Top 10 Songs About Going Crazy
Don Jamieson is a guest contributor to Loudwire. He is the co-host of That Metal Show, which recently completed its 14th season on VH1 Classic. You can also catch Jamieson on the stand-up comedy circuit. Keep up with him at his official website or his Twitter page. Please note that Don Jamieson’s opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Loudwire. Check out his picks for the Top 10 Songs About Going Crazy below:
Quiet Riot (via Slade) once proclaimed, “Mama Weer All Crazee Now!” Well luckily not all of us. Although between Real Housewives, One Direction fans and Donald Trump hitting us from all angles, it sometimes seems like it.
Sure you can go crazy from the heat, be crazy in love and be crazy as a fox but this list of songs are about going insane. You know, those we affectionately refer to as lunatics, wack jobs, nut jobs, wing nuts, nutters, screwballs, loons and Gary Busey.
The great Alice Cooper even wrote an entire album about the characters he met during his stay in a mental institution trying to beat the bottle called From the Inside. He said on his last day one of the other patients came up and told him how much he admired him and how lucky he was to be going back to his family and career. But, that if he ever got out, he was going to hunt him down and kill him.
Luckily, the following 10 "crazy" selections will cause you no harm:
- 10
"Psychotic Break"
Jerry CantrellAlbum: Degradation Trip
Screw loose lyrics: “Feel like a psychotic break coming on, snapping two by fours, punching holes in dry wall…”
R.E.M. wrote "Shiny, Happy People’ and Jerry Cantrell wrote this song to bitch slap its cheery ass. The most beautifully depressing four minutes since my last one-night stand.
- 9
"Little Crazy"
FightAlbum: War of Words
Screw loose lyrics: “Under my skin and into my bones I feel insanity begin to make it’s home…”
If someone tells you they’re just a “little crazy” you know instantly that they are downright committable. Kind of like people who are a “little heavy” or a “little bald.”
- 8
"Psycho"
Metal ChurchAlbum: The Dark
Screw loose lyrics: “The psycho jumps out from behind, sticks his knife in your throat and you die…”
I dare you to walk home alone in the dead of night after listening to this deranged ditty; fearing with every step that an insane killer is waiting for you in the darkness. Or even worse, a horny Bill Cosby.
- 7
"Madhouse"
AnthraxAlbum: Spreading the Disease
Screw loose lyrics: “Four walls surround me, an empty gaze, I can’t find my way out of this maze…”
A look inside a mental asylum set to thrashing guitar, bass and drums. Imagine living in a house full of crazies? No offense to the Duggars.
- 6
"Stone Cold Crazy"
QueenAlbum: Sheer Heart Attack
Screw loose lyrics: “Never, never, never get it anymore, gotta get away from this stone cold floor…”
Stone Cold Steve Austin…cool. Stone Cold Creamery…yummy. Stone Cold Crazy…musical gold!
- 5
"Criminally Insane"
SlayerAlbum: Reign in Blood
Screw loose lyrics: “Quarters for the criminally insane, the sentence read for life I must remain…”
A mental masterpiece that holds it’s crazy own to this day. Jeff Hanneman … still reigining.
- 4
"Ballad of Dwight Fry"
Alice CooperAlbum: Love It to Death
Screw loose lyrics: “Sleepin’ don’t come very easy in a straight, white vest…”
Still one of the highlights of the Alice’s incredible live show in which The Coop sings this song while wearing a straitjacket. Not particularly comfortable, but still better than wearing a sweater vest.
- 3
"Am I Going Insane (Radio)"
Black SabbathAlbum: Sabotage
Screw loose lyrics: “So I’m telling all you people listen while I sing again, If I don’t sound very cheerful I think that I’m a schizo brain…”
When Bill Ward was a guest on That Metal Show, I asked him backstage what the radio in parenthesis meant. He said in England they use the term “Radio Rental” to say someone is mental. I guess it’s a rhyming thing? I was just happy Bill Ward talked to me.
- 2
"Crazy Train"
Ozzy OsbourneAlbum: Blizzard of Ozz
Screw loose lyrics: “Mental wounds still screaming, driving me insane…”
Ozzy’s first solo hit and a song so popular even your grandmother knows where to do the “Aye, Aye, Aye” part.
- 1
"Institutionalized"
Suicidal TendenciesAlbum: Suicidal Tendencies
Screw loose lyrics: “So you’re gonna be institutionalized, come out brainwashed with bloodshot eyes…”
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