It’s time to get back to my favorite decade. For the month of March, I’ll be looking back at some of my favorite jams from the 80s. These songs often came to me via MTV or the radio. NYC-area stations WDRE, WPLJ, WNEW, K-ROCK and Z100 introduced me to everything from irresistible pop confections to under-the-radar post-punk anthems. I would not be who I am today if it weren’t for the 80s. It was the decade when I discovered music can be a truly powerful thing. #31DaysOf80sSongs
I featured my first Genesis song on Mental Jukebox last month: “Follow You Follow Me”. And now I’m back at it almost immediately. There’s something truly sensorial about many 80’s songs. Unlike music from decades prior, we didn’t just hear them, we saw them. MTV and VH-1 transformed the musical landscape with unforgettable images, and enabled a generation to push past the predictable pop stuff and venture out a bit. When we hear songs like “Money For Nothing”, “Simply Irresistible” and “Take On Me”, we immediately recall the images that brought the music to life. Another such example hails from the powerhouse Genesis album Invisible Touch. A banger of a song called “Land of Confusion”.
A lot has been said of the song’s video that uses puppets as caricatures of world leaders and of the band members themselves. The video won a Grammy, but, in my opinion, this accolade undercuts what a great song “Land of Confusion” is in and of itself. It’s a sign of the times. It’s less of a political statement - and more of a cry for humanity. Written by Mike Rutherford, the lyrics were gold, lamenting the disillusionment of the Reagan/Gorbachev era. But the best part of the song was the instrumentation. It starts with that iconic muscular guitar riff by Rutherford, features equally muscular drumming by Collins, and finishes off with Banks’ arpeggios on the keys that are truly emblematic of the times. “Land of Confusion” is a perfect song to kick things off with this month on Mental Jukebox.
“There's too many men, too many people making too many problems.”