically, Domino harkens back to the Genesis of the mid ‘70s; it is just laced with ‘80s production, but the stylings are there. If this appeared on ‘Seconds Out’ it would not be out of place. Listen:

So, much like an early Genesis song, my lengthy preamble is analogous to a self-indulgent progressive age instrumental opening. Now I will get to the vocals, which in this case means the feature song for today.

In the case of ‘Land of Confusion’ it is a confluence of great songwriting, phenomenal studio improvisation and the artistic vision created by the MTV era. It is the caricature puppets that make the video so memorable. In 1984, a popular British TV show called ‘Spitting Image’ was launched. Phil Collins saw a caricatured image of himself on the show and became so enamored, he commissioned the creators Peter Flick and Roger Law to create a likeness for each member of the band. In the end, Phil Collins got two; one as a drummer and one as a vocalist.

Using a combination of the lyrics for ‘Land of Confusion’ and the famous video as a backdrop I will walk through the content of this groundbreaking presentation.

The video opens with caricatures of Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan in bed with a chimpanzee. This is an ode to the 1951 Ronald Reagan movie ‘Bedtime for Bonzo’. Nancy is reading the unauthorized Frank Sinatra biography ‘His Way’. In a shot at Ronnie’s mental capacity, the video depicts the President kissing the chimp goodnight. The clock reads 4:30 pm. Ronald ‘Raygun’ then falls asleep and is confronted by a nightmare that denotes the cold war era. It famously features cameos from Jimmy Carter, Leonid Brezhnev, Margaret Thatcher and Henry Kissinger.

I must have dreamed a thousand dreams
Been haunted by a million screams
But I can hear the marching feet
They’re moving into the street

Genesis – Land of Confusion

Footage of Genesis is interspersed with an ominous depiction of soldiers marching to an endless war.

Now, did you read the news today?
They say the danger has gone away
But I can see the fire’s still alight
They’re burning into the night

Genesis – Land of Confusion

The second verse paints a bleak picture based on the perceived henchmen of the past and present. Video clips of Mussolini, Khomeini, Gorbachev and Gaddafi are shown giving speeches before massive crowds of compliant citizens.

There’s too many men, too many people
Making too many problems
And there’s not much love to go around
Can’t you see this is the land of confusion?

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we’re given
Use them and let’s start trying
To make it a place worth living in

Genesis – Land of Confusion

But have no fear, Ronald Reagan is going to save the day. The viewer is presented with the mentally declining leader donning a Superman outfit and coming to the rescue of global citizens. If we only knew then, what we know now.

Oh, Superman, where are you now?
When every thing’s gone wrong somehow?
Men of steel, these men of power
I’m 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 around
Tell me why this is the land of confusion

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we’re given
Use them and let’s start trying
To make it a place worth living in

Genesis – Land of Confusion

From here a clever series of images are shown, depicting the influence of pop culture. A shot of Ronald drenched in a pool of his own sweat bleeds back into his dream where he and Nancy are taken to a prehistoric landscape. Bonzo takes a bone and tosses it into the air which is a reference to a scene from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’.

I remember long ago
When the sun was shining
And all the stars were bright all through the night
In the wake up this madness, as I held you tight
So long ago

Genesis – Land of Confusion

The image of the bone brings us all back to the present as the Phil Collins’ caricature catches its image that has morphed into a falling phone. At this moment Phil declares his willingness to save the day.

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

Genesis – Land of Confusion

An image of a series of popular artists are shown in a ‘Band Aid’/’Feed the World’ style display, swaying back and forth in time to the cynical line “we’re not just making promises that we know we’ll never keep.” This is interesting as it is only one year removed from the entire famine relief effort and right in the middle of a period where numerous benefits concerts and associated causes became all the rage. The list of artists and cultural icons presented in this portion of the video is fascinating. They include; Prince, Bob Dylan, Pete Townshend, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Tina Turner, Sting, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Queen Elizabeth and Lady Diana, just to name a few. One is even treated with Pope John Paul II playing the guitar.

There’s too many men, too many people
Making too many problems
And there’s not much love to go around
Can’t you see this is the land of confusion?

Now, this is the world we live in
And these are the hands we’re given
Use them and let’s start trying
To make it a place worth fighting for

This is the world we live in
And these are the names we’re given
Stand up and let’s start showing
Just where our lives are going to

Genesis – Land of Confusion

As the song concludes, Reagan wakes up from his vivid dream in a pool of sweat and declares he is parched. He grabs a drink of water from the bedside table and attempts to take a sip, completely missing his mouth and dousing Nancy who is wearing a snorkel by now. A classic reference to the satirical movie ‘Airplane’.

I haven’t felt this awful since we saw that Ronald Reagan film.”

Airplane – Passenger with Food Poisoning

Sorry…couldn’t resist.

The bumbling Reagan then intends to reach over and summon his personal nurse but inadvertently pushes the button that detonates a nuclear attack. As the world ends Reagan simply states;

That’s one heck of a nurse”

Ronald Reagan Caricature

Nancy hits him with her snorkel.

This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper.”

T.S. Eliot – The Hollow Men

This brilliant video was nominated for an MTV Video Award for Video of the Year in 1987. In an interesting twist of irony ‘Land of Confusion’ lost to ‘Sledgehammer’ by Peter Gabriel. Coincidentally, Gabriel was Phil Collins predecessor as vocalist in Genesis.

For today’s cover, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the American heavy metal band and solid presenter of some classic cover songs; Disturbed created a strong version with an accompanying video. Their mission was;

Taking a song that’s absolutely nothing like us and making it our own.”

David Draiman – Disturbed

Here is the Disturbed version/video.

You will note they altered the bridge from “And the sound of your laughter” to “In the wake of this madness”

For more on Disturbed see ‘The Sound of Silence’, ‘Shout’ and ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’.

The impression one gets from the Disturbed version is the band is saying, that in twenty years nothing had changed. In fact, it may have gotten worse. We are now nearly thirty-five years down the road and the insanity has hit a fever pitch.

If we thought Ronald Reagan was mentally incompetent the moron that currently occupies the White House is an Adderall infested, mentally and morally incapacitated, unhinged con artist. The list of his transgressions could pave the way from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., all the way to the pier on Malibu Beach. We are talking about a man who was impeached but is still able to run for a second term. An immoral cretin who is on record for telling well over 20,000 lies over the duration of his reign of terror. A vile piece of garbage who refuses to denounce white nationalists, blatant racists and gun toting domestic terrorists. In fact, he has doubled down and encouraged their role in the military coup. A sub-human fraud who knew a threat to humanity known as COVID-19 was on its way but chose to ignore it. Truthfully, if he had left the world-renowned scientists from the Centre of Disease Control in China, who President Barack Obama had working side by side with Chinese scientists, the whole pandemic may have been prevented or at least minimized based on a prompt and responsible immediate response. From this horribly short-sighted decision we move on to the fact that the moron in chief knew but opted not to prepare or share the news with his country, leading to the deaths of 235,000 Americans and counting. Why? He didn’t want people to ‘panic’. In truth, he was preserving the only thing that matters to him…money (the economy). Irresponsible is not a strong enough word. In fact, he is on record as saying.

I take no responsibility.”

Mass Murderer

Here is one more example of how a leader should stand up for his people and unite everyone in the face of a common threat. A serious virus that threatens everyone. Instead, true to form for this idiot he continued to divide the country and turn it into a fractious issue. Don’t even get me started on the four day window where he pretended to have COVID-19. As a slap in the face to anyone with family and friends who died of COVID-19 he managed to turn the whole issue into a bullshit reality TV show complete with a Hitleresque drive by parade.

The question becomes, what kind of person does this? What kind of President does not stand up for (all of) his nation’s citizens? Check that…He only stands up for the mindless sheep who support him through their misinformed and willful ignorance. Their gullibility knows no bounds. Fox News, OANN, Breitbart and the soulless charlatan known as Press Secretary Kay ‘Lie’ McEnany feed them endless helpings of blatant lies and bullshit. The idiocy and cognitive dissonance know no bounds.

The truth is, Donald Trump is a mass murderer. He should be treated as such. At the very least he is guilty of over 237,000 counts of involuntary manslaughter. The fact he is able to run for a second term, and incredibly, is still a threat to win is an indictment on a lost and grossly divided country.

The United States is a ‘Land of Confusion’.

There is enough love to go around. We just have to look in the right places. We also need to start at the right place and that begins with a new President.

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we’re given
Use them and let’s start trying
To make it a place worth living in”

Genesis – Land of Confusion

Today is the day we need to hit reset.

Please America!

Be the generation to put it right.