Land of Confusion - Live

A rare political song for Genesis, "Land of Confusion" 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." Mike Rutherford, who wrote the lyric, added: "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." (From our interview with Rutherford.)

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."