All I know is I take my medicine, I always take my medicine.
May 18, 2012 2:26 AM   Subscribe

[PlaylistFilter] Songs about being on, or prescribed with, psychiatric medication.

I found a few songs about being medicated for mental illness.

Jonathan Coulton - I Feel Fantastic
Evan Greer - Adderall Song
Evanescence - Lithium
Andrew Bird - Core and Rind

MeFites, can you think of some more?
posted by Yma to Media & Arts (51 answers total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Panda Bear - Take Pills
posted by sarastro at 2:27 AM on May 18, 2012


Placebo - Meds
posted by geek anachronism at 2:33 AM on May 18, 2012


Nirvana - Lithium
posted by pompomtom at 2:34 AM on May 18, 2012




Napoleon XIV - They're Coming To Take Me Away
posted by pompomtom at 2:37 AM on May 18, 2012


Fall Out Boy's Atavan Halen is partly a reference to Ativan, the anti-anxiety medication.

The National's Sorrow doesn't mention a specific medication but includes the line "sorrow, they put me on the pill".
posted by badmoonrising at 3:33 AM on May 18, 2012


Ween - Zoloft
posted by seriousmoonlight at 3:38 AM on May 18, 2012


Garbage - Medication
posted by greenish at 3:42 AM on May 18, 2012


Mother's Little Helper
posted by drlith at 3:52 AM on May 18, 2012


Morrissey - Something is Squeezing My Skull
posted by kreestar at 3:54 AM on May 18, 2012


There are at least two songs called "The Thorazine Shuffle". At least they sound like different songs to me. It's hard to tell with all the meds...
posted by ubiquity at 4:16 AM on May 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Here is a link for the song mentioned above, Placebo's "Meds".
posted by ubiquity at 4:27 AM on May 18, 2012


It's a bit of a stretch, but "This is a Call" mentions Ritalin. The lyrics are incomprehensible, so it's not clear whether it's actually ABOUT being on Ritalin.
posted by ubiquity at 4:35 AM on May 18, 2012


And, thanks to the musical tastes of my younger days, when the hair was long and the....well, the hair was definitely long, here's yet another Thorazine Shuffle.
posted by Ducks or monkeys at 4:44 AM on May 18, 2012


The Ramones - Psycho Therapy and We're a Happy Family
posted by Rob Rockets at 5:04 AM on May 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Garbage--Medication
posted by crush-onastick at 5:11 AM on May 18, 2012


David Bowie - All the Madmen
posted by hangashore at 5:13 AM on May 18, 2012


Eels - Novocaine for the Soul "Life is hard / And so am i / You'd better give me something /So i don't die"

Eels - Electro-shock blues "Pink pill feels good / finally understood"

Eels - The Medication Is Wearing Off "The medication's wearing off / Gonna hurt not a little, a lot"

A Perfect Circle - The Outsider "Medicated drama queen..."

Girl Anachronism - The Dresden Dolls "and the pills that i ate / came a couple years too late"

Dear Jenny... - Amanda Palmer "Girls fill out prescriptions for the tricks that keep their hearts from growing"

I Think I'm Paranoid - Garbage "I fall down just to give you a thrill / Prop me up with another pill"

You Learn - Alanis Morissette "Swallow it down / (What a jagged little pill)"
posted by xchmp at 5:22 AM on May 18, 2012


This one always amazes me : Michael Jackson - Morphine - also about Demerol - "Demerol, Demerol, Oh God he's taking demerol "
posted by ebear at 5:34 AM on May 18, 2012


Modest Mouse - Medication
Karate - Diazepam
posted by burnmp3s at 5:46 AM on May 18, 2012


Centro-matic "Post-it Notes from the State Hospital" Actually about being psychiatrically hospitalized, more than just prescribed.
posted by reverend cuttle at 5:47 AM on May 18, 2012


Johnny Winter--Too Much Seconal
posted by TedW at 6:12 AM on May 18, 2012


What, no Pink Floyd, "Comfortably Numb"?
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:20 AM on May 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


Suicidal Tendancies, Institutionalized. Sort of. But in your ball park.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:36 AM on May 18, 2012


Lily Allen -- Everyone's At It.
posted by peacheater at 6:38 AM on May 18, 2012


Blue October has a bunch of songs about being on meds/in psychiatric care/mental health struggles, most notably "The Answer" and "HRSA."
posted by shamash at 6:38 AM on May 18, 2012


Drive by Truckers -- Zoloft

I always assumed Bo Diddley's Pills was about Pills was about some kind of psychiatric medication.

Also, the New York Dolls cover.
posted by Luminiferous Ether at 6:48 AM on May 18, 2012


Amitriptyline by John Vanderslice, sort of.
posted by MadamM at 6:49 AM on May 18, 2012


The Chinese Stars - Getting the Death Card: "Antidepressants make me love her."
posted by Tubalcain at 6:55 AM on May 18, 2012


Jason Falkner, Miracle Medicine.
posted by troywestfield at 6:56 AM on May 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


Pistol Annies, Takin' Pills: "She's on the highest dose of Prozac a woman can take"
posted by libraryhead at 6:57 AM on May 18, 2012


Also Miranda Lambert, All Kinds of Kinds: "When the children were fiddlin' she'd slip 'em some Ritalin" (and yes, she makes it rhyme)
posted by libraryhead at 7:00 AM on May 18, 2012


Rolling Stones' Mother's Little Helper -- not quite what you ask for, but close
posted by anadem at 7:49 AM on May 18, 2012


I think that Neko Case's song Hold On, Hold On is about being on and dependent upon valium, but as with a lot of songs its not really clear.
posted by Quonab at 7:53 AM on May 18, 2012


Violent Femmes, "Kiss Off"
I take one one one 'cause you left me
And two two two for my family
And three three three for my heartache
And four four four for my headaches
And five five five for my lonely
And six six six for my sorrow
And seven seven seven for no tomorrow
And eight eight eight I forget what eight was for
And nine nine nine for a lost god
And ten ten ten for everything everything everything everything
posted by kirkaracha at 8:16 AM on May 18, 2012 [2 favorites]


Charlotte Martin's "Pills" covers a lot of ground.
posted by clockzero at 8:58 AM on May 18, 2012


I always thought Comfortably Numb was about heroin?

Blur's Country House: 'He's reading Balzac and knocking down Prozac/it's the helping hand that makes you feel wonderfully bland'
posted by mippy at 8:58 AM on May 18, 2012




"I can tell by the way you take your infusion, you've spent some time in a mental institution."

Tea and Thorazine by Andrew Bird. I LOVE this song. Oh, fine, the whole album.
posted by chatongriffes at 9:28 AM on May 18, 2012


Ben Folds Five - Cigarette:

Fred Jones was worn out from caring for his often screaming and crying wife during the day, but he couldn't sleep at night for fear that she, in a stupor from the drugs that didn't ease the pain, would set the house ablaze with a cigarette.
posted by emelenjr at 9:54 AM on May 18, 2012


Hold Steady - Ask Her for Some Adderall - more about self-medication than prescription.
posted by Gortuk at 9:57 AM on May 18, 2012


Does I Wanna Be Sedated count?
posted by Ideefixe at 10:02 AM on May 18, 2012 [1 favorite]


There's always "Psychopharmacology" by Firewater.

And all you want is peace
But all you get is pills


(No link as I can't find a YouTube video that meets my exacting standards...)
posted by pianoblack at 11:07 AM on May 18, 2012


Marilyn Manson has one called "I don't like the drugs, but the drugs like me" but, you know, not necessarily prescription in orientation. still, a good song! :)
posted by acm at 11:07 AM on May 18, 2012


Lloyd Cole - Antidepressant
I said "I’m trying to write my novel,"
she said "Neither am I,
and either way I saw you reading No Depression.
You’re doing nothing, I’ll come over,
we’ll watch 6 Feet Under,
and then we’ll maybe get around to your condition."

With my medication I will be fine.
With my medication I will be fine.
With my medication I will be, I will be fine.
posted by jammer at 2:40 PM on May 18, 2012


Ah yes, and how could I forget Killing Joke - Prozac People?
I was isolated by the way I thought and felt
They saw my moodswings
I travelled down the longitude of opposite emotions
I bipolar
In the north they saw my upside, my excitable and optimistic spirit
In the south they saw my anger and my tears and my despair
They saw my moodswings
Get me out
Keep me up
Level me out
Keep me up
I was one of the Prozac people
posted by jammer at 2:49 PM on May 18, 2012


Crap, one more just hit me, sorry. One of my favorites, Atmosphere - Panic Attack:
Look honey, everybody needs a help-up buddy.
Nobody's drug-free, the streets would be hella bloody.
So do you call yourself a patient or a junkie?
The only thing that separates is who takes your money.
posted by jammer at 2:56 PM on May 18, 2012 [2 favorites]




The entire score of the musical Next to Normal, but most notably, the track I Miss the Mountains.
posted by evadery at 7:21 PM on May 18, 2012


Prozac Parade Black Lung / Snog
posted by pompomtom at 10:15 PM on May 18, 2012


Cloud Cult - Take your medicine


Actually about battling mental illness without medication (until now, I had always assumed about taking medication).
posted by fizzix at 9:17 AM on May 19, 2012


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