As per the Wiki: "The song tells the story of a person named Stanley "Stan" Mitchell who claims to be the biggest fan of Eminem. Stan writes a series of letters to Eminem; with each verse he becomes gradually more obsessed with him, and when there is no reply he becomes progressively angrier. He finally creates a voice recording of himself driving his car into a lake, with his pregnant girlfriend in the trunk, as shown in the lyrics:
The first three verses are delivered by Eminem as Stan while the fourth verse is Eminem as himself attempting to write to Stan and reason with the troubled young man, only to realize that he had already heard about Stan's death on the news."
The story is believed to have been inspired by actual events; however, Slim Shady in fact wrote the song in response to his critics. He felt the need to disprove his critics, who said he relied on shock value and did not offer intelligent narratives in his songs. Stan is considered Eminem's most critically acclaimed song, even placing at No.15 on VH1's top 100 hip-hop songs of all time.
Disturbed's cover of "Land of Confusion" (originally by English rock band Genesis) offers and updated version of the song's theme and overall narrative. As per Wikipedia:
Vocalist David Draiman commented that the aim of covering the song was "taking a song that's absolutely nothing like us and making it our own." The line "And the sound of your laughter" in the original's bridge was replaced by "In the wake of this madness".
It was accompanied by a music video animated by Todd McFarlane, known as the creator of the comics series Spawn. McFarlane had previously animated the music videos for the songs "Freak on a Leash" by Korn and "Do the Evolution" by Pearl Jam. According to McFarlane, the music video is "a big view of the corporate world and how it all ties into just one big beast for me... The world is run by one giant thing, which is driven by greed and lust."
In the video, the band's mascot (simply know as "the Guy") is first shown falling to the earth, and later shows military forces bearing the symbol of a dollar sign within a circle of white within a field of red, followed by legions of black-clad soldiers (reminiscent of Adolf Hitler's Schutzstaffel). The video then shows the Guy, escaping bondage from chains, as the military forces continue to assault cities and civilians. Later on, leaders of various nations of the world are shown sitting at a table with the same dollar sign on it. Eventually the Guy confronts the soldiers, and leads the people in rebellion. Flags of several powerful nations are then shown, with the final flag sporting the dollar sign. The Guy leads the rebels to the headquarters of the United Nations where they disrupt a meeting of the U.N. representatives. The Guy then leads the angry mob into a back room where they confront the real power behind the throne, a gigantic, bloated Fat Cat. The mob then drags him to the ground and once immobilized, the Guy destroys the Fat Cat, who explodes into a shower of dollar bills.
The themes of the song help form a narrative of revolution. "The Guy" rallies the people and seeks to overthrow a corrupt and tyrannical government that is seemingly losing power ("The men of steel, these men of power, Are losing control by the hour"). It calls for change through the actions of the people as one:
"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."
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in."
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