Psychedelic Lunch

Welcome to “Psychedelic Lunch” series where we find out how deep the rabbit hole really goes and explore psychedelic tunes from the 60’s and 70’s. Weekdays At Noon EST. Enjoy the trip!

David Bowie, All The Madmen. According to Nicholas Pegg’s The Complete David Bowie, this song was inspired by Bowie’s half-brother, Terry Burns, who suffered with serious mental health problems. In 1985, Burns killed himself when he escaped the grounds of the mental hospital where he was staying and put his head in the way of an oncoming train.

In 1993, Bowie released the song “Jump They Say,” which deals with his feelings about Terry’s suicide.

The Man Who Sold The World was an album based on David Bowies older brothers his brothers schizophrenia and his fear he would have it too. For example, in the song “All The Madmen” he sings “Day after Day, they take my friends away to mansions cold and grey to the far side of town” which references a mental institution. It also talks about lobotomy’s and other things referring to mental health. In the end, the line “zane, zane, zane ouvre le chien” is repeated, which translates to “opens the dog”. Quite psychedelic stuff. Not to mention “The Supermen”, which talks about ancient beings that guarded “loveless isles” “when all the world was very young”.