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StuartN
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03 Nov 2011, 8:44 am

Does anyone have suggestions for music containing representations of disability, perhaps specifically autistic spectrum disorder?

Examples that explicitly represent disability are "Spasticus Autisticus" by Ian Dury written and performed by someone expressing a political opinion related to his own disability, and "Pi" by Kate Bush which is an observation of a man who is probably on the autistic spectrum.

Bad representations (stereotypes and lazy metaphors, e.g. "Castles made of sand" by Jimi Hendrix) are just as welcome as good representations.



sMeow
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03 Nov 2011, 10:15 am

I don't know any voluntary representations of the autistic spectrum. But when I was depressive, I felt the AS like this - the song was not written for the AS, as I've already said - ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8BRbM52gpc

Obiously, it's not how most of us see the spectrum, but some feel this like a disease.


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03 Nov 2011, 12:19 pm

early 20th century classical composer bela bartok was probably an aspie.beethoven may have been on the spectrum.i know very little about jimi hendrix but i dont know of him writing a song mocking auties or aspies.autism was unheard of then.im not sure what was meant by that


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Simonono
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03 Nov 2011, 12:52 pm

:D

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMGG0VuyUBA[/youtube]



Janissy
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03 Nov 2011, 2:11 pm

How about "Cars" by Gary Numan. He has publicly stated he has Aspergers Syndrome and the song is about the joy of being in a car's isolated space.

I used to hate the song "Spasticus Autisticus". It was the only song of Ian Drury's I refused to listen to. I did not have the slightest idea he was disabled. He was popular when I was young and I loved all his songs and his robotic dance style where he swiveled on one leg. I just couldn't reconcile how somebody could be so otherwise awesome yet write this one song that seemed to be cruelly mocking disabled people.

Recently I saw the movie Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll which is a biographical movie about Ian Drury. In this movie I learned he had a disabled leg from childhood polio. Then I discovered that his dance style I liked was his way of accomodating his disabled leg while dancing. And finally near the end of the movie I discovered that "Spasticus Autisticus" was not mocking disabled people but was meant as a jab at the people who wanted him to be a poster boy for disability. It was a paradigm reversal after about 30 years of me boycotting the song. So I bought it on itunes so I could listen to it with fresh ears with this new information.

There is the entire Wall album where Pink Floyd analyzes former bandmate Syd Barret's schizophrenia (which is why he didn't stay in the band) but that might be too involved.



Gedrene
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03 Nov 2011, 2:26 pm

Janissy wrote:
How about "Cars" by Gary Numan. He has publicly stated he has Aspergers Syndrome and the song is about the joy of being in a car's isolated space.

I used to hate the song "Spasticus Autisticus". It was the only song of Ian Drury's I refused to listen to. I did not have the slightest idea he was disabled. He was popular when I was young and I loved all his songs and his robotic dance style where he swiveled on one leg. I just couldn't reconcile how somebody could be so otherwise awesome yet write this one song that seemed to be cruelly mocking disabled people.

Recently I saw the movie Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll which is a biographical movie about Ian Drury. In this movie I learned he had a disabled leg from childhood polio. Then I discovered that his dance style I liked was his way of accomodating his disabled leg while dancing. And finally near the end of the movie I discovered that "Spasticus Autisticus" was not mocking disabled people but was meant as a jab at the people who wanted him to be a poster boy for disability. It was a paradigm reversal after about 30 years of me boycotting the song. So I bought it on itunes so I could listen to it with fresh ears with this new information.

There is the entire Wall album where Pink Floyd analyzes former bandmate Syd Barret's schizophrenia (which is why he didn't stay in the band) but that might be too involved.

I think spasticus autisticus was also used by Ian Dury to basically mock the fact that he himself was disabled. Furthermore I believe that the wall isn't about Syd Barrett. I think it's about a man who shuts himself off from the world after having not reconciled with the general misery he had during his childhood.



StuartN
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04 Nov 2011, 10:38 am

Janissy wrote:
How about "Cars" by Gary Numan


A great track, because although I personally hate being in a car, it really does capture the aspect of safety and enclosure.

Janissy wrote:
I used to hate the song "Spasticus Autisticus".


I always loved this track, as well as "The Screamers Dance" and "Manic Depression (Jimi)", which has the wonderful line "it's the way the cripple crumbles". (And of course the original "Manic Depression" by Jimi Hendrix, although it appears to be about the colloquial "being manic" and not actually manic depressed).

Other suggestions are Smashing Pumkins "Spaceboy", Dream Theater "Solitary Shell", Pearl Jam "Daughter", Devo "Mongoloid" and Andrew Bird "Tea and Thorazine", which all refer explicitly to an experience of disability.