Help: Psychology songs

Subject: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 May 01 - 12:48 PM

Last semester I taught Intro to Psychology, and when we were talking about the appropriate chapters, I sang Oedipus Rex (Tom Lehrer) and Dr. Freud (The Gateway Singers). Although I chickened out in the last class (I was going to do the Weavers' So Long It's Been Good To Know You), I've decided that it won't be a fluke.

I'm teaching developmental psych this summer. I know that for the gender differences I'll sing What Are Little Girls Made Of (all the verses, I know little girls/boys, young men/women, old men/women, and little babies; any other verses would be appreciated), but are there any other good psychology songs? How about that Pete Seeger one about getting old, anyone know what I'm talking about? Doesn't have to be developmental, in particular, although those would be most appreciated, just general psych stuff. Thanks, all you maniacs out there!

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 14 May 01 - 12:51 PM

Do you mean, "My get up and go has got up and went"?

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: mousethief
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:00 PM

Well there's "Psychobabble" by the Alan Parsons Project (from the "Eye in the Sky" album).

There's the whole "Oedipus Tex" opera by PDQ Bach (from the "Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamaties" CD -- which also includes the choral piece, "How Many Psychiatrists Does It Take To Change a Light Bulb?").

"Twisted" (Joni Mitchell, "Court and Spark" album) is a classic ("My analyst told me/That I was right out of my head..."). This is also sung by Bette Midler but I don't know where.

I'll think of more soon and post back.

Alex

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Amergin
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:02 PM

Mrrzy, that get up and go one is in the dt I think....

Another one you might like to try is Cat's In The Cradle....

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Wolfgang
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:03 PM

Psychology songs (a collection for university teachers)

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: LR Mole
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:04 PM

Now I am old,my youth is all spent
My get-up-and-go has got up and went
In spite of it all, I'm able to grin
When I think of the places my get-up has been
(?)

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:16 PM

You could try "Psycho Street" by Richard Thompson, but I'm not sure how well that would go over. Another by him is "Behind Grey Walls," about leaving someone in an asylum. Then there's "Crazy Man Michael," which he wrote back in the Fairport Convention days. Hell, RT probably has dozens of these. But they're all about severely twisted individuals, so I don't know if they would really work for you.

Of course, if you're feeling particularly energetic, you could launch into "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones. Your students might appreciate that one.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Bert
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:19 PM

Is this the sort of thing?

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: mousethief
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:20 PM

"Love my Lips" ("Veggie Tunes 2" CD) is a hilariously stereotypical psychoanalytic conversation between a very disturbed cucumber and his shrink (an asparagus stalk).

For developmental issues, why not "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof?

More to come.

Alex

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:20 PM

PM Dharmabum, he has one that is a riot.

Also there was an old thread... in the last year... it was, I THINK, for a psych professional who was retiring... can't recall how it was titled though.

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: mousethief
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:31 PM

I'm ashamed I didn't think about this one earlier: "Asylum" by Supertramp ("Crime of the Century" album). "But don't arrange to have me sent to no asylum. I'm just as sane as anyone."

Virtually anything written by Roger Waters (ne Pink Floyd) that isn't about war is about insanity. See particularly "Total Eclipse" ("Dark Side of the Moon" album) -- "The lunatic is on the grass...."

"Toys in the Attic" (Aerosmith, album of the same name) of course.

And much, much more....

Alex

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:35 PM

Boy, post something, go to lunch, and look what happens. Will check out all links and get back to you. Wolfgang, yours looks bang-on. And yes, all, it was My Get Up And Go, thanks, I needed a handle to find it in the DT.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: MMario
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:36 PM

What was the one Wyo-woman opened her concert with? "Pyschotherapy"? I think...

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: GUEST,Margaret V at work
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:37 PM

There's Dar Williams' song about therapy,"What Do You Hear in These Sounds?" on her 1997 album "End of the Summer." Margaret

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: SINSULL
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:39 PM

How about that wedding tearjerker "Where are you going my little one?" A Kodak moment song.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: catspaw49
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:44 PM

On gender differences, what about Peggy Seeger's I'm Gonna' Be An Engineer instead?

Here's the direct link to Pete's How Do I Know My Youth Is All Spent

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:47 PM

Wolfgang, great site, just not enough Folk. I'm sure the rest is more "in tune" with today's college students, but I can really only sing Folk. I'm gonna try Psycho Killer, though, I love that song...

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:48 PM

Thanks, Spaw, and will keep checking all these other helpful links. Think FOLK, though, folks...

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:51 PM

Bert - yes, thanks!

Subject: Lyr Add: I LOVE MY LIPS (from Veggie Tales)
From: mousethief
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:55 PM

Folk songs about psychology? Ain't gonna happen. Maybe Paxton.

Anyway since I like it so much I have decided to include the entirety of "I Love My Lips"

(NB: Everything by Larry is sung unless it specifically says "spoken")

Narrator: "One day while talking with Dr. Archibald, Larry confronts one of his deepest fears ..."

Larry: "If my lips ever left my mouth, packed a bag and headed south, that'd be too bad, I'd be so sad."

Archibald: "I see. That'd be too bad, you'd be so sad?"

Larry: "That'd be too bad. If my lips said 'adios, I don't like you I think you're gross,' that'd be too bad, I might get mad."

Archibald: "That'd be too bad, you might get mad?"

Larry: "That'd be too bad. If my lips moved to Duluth, left a mess and took my tooth, that'd be too bad, I'd call my Dad."

Archibald: "That'd be too bad, you'd call your Dad?"

Larry: "That'd be too bad."

Archibald: "Hold it. Did you say your father? Fascinating! So what you're saying is that if your lips left you ..."

Larry: "That'd be too bad, I'd be so sad, I might get mad, I'd call my Dad. That'd be too bad."

Archibald: "That'd be to bad?"

Larry: "That'd be too bad."

Archibald: "Why?"

Larry (spoken): "Because I love my lips." (Sung (scatting)): Yibedbopobidebabooyibedbopobidebabooo(etc)

Archibald (holding up an ink blot that looks unmistakably like a lip): "Oh my ... This is more serious than I thought. Larry, tell me, what do you see here?"

Larry (spoken): "Um, that looks like a lip."

Archibald (holding up another lip-like ink blot): "And this?"

Larry (spoken): "It's a lip!"

Archibald (flips rapidly through many ink blots, which look less and less like lips (one is a photo of Sonny Bono!)): "And this?"

Larry (to tune of William Tell Overture): "It's a lip, it's a lip, it's a lip lip lip! It's a lip, it's a lip, it's a lip lip lip! It's a lip, it's a lip, it's a lip lip lip. Liiiiiiiiiiiips. Lip lip lip."

Archibald: "Larry, tell me about your childhood."

Larry: "When I was just two years old I left my lips out in the cold and they turned blue. What could I do?"

Archibald: "They turned blue, what could you do?"

Larry: "Oh they turned blue. On the day I got my tooth I had to kiss my Great Aunt Ruth. She had a beard ... and it felt weird."

Archibald: "My, my. She had a beard and it felt weird?"

Larry: "She had a beard. Ten days after I turned eight, got my lips stuck in a gate. My friends all laughed." (Next part is spoken really fast): "And I just stood there until the fire department came and broke the lock with a crow bar and I had to spend the next six weeks in lip rehab with this kid named Oscar who got stung by a bee - right on the lip - and we couldn't even talk to each other until the fifth week because both our lips were so swollen, and when he did start speaking he just spoke Polish and I only knew like three words in Polish except now I know four because Oscar taught me the word for lip: Oofta."

Archibald: "Your friends all laughed ... Usta? How do you spell that?"

Larry (spoken): "I don't know."

Archibald: "So what you're saying is that when you were young ..."

Larry: "They turned blue, what could I do? She had a beard and it felt weird. My friends all laughed ... Oofta!"

Archibald: "I'm confused ..."

Larry (spoken): "I love my lips!" (sung): "Yibedbopobidebabooyibedbopobidebabooo(etc)"

Narrator: "This has been Silly Songs With Larry. Tune in next time to hear Larry say ..."

Larry (spoken): "Have I ever told you how I feel about my nose?"

Archibald: "Oh, look at the time!"

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 14 May 01 - 02:02 PM

I'm trying....I'm trying...folk is hard! Also, I'm not sure what developmental psychology is!

I Won't Grow Up from Peter Pan

All of Me

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: GUEST,aMOS
Date: 14 May 01 - 02:16 PM

C'mon:

Oh, Doctor Freud, Oh Doctor Freud
How we wish youhad been differently employed!
For the set of circumstances
Now enhances the finances
Of the followers of Doctor Sigmund Freud!

A

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: CRANKY YANKEE
Date: 14 May 01 - 02:22 PM

In Harry Belafonte's "Man Piaba" there's a verse:......

.Well it was clear as mud but it covered the ground
The confusion made me brain go round.
I thought I'd take a trip abroad, to Baden Bad and ask sigmund Freud

He said, "Son",

From your sad face remove the grouch,
Put the body up on the couch
I can see from your frustration a neurotic sublimation,
You see.........
Love and hate are psychosomatic
Your "Rorschak" shows you are peripetetic
It all started with a broken sibling in the words of the famous......Rudyard Kipling.

(there follows a line of gibberish) If you want the rest of the song, send me a PM.
br>My observation: Mental illness is when your asshole shrinks up over your head and you get a shitty outlook on life.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Hollowfox
Date: 14 May 01 - 03:05 PM

Bob coltman's "Weaver Bird is in the DT. I can't think of a better example for the love/death concept in music. (I found it on a forumDT search of "Coltman"). If somebody has a way to get his song "Bruin's Going" to you, it would probably be a good one as well, but I don't think it's ever been put on an album.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 May 01 - 03:52 PM

As I have said before, I think David Bromberg's Someone Else's Blues is a pretty good description of clinical depression. Of course there are a lot of blues songs that describe depression, but most of them focus on something bad happening to the narrator, and causing him to "have the blues." Bromberg's song, by contrast, points out that blues or depression doesn't necessarily have an identifiable external cause. And it's clever and funny (sort of).

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 May 01 - 05:36 PM

Cranky Yankee, I had indeed forgotten about Man Piaba, what a great song. The gibberish I ken as De Woman Piaba and de Man Piaba, de tam tam call but de lemon grass, De lily root, golly root, belly root unh! (grunted as only Harry Belafonte can grunt), and de famous randy scratch scratch.

I always liked the famous randy scratch scratch, so I don't really want to know I've got the gibberish wrong!

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 May 01 - 06:03 PM

Here's one that seems to be about obsessive-compulsiveness and possibly delusion: LOOKING FOR MONEY.

If you want to cover all kinds of pathology, you've got to cover alcoholism. There is this thread: Wanted: Songs for alcoholics!, but I don't necessarily endorse all the songs in that thread, but there are some good ones.

There's also this thread: Traditional songs & madness which mentions some good songs.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: ddw
Date: 14 May 01 - 06:37 PM

There's Lyle Lovett's "Pontiac," about a vet psyching himself up to commit murder.

Also the Limeliters' "Gunslinger."

"When you were a child did the Cheyenne and Sioux
Refuse to play nicely with you?
Did you always feel you didn't belong?"

cheers,

david

Subject: Lyr Add: CHILD PSYCHOLOGY
From: Bullfrog
Date: 14 May 01 - 07:01 PM

Homer and Jethro made a good song called CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

When Ma and Pa was fast asleep and I'd start to squall
They'd grab me by my tiny feet and bang me agin' the wall
When I started cuttin' teeth and when I'd start to whine
They'd massage my little gums with good ol' turpentine

::chorus::
I wish that you could see, the way they treated me
I wish my folks had known about that child psychology

And when I got on their nerves and they could stand no more
Well, they'd just get the hammer and nail me to the floor
They'd pick me up and baby me when I'd start to yell
They'd tie a rock around my neck and throw me in the well

::chorus::

When they'd put me in the tub no one would ever see
If the water was too hot hot or was too cold for me
If I turned blue it was too cold they didn't care alot
They always knew that I'd turn red if the water was too hot

'course irony's a dangerous thing in the hands of children (drunks) and hillbilly singers.

HTML line breaks added --JoeClone, 2-Oct-01.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Helen
Date: 14 May 01 - 07:48 PM

Well, they're not developmental psychology, but here are a few more suggestions.

I don't remember who sang any of them, by the way.

You Think I'm Crazy Don't You, Mama
The Lunatics are Taking Over the Assylum

And one we used to have on an old 78 record called The Lone Psychiatrist (like the Lone Ranger, but he comes and psychoanalyses people and then rides off into the sunset. Just searched for this - it was by Stan Freberg. The Honey Earthers was on the flip side.

Helen

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 May 01 - 09:10 PM

Developmental psych = study of changes in behavior or cognition or whathaveyou that correlate with age.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 14 May 01 - 10:06 PM

Daily Growing about child marriages. Beautiful tune, and a Child Ballad, can you get more folky?

the second verse:

Father, dear father, you've done me great wrong
You have married me to a boy who is too young
I'm twice twelve and he is but fourteen
He's young, but he's daily growing.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: pastorpest
Date: 14 May 01 - 10:37 PM

Ron Hynes' "Sonny's Dream" with the title character unwilling to break free and be his own person, a mother who holds on too tight, and an absentee father, ought to be psychological enough for anyone. Great song!

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 14 May 01 - 11:05 PM

For sibling rivalry, there's Rosalie Sorrels' I'm Gonna Tell. And, though it's often misinterpreted, I've always liked her Hostile Baby-Rocking Song. That's kind of the reverse of developmental psychology, but I think it fits.

Aloha,
Mark (developmental pediatrician)

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Bill D
Date: 15 May 01 - 11:03 AM

John Hartford's "Have Mercy on my Poor Old Prurient Interest"

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Kim C
Date: 15 May 01 - 12:43 PM

I saw Guy Clark in concert years ago and he did a song about going to see a psychiatrist. It ended with the line, "Second best hundred dollars I ever spent." That's the first and only time I've ever heard it and don't even know the name.

Johnny Cash, I think, did a song about being in a mental hospital...

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Trapper
Date: 15 May 01 - 01:22 PM

How about They're Coming To Take Me Away by Napoleon XIV??

Here's the link to the Guy Clark song Kim C. mentioned

Doctor Good Doctor

- Al

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Kim C
Date: 15 May 01 - 01:37 PM

Thanks Trapper! I really like Guy Clark. I need to get more familiar with his work.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Abby Sale
Date: 16 May 01 - 09:14 AM

How comfortable you'll be doing this in class, I can't imagine but it's clearly Folk. From the Happy! file for Havlock Ellis' birthday:

O Mr. Ellis, O Mr. Ellis!
Sex has peculiar angles, as you say;
But I don't see the idear of coitus from the rear,
Though it seems to be the fashion of the day.

O Dr. Freud, O Dr. Freud!
Do you mean to say that you have never hoid?
The position you suggest, is in fact the very best --
I deny it, Mr. Ellis --
You should try it, Dr. Freud!


O Mr. Ellis, O Mr. Ellis!
Does a naked woman make you stand erect?
When you're reading Pushkin's verse
And she diddles you or worse,
Does it bother or disturb your intellect?

O Dr. Freud, O Dr. Freud!
My reactions are extremely anthropoid;
And the sight of her behind
Forces Pushkin from my mind --
Forces Pushkin, Mr. Ellis? --
Pushes foreskin, Dr. Freud!

from Gershon Legman, "Bawdy Monologues," Southern Folklore Quarterly #40 (1976)

It is clearly based on minstrel show comic dialogs, a parody of Gallagher and Shean's trademark routine. The first half was published in 1927. The second half surfaced in 1947.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Abby Sale
Date: 16 May 01 - 09:20 AM

Mary in Kentucky: Totally agree except that, incomprehensibly, "Lang A-Growing" is on the list of ballads Child might have included but didn't.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 16 May 01 - 09:46 AM

Abby, thanks for correcting that! Don't anybody acknowledge that bit of misinformation. I jumped a little too fast when I saw it had DT number.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 May 01 - 11:59 AM

I really like the hostile baby-rocking song, I need the tune, if anyone has it... not for class, for me!

Thanks, keep'm coming, I have a whole career here...

Subject: Lyr Add: I'D RATHER MAKE A REVOLUTION
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:01 PM

This is more of a mid-life crisis song, not something that any well-balanced Mudcatter could relate to, I'm sure. For reasons I'd rather not discuss, I had Paul sing this song at my wedding a few years back.

I'D RATHER MAKE A REVOLUTION
(Lyrics by Paul Emery of Lansing, Michigan, circa 1980 Second verse & minor word changes by Charlie Ipcar in 1995 Tune: after Alice's Restaurant (think ragtime) Key: C)

(C)Well, I went down to see my shrink;
She said, "(F)Boy, have you got (C) any money?"
I said, "I've got Black & Blue Cross Insurance
And, (D) sure, I can chip in the other five (G7)dollars."
She said, "(C)Son, I know what's wrong with you;
You don't (F)appreciate the privileged position you was (C)born to –
White, male, (A)middle class, American,
You (D) ain't got no (G)reason to (C) holler."

Chorus:

(C)But I said, "I'd rather make a revolution
Than (F) fifty dollars an (C) hour;
I'd rather make a good woman smile
Than to (D)have her address me as 'Your (G7)Honor;'
I'd (C) rather sing a song with my friends
Than to (F) sell a lot of life in-(C) surance;
Instead of becoming (A) Master of the World
I (D) guess I'll just be- (G) come a (C) nuisance."

"Get your pad, nurse," the doctor said,
"I think this boy's insane.
Evil spirits have infused
The soft spots in his brain;
He's obviously insecure;
I bet he sucks his thumb;
He's a no good, rotten, un-pa-tri-ot-ic;
Bearded, Commie, bum."

Chorus:
v But I said, "I'd rather make a revolution
Than fifty dollars an hour;
I'd rather make a good woman smile
Than to have her address me as 'Your Honor';
I'd rather sing a song with my friends
Than to raise a lot of campaign dollars
Instead of becoming Master of the World
I guess I'll just pick and holler ."

Well, gather 'round, friends, and listen to me
And I'll give you a tip on the level;
The trouble I've always had with success
Is – I get bored in the middle;
I start out fine; got my eye on the line;
Got my nose right down to the grindstone;
But it ain't long 'fore I'm singin' this song
And the chorus goes something like this:

Chorus:

I'd rather make a revolution
Than fifty dollars an hour;
I'd rather make a good woman smile
Than to have her address me as 'Your Honor';
I'd rather sing a song with my friends
Than to sell a lot of vinyl siding;
Instead of becoming Master of the World
I guess I'll just keep on idling.

Well, I joined that great march for Peace & Justice
But I sure hated to give up the goodies;
I took a bold step forward –
And a wistful look back;
But where I come from you knew what side you was on,
And the side I was on turned out to be wrong;
And the side that was wrong turned out to be right;
I'd rather not switch, let's fight!

Chorus:

I'd rather make a revolution
Than fifty dollars an hour;
I'd rather make a good woman smile
Than to have her address me as 'Your Honor';
I'd rather sing a song with my friends
Than to sell a lot of Dot-Com syndications;
Instead of becoming Master of the World
I guess I'll just try meditation.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Burke
Date: 16 May 01 - 08:29 PM

How about "A Boy Named Sue" or Helen Reddy's "Angie Baby"

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 16 May 01 - 10:35 PM

If you're looking for songs with Freudian themes, Child collected a bunch.

Re Psychology/psychiatry, Lee Hayes used to sing "I don't want to be adjusted (to this world"

Re symptoms, there's "Ain't it Great to be Crazy"

And there's always Lehrer's Oedipus Rex

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 16 May 01 - 10:47 PM

Mrrzy, I've just sent Joe Offer a Noteworthy Composer file of the Hostile Baby Rocking Song tune, as best I can remember it. If you send me your email address in a personal message, I'll send it to you directly. Let me know if you can use NWC or if you prefer a MIDI file.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Abby Sale
Date: 16 May 01 - 11:08 PM

Matk Cohen: Me too! I've admired that text for years & wondered how it went. I developed a small collection of Hostile Baby Rocking Songs. They are world-wide, of course. Universal need.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Anglo
Date: 17 May 01 - 12:46 AM

I'm surprised no-one has posted "I had a shrink."

I had a shrink and my shrink pleased me,
I fed my shrink under yonder tree,
And the shrink said, "Settle my fee, settle my fee."

It's in an old Sing Out, Mar/Apr 74 if what I'm looking at is correct.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: SeanM
Date: 17 May 01 - 02:13 AM

OK, while this one is not traditional folk, it is an acapella number that is near and dear to my heart...

Uncorrected Personality Traits by Robyn Hitchcock.

Wonderfully whimsical. I won't post all of it, but here's a fragment:

So, uncorrected personality traits
That seem whimsical in a child
May prove to be ugly in
A fully grown adult

If you give in to them
Every time they cry
They will become little tyrants
But they won't remember why
Then when they are thwarted
By people in later life
They will become psychotic
And they won't make an ideal husband or wife

M

Subject: Lyr Add: LETTING IT GO
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 17 May 01 - 08:29 AM

How about Bedlam Boys

And here's the lyrics to my favourite therapy song that I wrote to cure myself of letting someone get to me (it worked too). Sort of an anti-paranoia song (to whatever tune fits):


LETTING IT GO

Breath on my neck of a woman that hates me
And wishes I'd just go away
Let alone smile, she can't even look at me
Keeps herself turned right away
And I can't imagine what I have done to her
To make her think so bad of me
But if there is one & I can't find the reason
Then how many more might there be?

But I'm letting it go, letting it go,
Letting it go over my head
And roll off my back, and roll off my back
And sink away down and leave it for dead

She wouldn't piss on me if I was burning
She would just stand there and smile
She would just wave at me if I was drowning
Laughing aloud all the while
It stoppers me up like a cork in a bottle
Sucks all the joy from my day
She's a nation of people who scorn and dislike me
I wish that she'd all go away

But I'm letting it go, letting it go,
Letting it go over my head
And roll off my back, and roll off my back
And sink away down and leave it for dead


Kris

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 May 01 - 09:16 AM

Yikes!

Well, I went to teach my first class last night, and nobody showed up... Classes don't start till next week. Got a song about THAT?!?

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Wolfgang
Date: 17 May 01 - 10:19 AM

No song, Mrrzy, but a dream triple from my first years of teaching. One bad dream was I came into class and nobody was there. A worse dream was I came into class, everybody was there but I was completely unprepared. The worst dream was I came into class was completely unprepared and nobody showed up. Two bads didn't make one good in the dream, but who says dreams have to be logical.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 May 01 - 11:32 AM

I copied the following from The Songs Vin Played--96-03-10 -- the playlists of Vin Scelsa's Sunday Night on New York's WNEW:

Vin reads a personally addressed piece of junk mail he received from AARP and freaks out! -- Leading to the following set:

BEATLES: When I'm 64
RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up
DAN BAIRD: Younger Face
MARY MARTIN as PETER PAN: I Won't Grow Up
TOM WAITS: I Don't Want To Grow Up
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Growin' Up
THE WHO: My Generation
RICKIE LEE JONES: I Won't Grow Up
IGGY POP: To Belong
THE BAND: Forever Young
BOB DYLAN w/THE BAND: Forever Young (version 1 from Dylan's "Planet Waves")

Now, that should fit your theme of developmental psychology!

You might want to look at the web page. It wasn't clear to me when the "set" ended.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 May 01 - 01:48 PM

Ooh, Jim, I will check it out forthwith! GREAT set!

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 May 01 - 01:48 PM

When I'm 64 just reminded me of that great Tom Lehrer one about getting old... A definite!

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 May 01 - 01:52 PM

Just checked Trad for When You Are Old And Gray, and it seems to be missing a verse? I recall 2 verses before all the ilities...

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 17 May 01 - 06:25 PM

One of the best songs about gender I know - and written by a man: Harry Chapin's 'Why Do Little Girls Grow Crooked?'

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: celticblues5
Date: 17 May 01 - 11:47 PM

How about "Gee, Officer Krupke" from West Side Story - about being handed around from one expert/agency to the next?

Or Rob Lumbard's "Crazy Little Girl" ("In her eye was the gleam/that showed she was on Thorazine...")? [P.S. - if you ever start collecting vascectomy songs, he has one about that too! ;-)]

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 May 01 - 09:00 AM

Hey Susanne(skw), post the lyrics of Crooked,will you? I can't find them and it sounds great!

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: GUEST,Jeff Ryan
Date: 18 May 01 - 07:12 PM

I was thinking of Petula Clarke's Windmills of Your Mind, The Ad, and Games People Play. They have that common thread of pyschology. The other song that falls in here is Supertramp's The Logical Song.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 18 May 01 - 07:18 PM

Mrrzy, my absolutely reliable memory (snigger) doesn't come up with any other verses for "When You Are Old and Gray" (which is spelled Grey in the DT, which is why I had trouble finding it!). If you find another verse, I'd love to hear it. I once wrote a sort of parody of "The Elements", called "The Formulary Song" (with drug names). I sent it to Tom, and he wrote back, "As a lifelong apostle of plagiarism, I certainly have no objection."

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Helen
Date: 18 May 01 - 07:57 PM

Have you seen the animated series on tv called Dr Katz. Very funny send up of a psychotherapist/analyst/whatever-ist.

It's currently on SBS in Oz which means it probably wouldn't get on to any mainstream tv stations.

Helen

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 May 01 - 03:19 PM

Mark Cohen, that tidbit about Tom is really sweet!

Subject: Lyr Add: WHY DID THE LITTLE GIRLS GROW CROOKED?
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 19 May 01 - 06:41 PM

Here you are, Mrrzy! Thought I might have posted them already because it's one of my favoirite songs. My recording is by Iain MacKintosh, though.

WHY DID THE LITTLE GIRLS GROW CROOKED?
(Harry Chapin)
Why did little girls grow crooked when little boys grew tall
The boys were taught to tumble, the girls told not to fall
The girls answered the telephones, the boys made all the calls
That's why little girls grew crooked when little boys grew tall

Why did little girls grow crippled when little boys grew strong
The boys allowed to come of age, the girls told, Come along
The girls were told, Sing harmonies, the boys were told, Sing songs
That's why little girls grew crippled when little boys grew strong

Why did the little girls come broken when little boys came whole
The boys were told to be themselves, the girls were told, Play roles
The little boys were set aflame, the girls told, Fan the coals
That's why little girls came broken when little boys came whole

Why were the little girls made frightened to be just what they are
The boys were told to ask themselves, How high? How far?
The girls were told to reach the shelves, the boys were reaching stars
That's why little girls were made frightened to be just what they are

Still they bled for us all as the moon rode the sky
And they carried our seed as our need ran high
And they fed our children in the night when they cried
Womankind wept as mankind died

Why did little girls grow crooked when little boys grew tall
Maybe because the little boys didn't get to grow up at all

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Howard Kaplan
Date: 20 May 01 - 02:52 PM

Baby in a Box

This tribute to B. F. Skinner, which I wrote some time around 1969 or 1970, is based on his article, "Baby in a box", originally published in a popular magazine and reprinted in his book, Cumulative Record. Many of the references in the song are to events and writings that postdate the original article. The tune is "Camptown Races".

I'm the baby in the box, googah, googah. All my toys are wired to clocks, googah all day. I live in a lab on a rubber slab, And every time I learn a trick my picture's in JEAB.

I'm the baby in the box, googah, googah. I like Pablum mixed with lox, googah all day. Yes, my diet's planned; nothing in it's banned. Now that I can't have MSG, everything tastes quite bland.

I'm the baby in the box, googah, googah. I get trained with love not shocks, googah all day. Trained to press a bar, someday I'll go far. I'll never take a coffee break when I am on VR.

I'm the baby in the box, googah, googah. I wear neither shoes nor socks, googah all day. Make my day complete: please adjust the heat. Put a diaper on my rump and nothing on my feet.

I'm the baby in the box, googah, googah. My views are unorthodox, googah all day. Freedom's not for me -- no, nor dignity. I'm content to just prevent the fall of society.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Aug 01 - 10:46 PM

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: LR Mole
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:34 PM

"Younger Generation by John Sebastian:he did it at Woodstock (and spaced on some of the lyrics, I think) and its also on "Everything Playing", the fourth Spoonful album, after Zally left.His "How Have You Been?" (my darlin' children) is good for some audiences,too.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 03:42 PM

A really obvious song no one seems to have mentioned.

"Fire and Rain", James Taylor, Written by a mental parient, for a mental patient.

Also how about "Jumper" by Third Eye Blind? "Wish you would step back from that ledge my friend." is one of the greatest lyrical hooks of all time.

Cheers

Rob

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: annamill
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 04:57 PM

Did anyone mention "They're coming to take me away, Ho Ho"? BTW, MT, I do believe "Twisted" was done, also, and may be the original, by a wonderful group called Hendicks, Lambert and Ross. Ross being Annie Ross and she's the only one who can ever do that song for me.

"I knew as a child I appeared a little bit wild with all my crazy ideas" "I knew what was happening, I knew I was a genius"

"I would'nt ride on any double decker buses all because there was no driver on the top"

One of my favorites. L.A.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Genie
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 03:42 AM

I wrote this one years ago when I was a grad student in experimental psychology at the U. of Illinois. I may have forgotten part of it.
Tune: What Have They Done To The Rain?

What Have They Done To The Rat?

Just a little rat running down the maze,
He's starv-ed and shock-ed until he's in a daze,
Frightened all to pieces to see if he'll drop feces
(or "Scared out of his wits to see how much he defecates") What have they done to the rat?

Just a guilty rat who ate fobidden grain,
He's cowering in fear and shame!
But how could he know better? How could he refrain,
When just the day before, they took out half his brain?
What have they done to the rat?

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 02:27 PM

How about the one Chet Atkins wrote? Dad? I think that was its title. It was about waking up and seeing his dad in the mirror - only it was him. Very nice acoustic tune if I recall.

Ah the lovely process of aging!

My lovely bride and I were discussing the difference between senility and alzheimers last night - I don't remember what we came up with. . . .

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Genie
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 03:30 PM

Oh, I forgot the part referring to the Olds and Milner research on the septal nucleus of the hypothalamus -- the "pleasure center" in the brain:

Just a horny rat pressing on the bar;
It gives him a delightful jar!

I don't remember whether there was more to that verse or whether I just ended it with
Just a little rat, just a little rat,
What have they done to the rat?
Genie

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: GUEST,aesop
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 07:24 PM

How about this?

VIENNESE DRINKING SONG by Camille West

Oh wherever we go there's id and there's ego
The conflicts we never outgrow
Anxiety's built on repression and guilt
Ask any good Catholic, you know
There are feelings inside that are felt and denied
Then in trying to hide them we find
That the ones we express are the ones we repress
And they tell me it's all in my mind

Chorus: And we sing yah yah yah yah
So many things to avoid (last time - sometimes I'm slightly annoyed)
And we sing yah yah yah yah
The gospel according to Freud

One day my kid came to me straight from his therapy
Used to be strictly Gestalt
He said I'm not complaining but my toilet training
Was rough, so you're really at fault
Perhaps if I'd waited he'd not be fixated
I wish that I'd made it a game
But I owe an apology, thank you psychology
It's my fault the kid is insane

Chorus

Our sons want to marry us, Freud says the Oedipus
Complex is strong and it's real
These boys cause a ruckus, they all want to
Shall we say feel what they ought not to feel
Between father and son there's a war to be won
Over mama's affectionate glance
Says pop to his kid, "What's this crap about id?
Keep your impulses inside your pants."

Chorus

And ladies, between us, we envy the penis
Says Freud, it's our major drawback
Thus all our neuroses and sometimes psychoses
Begin over something we lack
And so men's exterior makes them superior
Freud says our envy is moot
But I must disagree, cause according to me
The zucchini's a great substitute

Also, some friends of mine wrote a parody of the song from The Wizard of Oz "If I only had a..." about penis envy.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: WyoWoman
Date: 03 Oct 01 - 10:47 PM

Thanks for remembering, MMario. Here's my contribution: (tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic")

PSYCHOTHERAPY
(Melanie's version, dunno if she wrote it)

Oh mine eyes have seen the glory of the theories of Freud,
He has taught me all the evils that my ego must avoid.
Repression of the impulses resulting paranoid
As the id goes marching on.

Chorus: Glory glory psychotherapy,
glory glory sexuality,
Glory glory now we can be free
as the id goes marching on

There was a man who thought his friends to him were all superior
And this complex he imagined made life drearier and drearier
'Til his analyst assured him that he really was inferior
As the id goes marching on.

Chorus —

Do you drown your superego in a flood of alcohol (- or something else -)
And go running after women till you're just about to fall.
You may think you're having fun but you're not having fun at all
As the id goes marching on.

Chorus

Oh sad is the masochism, the vagaries of sex
Have turned half the population into total nervous wrecks.
But your analyst will cure you, long as you can pay the cheques
As the id goes marching on.
Chorus

Is your body plagued by aches and pains that you can't understand
Compound fractures ingrown toenails, floating kidneys, trembling hands,
There's a secret to your trouble: you're in love with your old man
As the id goes marching on - (all together now!)
Chorus —
Freud's mystic world of meaning needn't have us mystified
It's really very simple what the psyche tries to hide:
A thing is a phallic symbol if it's longer than it's wide
As the id goes marching on.

Chorus —

Ta-dah!
ww

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Reiver 2
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 06:21 PM

I just stumbled onto this thread by accident, but it reminded me of a song I'd collected many years ago. I have no idea when (late 1940s or early '50s I'd guess)or where I found it, or heard it, and only a vague recollection of the tune (Though I have the handwritten musical notes). I searched the DT and found nothing that resembled it. But in this thread back on 14 May 01, GUEST aMOS posted the chorus. Can anyone provide information of where this song came from, who sang it, etc.? I haven't been able to locate the lyrics anywhere on the Mudcat so I'll post them here. It's called:

DOCTOR FREUD

Oh, it happened in Vienna not so very long ago
When not enough folks were getting sick,
That a starving young physician tried to better his position
By discovering what made his patients tick.

   CHORUS (Sung after each verse):
    Oh, Doctor Freud, oh, Doctor Freud,
    How I wish you had been otherwise employed.
    For this set of circumstances sure enhances the finances
    Of the followers of Doctor Sigmund Freud.

He forgot about sclerosis, but invented the psychosis
And a hundred ways that sex could be enjoyed.
He adopted as his credo, "Down repression, up libido!"
And that was the start of Doctor Sigmund Freud.

Now he analyzed the dreams of the teens and libertines,
And he substituted monologues for pills.
He drew crowds just like Wells-Saddler when along came Jung and Adler
Who said, "By God, there's gold in them that ills."

They encountered no resistance when they served as Freud's assistants
As with Ego and with Id they deftly toyed.
And instead of toting bedpans, they bore analytic deadpans;
Those ambitious doctors Adler, Jung and Freud.

Now the Big Three have departed, but not so the cult they started.
It's been carried on by many a goodly band.
And to trauma, shock and war-shock, someone went and added Rorschach,
Now the thing has got completely out of hand.

Now old men with double chinsys and a million would-be Kinseys
Will discuss it at the drop of a repression.
So pardon my complainin', 'bout all the dough I'm payin'
To lie down on some one's couch and say confession.

Musical notes:

AAAABAAF#EDEDDBD
DEF#AAAABAE
AAAABAAF#EDEDDBD
DDEF#AF#EGF#ED

cho:
DEF#GD(high)C#BBA
F#GAAAAAD(high)AF#E
F#GAABAAF#ED DDDD(last 4 high)C#B
BBAAD(high)BAGF#ED

I think I've got that right. I don't know how to indicate quarter notes from eighth notes without a five line staff. (You can tell I'm not a musician.)

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 01:18 PM

Reiver 2, that's the song I started this thread with... what a great song it is, and a fine song, too! I have it by The Gateway Singers At The Hungry I, yes circa 1940. Maybe even earlier - very thick vinyl. I know the tune well but can't notate, but I can sing it if you need me to (brace yourselves!).

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Abby Sale
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 04:04 PM

1940? If you say so but that seems very early for The Hungry I or the Gateways. Kieffer gives 196? for the LP.

This song is in the database as DR. FREUD, attributed to David Lazar. It was already there when I sent DOCTOR FREUD 2 (qv) up to the DigTrad in 1999. I believe I found it in a Legman monograph.

I don't know if you'd want to sing this last one in your class but maybe you're teaching a class in adult education these days.

Re-reading this thread including "Crazy Man Michael" reminds me of another mad song that Carthy sang "BEDLAM BOYS" (or "Mad Tom of Bedlam") which is evolved from very old songs...D'Urfey & in the broadside collections.   It's a good yun.

I thin there are really many trad songs that deal pragmatically & incitefully with psychological reactions to life. Not, of course in Freudian or any clinical terms but emotional response is a basic & common element in balladry. Revenge & jelousy, of course but also despair, love, tocsicity, etc lead Folk to irrational behavior.

Two simple cases, treated comically are "Sweet Betsy" & "Peter Grey" (in the forum, but not the db yet).

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 04:37 PM

Oh, it could be any time - I was just going by how crackly the record is, I haven't actually looked at the record sleeve in years. It's probably the 50's or sometime near when the Weavers were blacklisted.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Reiver 2
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 05:00 PM

Hey Mrrzy,
Glad you're still around! I thought that might be the song you referred to. I couldn't find it in the DT. I tried "Dr. Freud" and got "No Results in the Digitrad", but several Forum threads of which this was one. I also tried "Doctor Freud" in the DT but the only things listed were "Oedipus Rex" and "Doctor Freud 2" neither of which is this song. (Abby Sale: I've always assumed that the DigiTrad and the "database" were the same thing. If not, where do I access the database? I don't see a link anywhere for that.)

In my set of words posted yesterday, in the last line of verse 3 the phrase should have been "in them thar hills." (Pardon the typo.) Also, I have trouble scanning the last line of verse 2. There seems to be an extra word or syllable in there. I wrote it as I'd written it down in my old looseleaf notebook of folk songs, but as I recite it to myself it doesn't sound quite right. I'd love to hear you sing the song, but I'm not sure how it could be done. Maybe I can find a copy of the Gateway Singers album somewhere.

Reiver 2

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 08:43 AM

I hear "and that was the start of Dr. Sigmund Freud" too for the line you specify, if that's what you're calling Verse 2...

And what about Shock the monkey, by Peter Gabriel?

Subject: ADD: 'Crazy Man'
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 07:38 PM

This thread brings this one to mind:

CRAZY MAN
(Allan Taylor)

There was a crazy man lived by the sea
He'd stand on the beach as still as a tree
The wind beat his body, the salt burned his face
But the crazy man he loved that place

The people thought he was some kind of sage
Who had wisdom from another age
The turned to him to show them the way
But the crazy man had nothing to say

Chorus:
I have no answers, don't ask me why
Maybe some day soon it will all come clear
By and by and by

They grew angry and they asked him again
Pleading for answers he gave them none
He just whispered, looking out to the sea
Look to yourselves and not to me

And so they beat him and drove him away
He has failed us, they were heard to say
They were afraid and did not understand
He was just a crazy man

Source: lyric sheet insert to Allan Taylor 'Lines' T Records LP T002.
Copyright 1988 Allan Taylor MCPS.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Abby Sale
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 09:11 PM

Riever 2: Yep, same thing. Simpler is usually better. If you just search for "freud" in the main lyrics search box, you get:
0.8909 - DOCTOR FREUD 2
0.8788 - DR. FREUD
0.7742 - THAIS
0.7742 - OEDIPUS REX (2)
0.7742 - OEDIPUS REX
:-)

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Morticalia
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 10:58 PM

sanitarium by metallica... all the way, damnit

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 11:52 PM

Help!!!!

Hell yes!!! Three Quarters of the posters to this thread appear in-need of serious intervention.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Ferrara
Date: 07 Oct 04 - 10:56 PM

Take a look at George Ward's You Gotta Talk My Language . Ed Trickett sings it, can't remember which album right now. I always loved this and considered a great song about the psychology of a certain kind of kid.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Oct 04 - 05:26 PM

another verse to "Psychotherapy" posted by WyoWoman 3 years ago...I have known it for 30 years or more...wonder how it got left out?

"Do you find your lonely bed at night as chilly as a tomb?,
Do you curl up in your blanket like a worm in a cocoon?
It's not temperature that moves you, but a longing for the womb!
And the Id goes marching on!"

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: GUEST,lisa
Date: 09 Sep 06 - 12:51 AM

is the logical song from supertramp about mental illness

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 09 Sep 06 - 02:38 AM

How about "Manic Depression" by Jimi Hendrix?

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Sep 06 - 03:14 AM

Back to that first song abot Doctor Freud. I had it in an oak publication book that I was given as a present when I was just getting interested in folk music - round about Christmas 1964 or 65.

I seem to remember it credited to Shel Silverstein.

Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
From: GUEST,oldhippie
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 09:53 PM

Helen, your "You Think I'm Crazy Don't You, Mama" I think is titled "Lock Me Up", don't remember the singer either.