Genesis Songs - Land of Confusion Lyrics

Genesis - Land of Confusion

Genesis - Land of Confusion Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Invisible Touch
Released: 1986

Land of Confusion Lyrics

I must've dreamed a thousand dreams
Been haunted by a million screams
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 fire's still alight
Burning into the night.

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
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in.

Superman where are you now
Everything's gone wrong somehow
The men of steel, 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
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in.

I remember long ago
When the sun was shining
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
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
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.

Writer/s: RUTHERFORD, MICHAEL/COLLINS, PHIL/BANKS, TONY
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Land of Confusion Song Chart

A rare political song for Genesis, this questions the wisdom of world leaders at a time when the US and Russia were enemies and there was a threat of nuclear war. Phil Collins called it, "A political song about the mess we have landed in."

The very popular video was made using puppets created by Peter Fluck and Roger Law, who had a British TV series called The Spitting Image. The show would often make fun of Genesis, and by hiring their tormentors, the band proved that they could take a joke.

Genesis puppets had been used on the show before, but they made new ones for the video - not very flattering ones either. It was a way for the band to lighten their image from their days as earnest prog rockers. The video could go in the Cold War cultural time capsule: at the end, the Ronald Reagan puppet accidentally launches a nuclear missile.

Mike Rutherford called this "a kind of '80s protest song," adding: "It's about how we live in a very nice world, and what a mess we're making of it. How it should all be so easy and it's all so difficult."

The video won the 1987 Grammy for Best Concept Music Video - it was the only Grammy Genesis ever won, and they weren't even in the clip. At the MTV Video Music Awards, the video was nominated in six categories, but lost them all to Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer."

The video was produced by Paul Flattery and directed by Jim Yukich, who teamed up on most of the Genesis and Phil Collins videos of the time.

Yukich, an American, would watch The Spitting Image on his trips to England and loved the show. He got the idea to use the puppets in this video when he saw a Phil Collins parody on the show that made fun of his angst-ridden solo work.

Typical of Genesis during this era, the entire band - Tony Banks , Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford - are the credited songwriters. Rutherford wrote the lyrics.

An inside joke in the video is Tony Banks playing a cash register - that was because he was always complaining about how expensive the videos were to make. And "Land Of Confusion" was very expensive - each puppet cost about $10,000.

This song is mentioned in the movie American Psycho. The lead character, Patrick Bateman, played by Christian Bale, calls this album their "Undisputed masterpiece," and praises this for "Questioning authoritative control." He then kills his coworker.

The hard rock group Disturbed covered this in 2006. (thanks, Brandon - Peoria, IL)