Songs about Insanity

10 Sep 16 - 03:16 PM (#3809367)
Subject: Songs about Insanity
From: Mrrzy

I am surprised not to see a thread on this already.

"And she went raving mad" is a line from The Bold Fisherman. (Earlier: Says she, I'll go mad... Then, she's right.)

Others?

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10 Sep 16 - 04:00 PM (#3809373)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: cnd

Nobody's Business What I Do -- a pretty well-known bluegrass song.

Of course, I'm somewhat joking, but the stanza "Some day I'll wake up crazy / kill my wife and save my baby" (sometimes sung as "shoot the baby" depending on the version) seems pretty crazy to me.

And of course there's millions of country songs where breaking up with their ex leads to depression/insanity or doing insane things. One of the most unique ones I can think of is "Water's So Cold" by Stonewall Jackson. But I'd be cautious mixing insanity with depression.

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10 Sep 16 - 07:37 PM (#3809413)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: oldhippie

"Psycho" - Leon Payne, also called "Do You Think I'm Psycho, Mama.

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10 Sep 16 - 07:52 PM (#3809415)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST

Interesting examples - but they all convey a negative stereotype, in different ways.

I wonder if there are many songs written about the struggles, the strength and the courage of people living their lives with mental health problems? And of those that they share their lives with?

If not, maybe we should write some!

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10 Sep 16 - 08:27 PM (#3809419)
Subject: Lyr Add: TWISTED (Annie Ross/Wardell Gray)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

Well... it's not folk music, but...


TWISTED
(m. Wardell Gray, w. Annie Ross, 1949, 1952)

My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head
The way he described it
He said I'd be better dead than live
I didn't listen to his jive
I knew all along
That he was all wrong
And I knew that he thought
I was crazy but I'm not
Oh no

My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head
He said I'd need treatment
But I'm not that easily led
He said I was the type
That was most inclined
When out of his sight
To be out of my mind
And he thought I was nuts
No more ifs or ands or buts
Oh, no.

They say as a child
I appeared a little bit wild
With all my crazy ideas
But I knew what was happening
I knew I was a genius...
What's so strange if you know
That you're a wizard at three
I knew that this was meant for me

I heard little children
Were supposed to sleep tight
That's why I drank a fifth of vodka one night
My parents got frantic
Didn't know what to do
But I saw some crazy scenes
Before I came to
Now do you think I was crazy
I may have been only three
But I was swinging

They all laughed a A. Graham Bell
They all laughed at Edison
And also at Einstein
So why should I feel sorry
If they just couldn't understand
The reasoning and the logic
That went on in my head
I had a brain
It was insane
So I just let them laugh at me
When I refused to ride
On all those double-decker buses
All because there was no driver on the top

My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head
But I said dear doctor
I think that it's you instead
'Cause I have got a thing
That's unique and new
It proves that I'll have
The last laugh on you
'Cause instead of one head
I got two
And you know two heads are better than one


[Annie Ross, Annie Ross Sings, Prestige, prEP 1301, 1952, trk. A1, ©Prestige Music]

Trivia: Comedy duo Cheech & Chong sit in as the bandmate skeptics on Joni Mitchell's 1974 cover.

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10 Sep 16 - 08:52 PM (#3809421)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST,HiLo

Still I sing Bonny boys
bedlam boys are Bonny,
for they all go bare
And live by the air
And they want no drink no money.

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11 Sep 16 - 01:03 AM (#3809442)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: ketchdana

Would either of these qualify?

Chuck Pyle -- (I am trapped on the) Inside My Face
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7zY0N-5kq4

Lou and Peter Berryman -- Artiste Interrupted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRaWEOwLveU

I assume you're not looking for songs about the current (US) political insanity.

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11 Sep 16 - 09:00 PM (#3809566)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Gurney

English (Trad?) Mad Tom of Bedlam.

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12 Sep 16 - 05:25 AM (#3809598)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel

Crazy Man Michael?
Though that's more about grief really.

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12 Sep 16 - 09:21 AM (#3809639)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: mkebenn

"Excitable Boy", Zevon's rather jolly take on the subject. From a lot of his work, his hinges were a tad loose, but I loved him dearly. Mike

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12 Sep 16 - 11:24 AM (#3809662)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST,eoín

County Down, Northern Ireland traditional ballad 'Killeavey's Pride'
verse thirteen (of fourteen)

Now Willie's poor heart it was broke, he went to sea once more,
And vowed he'd ne'er in all his life, would come to Newry shore.
Young Mary's conscience it being struck, she turned stark mad at last,
And died a victim to false love, in the asylum near Belfast.

Taken from the book 'Songs of the County down'

Eoín

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12 Sep 16 - 02:24 PM (#3809685)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Rumncoke

'Young Edwin'

so many a day she passed away and tried to ease her mind
Crying oh my friends my love is gone and I am left behind
Then Emma broken hearted was to bedlam forced to go
Where her shrieks were for young Edwin who ploughed the lowlands low

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12 Sep 16 - 06:54 PM (#3809715)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Elmore

I'm pretty sure Sweet William and Barbara Allan are certifiable.

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12 Sep 16 - 11:38 PM (#3809738)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Jim Dixon

The Chicken Chokers' "Looking for Money" seems to describe a kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

David Bromberg's "Someone Else's Blues emphasizes the paradoxical nature of depression.

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13 Sep 16 - 12:01 AM (#3809741)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Charlie Baum

The Lunatic Asylum, which I first heard from the incomparable late Rick Lee.

--Charlie Baum

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13 Sep 16 - 12:09 AM (#3809742)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Charlie Baum

And a couple of previous Mudcat threads on the subject:
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=10359
and
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=89883
--Charlie Baum

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13 Sep 16 - 12:35 AM (#3809745)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Gurney

Outside a lunatic asylum I was breaking stones
When a lunatic popped up his head;
said "Good morning Mr. Jones.
How much do you get for doing that?"
"Four pounds a week." I cried
Well, he shook his hair, and nodded his head,
and this to me replied.
"Come inside, you silly bugger, come inside!
I thought you'd have a bit more sense!
Working for a living? Take my tip.
Act bloody silly and become a lunatic.
You get your meals quite regular,
and a brand-new suit besides
What? Four kids to keep on four quid a week?
Come inside you silly bugger, come inside!"

From a medley sung by Mike Harding.

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13 Sep 16 - 03:31 AM (#3809753)
Subject: Lyr Add: THROUGH MOORFIELDS
From: Jim Carroll

THROUGH MOORFIELDS

'Twas through Moorfields I wandered, by myself all alone;
I head a maid in Bedlam a-making her sad moan;
She was wringing of her tender hands and a-tearing of her hair,
Crying 'O cruel parents, you have proved to me severe.'

It's all through my own true love, a 'prentice lad, you know;
And he was pressed to go to sea, which proved my overthrow;
Which caused me sadly to lament and turned my poor brain
Crying, O shall I ever see my own true love again.

It was early the next morning, this young sailor came on shore.
He walked and he talked down longside by Bedlam door,
And he gave unto the porter a broad piece of gold
Saying 'Bring that young girl to me, she's the joy of my soul.'

He took her from her strawy bed and set her on his knee
Saying, 'I am that same young man your parents pressed to sea;
But now my cares are gone and all my sorrows they are fled;
Then adieu unto these cold chains and this cold strawy bed.'

Last verse of Constant Farmer's Son
Those villains soon, they owned the guilt and for the same did die.
The doctors got their bodies for to practice by.
But Mary's thoughts both night and day on her dead love did run.
In the madhouse cell poor Mary dwells for her constant farmer's son.
Jim Carroll

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13 Sep 16 - 06:55 AM (#3809778)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Georgiansilver

Not Folk but I do remember this!! They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa! [Lyrics]

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13 Sep 16 - 08:07 AM (#3809789)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Jack Campin

Songs about madness were seen as an English specialty in the 18th century. Matthew Lewis's "Crazy Jane" (tune: Fy gar rub her o'er with straw) is from the end of that period. Stereotypical - woman goes mad after being abandoned by a lover.

The problem with making a more realistic song about psychosis is that you want a song to have a meaningful story, and madness is not meaningful. The sort of delusions and muddled thoughts schizophrenics suffer from don't go anywhere - they just make normal life impossible. And the emotional extremes of bipolar disorder don't emerge from real-world situations with any sort of logic.

I could imagine a song about having to deal with madness in a loved one, though - like what "The Dutchman" does with dementia.

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13 Sep 16 - 12:27 PM (#3809815)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: henryclem

I did write a song (which I still sing on occasions) about the Victorian painter, Richard Dadd, who famously spent most of his life in Bedlam & Broadmoor after killing his father.

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13 Sep 16 - 12:29 PM (#3809816)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST,Desi C

Johnny cash's partially autobiographical song dedicated to Porter Wagoner Comitted To Parkview

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13 Sep 16 - 05:55 PM (#3809849)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BEDLAM BOYS / TOM OF BEDLAM
From: GUEST,DTM

"The Bedlam Boys" (aka Tom of Bedlam)

For to see my Tom of Bedlam, 10,000 miles I'd travel
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes, to save her shoes from gravel.

Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys,
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air,
And they want no drink nor money.

I went down to Satin's kitchen, for to beg me food one morning
There I got souls piping hot, all on the spit a turning.

There I picked up a cauldron, Where boiled 10,000 harlots
Though full of flame I drank the same, to the health of all such varlets.

My staff has murdered giants, my bag a long knife carries
For to cut mince pies from children's thighs, with which to feed the fairies.

Spirits white as lightning, shall on my travels guide me
The moon would quake and the stars would shake, when' ere they espied me.

No gypsy slut nor doxy, shall win my Mad Tom from me
I'll weep all night, the stars I'll fight, the fray will well become me.

It's when next I have murdered, the Man-In-The-Moon to powder
His staff I'll break, his dog I'll bake, they'll howl no demon louder.

So drink to Tom of Bedlam, he'll fill the seas in barrels
I'll drink it all, all brewed with gall, with Mad Maudlin I will travel.

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13 Sep 16 - 06:26 PM (#3809854)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Mrrzy

Psychokiller, duh.

Also, you may be right, I may be crazy, but it just may be a lunatic you're looking for...

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13 Sep 16 - 06:54 PM (#3809860)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: bobad

September 4th 4 East
Words and music by Bruce Murdoch.
Recorded in 1970.

Open the door babe
You're going home
You don't own your thoughts
They're just out on loan
Priceless like time
And worthless like stone
Open the door babe, you're going home

Darling will go and darling will come
Though she's handcuffed her hands
And chained down her tongue
As mountains will stand
And rivers will run
Darling will go
And darling will come

Standing outside
Throwing rocks at the rain
It beats getting hung
By going insane
Deciding the difference
Between still and again
Standing outside
Throwing rocks at the rain

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13 Sep 16 - 11:58 PM (#3809888)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE MADMAN (Allan Taylor)
From: Stewie

The Madman by Allan Taylor. Al O'Donnell recorded a fine version.

Allan Taylor


The Madman
(Allan Taylor)

The madman sits inside his cell, a tiny little room
No one's there to stare at him, the visitors have gone
The doctor's finished making notes from the same side of the door
While the madman screamed and tore his hair
And threw his body on the floor

The days were few and he was calm and still, and felt a little peace
Mostly he was victim to his merciless disease
It pushed him ever onward, ever deeper into hell
And finally it broke him
And he was crushed beneath the wheel

The madman cannot see the light at the far end of the road
His world is now his little room, he has nowhere else to go
What is there behind the eyes, that always seem to stare
He knows no one can help him
And he's forgotten how to care

The madman can't remember what he did before he came
Now he's lost forever and the days are all the same
The final race is over and the last game has been played
And his account is duly settled
But the price was dearly paid
The price was dearly paid
The price was dearly paid

--Stewie.

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14 Sep 16 - 02:34 AM (#3809895)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Paul Reade

With Brexit, Donald Trump etc. there's enough insanity on the world without singing about it as well

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14 Sep 16 - 08:25 AM (#3809918)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: matt milton

I've been singing 'Rambling Robin' a lot recently and it has struck me that it could be seen as about madness, in an oblique sort of way.

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14 Sep 16 - 08:52 AM (#3809923)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Thomas Stern

Insanity Comes Quietly To The Structured Mind - Janis Ian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oDkJw09XrY

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14 Sep 16 - 10:56 AM (#3809939)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Elmore

How about "Jesus in the Asylum" by David Massengill?

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14 Sep 16 - 11:44 PM (#3810012)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST,Wm

John Reilly's Once There Lived A Captain. The captain's true love goes mad in his absence, then everyone dies:

Sayin', "Your true love is not here, sir
She is left us here last night,
She is gone to some asylum
Where she's fractured in mind."

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15 Sep 16 - 07:03 AM (#3810040)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST

Crazy Man Michael ?

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15 Sep 16 - 09:47 AM (#3810052)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Mrrzy

The lunatic is on the grass...

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15 Sep 16 - 10:34 AM (#3810056)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Mrrzy

OK, now I had to listen to that whole album. It has been a real while. What excellent music.

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15 Sep 16 - 04:13 PM (#3810086)
Subject: Lyr Add: POOR WINDHAM
From: Jim Dixon

From the Bodleian broadside collection:

POOR WINDHAM.

Oh! What a silly row there's been,
And things were very sad then.
They wanted for to make, you know,
A simple lad a madman
Because that he could say "mowhow," [?]
And when the engine started,
He would cut away like one o'clock,
From London to Newmarket.

CHORUS: It is a shame, and what's their game?
To a madhouse try to send him?
Money, money, that's the thing,
But they won't get over Windham.

Because he led a jovial life,
And squandered lots of money;
Because he married a buxom wife,
And made things seem quite funny;
Because he ready was to ride,
Whenever the engine started;
Because he used to bowl at night,
Up and down and round the Haymarket.

Now Windham has an uncle got;
They say no man is bolder.
Right good pensions he has got,
A poor discharged old soldier.
He has sons and daughters, too,
At Felbrigg Hall a-grumbling,
And people say their hurts are just
As hard as Norfolk dumplings.

But never mind; the orphan boy
Will very soon defeat them,
And noble Cairns will do his best
Before he's done, to beat them.
He'll gain the day, mark what I say.
To no madhouse shall they send him.
His enemies will all be licked.
They shall not conquer Windham.


William Frederick Windham, (1840-1866)
Charles Ash Windham, his uncle (1810-1870)
Felbrigg Hall
Sir Hugh Cairns, Q.C.
The Great Lunacy Case of Mr. W. F. Windham (London: H. Vickers, [1862])
Summary

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15 Sep 16 - 05:58 PM (#3810097)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

Mrrzy: "What excellent music."

Shine on you crazy diamond...

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15 Sep 16 - 06:09 PM (#3810099)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Mrrzy

Has anybody made a musical out of Arsenic and Old Lace?

"Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops."

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15 Sep 16 - 06:25 PM (#3810101)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: cnd

I used to have that movie on DVD but lost the DVD somehwere along the way... still have the case, though

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15 Sep 16 - 10:15 PM (#3810121)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST,Bardford

Richard Thompson - Grey Walls


I took my darling down, I took my darling down
To that big grey house down the lane
And then the doctor said, he said "It's in her head
She's never going to be right again"
I kissed my love goodbye, she didn't blink an eye
They took her down the hall, she never looked back at all

Oh behind grey walls, somewhere there's a soul
Behind grey walls, she's out of control
She's crying out for help, no-one can hear
O Lord have pity on her, O Lord have pity on her

My darling walks the floor, my darling walks the floor
She walks every minute that she can
I heard my darling say, I heard my darling say
That she don't know who I am
Cigarette burns down her arm, said she tried to do herself harm
Tied her arms in the back, trussed her up like a sack

Oh behind grey walls, somewhere there's a soul
Behind grey walls, she's out of control
She's crying out for help, no-one can hear
O Lord have pity on her, O Lord have pity on her

I saw my darling's face, I saw my darling's face
It looked so pale in the distance
She stared out from her room into the dying gloom
And I saw her poor tears glisten
Pills to keep her calm, more punctures than a junkie in her arm
Strapped her on the bed, seventy volts through her head

Oh behind grey walls, somewhere there's a soul
Behind grey walls, she's out of control
She's crying out for help, no-one can hear
O Lord have pity on her, O Lord have pity on her

Behind grey walls
Behind grey walls

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16 Sep 16 - 03:28 AM (#3810130)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST,Bloke in Groucho mask

One of the posts above spoke of widening the genre to include mental health issues per se.

On that basis, the subject of dementia has been sensitively dealt with and gives awareness in many songs.

Two that spring to mind that I occasionally sing are Harvey Andrews' "She Saw Him Smile" and when I was in a band, we included the excellent Elvis Costello song "Veronica."

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16 Sep 16 - 11:19 AM (#3810164)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Mrrzy

In the Hills of Shiloh... yet another woman driven mad by grief.

Are there any where the MAN goes mad with grief?

Dementia's best is The Dutchman, I think.

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17 Sep 16 - 11:14 PM (#3810294)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE MIDDLETON OVERSEER AND THE MADMAN
From: Jim Dixon

From Ballads & Songs of Lancashire: Chiefly Older Than the 19th Century edited by John Harland (London: Whittaker & Co., 1865), page 263:


THE MIDDLETON OVERSEER AND THE MADMAN.

The following ballad is said to be founded on fact. It was taken down by Mr. Higson, as sung by John Grimshaw. Middleton is a market-town and parish, midway between Manchester and Rochdale. We have also seen it in print as an ordinary ballad-sheet.

1. It's of a clever overseer, as crafty as a mouse, sir.
He brought a man from Middleton to Lancaster madhouse, sir.
The overseer laughed in his sleeve, in view of speculation,
But little did he think to meet with such a desolation.

Right fal the ral, the raddy oh,
Right fal the looral lido;
Right fal the ral, the raddy oh,
Right fal the looral lido.

2. When they arriv'd at Lancaster, says the madman, "We're at home, sir."
They walk'd about Lancaster streets, like Darby and his Joan, sir.
The madman and the overseer, they went to bed together.
Says the overseer to himself, "I'll stick to him like leather."

3. Then the overseer did lie down, and the madman he did creep, sir,
And by his cunning, crafty tricks, got the overseer asleep, sir.
The note out of his pocket drew, which lay behind his head, sir;
Got up and left the overseer quite fast asleep in bed, sir.

4. By chance he met a gentleman; says he, "Where are you bound, sir?"
He says, "I'm going to take a view of Lancaster fine town, sir."
Says he, "I'm an overseer; I'm come upon a cruise, sir.
I've a message that I must take down to Lancaster mad-house, sir."

5. When he got to Lancaster mad-house, loudly he rang the bell, sir,
And when the governor did appear, he cut a noble swell, sir.
Says he, "A madman I have got; I'll show you my receipt, sir.
I've had him in my custody, struggling all the neet, sir."

6. Says the lunatic, "He is so mad, perhaps he'll form a plan, sir,
And when this morning we do come, he'll swear I am the man, sir;
For he is so obstreperous, that no one can endure him;
And when he says that I'm the man, that instant you secure him."

7. He went straight back to th' public-house, and loudly he did say, sir,—
"Why, overseer, do you intend to lie in bed all day, sir?"
The overseer was so alarm'd with fear beyond relation,
To see the lunatic awake and free, yet full of conversation.

8. Says the overseer, "I will get up; well have a little meat, sir;
And after that we'll take a walk, and look at my estate, sir."
After they had breakfasted, they kindly did embrace, sir.
Says the overseer, "Yonder is a most elegant place, sir."

9. Then the overseer his pockets groped, and straight began a-crying.
His receipt was gone, he knew not how; it set him near a-dying.
Says the overseer, "I must form a plan, all for to get him in, sir."
Says the lunatic unto himself, "I wish you would begin, sir."

10. Then the overseer he rang the bell, without any further thought, sir.
Says the madman to the turnkey, "This is the man I've brought, sir."
They got hold of the overseer, and hauled him into the place, sir;
Pull'd off his clothes, and shaved his head, and then they wash'd his face, sir.

11. Then he was so ungovernable, and kicked up such a racket,
That quick they bound him hand and foot, put on him a straight-jacket.
When the operation did commence, his mind was filled with stitches,
And the overseer looked in their face like one with dirty breeches.

16. Says the lunatic, "I will go home, my sorrows are all over.
I'm as happy now as ever cow was in a field of clover."
"Where have you left the overseer?" "Where they will make him civil.
I've left him in Lancaster 'sylum as mad as any devil!"

17. A note was sent immediately by the coach, the "Volunteer," sir,
To get to Lancaster with speed, to release the overseer, sir;
And now, poor man, at home again, his mind's full of reflection,
He'll remember Lancaster mad-house to the day of resurrection.

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18 Sep 16 - 07:57 AM (#3810320)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE MANIAC (Lewis/Russell, 1840)
From: Jim Dixon

A copy of the sheet music is in The Levy collection:


THE MANIAC. (1840)
Words in part by Monk Lewis; music by Henry Russell, ©1840.

Hush! 'tis the night watch; he guards my lonely cell!
Hush! 'tis the night watch; hush, 'tis the night watch.
Hush! Hush! He come to guard, to guard my lonely cell!
He comes, he comes this way. Yes, 'tis the night watch!
Yes 'tis the night watch; his glimmering lamp I see.
Hush 'tis the night watch—softly he comes.
Hush! Hush!

No, by Heaven—no, by Heaven, I am not mad!
Oh, release me—oh, release me!
No, by Heaven—no, by Heaven, I am not mad!

I loved her sincerely; I loved her too dearly.
I loved her in sorrow, in joy, and in pain.
But my heart is forsaken, yet ever will awaken
The memory of bliss which ne'er will come again.
Oh, my poor heart is broken—oh, my poor heart is broken!
I see her dancing in the hall—I see her dancing in the hall.
I see her dancing—she heeds me not.

No, by Heaven, &c.

He quits the grate—he turns the key.
He quits the grate; I knelt in vain.
His glimmering lamp still, still I see,
And all, and all is gloom again!
Cold, bitter cold! No life—no light.
Life, all thy comforts once I had,
But here I am chained this freezing night.

No, by Heaven, &c.

For lo! You, while I speak,
Mark how yon demon's eyeballs glare.
He sees me now; with dreadful shriek
He whirls, he whirls me in the air.
Horror! The reptile strikes his tooth
Deep in my heart, so crushed and sad!
Aye, laugh, ye fiends! Laugh, laugh, ye fiends!

Yes, by Heaven—yes, by Heaven, they've driven me mad!
I see her dancing in the hall! I—ha, ha, ha, ha ha!
Oh, release me—oh, release me; she heeds me not!
Yes, by Heaven—yes, by Heaven, they've driven me mad!

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18 Sep 16 - 10:20 PM (#3810390)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Mrrzy

Then there is the maid from Dublin who is murdered, and the murderer "stabbed her and ripped her and cut her in three" - does that count as crazy?

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18 Sep 16 - 10:22 PM (#3810391)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Mrrzy

The song about the person outside the asylum reminds me of the joke about the guy with who gets a flat outside an insane asylum...

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18 Sep 16 - 11:02 PM (#3810394)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Joe_F

I suffer from schizophrenia.
It comes on me in spells.
Sometimes I'm king of Armenia,
And others, I'm Orson Welles.
I've told my psychoanalyst
That I'm a sacred cow.
I'd like to carry a howdah, but
I can't remember how.

-- Flanders & Swann.

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18 Sep 16 - 11:28 PM (#3810395)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: olddude

https://youtu.be/5B1aX9-RxQ0
Here is one I wrote

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19 Sep 16 - 03:47 PM (#3810487)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Mrrzy

I'm crazy for trying and crazy for crying and crazy for loving youuuu

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20 Sep 16 - 10:18 AM (#3810570)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Stewie

Townes had several dark songs related to manic depression. Perhaps the darkest were:

Sanitarium blues

and

Kathleen

About the latter, his friend Chito, who also was bipolar and experienced the same treatment that Townes underwent at Galveston, said that Kathleen was 'the embodiment of the dark depths of manic depression'. He said: 'You don't know Kathleen, do you? Well I know her and Townes sure knew her. She's real and when you go down to see her, you're really going down ... You don't want to go but, on the other hand, you do want to go. You have to go, and there's comfort in that'.

Quoted in Robert Earl Hardy 'Deeper Blue: the life and music of Townes Van Zandt' p 85.

--Stewie.

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20 Sep 16 - 12:18 PM (#3810590)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST,HiLo

Would Warren Zevon's Excitable qualify. In any case, great song.

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20 Sep 16 - 01:11 PM (#3810593)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST,HiLo

Of course it should be Excitable Boy...sorry

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20 Sep 16 - 02:18 PM (#3810605)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Mrrzy

Yes, mentioned above. Great song, great example.

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20 Sep 16 - 06:45 PM (#3810622)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" -- The Beatles
"Aqualung" -- Jethro Tull

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21 Sep 16 - 03:02 PM (#3810738)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: Mrrzy

His mind's in the sink... yeah, crazy.

I'm my own grandpa? I have a cousin a few times removed who went mad after figuring out she was her own niece... she got removed to the insane asylum a few times.

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04 Jul 20 - 05:37 PM (#4062834)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: FreddyHeadey

note Charlie Baum's post above linking to earlier threads
thread.cfm?threadid=160585#3809742
& a 2020 thread
thread.cfm?threadid=168149

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05 Jul 20 - 11:58 PM (#4063011)
Subject: RE: Songs about Insanity
From: GUEST,Bert

And Melanie sings

Look what they've done to my brain Ma
Look what they've done to my brain
They've picked it like a chicken bone
and I think I'm half insane Ma.
Look what they've done to my song.

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06 Jul 20 - 08:21 AM (#4063065)
Subject: Lyr Add: CRAZY JANE (M. G. Lewis)
From: Jim Dixon

The Bodleian has a broadside of the following song, but its text is not as accurate, I believe, as the following text, which is also the oldest I can find; it was repeated in several songbooks.

From The Lady's Magazine, Vol. 30, (London: April, 1799), page 184.


CRAZY JANE.

[The following lines were written in consequence of a lady having, in her walks during a residence in Scotland, met with a poor mad woman, known by the above appellation, at whose appearance the lady was much alarmed.]

By M. G. Lewis, Esq. M. P.

Why, fair maid, in every feature,
Are such signs of fear express'd?
Can a wandering wretched creature,
With such terror fill thy breast?
Do my frenzied looks alarm thee?
Trust me, sweet—thy fears are vain:
Not for kingdoms would I harm thee!
Shun not, then, poor Crazy Jane.

Dost thou weep to see my anguish?
Mark me! and avoid my woe!
When men flatter, sigh, and languish,
Think them false—I found them so.
For I lov'd—oh, so sincerely,
None could ever love again!
But the youth I lov'd so dearly,
Stole the wits of Crazy Jane.

Fondly my young heart receiv'd him,
Which was doom'd to love but one;
He sigh'd—he vow'd—and I believ'd him.
He was false—and I undone.
From that hour has Reason never
Held her empire o'er my brain;
Henry fled—with him for ever
Fled the wits of Crazy Jane.

Now forlorn and broken-hearted,
And with frenzied thoughts beset,
On that spot where last we parted,
On that spot where first we met,
Still I sing my love-lorn ditty,
Still I slowly pace the plain;
Whilst each passer-by, in pity,
Cries—"God help thee, Crazy Jane!"

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06 Jul 20 - 12:42 PM (#4063099)
Subject: Lyr Add: MARY THE MAID OF THE INN (Robert Southey)
From: Jim Dixon

From Poems, Vol. 1, by Robert Southey (Bristol: Longman and Rees, 1799), page 151:


MARY [THE MAID OF THE INN]
By Robert Southey

Who is she, the poor maniac, whose wildly-fix'd eyes
Seem a heart overcharged to express?
She weeps not, yet often and deeply she sighs.
She never complains, but her silence implies
The composure of settled distress.

No aid, no compassion, the maniac will seek.
Cold and hunger awake not her care.
Thro' her rags do the winds of the winter blow bleak
On her poor wither'd bosom half bare, and her cheek
Has the deathly pale hue of despair.

Yet chearful and happy, nor distant the day,
Poor Mary the maniac has been.
The traveller remembers, who journeyed this way,
No damsel so lovely, no damsel so gay,
As Mary, the maid of the inn.

Her cheerful address fill'd the guests with delight,
As she welcomed them in with a smile.
Her heart was a stranger to childish affright,
And Mary would walk by the abbey at night,
When the wind whistled down the dark aisle.

She lov'd, and young Richard had settled the day,
And she hoped to be happy for life;
But Richard was idle and worthless, and they
Who knew him would pity poor Mary, and say
That she was too good for his wife.

'Twas in autumn, and stormy and dark was the night,
And fast were the windows and door.
Two guests sat enjoying the fire that burnt bright,
And smoking in silence with tranquil delight,
They listen'd to hear the wind roar.

"'Tis pleasant," cried one, "seated by the fire-side,
To hear the wind whistle without."
"A fine night for the abbey!" his comrade replied.
"Methinks a man's courage would now be well tried,
Who should wander the ruins about.

"I myself, like a school-boy, should tremble to hear
The hoarse ivy shake over my head,
And could fancy I saw, half persuaded by fear,
Some ugly old abbot's white spirit appear,
For this wind might awaken the dead!"

"I'll wager a dinner," the other one cried,
"That Mary would venture there now."
"Then wager, and lose!" with a sneer he replied.
"I'll warrant she'd fancy a ghost by her side,
And faint if she saw a white cow."

"Will Mary this charge on her courage allow?"
His companion exclaim'd with a smile.
"I shall win, for I know she will venture there now,
And earn a new bonnet by bringing a bough
From the elder that grows in the aisle."

With fearless good humour did Mary comply,
And her way to the abbey she bent.
The night it was dark and the wind it was high,
And, as hollowly howling it swept thro' the sky,
She shivered with cold as she went.

O'er the path so well known still proceeded the maid,
Where the abbey rose dim on the site;
Thro' the gate-way she enter'd; she felt not afraid,
Yet the ruins were lonely and wild, and their shade
Seem'd to deepen the gloom of the night.

All around her was silent, save when the rude blast
Howl'd dismally round the old pile.
Over weed-cover'd fragments still fearless she past,
And arrived at the innermost ruin at last,
Where the elder-tree grew in the aisle.

Well pleas'd did she reach it, and quickly drew near,
And hastily gather'd the bough,
When the sound of a voice seem'd to rise on her ear!
She paus'd, and she listen'd, all eager to hear,
And her heart panted fearfully now.

The wind blew; the hoarse ivy shook over her head.
She listen'd; nought else could she hear.
The wind ceas'd; her heart sunk in her bosom with dread,
For she heard in the ruins distinctly the tread
Of footsteps approaching her near.

Behind a wide column, half breathless with fear,
She crept to conceal herself there.
That instant, the moon o'er a dark cloud shone clear,
And she saw in the moon-light two ruffians appear,
And between them a corpse did they bear.

Then Mary could feel her heart-blood curdle cold!
Again the rough wind hurried by.
It blew off the hat of the one, and behold!
Even close to the feet of poor Mary it roll'd.
She felt, and expected to die!

"Curse the hat!" he exclaims. "Nay, come on, and first hide
The dead body," his comrade replies.
She beholds them in safety pass on by her side.
She seizes the hat, fear her courage supplied,
And fast thro' the abbey she flies.

She ran with wild speed, she rush'd in at the door,
She gazed horribly eager around;
Then her limbs could support their faint burthen no more,
And exhausted and breathless she sunk on the floor,
Unable to utter a sound.

Ere yet her pale lips could the story impart.
For a moment, the hat met her view.
Her eyes from that object convulsively start,
For—O God! What cold horror then thrill'd thro' her heart,
When the name of her Richard she knew!

Where the old abbey stands, on the common hard by,
His gibbet is now to be seen.
Not far from the road it engages the eye.
The traveller beholds it, and thinks with a sigh
Of poor Mary, the maid of the inn.

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