Mike Rutherford Explains the “Angry” and “Relevant” Tone of Genesis’ 1986 Protest Song “Land of Confusion”

By 1985, the United States was in a state. The Cold War was escalating. International terrorism was rearing its head with a string of hijackings, people still called for a “nuclear freeze” between America and the Soviet Union, an AIDS epidemic was mounting, and in the midst of it all, Genesis started working on their thirteenth album, Invisible Touch, after a two-year hiatus.

Invisible Touch became the band’s highest-selling album, hitting No. 1 in the UK, and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with a string of top five hits with the title track, ‘Tonight, Tonight, Tonight,” and “In Too Deep.”

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“The Music Was Quite Angry”

On the album, the band also took an unexpected turn into the political scope with “Land of Confusion,” which also peaked at No. 4 in the U.S. Written by Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, and Tony Banks, “Land of Confusion” addressed the political and social environment and some of the true intentions of world leaders.

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

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

Oh, Superman, where are you now?
When everything’s gone wrong somehow?
Men of steel, these men of power
I’m losing control by the hour

“I think it stands out well today,” said Rutherford of the song in 2017, adding, “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.”

[RELATED: The Genesis Song Phil Collins Stopped Playing Live for a Strange Reason]

Genesis’ “’80s Protest Song”

Rutherford called “Land of Confusion” the band’s “’80s protest song,” and one of the band’s more heavier political commentaries.

“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,” added Rutherford, “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.”

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

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

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

A ‘Spitting Image’

“Land of Confusion” ended up being remembered more for its music video than its sermonized lyrics. Directed by John Lloyd and Jim Yukich, the video showed characters straight out of the British satirical puppet series Spitting Image, including the caricatures of then-President Ronald Regan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher nearly pushing the world into a nuclear war.

Before contacting the producers about working on the band’s video, Collins had seen a puppet in his likeness on the show, which premiered in 1984 and ran through 1996, and commissioned the Spitting Image creators, Roger Law and Peter Fluck, to create all-new puppets of the band and the other characters in the video, including Nancy Reagan (seen reading Frank Sinatra‘s biography My Way), and a chimpanzee, a nod to President Reagan’s 1951 film Bedtime for Bonzo.

Also in the video were caricatures of the former president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, along with past leaders and revolutionaries, Benito Mussolini, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Muammar Gaddafi, familiar celebrities like Bob Hope, Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson, Spock (Star Trek) paying with a Rubik’s Cube, Bob Dylan, Pete Townshend, David Bowie, Madonna, Grace Jones, Sylvester Stallone as Rambo, and more in their made-up scenarios.

In 1987, it picked up a Grammy Award for Best Concept Music Video.

“The final scene is Reagan looking towards the wall behind his bed and there’s two buttons, one saying ‘Nurse’ and one saying ‘Nuke,’” said Rutherford. “It’s just kind of a strange time, isn’t it? Some of it seemed very relevant.”

Photo: Michael Putland/Getty Images