Post Songs about Autistic people

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Andy Kaufman was actually autistic

Quite funny. I have had that song going around in my head for about the past 3 months.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdGXCeriByM[/youtube]

In the place you said you'd meet me, I don't see you hanging around -
I'm goin' home-
If that's all you ever tell me, seems you don't wanna be found -
And I'm goin' home-
Don't come over, I can't get lower
No more meetin', I been beaten
Got a blast of what I should be busy doing. Yes, I'm lost -
I'm goin' home-
I want to tell you that I miss you, but I'm pissed you blew me off -
I'm goin' home-
No more meetin', I been beaten
Go ahead fake it, I can't shake it

I breathe all alone
I need nothing, I can do

By the pound the tension's mountin' wrapped around me feelin' tight -
I'm goin' home-
If you're castin' out some psycho, you'll need me. Tantrum? I won't bite -
I'm goin' home-
On a day that's burnin' this crazed, don't tempt me 'cause I might -
I'm goin' home-
If it's gonna be the last time, well then maybe it's alright -
I'm goin' home-
It's inside, but go ahead fight it
I've about had it, go ahead grab it
I can't take it, go ahead fake it

I breath all alone for you
I need and you know it's true
I breath all alone for you
I need nothin', I can do

People tell me that you miss me and I guess I'm doin' fine

2 by Donna Williams:

All Be Happy (which of course was written and performed by an autistic woman, but still one of my absolute favorite songs as regards to my experience of life):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKk3mCqLDUI[/youtube]

No lyrics available because she only publishes them on her CD liner notes. CDs can be ordered here.

And 'Mutation':

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekW3IfEMf9w[/youtube]

Note that those two, I've seen people have extreme aversive reactions to within seconds, for some reason. I got my signature line from the second one. (And it doesn't mean quite the same thing as Oscar Wilde, but is AFAIK an intentional reference to that quote.)

Also, Nonphenomenal lineage (that link goes to lyrics, below is the music -- doesn't have to be autistic person, but still goes well with some experiences we often have) by Grandaddy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqfo7_I6-7I[/youtube]

I think that's really interesting that people react that way, both videos delighted me from the beginning.

People are really threatened by her for some reason. A whole bunch of people tried to discredit her autism because she had atypical experiences.

But she's just such an amazing artist, in every way...

"Quasimodo" by Lifehouse
You could be right and i'll be real
honesty won't be a pain you'll have to feel
'cause i don't need your approval to find my worth
i've been trapped inside of my own mind
afraid to open my eyes to what i'd find
i don't want to live like this anymore

there goes my pain
there goes my chains
did you see them fall
there goes this feeling that has no meaning
there goes the world off of my shoulders
there goes the world off of my back
there it goes

does it scare you that i can be something different than you
would it make you feel more comfortable if i wasn't
you can't control me
you can't take away from me who i am

there goes my pain
there goes my chains
did you see them fall
there goes this feeling that has no meaning
there goes the world off of my shoulders
there goes the world off of my back

you can't change me
you can't break me

there goes the world off of my shoulders
there goes the world off of my back


have you ever felt that your only comfort was your cage
your not alone i have felt the same as you
have you felt like your secrets give you away
you're not alone i have been there too
everyone is looking and everyone is laughing
but i think everyone feels the same
everybody wants to feel okay
everybody wants to
everybody wants to feel

there goes my pain
there goes my chains
did you see them fall
there goes this feeling that has no meaning
there goes the world off of my shoulders
there goes the world off of my back

'cause you can't change me you can't break me
there goes the world off of my shoulders
there goes the world off of my back 'cause i don't it



I agree with you though most of the songs posted are vampy and depressing. I also think the Linkin' Park song "Faint" screams Asperger's though.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb-Nacm-pKc[/youtube]

Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone, my senses reeled
Fatal attraction is holding me fast
How can I escape its irresistible grasp?
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies,
Tongue-tied and twisted,
Just an earthbound misfit, I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to find my way home
Unladen, empty, and turned to stone
My sole ambition is learning to fly
Condition grounded, but determined to try
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted,
Just an earthbound misfit, I

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer
My grubby halo a vapor trail in the empty air
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unfettered by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night
There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, a state of bliss
Can't keep my mind from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted,
Just an earthbound misfit, I

I dunno - doesn't sound depressing to me, more triumphant really...

Yeah. The people who reacted that way, are people who don't mind her work, they just found it aversive in a sensory way. One of them for instance found the background noise in the first one impossible to hear the lyrics over.



Actually that one was a really weird thing -- an old professor of hers (who had made sexually suggestive comments to her during her mandatory private consultations with him) rounded up a bunch of people to do that to her, under the pretense of it being research for his field. She also faced financial extortion attempts with the existence of those people (some of whom included people who had abused her in the past, bullies, and people who didn't even know her but thought they did or were willing to say they did) used as the blackmail tactic. So it wasn't as much some quality of hers, as much as some twisted guy from her past, that caused that.

Unfortunately people have built their distrust of her on top of the actions of that guy, without even knowing what they were perpetuating. It's like they go from "Her experiences aren't like mine" to "Wow look at that interview she must not be real," and that's not the direction to go with any autistic person just because you don't identify with them.



Yeah she is.

Yeah, I agree. This song got me through junior high, and was one of the songs I listened to while writing an award-winning screenplay about an institution (I was in eighth grade though, so it wasn't like it was actually filmed).

When I was in 10th grade, I had a class called Sources of Inspiration, or something, and one assignment was to bring in a song that was meaningful to us, and I played this song in front of the class. I got very into it and ended up sitting by the podium and rocking.

That's so awful, that people would do that to her.
I find it easy to believe she is autistic, some of the experiences and perspectives she describes I just identify so deeply with. I can understand some others not sharing that identification, though, since autism is such a variable experience.
Thanks for the information, by the way!

"Bad Day" by R.E.M.
"Fighter" by Christina Aguilera
"Survivior" by Destiny's Child

The song Jeremy is about a school shooting.

The song "Jeremy" is about a boy who is implied to have committed a school shooting - or possibly have committed suicide in front of his class, the video is a bit hazy on this point (deliberately, I think). However, the description of Jeremy sounds hauntingly familiar from my own school days. I didn't shoot up the school largely because I was able to control those impulses.

Clearly I remember
Picking on the boy,
Seemed a harmless little f&ck
Oh, but we unleashed a lion...

That doesn't remind you of anyone from your own past? Perhaps someone you knew well? Or someone you were?

People who were picked on in school tend to have anger issues.



Grade school in particular gave me a lot of problems. The kid in this song must still be in grade school because recess is mentioned. The lyrics you quoted plus

and he hit me with a surprise left...my jaw left hurting dropped right open...

Implies rage beyond what anyone expected from Jeremy thus foreshadowing the events that would later happen...utter surprise at the violence behind his actions. His actions inspired by being picked on and frustration at not being able to express it.

Jeremy was a quiet boy, emersed in his own fantasy world. He expienced megalomaniac fantasies of being a villian:

King Jeremy The Wicked ruled his world. Jeremy spoke in class today.


The implication is Jeremy did something in class to fulfill his violent fantasies of power and control.

One part of the song confuses me.

Then he hit me with a surprise left
my jaw left hurtin' dropped right open
just like the day
like the day I heard...

Okay. The implication is that Jeremy commited a school shooting but then the words 'like the day I heard' suggests that the song's narrator hears about something Jeremy does later, probably on the news. So which is it? School shooting or a shooting at work or a bank robbery or what? Maybe the song's narrator was absent on the day of the shooting or was in a different part of the school and heard about it later or was who knows?

Last edited by ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo on 10 Aug 2008, 12:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ana, not to be jerk, but I was becoming more and more unconvinced of your original hypothesis as you quoted more and more of that song-even tho I agreed with you from the beginning! There was something about that song that made me agree, so I took a looksee:

There's the proof. Doesn't say specifically, and I wouldn't imply it myself, but that's the most convincing lyric in my opinion.

Jr, that is Jeremy's fantasy. He has fantasies of being the evil villian, the Wicked king who kills a bunch of people. Isn't that obvious? He is drawing pictures about his fantasies of killing people. I don't agree the song is about someone with AS or an ASD though. Just a song about a troubled youth.