| The Kinks – Death Of A Clown Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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“Death of a Clown” tells with devastating candor about the woes of loneliness and sorrow through it’s story of an alcoholic circus clown. It remains one of the most telling three minute format singles about seeing the world through the jaded lenses of substance abuse and depression. “My makeup is dry and it crags on my chin”. It’s as if the speaker is putting up a front symbolized by makeup and his faults are beginning to show through his worn out, dry facade. At the same time, he won’t stop the act, as the makeup clags. It sticks, and he continues to live a lie as he drowns his “sorrows in whiskey and gin”. By turning to the bottle, he has chosen the path of escape and would rather cover up his sorrows by drowning them than make any effort to resolve them. “The lion tamer’s whip” he says, “doesn’t crack anymore. The lion’s they won’t fight and the tigers won’t roar.” Everything expressed here is a contradiction, because nothing makes sense to the speaker anymore. The whip and the animals don’t perform their functions and are thus void of all purpose. More alarmingly, the speaker could be unreliable and merely claiming in his stupor that these things are awry if he no longer sees the purpose. The chorus, interestingly, repeats the speakers sentiment of drinking himself to death in saying “Let’s all drink to the death of a clown.” By drinking to his death, his companions are in a way bringing about the speaker’s destruction by encouraging his demise. However, the speaker already seems unreliable, so this could merely be a drunken ideation and justification of death in being convinced that the world wants him gone anyway. Lastly, the fortune teller of the circus is said to be “dead on the floor”. Upon saying that the fortune teller is dead the speaker states “nobody needs fortunes told anymore”. The cause and effect of this is very compelling in that the need for the fortune teller did not expire before he did. This suggests that the speaker thinks that fortunes being told was an obligatory but negative event, and furthermore that he doesn’t believe in any grander scheme. This serves to further perpetuate the meaninglessness of his reality. He knows that his current hell is all he’ll ever experience. |
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| Alice Cooper – Ballad Of Dwight Fry Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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The most obvious yet complex song pertaining to mental illness is arguably Alice Cooper’s “Ballad of Dwight Fry”. An album track released on 1970’s Love It To Death, it details a troubled man’s stay in a psychiatric ward. It’s ambiguous nature is befitting of the dementia often associated with insanity, and it remains an epic telling of the delusion and tormented psyche of a man who can’t seem to fit in with society. The beginning question of the child asking for her father is a direct reflection of how Fry’s illness has effected everybody around him, as well as a question of whether he’ll ever “come home”, or in other words, get better. Fourteen days is a typical amount of time to be held in a psychiatric ward, depending upon factors such as insurance and condition of the patient. Presumably, Fry could have been in inpatient for more than fourteen days due to any number of overly aggressive or psychotic behaviors. An intensive care ward is for more acute cases, so this in itself establishes that Fry’s illness is out of his control and/or his behaviors are highly irregular. Furthermore, the fact that he was lying on the floor supports this in implying that he was either drugged due to aggression, severely depressed, or both. When Fry says that he was not all alone, it is implying that he had fellow patients as well as trying to stress the idea that he had little privacy, as is typical for patients of a psychiatric ward. These fellow patients, however, are in the danger zone, for they are also mentally destitute. The whole scene established creates an atmosphere of depression and claustrophobia. The chorus that is repeated throughout retains all of the same lyrics save the last line. Fry seeing his life unfold and his mind explode everyday is suggestive of him having little willpower to change himself or to overcome his illness, as it continues to progress each time in worsened increments: going away (solitude), blowing up in his face (aggression), and insanity (complete loss of inhibition/control). Fry’s loss of weight and deprivation of rest are common side effects of mania. His being in a straight white vest suggests a straight jacket, meaning that his mania has caused him to act violently towards property and/or other individuals. He longs to see his four year old child, and give her back some toys he stole. This longing suggests that he is unable to see his child due to his irrational behavior. This is furthered by the manic repeating of the phrase “I wanna get out of here”. His solitude has become unbearable, and he is even possibly experiencing drug withdrawal, as he could have been stealing possessions from his family to finance an addiction to substances. Finally, Fry is released. It is unclear whether it is authorized by the institution or of his own volition. The fact that he ran into the street certainly suggests the latter. The vignette of the choking man suggests that he is glad to be alive and perhaps newly grateful for the things he has, but the calling of the sirens ultimately is indicative of the police coming to take him to jail or even the institution again. This is unless siren is being used in the mythological sense, and Fry is being lured to his demise by some unseen beckoning. It seems to not matter, as in either case, Fry is not free and does not want to be. |
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