Rick also wrote “Asylum”, and I can’t think of any songs Roger did that were about mental illness. The closest thing was “The Logical Song” and that’s not quite that.
The Electric Co.** by U2
Am surprised I’m the first to mention Crazy Train by Ozzy.
I think Cat Steven’s/Yusuf Islam’s struggles with mental illness are fairly well documented. The line that I find remarkable is from “Sitting”: I feel the power growing in my hair. Whenever I hear it, I think, “nicely put, I bet you did.” It seems like such a perfect description of some phase of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
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pretty much anything ever written by Syd Barrett
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pretty much anything by Wild Man Fischer Deep State
Lots of good ones here.
My contribution: Fire, by Arthur Brown
Lyrics:
I am the god of hellfire and I bring you
Fire, I’ll take you to burn
Fire, I’ll take you to learn
I’ll see you burn
You fought hard and you saved and earned
But all of it’s going to burn
And your mind, your tiny mind
You know you’ve really been so blind
Now’s your time, burn your mind
You’re falling far, too far behind
Oh no, oh no, oh no!
You’re gonna burn
Fire, to destroy all you’ve done
Fire, to end all you’ve become
I’ll feel you burn
You’ve been living like a little girl
In the middle of your little world
And your mind, your tiny mind
You know you’ve really been so blind
Now’s your time, burn your mind
You’re falling far, too far behind…
Guy sounds pretty nuts to me.
Just about every song Kurt Cobain wrote/performed with Nirvana would qualify.
The Old 97s’ “Lonely Holiday”:
Thought so much about suicide
Parts of me have already died
Beyond The Realms Of Death by Judas Priest. The lyrics describe a man who becomes catatonic and then just dies having lost the will to live.
TCMF-2L
Bodies by the Sex Pistols A graphic song and apparently based on a real person. It’s lyrics are about a young woman having an abortion following a rape by a nurse at her mental institution. Not mentioned in the lyrics but she would carry the aborted foetus around with her in a clear, plastic bag.
TCMF-2L
Am I really the first person to mention Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”?
Porcupine Tree, Blackest Eyes.
I got wiring loose inside my head
I got books that I never ever read
I got secrets in my garden shed
I got a scar where all my urges bled
I’m pretty sure that Chris Mars*'s song “I, Me, We, Us, Them” was inspired by (written from the perspective of?) his brother, who was institutionalized with schizophrenia; but I haven’t been able to find a cite online.
*(Chris Mars was the drummer for The Replacements. The song is on his first solo album, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, which is really quite good.)
Another Tom Paxton one about depression Wish I Had a Troubadour
Wish I had a wind, I’d bring it by
A gentle western wind to dry your eyes
A southern wind to keep you from your crying
I’m still trying
At age 12 a friend gave me a 45 RPM record that changed my life, Tom Lehrer’s MASOCHISM TANGO b/w POISONING PIGEONS IN THE PARK. Is masochism illness or excitement? Is bird slaughter aberrant behavior? Going back further, we have an impending liquor-fueled cerebral hemorrhage in THE BAND PLAYED ON: “But his brain was so loaded, it nearly exploded.” And Johnnie Ray’s CRY isn’t exactly level-headed.
Same goes for Patsy Cline - maybe even more so.
One early member of Pink Floyd (Syd Barret) was primarily responsible for two of their early hit singles - “See Emily Play” and “Arnold Layne”. Great songs but extremely bizarre. As I understand it, most people in North America have no knowledge of those singles. They seem to be a British phenomenon. Many people in North America first became aware of Floyd with their albums “Animals” or the one with the prism on the cover. But Pink Floyd created some great music before those albums.
Syd Barret was also the driving force on “Interstellar Overdrive” which was a very strange song the band would play live for a variable length of time. Sometimes they would play it for 5 minutes and sometimes they would play it for as long as 30 minutes. Syd Barret had a vision for the band which consisted of them being a highly experimental band.
I believe it is generally recognized that Barret sadly kind of mentally unravelled early on and he became psychotic and had to leave the band. It was at that time that David Gilmour and the rest of the more “commercial” oriented members joined and that is when they had all their success with the albums that so many people know as “Pink Floyd”.
Syd Barret was recognized as some kind of genius who went insane. That was a real shame. But his departure opened the door for the commercial Pink Floyd that most everyone knows. Very sad.
There are some excellent documentary films about Pink Floyd that discuss their early years. They are very easy to find. If anyone would like, I will post some links to them. But I’m pretty sure most anyone will be able to find them. If anyone needs some help to find them, I would be happy to post some links for you.
I’d say that the presence of a shopping cart suggests mental illness in Dramarama’s “Work For Food”.