Psychology (in) Songs

Cafe Society
21

[QUOTE=The Scrivener]
Roky Erickson & the 13th Floor Elevators – similar issues with mental illness and drug use, with the added elements of Satan-worship (at least for Roky himself) and liberal use of the water jug as a musical instrument. '60’s Texas psychedelia was never more complex – or delightfully strange – than this. No particular songs to recommend OTTOMH, though.
[/QUOTE]
There’s always Roky’s “You Drive Me Crazy” or “Crazy Crazy Mama.” :slight_smile:

Oo, google says Britney Spears has a song called “You Drive Me Crazy.” Bet it’s not a Roky Erickson cover.

22

The entire Alan Parsons Project/Eric Woolfson concept album “Freudiana” is about the life, theories, and patients of Sigmund Freud. Pretty much every song on it applies to psychology in one way or another.

A number of Assemblage 23’s songs are to some degree or another about psychological disorders. In addition to the previously mentioned “Cocoon,” there’s also “Disappoint,” “Bipolar,” and probably more.

23

[QUOTE=The Scrivener]

Syd Barrett: this original member (and songwriter) of Pink Floyd ended up in a mental hospital… for life. Barrett’s perhaps the epitome of the '60’s acid casualty, but lots of people did a lot of acid without ending up in the nuthouse. You might want to check out a solo album of his, The Madcap Laughs. I’m not familiar enough with his music to know whether his songs are at all about mental illness or rather manifestations of mental illness (however reductive that formulation is).
[/QUOTE]

Pink Floyd’s *Shine on You Crazy Diamond is about Syd and his breakdown. Here is a sample:
*
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

24

The Alan Parson’s Project also had Psychobabble.

25

[QUOTE=ShadowFacts]
Pink Floyd’s *Shine on You Crazy Diamond *is about Syd and his breakdown. Here is a sample:
[/QUOTE]

Just about everything from Floyd’s middle period is about mental illness. (And the craziness of the music industry.)

Gentle Giant’s Knots was inspired by the poetry of psychologist RD Laing.

All in all each man in all men
All men in each man.
He can see she can’t, she can see
she can
see whatever, whatever.
You may know what I don’t know,
but not that
I don’t know it and I can’t tell you
so you will.

26

“. . . a victim of Munchausen syndrome
my whole life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn’t
'til I grew up . . .”
–rapper Eminem, in “Cleaning Out My Closet”

27

[QUOTE=The Scrivener]
A couple of quick-'n-dirty references (in-depth song researches extra!):

Syd Barrett: this original member (and songwriter) of Pink Floyd ended up in a mental hospital… for life.
[/QUOTE]
Incorrect.

Link.

28

[QUOTE=pravnik]
“Synchronicity” by the Police, about Jungian theory.
[/QUOTE]

Also “Shadows in the Rain” by The Police, based on the Jungian concept of the shadow.

And from “Bitch” by The Rolling Stones:

Yeah when you call my name
I salivate like a Pavlov dog

Oh yeah, and “I Think I’m Paranoid” by Garbage.

29

Peter Gabriel’s “Mercy Street” for Anne Sexton.

30

For pyromania, there’s While the City Sleeps by MC 900 ft. Jesus

And from “Industrial Disease” by Dire Straits:

He wrote me a prescription he said “you are depressed
but I’m glad you came to see me to get this off your chest
come back and see me later - next patient please
send in another victim of Industrial Disease”

31

The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)
Fun Boy Three

32

Radford “Therapy (I Don’t Need You)” is about resenting the need to be helped through medication & a therapist.

*Medicate my world
And everything in between

So much for the time that we spent in my head
So much for the life that you told me to get

I don’t need you
To tell me who I am
<snip>
I just need you
To catch me if I fall*

Jimmy Eat World “Bleed American”

I’m not crazy cause I take the right pills everyday

All “Scary Sad” is about trying to deal with a suicidal girlfriend

None of the doctors could find a cure
Just a scary, sad girl in a scary, sad world
None of the shrinks could make her think
About anyone else but her

33

[QUOTE=SiXSwordS]
Nick Cave has a song called, Christina the Astonishing, about the saint. She had some issues!
[/QUOTE]

Also by Nick Cave, the http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/n/nickcave10713/themercyseat343540.html doesn’t mention a specific mental illness but the POV character has serious issues indeed. I’d bet a lot of Nick Cave’s work falls into this category.

On another note, They’re Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa! is a “funny” novelty song that I’ve always found disturbing.

34

Many of the songs by Tool are based on Psychology-AEnema, Forty-six & 2, Third Eye, Lost Keys (Blame it on Hoffman), Rosetta Stoned, The Grudge (also mixes in alchemy).

35

[QUOTE=TWDuke]
Also by Nick Cave, the http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/n/nickcave10713/themercyseat343540.html doesn’t mention a specific mental illness but the POV character has serious issues indeed.
[/QUOTE]

The Mercy Seat

36

You’ll love Robyn Hitchcock’s “Uncorrected Personality Traits,” which begins

Uncorrected personality traits
that seem whimsical in a child
may prove to be ugly in a fully grown adult.
Lack of involvement with the father,
or over-involvement with the mother,
can result in lack of ability
to relate to sexual peers

…and goes on in this vein.

In “Dark Streets of London,” Shane MacGowan of the Pogues takes a more serious look at electroshock than the Ramones:

And every time that I look on the first day of summer
Takes me back to the place where they gave ECT
And the drugged up psychos with death in their eyes
And how all of this really means nothing to me

Townes Van Zandt (hospitalized for manic depression) wrote the “Sanitarium Blues”:

They hose you down, make sure you’re clean
Wrap you up in hospital green
Shoot you full of Thorazine
The sanitarium blues…

Singer and artist Daniel Johnston is bipolar, the context is there in a bunch of his songs. Try “Devil Town,” or “Sorry Entertainer”:

I’m a loner
I’m a sorry entertainer
Drove those demons
Out of my head
With an organ and a pencil full of lead
And when I’m dead
I’d like to have it said
He drove those demons out of his head

I highly recommend the documentaries about Townes and Daniel, Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt and The Devil and Daniel Johnston.

37

Joni Mitchell’s Troubled Child which segs nicely into Twisted (by Ross & Gray):

My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head…

Also, Mad Mad Me by Wendy Waldman.

38

There’s a great Meryn Cadell song about being in a room with a big mirror, making faces at it, chasing her reflection along the length of it, generally acting a bit goofy. Of course it’s a one-way mirror.

39

What about Lithium by Nirvana? Can’t believe I’m the first to mention it. Pretty accurate first person potrayal in metaphysical poetry.

If it’s good enough for everready, it must be good for me… Oh, let the Bell Labs Lithium ionsrevitalize me. The shit is like an alchemist’s worst nightmare, psychiatrists should be ashamed of prescribing that. FDNH

40

**Mad World **and several others by **Tears for Fears **were about Primal Therapy, some early 1970s John Lennon (Mother?) was also influenced by this.

Not to mention - Paranoid - Black Sabbath.