Music: Were Pink Floyd the first band to write songs about mental illness?

[CycloneLaunch]

A question for the music historians on the boards

Obviously with the whole Syd Barrett situation this would be a frequent topic in their lyrics, but were they the first band to do it? Anyone know of any other songs from that era?

Weirdly specific question i know, I don't even really have a good reason either, was just listening to Pulse and thinking about it.

Feel free to post any other songs about the subject tbh

Click to read more...

 

[Bubba Thudd]

I don't know, but The Who were the first band to vomit in the bar, and find the distance to the stage too far.

 

[Xelebes]

A lot of country and blues bands from before the development of rock n roll openly talk about addiction, alcoholism, depression and the sort so no.

 

[jw2]

I think the Wish you were here album (shine on you crazy diamond) was much deeper and more direct about mental issues. Most songs were written during the same time as Dark Side of the Moon,

 

[Xelebes]

This song was written in 1917 and here recorded in 1918. It was a huge hit back then because it was encouragement for soldiers experiencing shell shock (PTSD) to return to normal life including finding love. Stammering and stuttering was a common symptom.

 

[kook10]

[Yt]EZC6Ot1MLP0[/MEDIA]

[Yt]GTroJlLPRHM[/MEDIA]


[Yt]MHAzNU4Vsus[/MEDIA]

 

[tarheelhockey]

Seems to me that Pink Floyd started writing about it at the same time as several other major bands. The Who did "Quadrophenia", and the Kinks did "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues", both in the early 70s around the same time Dark Side came out. The Beatles certainly worked mental illness into their late 60s and early 70s songs, such as "Yer Blues". Bob Dylan predated those by a few years with songs like "Black Crow Blues".

I think all of this was driven in large part by a reaction to the sort of culture that produced these kinds of novelty hits in the early/mid 60s:

 

[Jumptheshark]

Lot of country song dealt with it

 

[themightyquinn]

Mother's Little Helper by The Stones in 1966 is generally assumed/accepted to be about Valium.

I guess it would fit the narrative for the anxiety/stress of homemakers at the time in dealing with their children and the mental toll it takes.

Of course this would be the 1960's as women try to raise children while the men were at work. (ie. Leave it to Beaver, The Brady Bunch, etc.)

 

[Jumptheshark]

http://depression.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_songs_about_mental_illness

 

[bigdirty]

I don't know, but The Who were the first band to vomit in the bar, and find the distance to the stage too far.

Love that song.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

What about the song "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath???

 

[Acadmus]

The Beatles certainly worked mental illness into their late 60s and early 70s songs, such as "Yer Blues".

Ummm....Helter Skelter, anyone?

Not actually about mental illness (McCartney just wanted to do a "screaming" rock song in the style of The Who and it's not about anything in particular - ironically Roger Daltrey covered the song on a 2014 album "The Art of McCartney"), but you can easily derive it from the lyrics, and one person infamously did

 

[tarheelhockey]

Ummm....Helter Skelter, anyone?

Not actually about mental illness (McCartney just wanted to do a "screaming" rock song in the style of The Who and it's not about anything in particular - ironically Roger Daltrey covered the song on a 2014 album "The Art of McCartney"), but you can easily derive it from the lyrics, and one person infamously did

That's why I didn't mention it

 

[Hasbro]

Lot of country song dealt with it

Especially if you count alcoholism.

 

[Mrb1p]

Are we going to attribute another great quality to an average band again?

Pink floyd didnt invent anything.

 

[Acadmus]

Mother's Little Helper by The Stones in 1966 is generally assumed/accepted to be about Valium.

I guess it would fit the narrative for the anxiety/stress of homemakers at the time in dealing with their children and the mental toll it takes.

Of course this would be the 1960's as women try to raise children while the men were at work. (ie. Leave it to Beaver, The Brady Bunch, etc.)

Was it about valium, or the other (disastrously) widespread anti-anxiety medication of the time, thalidomide?

 

[Xelebes]

Thalidomide was used as an anti-nausea medication, not anti-anxiety.

 

[kook10]

Was it about valium, or the other (disastrously) widespread anti-anxiety medication of the time, thalidomide?

Valium was the "little yellow pill". In any case, 19th Nervous Breakdown would seem to fit this thread better. Hendrix 's Manic Depression pretty well hits it on the nose too.

 

[Jumptheshark]

since this thread was started I actually thought about artists and others who wrote about mental illness

most pink floyds songs the OP thinks are are about mental illness are songs about mental illness but are not actually about mental illness but songs about how people dealt with people who had the illness

in the 1960's Ray Davies wrote many songs about his state of mind--not realizing he was actually writing about the depression he was dealing with

many artist wrote about mental illness but were not as overt about it as floyd was

 

[kook10]

since this thread was started I actually thought about artists and others who wrote about mental illness

most pink floyds songs the OP thinks are are about mental illness are songs about how people dealt with mental illness but are not actually about mental illness

in the 1960's Ray Davies wrote many songs about his state of mind--not realizing he was actually writing about the depression he was dealing with

many artist wrote about mental illness but were not as overt about it as floyd was

Right - the Beatles had a bunch too with I'm So Tired, even Eleanor Rigby, etc. Generally you wouldn't consider that in the same group, but they are an expression of some form of pathos. The Kinks were fairly innocent with it as well (even Acute Paranoia Schizophrenic Blues [71] was tongue in cheek).

Clearly there was an evolution of the topic in the mid to late sixties and early seventies that went from innocently fun or funny songs about being crazy, to songs about being out of your gourd in psychedelic travels, to full blown mourning of acid casualties.

 

[Oscar Acosta]

Ummm....Helter Skelter, anyone?

Not actually about mental illness (McCartney just wanted to do a "screaming" rock song in the style of The Who and it's not about anything in particular - ironically Roger Daltrey covered the song on a 2014 album "The Art of McCartney"), but you can easily derive it from the lyrics, and one person infamously did

My favourite Beatles song. And absolutely.

"When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide, then I stop and I turn and I go for a ride, till I get to the bottom and I see you again"

HELTER SKELTER

Unfortunately, Charles Manson didn't see that so much as a depression song, as much a call to arms for a race war that didn't exist.

 

[Porn*]

let's not forget about the "blues"

 

[tarheelhockey]

let's not forget about the "blues"

Interesting point. Plenty of blues songs imply depression or insanity, without addressing them directly. And the older ones come from a world where the whole concept of "mental illness" was wrapped into other cultural points of reference.

Early this morning
When you knocked upon my door
Early this morning, oooo
When you knocked upon my door
And I said hello Satan
I believe it's time to go

Me and the Devil
Was walkin' side by side
Me and the Devil, woooo
Was walking side by side
And I'm going to beat my woman
'Til I get satisfied

She said you don't see why
That she would dog me 'round
(Spoken) Now baby you know you ain't doin' me right don'tcha
She say you don't see why, whoooo
That she would dog me 'round
It must-a be that old evil spirit
So deep down in the ground
You may bury my body
Down by the highway side
(Spoken) Baby, I don't care where you bury my body when I'm dead and gone
You may bury my body, woooo
Down by the highway side
So my old evil spirit
Can get a Greyhound bus and ride


Mental illness? Righteous anger at having been done wrong by a woman? Literal spiritual possession? Mental distress (accompanied by physical violence) is a trope in a lot of early blues songs, but the episodes are usually framed in a way that puts interpersonal relationships at the center of the narrative. I don't know of any that really give consideration to the underlying mental condition of the narrator, outside of how he is responding to a particular event. It's always "I've got the blues because ________", which in itself is a little window into what it was like to have clinical depression before the condition was understood.

 

[Xelebes]

Don't confuse the blues with depression. While it may be a major illness associated with it, it can also stand for a variety of other illnesses.

For example, we know the narrator beat his wife. That may be depression, PTSD, anxiety/phobia or any other forms that may cause one to lash out at their loved ones. The narrator only identifies the rage that caused him to lash out as a devil. It is unclear whether the narrator associated that devil with hard liquor (spirits).