Land of Confusion

</li>

• 30-second sample of "land of confusion" video.(Courtesy Of Vh1.com) Note: Video will play in the U.S. only!

[edit] Cover versions

The song has been variously re-recorded as cover versions by several artists spanning a number genres. Swedish melodic death metal band In Flames provided a notable cover on their 2003 EP Trigger.<ref>Track Listing for "Trigger (EP)" by In Flames AllMusic.com. Retrieved March 4, 2006</ref>. It has also been covered by reggae group Fourth Dimension.<ref>Track Listing for "Around the World" by Fourth Dimension. AllMusic.com. Retrieved March 4, 2006</ref> One-time Genesis guitarist Daryl Stuermer reworked the song into a jazz tune on his album Another Side of Genesis.<ref>Track Listing for "Another Side of Genesis" by Daryl Steurmer. AllMusic.com. Retrieved March 4, 2006.</ref> The American electronic band Interface has been known to cover the song in concert several times, but have never recorded it.

In 2004, Swedish pop group Alcazar released a partial cover of the song, entitled "This is the World We Live in", which keeps only the chorus (from which the title is derived).

[edit] Disturbed cover version and video

The most recent and arguably most notable cover version was released by the band Disturbed in July 2006, as the third single from their album Ten Thousand Fists. It was accompanied by a music video animated by Todd McFarlane, known for his work with the Spawn comic book series. McFarlane had previously animated the video for "Do the Evolution" by Pearl Jam, and the "Land of Confusion" video has a very similar style. The song became their first #1 single on the Mainstream Rock Charts on October 26th, 2006

At the start of the video, the planet is being devastated by war. Tanks roam the countryside while fighter jets bomb cities and villages. Meanwhile, thousands of troops wearing gas masks march through the cities. The planes and tanks bear a symbol evocative of the Nazi swastika; both are red with a black symbol inside a white circle, however the symbol in the video resembles a dollar sign. The nameless Disturbed mascot (who appears on the cover of Ten Thousand Fists) is chained in a cell, but manages to escape. Meanwhile, world leaders from the United States (George W. Bush), Russia (Vladimir Putin), France (Jacques Chirac), Japan (Junichiro Koizumi), and Great Britain (Tony Blair) are shown sitting around a table, arguing while images of the war appear on large video monitors. Unlike the Genesis video, which chose to overexaggerate the leaders and make them caricatures, McFarlane's animation is much closer in appearance to what they actually look like.

At one point, as the Gestapo-like forces continue to march through the cities, the red and black symbol marking their uniforms is suddenly replaced by the national flags of Great Britain and Russia. (This same scene is also shown briefly at the beginning of the video.) A quick close-up of the uniforms then flashes through a series of flags representing the nations of America, Japan, France, Russia, and Great Britain, suggesting that these nations are responsible for much of the violence being portrayed. This imagery is reinforced later when the flags of the various nations are shown flying, but then obscured by a flag baring the swastika-like dollar sign symbol.

The next few images focus on the masked faces of the troops. Then the video cuts to the face of what appears to be a child, but is revealed to be only a doll, which the troops crush under their feet. In the following few seconds, the video exposes its most striking imagery in a rapid-fire manner; a soldier strafes several fleeing people with his machine gun, a handful of masked soldiers surround a hooded captive (a possible reference to Nick Berg), and finally an Ayatollah-like figure overshadowing a young girl preparing to detonate a suicide bomb.

At the point in the song where Disturbed frontman David Draiman sings "Oh Superman, where are you now?", a piece of paper with an "S" on it lands squarely on the chest of the Disturbed mascot (evoking a parallel to the Man of Steel) but the mascot discards it. The mascot stands defiantly against the troops, as shots of global landmarks (Big Ben, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Statue of Liberty, among others), crumble in ruin. The citizens, who had been hiding from the troops, rally behind the mascot, and begin revolting against the army. Several shots of the video appear similar to the cover of Ten Thousand Fists, where the mascot stands at the front of a large crowd, fists defiantly in the air.

During the bridge of the song, the mascot leaves the city (as the populace continue to fight the army), as the destruction previously inflicted on the city is shown in reverse; bombs are re-entering the planes, buildings are resurrected, and everything is returned to the way it was before the fighting began. This ties in with the lyrical change Disturbed made to the song, changing the line "And the sound of your laughter/As I held you tight" to "In the wake of this madness/As I held you tight".

As the song reaches the final verse, the mascot is shown leading the throngs to the United Nations, to confront greed — represented as a fat man wearing the Nazi-esque symbol and a monocle, and smoking a cigar (this fat man resembles Rich Uncle Pennybags from the Monopoly board game series). The people storm the building, sending the delegates fleeing. Meanwhile, the mascot enters a back room, where he encounters "greed", who is shown to be of massive size. As the crowd enters the room, they use a series of hooks and ropes to bring the man down to the ground, in a manner similar to the way the Lilliputians captured Gulliver. The mascot climbs on top of the incapacitated man and removes his monocle. Then his fist begins to glow, and he flies through the air into outer space, leaving behind a trail of light. Once he reaches the atmosphere, he returns to Earth, and lands a punch squarely in the belly of the man. The man explodes, sending money flying everywhere. This parodies how greed and money are equated with power; throughout the video, the man was shown watching the war unfold on monitors, and laughing. At the end of the video, the mascot is shown on a building high above the populace, and as he raises his fist in the air, the crowd follows suit.

The video is a spiritual sequel of sorts to the original Genesis video, appropriate since it is a cover. However, where Genesis used the Spitting Image puppets to parody the Cold War and its leaders, McFarlane uses dark imagery and much more direct attacks on the leaders to get his point across. The darkness of the video also fits with the metal style of the song, which is performed in a heavier fashion than the original.

[edit] Credits

• David Draiman - Vocals
• Dan Donegan - Guitar, Electronics
• Mike Wengren - Drums
• John Moyer - Bass

[edit] Charts

[edit] Genesis version