Genesis will always be celebrated as one of the definitive prog-rock bands. Although their cerebral, distinctly middle-class sound is not for everybody, and has been largely divisive over the years, there can be no denying their musical prowess or lasting influence on their sphere.
One of the band’s most significant songs is ‘Land of Confusion’, which was released as a single from their 1986 album, Invisible Touch. While musically, the track was in keeping with Genesis’s electronic-heavy prog-pop sound of the era, lyrically, it stands out from both that period and their general creative arc. While one of the most substantial criticisms the group have faced is that their music is far too conceptual for its own good, and not based on anything real and of actual weight, this song proves that the argument is not completely watertight.
It also stands out in the memory because guitarist Mike Rutherford wrote the lyrics, which are without a doubt the most political the band have ever released. In a manifestation of the fraught geopolitical nature of the era, the song laments the Cold War posturing between global superpowers and mortal enemies, the United States and the Soviet Union.
Rutherford once provided a succinct characterisation of the hit: “I’ve always shied away from doing what I call a preachy song, a protest song, but it seemed to work. Maybe because the music was quite angry it made it work.”
Elsewhere, he added: “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.”
Genesis even earned kudos from those who disliked them due to the prescient lyrics and the fact that the music video – which played a key role in popularising the song – used puppets created by Peter Fluck and Roger Law, the minds behind ITV’s political satire Spitting Image. It was a deft move by Genesis, as Spitting Image had lampooned them many times before, confirming that they weren’t as self-serious as people believed. Famously, the video shows then-US President Ronald Reagan accidentally launching a nuclear missile, a clear jab outlining just how inept people felt he was.
For Rutherford, the video gained renewed significance after Donald Trump first came to power in 2016. “Ever since Trump got in I hark back to that video,” he told Songfacts in 2017. “The final scene is Reagan looking towards the wall behind his bed and there’s two buttons, one saying ‘nurse’ and one saying ‘nuke.’ It’s just kind of a strange time, isn’t it? Some of it seemed very relevant.”
Editors’ Picks
- 1980s Music
- Cold War
- Genesis
- Invisible Touch
- Land of Confusion
- Mike Rutherford
- MTV Era
- Phil Collins
- Political Songs
- Spitting Image
