Songs about mental illness

[Vinnie Vegas]

I always thought it was about anorexia and the issues Daniel Johns had with it? Maybe? I might have that wrong.

No you are correct.
The song is definitely about anorexia.

"And you're my obsession
I love you to the bones
And Ana wrecks your life
Like an Anorexia life"

Uh, guys - Anorexia IS a mental illness.

It's not a physical condition that causes them to believe that they're fat, even when their ribcage shows through their skin.

 

[krisholio14]

Making Plans For Nigel - XTC

Gimme Gimme Nervous Breakdown - TISM

Then theres the entire 'From the Inside' album by Alice Cooper.

 

[Hanis]

Devo - Too Much Paranoia

think i got your dial tone
think i got billy baxter's bone
think i got a bubble-sac
think i got a big mac attack
hold the pickles hold the lettuce
special orders don't upset us
all we ask is that you let us
server it your way
too much paranoias
my momma's afraid to tell me
the things she's afraid of
i been dipped in double meaning
i been stuck with static cling
think i got a rupto-pac
think i got a big mac attack

 

[CaptainDavey]

Uh, guys - Anorexia IS a mental illness.

It's not a physical condition that causes them to believe that they're fat, even when their ribcage shows through their skin.

My bad, makes sense when you put it that way

 

[EnglishWarrior]

These

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[skilts]

'Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)' - Billy Thorpe.

'All the Madmen' - Bowie. The lyrics are below.

All The Madmen - The Song

Words and music by David Bowie
Lyrics

Day after day
They send my friends away
To mansions cold and grey
To the far side of town
Where the thin men stalk the streets
While the sane stay underground

Day after day
They tell me I can go
They tell me I can blow
To the far side of town
Where it's pointless to be high
'Cause it's such a long way down

So I tell them that
I can fly, I will scream, I will break my arm
I will do me harm
Here I stand, foot in hand, talking to my wall
I'm not quite right at all...am I?

Don't set me free, I'm as heavy as can be
Just my librium and me
And my E.S.T. makes three

'Cause I'd rather stay here
With all the madmen
Than perish with the sadmen roaming free
And I'd rather play here
With all the madmen
For I'm quite content they're all as sane
As me

(Where can the horizon lie
When a nation hides
Its organic minds
In a cellar...dark and grim
They must be very dim)

Day after day
They take some brain away
Then turn my face around
To the far side of town
And tell me that it's real
Then ask me how I feel

Here I stand, foot in hand, talking to my wall
I'm not quite right at all

Don't set me free, I'm as helpless as can be
My libido's split on me
Gimme some good 'ole lobotomy

'Cause I'd rather stay here
With all the madmen
Than perish with the sadmen
Roaming free
And I'd rather play here
With all the madmen
For I'm quite content
They're all as sane as me

Zane, Zane, Zane
Ouvre le Chien (rpt)

 

[-Buzz-]

Bi-Polar Bear and Black Again by Stone Temple Pilots.

 

[John]

'Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)' - Billy Thorpe.

'All the Madmen' - Bowie. The lyrics are below.

All The Madmen - The Song

Words and music by David Bowie
Lyrics

Day after day
They send my friends away
To mansions cold and grey
To the far side of town
Where the thin men stalk the streets
While the sane stay underground

Day after day
They tell me I can go
They tell me I can blow
To the far side of town
Where it's pointless to be high
'Cause it's such a long way down

So I tell them that
I can fly, I will scream, I will break my arm
I will do me harm
Here I stand, foot in hand, talking to my wall
I'm not quite right at all...am I?

Don't set me free, I'm as heavy as can be
Just my librium and me
And my E.S.T. makes three

'Cause I'd rather stay here
With all the madmen
Than perish with the sadmen roaming free
And I'd rather play here
With all the madmen
For I'm quite content they're all as sane
As me

(Where can the horizon lie
When a nation hides
Its organic minds
In a cellar...dark and grim
They must be very dim)

Day after day
They take some brain away
Then turn my face around
To the far side of town
And tell me that it's real
Then ask me how I feel

Here I stand, foot in hand, talking to my wall
I'm not quite right at all

Don't set me free, I'm as helpless as can be
My libido's split on me
Gimme some good 'ole lobotomy

'Cause I'd rather stay here
With all the madmen
Than perish with the sadmen
Roaming free
And I'd rather play here
With all the madmen
For I'm quite content
They're all as sane as me

Zane, Zane, Zane
Ouvre le Chien (rpt)

IIRC he wrote that about his brother

 

[Skeppersap]

no, they mean songs about people mentally ill. not songs written by mentally ill.

Hilarious.

Extremely funny.

i wish i had such a sense of humour.

I guarantee you that Matchbox 20s band members are much more talented at music than you are at any activity you would partake in.

 

[anti.]

Hilarious.

Extremely funny.

i wish i had such a sense of humour.

I guarantee you that Matchbox 20s band members are much more talented at music than you are at any activity you would partake in.

you gotta give me more credit than that. i dont think you could ever say that for anyone, its just not possible.

 

[sweepi4]

alexisonfire - sharks and danger
although it might jus be about havin panic/anxiety attacks, which i guess r forms of mental illness, non the less it gives me anxiety definately wen i listen to it

[Woman]

St. Catharines Psychiatric Help Line, this is Nancy.

[Man]

I'm sure this is all gonna sound really ridiculous and uh... I don't exactly expect anyone to believe all this. Uh... for the last little while I've been kinda keeping correspondance with my sanity, and uhh… I really get the feeling that I’m starting to lose interest in the letter writing process. The pieces of the letters, they just get progressively shorter and shorter until it’s not even a reply. I uhh... the whole thing makes me really nervous. I just wish I could show you what a huge problem this is.

As life hangs beside me
I gather all that I can
You were never one for confrontation
But now it lies all in your hands

Your hands...

[Man]

I kind of have this... Really terrible habit of asking myself all these stupid questions, right? Like what if uhh… what if there's a spot on my body that I can touch to keep my heart from beating? or like what if, what if theres this uhh... stray bullet out there that’s gonna come through my window and take me out? like what if uhh... what if theres this huge unstoppable comet that’s just gonna like, destroy the earth and all of us? Like what... what if that’s happening right now? How can I avoid all these questions if I don't have that? Like, who is gonna be here? Why... who is gonna be there... in the hospital? Who is gonna tell me that all this is bullshit... its a dream? Just a dream.This is not a joke. And uhh... i'll never sleep.

Who will be there to tell
Me how stupid I am? [4x]

Who will keep me from lashing out? (lashing out)
Anxiety chokes me like razor wire (razor wire)
Who will keep me from lashing out? (lashing out)
Anxiety chokes me like razor wire (razor wire)

Now it's all in your hands, in your hands [x4]

(Anxiety chokes me like razor wire)

Anxiety chokes me like razor wire, razor wire... [to fade]

[click]

 

[chooke]

Here are some from the outer...

Supertramp - hide in your shell
Icehouse - walls
Aerosmith - dream on
Police - SOS
ELO - 21st century man
Led Zeppelin - Black dog
Alan Parsons - Don't let it show, day after day
The Angels - Shadow boxer
John Lennon - Crippled inside
Misex - Blue day

 

[Angus1]

Uh, guys - Anorexia IS a mental illness.

It's not a physical condition that causes them to believe that they're fat, even when their ribcage shows through their skin.

Yes of course it is.
I was just pointing out to Captain Davey that indeed the song was about Anorexia.

Mental illness is a pretty broad term. In general people associate it with crazy people such as Michael Jackson but in actually fact the term is widely used to describe a large section of the community.

 

[Corrosion]

Pearl Jam - Daughter

 

[Fossie 32]

Making Plans For Nigel - XTC
.

Great song, but surprised you think its about mental illness [tho that could be right] ...... I would have thought more about control over other's lives as per the Song Meanings site
http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=3530822107858522266


I would add Isolation and Crippled Inside by J Lennon

 

[emuboy]

The Dream Police by Cheap Trick is the best song about mental illness.

 

[Vinnie Vegas]

Pearl Jam - Daughter

Not so much (it's about child abuse, possibly due to dyslexia), but that reminded me:

Pearl Jam's "Mamasan trilogy", Alive, Once and Footsteps, in that order.

Alive is about a son becoming involved in an incestuous relationship with his mother after she tells him that the man that he thinks is his father is actually his step father, and that he has grown up to be the spitting image of his birth father.

Once is about the boy struggling to contain his rage and anger and eventually letting loose and going on a killing spree.

Footsteps is his reflection as he sits in a jail cell, awaiting his execution.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Not so much (it's about child abuse, possibly due to dyslexia), but that reminded me:

Pearl Jam's "Mamasan trilogy", Alive, Once and Footsteps, in that order.

Alive is about a son becoming involved in an incestuous relationship with his mother after she tells him that the man that he thinks is his father is actually his step father, and that he has grown up to be the spitting image of his birth father.

Once is about the boy struggling to contain his rage and anger and eventually letting loose and going on a killing spree.

Footsteps is his reflection as he sits in a jail cell, awaiting his execution.

Jeremy isn't about the same kid, is it?

 

[krisholio14]

The Dream Police by Cheap Trick is the best song about mental illness.

Especially Apu's version....

'The Dream Police, they live inside of my bed,

The Dream Police, they come to me in my head.'

 

[krisholio14]

Let us also not forget Suicidal Tendencies...

'Institutionalized'

'How Will I Laugh Tomorrow'

'Trip At the Brain'

'The Feeling's Back'

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Anything written by Kurt Cobain.

 

[midorigreenwood]

The Cutter - Echo and the Bunnymen

I think Wave of Mutilation by the Pixies was about the phenomenon of japanese businessmen driving off the cliff with their families in the car.

shes hearing voices - Bloc party

 

[Vinnie Vegas]

Jeremy isn't about the same kid, is it?

It sounds like it could be, and might certainly be considered along the same lines. However, seeing as Jeremy is about a troubled young student who commits suicide in front of his class (making it ALSO about mental illness), it can't be about the kid who ends up on Death Row.

The story of the "Mamasan trilogy" goes that after the drug overdose death of Andrew Wood, the lead singer of Mother Love Bone, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were looking at starting a new band.

Stone hooked up with Mike McCready, who he had known from years before, and eventually Jeff Ament started playing with them as well.

Eddie Vedder had received a demo tape of Stone, Jeff and Mike's music, and wrote lyrics to three songs, recorded them over the music and sent it back. These three songs were Alive, Once and Footsteps - The "Mamasan" trilogy. Obviously, this led to an audition for Vedder, and the rest is history.

As an aside, Stone, Jeff and Mike were invited by Chris Cornell into the Temple of the Dog project, which was a tribute to Andrew Wood. Eddie Vedder had come to Seattle to audition for Stone, Jeff and Mike's band, and ended up dueting with Cornell on the legendary Hunger Strike.

Additionally, Even Flow is about a homeless guy with schizophrenia, so there's another one.

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

The End - The Doors

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

Adam's Song - Blink 182

Tell Me Why I Dont Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats

You've Got A Friend - James Taylor

Acute Schizophrenia Paranoid Blues - The Kinks

Talking Heads: Psycho Killer

The Kinks: Killer's Eyes

The Adverts: Gary Gilmore's Eyes

The Kinks: Destroyer

Fire and Rain - James Taylor