Re: Popular Songs about Mental Illness

[Rick Stevens]

A couple of my favorites are Madman Across the Water, by Elton John, and I Don't Like Mondays, by the Boomtown Rats.  The former sounds schizophrenic and sad.  The latter sounds kind of perky but is about a 16 year-old girl who shot up a grade school, injuring several students and killing a couple of adults.  When asked why she said, "I don't like Mondays." This is from snopes.com... On 29 January 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire on children arriving at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego from her house across the street, killing two men and wounding eight students and a police officer. Principal Burton Wragg was attempting to rescue children in the line of fire when he was shot and killed, and custodian Mike Suchar was slain attempting to aid Wragg. Spencer used a rifle her father had given her as a gift. As to what impelled her into this form of murderous madness, she told a reporter,''I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day.'' The "Mondays" comment was not the only eyebrow-raising declaration to issue from Spencer that day. According to a report written by the police negotiators who spoke with her during the six-hour standoff, she made such comments to them as ''There was no reason for it, and it was just a lot of fun''; ''It was just like shooting ducks in a pond''; and ''[the children ] looked like a herd of cows standing around, it was really easy pickings.'' Jeff Bartel wrote: on 7/16/2004 9:48 AM Marjorie S. Hardy said the following: I'm teaching Abnormal Psychology this fall and am looking to do something a little different this time. I've always been interested in the depiction of mental illness in the media.  Instead of films this time (which can be long, expensive, and difficult to fit into classtime), I thought I would bring some popular and classical rock songs (maybe some country as well?) to class to introduce the different disorders.  I often play music before my general psychology class, and I allow students to submit song ideas for extra credit.  I compiled a list of songs that correspond to the chapters I cover, and they're available from this page: http://www.ship.edu/~jsbart/psy101/music.html Scroll down toward the bottom, and you'll find the songs relevant to the Psychological Disorders chapter. It's been a couple of semesters since I've updated the list, so you'll find that there aren't too many recent songs on it.  In fact, the list started out as only being relevant songs that I owned, and about 3/4 of it remains that way.  Given that my music collection hasn't been growing much recently, you'll find most of the songs date from the late '60s to mid '90s or so. Jeff -- __ Dr. Rick Stevens __ Psychology Department __ University of Louisiana @ Monroe __ [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]