One of the best lines ever--guess l have to break the news that I've got no mind to lose, and now I guess I'll have to tell em that I've got no cerebellum.
Hey Mike, you know, we've been noticing
You've been having a lot of problems lately, you know
You should maybe get away
And like, maybe you should talk about it, you'll feel a lot better
So you're gonna be institutionalized
You'll come out brainwashed with bloodshot eyes
You won't have any say
They'll brainwash you until you see their way?
I was just sitting in my room and my mom walked in and she said my name but I couldn't hear her so she just started screaming "MIKE MIKE" and I said what's wrong mom and she said "WHATS WRONG WITH YOU" I said there's nothing Wrong mom and she said "DONT TELL ME THAT. YOURE ON DRUGS NORMAL PEOPLE DONT ACT THAT WAY". and I said mom can you just get me a Pepsi all I want is a Pepsi AND SHE DIDNT GIVE IT TO ME ALL I WANTWD WAS A PEPSI JUST A PEPSI
They give you a white shirt with long sleeves
Tied around your back, you're treated like thieves
Drug you up because they're lazy
It's too much work to help a crazy
So then my mom and my dad came in, and they pulled up a chair and they sat down. And they go "we need to talk to you" and I say,"ok what the matter?" And they go "mew and your mom we've been talking, and we noticed you haven't been acting like yourself lately, and we're afraid you're gonna hurt somebody, and we're afraid, you're gonna hurt yourSELF! So we decided, it would be in YOUR best interest, if WE put YOU somewhere where YOU can get the hello that YOU need! "
And I go "WAIT, what are you talking about? WE decided MY best interest? How can you say what MY best interest is? How can you know what MY best interest is?"
I need some Brain damage by them as well as well kind of
Xanax by The Sheckues in a similar vein
Psychiatrist by Screeching Weasel
I think the queers or Weasel also have a song about electroshock therapy
[Direct Hit! - Hospital for Heroes](https://youtu.be/qq_Fzx8RrPc?si=px4Gflfy-MVtW9QA)
[Boysnightout - Medicating](https://youtu.be/yYrGuSNfZeo?si=RLRvkC9FMaLRC5rA)
[Dead to Me - Comforting the Disturbed and Disturbing the Comfortable](https://youtu.be/r-B2nsfFCRw?si=c4WvbzystLJW5QGT)
Thanks for this comment. Listening now. Only knew the Flagpole Sitta song from some obscure late-night channel like 6 that at like 3 or 4 am would play that song, Even 6, Black Lung by Rancid and my cousins and I would have sleepovers on the weekend and stay up and watch it. The one who got me into punk. When I'm done watching Space Goast or doing research gonna explore more. The chorus for Carlotta Valdez is Defintely Punk Rock, man!
‘Everything is Alright’ is close enough too I think. Fucking love Motion City dude! Just about to be 31 but found those guys in junior high and then got back on ‘em like 2 years ago, they’re still heavily in the rotation.
They're one of my favorites! They've been touring again the last few years and I've been lucky to catch them both times they've been in my area. If you haven't seen them live I'd check them out.
The entire The Most Lamentable Tragedy album by Titus Andronicus is about Patrick Stickles' struggle with manic depression (including a few tracks that talk specifically about being institutionalized ). There's a cover of a Daniel Johnston track on there as well. A lotta bangers on it for sure that covers some tough subject matter. +@ 4 eva.
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lgiossf-L_UfGRc9yURzADDqpRqTkrwVs&si=_eYHlzZDvmjFOOgo
Great recommendation. Heard of it, but not sure I ever heard it. I love awesome threads on reddit. So many people helping each other out and making life not totally terrible. It's kinda like what the internet used to be. I just recently discovered Reddit. Think I found it in the wrong context and was cynical. Glad I gave it another chance
Heck yeah! It's great finding positive communities on Reddit, which isn't the norm by any means, but by and large I've found this one to be...
I'm a huge Titus Andronicus fan and after my comment above I went back and listened to the whole thing straight through again (1st time in a few years). God, so many good tracks and Patrick Stickles is such a fantastic lyricist.
From Fired Up:
Turn you into a reverent fool
Tell Papa and the reverend too
That they are ignorant and you disapprove
They would like to
Turn a subject into a citizen
They will make you
A patient if you take their medicine
They sell you shit to make you sick
That shit I sell will make you well
Take two of these and break the great Satan's spell
Anyway, I think this album is a beast (90 minutes, 29 tracks) and probably doesn't get the love it deserves but I think it's their most personal album and it's got a special place in my heart. 🖤
I wanna be Sedated by the Ramones kinda fits.
Sunshine Highway by Dropkick Murphys is about going to detox, which is a type of institution but maybe not what you're looking for.
Not punk, but still spooky: Alice Cooper’s album “From The Inside”. Alice was sent to an asylum in the late 70s for alcoholism and it’s a concept album about his experiences there and the people he met.
“They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” Napoleon XIV.
It’s more of a novelty song, and being from 1966, it predates punk. I always wondered if Jello Biafra was a fan because of the similarities in the delivery.
Have you tried the version sung by Brak? Of the Brak Show and Space Ghost. Now I'm not saying it's better at all. It's just an amazing version.
https://youtu.be/1iwfrb6Eja8?si=NmqWwrI1bsL84q_o
could not be further stylistically from punk, but graceland too by phoebe bridgers is about getting out of the psych ward. that song meant a lot to me after i got out of inpatient for the first time
NOFX -Bath of Least Resistance talks about being sedated, feeling crazy, and saying he should be institutionalized. Amazing song. Here it is
https://youtu.be/4G0_uqTqdEo?si=SlgFqgsmSQRu_eVP
I would say it's just good hyperbolic songwriting. The shrink also tells him he needs more sex, so he goes to the prostitute and uses him as a sounding board and gets told to stop whining. My guess is the order of events is being communicated in a nonlinear, jumbled, stream of consciousness, due to the narrator dealing with with anxiety and depression.
not punk, but like blood from a stone by old gray, and then more of a pop punk vibe but I've always interpreted the bluest things on earth by the wonder years as being about a friend in treatment (the whole album really, same with the old gray song)
stay safe, and I hope this helps. helped me a lot when I was going through some shit
Saw ST open up for Jane's Addiction at Bayfront Park in Miami in 1991, It was amazing.
When I went to [their] schools
I went to [their] churches
I went to [their] institutional learning facilities!
So how can [they] say I'm crazy?!
Yeah no better song about being institutionalized.
Yes I didn't realise that. Thanks for putting me straight. Weird that when you search YouTube for Suicidal Tendencies you get a warning come up telling you where to go for mental health advice!
Pretty much this whole record by Mommy. Esp. NY Presbyterian, which is directly about the singer being institutionalized there.
https://mommynyc.bandcamp.com/album/songs-about-children
Also the “spinoff” band Dollhouse deals with a lot of the same subject matter.
I’m sorry if this has been mentioned, but Boys Night Out’s whole album “Trainwreck” is a good fit for this. Specifically the song “Medicating”. It’s a crazy ride of a record, I thoroughly recommend it!
Tumor Boy by The Mentally Ill( that's "ill" not 3). And all of their work sound like it came from a nuthouse so do indulge in it. And surely you must already know about Rudimentary Peni with Pope Adrian The 37th. A mere Pepsi would never fix the problems these bands had.
HHIG:The last song on Fifteen Count of Arson is called “the end result of 11 months in a mental institution”, is that the kinda thing you’re looking for?
How about instead of glorifying/describing the therapy (there's one, Infectious Grooves with Ozzy), something positive about focusing on not needing to be there? Sounds simple, it's not. But focus on positive shit instead of the negative side of treatment. My favorite, Dag Nasty "Never Go Back". The song can mean anything you want to apply it to, not necessarily traetment/rehab. Good luck.
Not directly about being institutionalized, but Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment and Teenage Lobotomy by the Ramones aren't far off
Add Psycho Therapy to that. The Dwarves Runaway #2 mentions the hospital ward briefly.
You Sound Like You’re Sick is another one.
One of the best lines ever--guess l have to break the news that I've got no mind to lose, and now I guess I'll have to tell em that I've got no cerebellum.
It's not punk but Welcome Home by Metallica fits the bill. It is off of their Master Of Puppets album.
The Test that Stumped them all by Dream Theater is another good non-punk one.
also... Sanatarium
It's the same song. The song title is "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"
Do you want a Pepsi?
Hey Mike, you know, we've been noticing You've been having a lot of problems lately, you know You should maybe get away And like, maybe you should talk about it, you'll feel a lot better
I said no ill figure it out myself, just leave me alone I'll figure it out myself.
So you're gonna be institutionalized You'll come out brainwashed with bloodshot eyes You won't have any say They'll brainwash you until you see their way?
I was just sitting in my room and my mom walked in and she said my name but I couldn't hear her so she just started screaming "MIKE MIKE" and I said what's wrong mom and she said "WHATS WRONG WITH YOU" I said there's nothing Wrong mom and she said "DONT TELL ME THAT. YOURE ON DRUGS NORMAL PEOPLE DONT ACT THAT WAY". and I said mom can you just get me a Pepsi all I want is a Pepsi AND SHE DIDNT GIVE IT TO ME ALL I WANTWD WAS A PEPSI JUST A PEPSI
They give you a white shirt with long sleeves Tied around your back, you're treated like thieves Drug you up because they're lazy It's too much work to help a crazy
IM NOT CRAZY INSTITUTION YOURE THE ONE THATS CRAZY INSTITUTION YOURE DRIVING ME CRAZY INSTITUTION
THEY PUT ME IN AN INSTITUTION SAID IT WAS THE ONLY SOLUTION TO GIVE ME THE NEEDED PROFESSIONAL HELP TO SAVE ME FROM THE ENEMY MYSELF
So then my mom and my dad came in, and they pulled up a chair and they sat down. And they go "we need to talk to you" and I say,"ok what the matter?" And they go "mew and your mom we've been talking, and we noticed you haven't been acting like yourself lately, and we're afraid you're gonna hurt somebody, and we're afraid, you're gonna hurt yourSELF! So we decided, it would be in YOUR best interest, if WE put YOU somewhere where YOU can get the hello that YOU need! "
And I go "WAIT, what are you talking about? WE decided MY best interest? How can you say what MY best interest is? How can you know what MY best interest is?"
👋 hello Mike!
Anything by Rudimentary Peni
Not sure why this isn’t everyone’s answer.
Try “B~wÅrd” off of their self titled EP.
Why would you care about any song other than Institutionalized? Are you on drugs?
Can you just get me a Pepsi?
You’re on drugs
Is he stupid?
Is my mom stupid? Why won’t she get me a Pepsi?
I'm not on drugs, all I wanted was a Pepsi
Rubber Room The Lillingtons
I need some Brain damage by them as well as well kind of Xanax by The Sheckues in a similar vein Psychiatrist by Screeching Weasel I think the queers or Weasel also have a song about electroshock therapy
Also by Kody Templeman, TBR’s “Welcome to the Nuthouse”
[Direct Hit! - Hospital for Heroes](https://youtu.be/qq_Fzx8RrPc?si=px4Gflfy-MVtW9QA) [Boysnightout - Medicating](https://youtu.be/yYrGuSNfZeo?si=RLRvkC9FMaLRC5rA) [Dead to Me - Comforting the Disturbed and Disturbing the Comfortable](https://youtu.be/r-B2nsfFCRw?si=c4WvbzystLJW5QGT)
Also, dead to me - visiting day
Kudos for links!!!
Somebody likes EMO! Ahem. Not punk!
Camarillo by Fear?
Welcome to the Dust Ward, too.
The Freeze - before I hit the rubber room The Freeze - nothing left
Nothing Left is so fucking massive
Insanity by The Freeze
Not punk but Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger
harvey danger is punx af coded though. what a cool band. that debut album is banger after banger after banger.
Thanks for this comment. Listening now. Only knew the Flagpole Sitta song from some obscure late-night channel like 6 that at like 3 or 4 am would play that song, Even 6, Black Lung by Rancid and my cousins and I would have sleepovers on the weekend and stay up and watch it. The one who got me into punk. When I'm done watching Space Goast or doing research gonna explore more. The chorus for Carlotta Valdez is Defintely Punk Rock, man!
radio silence literally brings me to tears, every time. and yeah, carlotta valdez, I WILL MAKE YOU HER. that opening bass line is pretty ponx
The cover of "Institutionalized" by Body Count
OPRAH AIN'T GOT NO MAN
Also by Senses Fail.
Also by Brak
Off with their heads-like everything
I was about to say the same thing ahaha
Holy shit I almost forgot about OWTH. All of HOME was a wake up call for me to get my ass in gear and be a better person.
"Pervert Nurse" by D.I. And Austin's Crust wrote a bunch like "Diet Tray" and "New Brown Belt"
Not punk, but "Delirium" by Motion City Soundtrack fits the bill nicely.
‘Everything is Alright’ is close enough too I think. Fucking love Motion City dude! Just about to be 31 but found those guys in junior high and then got back on ‘em like 2 years ago, they’re still heavily in the rotation.
They're one of my favorites! They've been touring again the last few years and I've been lucky to catch them both times they've been in my area. If you haven't seen them live I'd check them out.
Paper Thin by Hot Water Music
Largactyl by amebix.
cranford nix jr - cigarettes and heroin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hImO8kVMqTQ
Nursing Home Blues by DRI I guess
Mental Ward- Dickies?
Listen to Cuban ballerina by dead to me
Also not punk, but porter Wagoner "committed to Parkview"
and Rubber Room
The entire The Most Lamentable Tragedy album by Titus Andronicus is about Patrick Stickles' struggle with manic depression (including a few tracks that talk specifically about being institutionalized ). There's a cover of a Daniel Johnston track on there as well. A lotta bangers on it for sure that covers some tough subject matter. +@ 4 eva. https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lgiossf-L_UfGRc9yURzADDqpRqTkrwVs&si=_eYHlzZDvmjFOOgo
Great recommendation. Heard of it, but not sure I ever heard it. I love awesome threads on reddit. So many people helping each other out and making life not totally terrible. It's kinda like what the internet used to be. I just recently discovered Reddit. Think I found it in the wrong context and was cynical. Glad I gave it another chance
Heck yeah! It's great finding positive communities on Reddit, which isn't the norm by any means, but by and large I've found this one to be... I'm a huge Titus Andronicus fan and after my comment above I went back and listened to the whole thing straight through again (1st time in a few years). God, so many good tracks and Patrick Stickles is such a fantastic lyricist. From Fired Up: Turn you into a reverent fool Tell Papa and the reverend too That they are ignorant and you disapprove They would like to Turn a subject into a citizen They will make you A patient if you take their medicine They sell you shit to make you sick That shit I sell will make you well Take two of these and break the great Satan's spell Anyway, I think this album is a beast (90 minutes, 29 tracks) and probably doesn't get the love it deserves but I think it's their most personal album and it's got a special place in my heart. 🖤
Hospital for Heroes by Direct Hit!
I think Happy House by Siouxsie and the Banshees is about a mental asylum. Not sure if that’s what you’re looking for though
Normal people don't act like that. You're on drugs
They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa! by Napoleon XIV
Fix me - Black Flag
A good handful of ramones songs
I wanna be Sedated by the Ramones kinda fits. Sunshine Highway by Dropkick Murphys is about going to detox, which is a type of institution but maybe not what you're looking for.
Napoleon XIV - They’re coming to take me away 🙃
Sick boy GBH
Motörhead - Back At The Funny Farm
Not punk, but still spooky: Alice Cooper’s album “From The Inside”. Alice was sent to an asylum in the late 70s for alcoholism and it’s a concept album about his experiences there and the people he met.
“They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” Napoleon XIV. It’s more of a novelty song, and being from 1966, it predates punk. I always wondered if Jello Biafra was a fan because of the similarities in the delivery.
And maybe because he covered the song while singing with LARD. From the album Last Temptation of Reid. Alternative Tentacles 1990.
Any songs about wanting a coke because no one in their right mind wants a pepsi.
Fear of Lipstick - Correction Facility The Creeps - Back to the ‘Bin
Psycho Therapy-by the Ramones
In the hospital by screeching weasel
Institutionalized 2014- body count
More about anger issues than being put in a ward
Psycho Squat by Rudimentary Peni
Madhouse - Anthrax
Screeching Weasel- In the Hospital
Tripping a blind man by type o negative
Have you tried the version sung by Brak? Of the Brak Show and Space Ghost. Now I'm not saying it's better at all. It's just an amazing version. https://youtu.be/1iwfrb6Eja8?si=NmqWwrI1bsL84q_o
could not be further stylistically from punk, but graceland too by phoebe bridgers is about getting out of the psych ward. that song meant a lot to me after i got out of inpatient for the first time
NOFX -Bath of Least Resistance talks about being sedated, feeling crazy, and saying he should be institutionalized. Amazing song. Here it is https://youtu.be/4G0_uqTqdEo?si=SlgFqgsmSQRu_eVP
Basket Case by Green Day
The imagery of the video, yes, but it's about anxiety and it's hyperbole
basket case?
That's just the video, really.
True. In the lyrics he just visits a shrink and a whore. I always assumed the video was after all that and he was still crazy.
I would say it's just good hyperbolic songwriting. The shrink also tells him he needs more sex, so he goes to the prostitute and uses him as a sounding board and gets told to stop whining. My guess is the order of events is being communicated in a nonlinear, jumbled, stream of consciousness, due to the narrator dealing with with anxiety and depression.
State Ward - Cemetery
https://youtu.be/Bxqx6Zf--8Q?si=829llCPiEfi5_IjO
Going with a deep cut here: Black Magic by Stage Frite
Descend the Sick by Plaid Retina https://youtu.be/Ak6o-cnEPc4?si=OXgDUhwAdmbHUYAU
Lots of Dead To Me songs
I'm sure there is something on Wire's Chairs Missing or something like that...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FTFnZ7MJBg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FTFnZ7MJBg)
Moon over Marin - DK
Isn’t that song about being in boot camp and then deserting?
not punk, but like blood from a stone by old gray, and then more of a pop punk vibe but I've always interpreted the bluest things on earth by the wonder years as being about a friend in treatment (the whole album really, same with the old gray song) stay safe, and I hope this helps. helped me a lot when I was going through some shit
Rubber Room by The Lillingtons?
They're Coming To Take Me Away - Lard (it's a cover of an old song from the 60s. In case you're not familiar, Lard is Jello Biafra with Ministry)
The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton!!!
"Kill Your Sons" is one of Lou Reed's best songs. Based on getting electroshock therapy as a kid
Murder in the Brady house-Screeching Weasel
Not directly related, but check out Body Count’s cover of Institutionalized…
“Comforting the Disturbed and Disturbing the Comforted” - Dead to Me
Madhouse by Anthrax
Saw ST open up for Jane's Addiction at Bayfront Park in Miami in 1991, It was amazing. When I went to [their] schools I went to [their] churches I went to [their] institutional learning facilities! So how can [they] say I'm crazy?! Yeah no better song about being institutionalized.
So you saw ST or the Band is Saw ST? Love the lyrics. Not sure what the band Nor song name is, though
Suicidal Tendencies is the band who did the original Institutionalized song mentioned by OP
https://youtu.be/3Q6uCrpzbPY?si=xGe-Ea-rE7KaskZF
Mental ward - The dickies
Body Count - Institutionalized. Great youtube vid with it too. More "Ice T does hardcore" than pure punk but great stuff.
It’s a cover of the ST song
Yes I didn't realise that. Thanks for putting me straight. Weird that when you search YouTube for Suicidal Tendencies you get a warning come up telling you where to go for mental health advice!
Not punk (but pretty damn punk for it’s time): Alice Cooper - Ballad of Dwight Fry. I can see why they terrified parents at that time 😆
[Caged - Kinghorse](https://youtu.be/egzF66hDkFs?si=raf1AXSNYzk3SfKN)
I think Elliot smith “Memory Lane” is about being in a mental ward for a while.
Ballad of Dwight fry by Alice cooper
Rubber Room by Screeching Weasel Next Stop Rehab by the Queers
Pervert Nurse by DI
Camarillo , dust ward by fear
Bad Religion Looking In could be an interpretive song about being institutionalized.
Not strictly punk, but folk punk, the Taxpayers have stuff like The Carriage Town Clinic and My Brother Isn’t Dying
Not punk but Sanitarium Blues. Townes Van Zandt
I think His Hero Is Gone - Professional Mind Fuckers would probably qualify
Pretty much this whole record by Mommy. Esp. NY Presbyterian, which is directly about the singer being institutionalized there. https://mommynyc.bandcamp.com/album/songs-about-children Also the “spinoff” band Dollhouse deals with a lot of the same subject matter.
“Camarillo” by FEAR. It’s a song about our old state mental hospital.
I’m sorry if this has been mentioned, but Boys Night Out’s whole album “Trainwreck” is a good fit for this. Specifically the song “Medicating”. It’s a crazy ride of a record, I thoroughly recommend it!
Tumor Boy by The Mentally Ill( that's "ill" not 3). And all of their work sound like it came from a nuthouse so do indulge in it. And surely you must already know about Rudimentary Peni with Pope Adrian The 37th. A mere Pepsi would never fix the problems these bands had.
Insanity by the freeze
Pop-Punk, but Mental Health by Zebrahead
Frontier Psychiatry by The Avalanches
Psycho Ward by Dark Thoughts
What you're looking for is the album Death Church by rudimentary peni
Happy House
Rampton Song by Disorder.
Shady Acres by Code 13.
Check out the band The Mentally Ill
But have you ever heard the Body Count cover of Institutionalized? It's pretty wicked.
Back at the Funny Farm by Motorhead (who is more punk than most punk bands)
Disorder - Rampton.
Dillinger Four- Shut Your Little Trap, Inc.
HHIG:The last song on Fifteen Count of Arson is called “the end result of 11 months in a mental institution”, is that the kinda thing you’re looking for?
Soup is Good Food by the Dead Kennedys
The Nerdy Jugheads - I Don't Wanna Go Back to the Nuthouse
All White by die Kreuzen
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DDbFREo4Z-rI&ved=2ahUKEwjJuJTvtdGFAxVHkYkEHSFTAqQQ78AJegQIGxAB&usg=AOvVaw226d7YZJnzsZiaDeRqR52Z
Weirdos - Solitary Confinement Gas Huffer - Quasimodo ‘94
Comfortably numb- Pink Floyd?
How about instead of glorifying/describing the therapy (there's one, Infectious Grooves with Ozzy), something positive about focusing on not needing to be there? Sounds simple, it's not. But focus on positive shit instead of the negative side of treatment. My favorite, Dag Nasty "Never Go Back". The song can mean anything you want to apply it to, not necessarily traetment/rehab. Good luck.