Asperger's syndrome in popular music

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Mad World is a Tears For Fears cover about the Vietnam War. Not really an aspie song.

Oh yes and Craig Nicholls from The Vines has AS. It's been known for a few years.

I respectfully suggest there are dual meanings for the lyrics. Have you seen the movie Donnie Darko? Donnie has "emotional problems" and many autistic behaviors. Including a meltdown scene on a couch outside where his girlfriends asks him to calm down. and his genius knowledge ability with the Smurf Sex scene. his two teachers who work close with him have a scene in the teacher's lounge where they privately proclaim how wierd he is. He does have friends, but clearly has social issues. I could go on and on.

And the author/writer of the movie chose that song for the ending, and it sure wasn't a movie about the Vietnam war.

So regardless of the intention of the song, it clearly discusses personal feelings of suicide and being misunderstood.


hide my head i wanna drown my sorrow
no tomorrow
and i find i kind of funny
i find it kind of sad
the dreams in which i'm dying are the best i've ever had
i find it hard to tell you
i find it hard to take
when people run in circles its a very very
mad world

and i feel the way that every child should
sit and listen
went to school and i was very nervous
no one knew me
hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
look right through me

Last edited by TobyZ on 22 Apr 2009, 8:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Spot on, good Sir!

The character of your current avatar. it was a key interview with the actor that actually played a crucial role in my finding this forum a month or so ago Have you seen it? http://splashpage.mtv.com/2008/08/21/is ... thinks-so/

Oh man, I forgot about that one. No wonder I used to listen to that one repeat for hours.

How do you get vietnam out of mad world?

brian

I love all evanescence songs, I think they really capture the stronger, darker, emotions l seem to get as compared to other people. The songs themselves seem to have more emotional power and depth than a lot of other mainstream music.

Aleximythia by Anberlin I like too.

Yeah but you're just guessing. I like the real meaning in songs.

I'm a bit hesitant on this one.... but the lyrics have a lot of complexity to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yc52NckGLs

The story behind who wrote it is really interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Is_Painless

Ok, I fell for your damn troll and took you seriously.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_World

That came when I lived above a pizza restaurant in Bath and I could look out onto the centre of the city. Not that Bath is very mad - I should have called it "Bourgeois World"!
—Roland Orzabal


I find this only improves the Aspie meaning. bourgeois - A (NT) person whose attitudes and behavior are marked by conformity to the standards and conventions of the middle class.

Last edited by TobyZ on 23 Apr 2009, 3:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Anderson didn't write those lyrics though, Gerald Bostock did

I nominate Why Georgia - John Mayer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJk4Edm8rU

"Take Me Home" by Phil Collins. The song is said to refer to a patient in a mental institution, but I think the lyrics can apply to an aspie:

Take that look of worry, I'm an ordinary man
They don't tell me nothing, so I'm finding out all I can
There's a fire that's been burning right outside my door
I can't see, but I feel it, and it helps to keep me warm

So I, I don't mind, oh I, I don't mind

Seems so long I've been waiting, and I still don't know what for
There ain't no point in escaping, no I don't worry anymore
I can't come out to find you, I don't like to go outside
They can turn off my feelings like they're turning off the light

But I, I don't mind, oh I, I don't mind
Oh I tell you I don't mind, oh I, I tell you I don't mind

So take, take me home, because I don't remember, take, take me home
Because I don't remember, take, take me home, oh Lord

Because I've been a prisoner all my life, and I can see you

Take that look of worry, mine is an ordinary life
Working when it's daylight and sleeping when it's night
I have no far horizons, I don't wish upon no star
They don't think that I listen, ah but I know who they are

But I, I tell you I don't mind, oh I, I tell you I don't mind
Oh I, I tell you that I do not mind, oh I, I don't mind

So take, take me home, because I don't remember, take, take me home
Because I don't remember, take, take me home
Because I don't remember, take, take me home, oh Lord

But I've been a prisoner all my life, and I can see you
But I don't remember - take, take me home

"Generator" by Bad Religion... it reminds me of... I dunno, just sensory stuff.

And for some reason "Clocks" by Coldplay. Don't ask me how, because I don't know.

I also agree with "Mad World", "Enjoy the Silence" (I love the Lacuna Coil version of the song)...

oh my god, really? i remember the first time i saw the movie.. i became totally obsessed with it, mostly because i saw myself behind the wall.. but i didn't know at that time that my wall's name is *asperger syndrome*. i remember being so obsessed with the wall, that i mentioned the movie in my final exams in high school

i don't know how about you all, but i am crazy about ambient music - i find it very *autistic* - no words, just pictures flowing through my brain...

talking about aspie musicians - there is a hungarian band Neo (if any of you knows the hungarian movie Kontroll - they made the soundtrack..) - i know the band members and i think that one of them is an Aspie, but i'm not 100% sure

Ehhhh, I really DONT think that song is about Asperger Syndrome. Its about someone who's isolating themselves because they had a bad relationship experience.

WHY hasnt anyone mentioned "Subdivisions" by RUSH(the band)???
AFAIC that song truly encapsulates much of the Aspie experience.

I mentioned it in a similar thread a few years back (or maybe not, I thought I'd been here longer than I actually have). I don't really know too much about Peart personally, but I've always felt that Rush is the ultimate "geek" band.

I've also always identified strongly with Peter Gabriel's work.

But to get a bit out of the "speculation" bit, in Autism the Musical, we find out one of the children featured (who has AS) is the son of Stephen Stills, and Stephen mentions how he can relate to his son's symptoms in many ways.

What about "talk" by coldplay?

Also the song "I like you" by morrissey reminds me of me and my best aspie friend. Lyrics:
Something in you caused me to
Take a new tact with you
You were going through something
I had just about scraped through
Why do you think I let you get away
With the things you say to me?
Could it be I like you
It's so shameful of me, I like you

No one I ever knew or have spoken to
Resembles you
This is good or bad, all depending on
My general mood
Why do you think I let you get away
With all the things you say to me?
Could it be I like you
It's so shameful of me, I like you

Magistrates who spend their lives
Hiding their mistakes
They look at you and I, and
Envy makes them cry, Envy makes them cry

Forces of containment
They shove their fat faces into mine
You and I just smile
Because we're thinking the same lines
Why do you think I let you get away
With all the things you say to me?
Could it be I like you
It's so shameful of me, I like you

You're not right in the head and nor am I
And this is why
You're not right in the head and nor am I
And this is why
This is why I like you, I like you, I like you
This is why I like you, I like you, I like you
Because you're not right in the head, and nor am I
And this is why, You're not right in the head, and nor am I
And this is why, This is why I like you, I like you, I like you, I like you
This is why I like you, I like you, I like you, I like you, This is why I like