Song Lyric Sunday: Mad As A Hatter

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Today’s theme for Song Lyric Sunday, as set out by Jim in his post Mental Stability, is to play a song about mental health. I’ve written numerous times about the stigma that attach to mental illness, the names sufferers are called, and the words used to describe them, so this one is right up my street. For today, I’ve chosen to share an edited version of a post I originally wrote in July 2022, as it is right on point.

Often, things are said in a derogatory, demeaning way, which can be extremely insensitive and cause much harm and hurt. But what if they are being said by someone who loves the person they are describing, or are used as the basis for a song? Does that make it any more acceptable? Depending on the context I believe that it can be, so I am playing you a song with a story to get you thinking. 

One of the more colloquial phrases that is used is the title of this piece. It was in common usage in the 18th and 19th centuries, when hatmakers used a lot of mercury nitrate in their manufacturing process, and often suffered both physical and mental ill effects as a result. Nowadays it is, I think, not particularly offensive in comparison with some other terms, perhaps as a result of being used by Lewis Carroll for a character in his novel Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, which was published in 1865 and has been a familiar part of much childhood reading since then – including mine. He actually wrote under a pen name, his real name being Charles Dodgson, and as well as his many literary works he was known for being a poet, an inventor and a mathematician, amongst other things. The phrase has also been used as a song title. Have a listen:

Larkin Poe are sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell, plus their band, who have developed over the years from folk-based beginnings into the roots-rock which is now their trademark. As Megan says in her introduction to the song, they wrote it about their paternal grandfather, who suffered mental health problems for many years before being diagnosed with schizophrenia, which later became dementia. These are the full lyrics:

I know what time is, time is a thief
It’ll steal into bed and rob you while you sleep
And you’ll never feel it
It pulls off the covers, and rifles through your head
Then you’ll wake to find you can’t remember what you just said…
It happens to everyone…
Just like the father of my father, time stole his mind
And I can’t forget that one-fourth of his blood is mine
I try not to worry…

Please don’t come for me
I promise I’ll be great
Just let me keep what’s mine (let me keep what’s mine)
Please don’t come for me
If you must then just please wait and let me have some time (let me have some time)
Please don’t come for me
Mind over matter (it don’t matter) when you’re as mad as a hatter

It’s hard to draw a clear distinction
Who you are, who you were
Through the looking glass, the past and future begin to blur
And no-one can blame you
Well they say the world is what you make it
You think, speak and breathe
And those rules still apply, stuck in a world of make believe
You make the best with what you’re given…

Please don’t come for me
I promise I’ll be great
Just let me keep what’s mine (let me keep what’s mine)
Please don’t come for me
If you must then just please wait and let me have some time (let me have some time)
Please don’t come for me
Mind over matter (it don’t matter) when you’re as mad as a hatter

Off with her head, off with her head
Paint the roses, paint the roses

That is a powerful evocation of what you might think and feel when someone close to you is suffering. Your love for them will help you care for them, but it can also make you worry that the illness might be hereditary: “and I can’t forget that one fourth of his blood is mine, I try not to worry” is, I think, the best description of this that I know. It is a horrible thing seeing someone you love becoming ill: both of my parents suffered from dementia in their later days, and it was awful to watch. Amongst all the feelings of love and loss there does also lurk that guilt in thinking that this might happen to us, too, somewhere further down the line. The lyrics really speak to someone who has gone through this: “Please don’t come for me, I promise I’ll be great. Just let me keep what’s mine.” And the follow up “Please don’t come for me. If you must then just please wait and let me have some time.”

Rebecca and Megan wrote this song around 2011, and the video above was first shared in 2015, though the song had long been a staple of their concerts at that point, and still is. It hadn’t been included on any of their records, however, until they released a live album in September 2021 with the hybrid chamber orchestra Nu Deco Ensemble. The album is called Paint The Roses, and it spent one week at #84 in the UK Albums chart. This is the version included on it:

By way of explanation, in case you don’t know the Lewis Carroll book, one of its characters was the ‘eccentric’ Queen Of Hearts, who was given to demanding punishment for people who had upset her with the phrase “off with her head” and at one point instructs her courtiers to “paint the roses” as she feels that red is a better colour for them than white. I rather like the way the concert staging reflects this in its red background, which can’t have been accidental. In a 2022 interview for the Songfacts Podcast, Megan explained how writing the song helped her process her feelings about her family history. 

My parents both loved music, and encouraged me to enjoy it too. It is good at helping people make a connection, which is one of the reasons why I share a lot of it. It also helps us understand what matters to us, and can help us work through our feelings in a way that just talking to people may not be able to do. And if a colloquial phrase can be used in a way which gets a necessary message across, I’m all for it.

See you again for Tuesday Tunes, I hope 😊

 

37 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Mad As A Hatter”

  3. Pingback: January | Take It Easy

  4. Great post Clive. My Mum had dementia which affected the entire family. Mum could remember thirty, forty, fifty years ago, but not what she had for breakfast, or if she actually had any. Whenever we visited, we encouraged her into conversation, anything, just so as she’d join in. I hated to see her looking so lost and confused. We so wished she would come and live with us but she wanted to stay where she was…….. family and friends were all there so we didn’t push it.

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  8. As music is something acknowledged to help dementia suffers feel a connection or restore memories it’s fitting that writing a song is a way Larkin Poe found to share.
    When some relatives came to stay I was relieved that the one who has had lots of mental health problems seemed to be in a good place. Just having space to retreat and under no pressure to socialise, do things or eat the same as everyone else seemed to work.

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  9. No one wants to look up that road. Very good lyrics, and I like a bit of Larkin Poe, though they’ve never gone into the top tier- they have the talent but sometimes things don’t line up. There must be untold stories about how bands were so close- but then something happened, JFK was shot, the wall came down, towers came down, bigger badder news hit, and then their moment was gone.
    My wife works in a dementia unit. She loves it. I couldn’t work a day at it.

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    • Sadly, if it happens there’s no choice in the matter. Larkin Poe have a good following without ever hitting the heights, and I’ve always liked them. I admire your wife, I couldn’t do it either.

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  14. Larkin Poe. Excellent choice for today, Clive. I wonder if there’s anyone these days who isn’t in some way affected by mental illness? A friend, a relative, perhaps themselves. I’ve watched the slow and steady descent of my brother in law into the jaws of Alzheimers and dementia; the toll is incalculable. My heart bleeds for my sister.
    Two profoundly moving songs, Clive. Thank you.

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    • Thank you, Nancy. It was an obvious one for me to choose, as I have written about it before and only needed to edit that post!

      I think most people have some connection with mental illness. Conventional wisdom has always been that affects one in four but I suspect that is rising due to things like the pandemic and its effects. Add in all those who are friends, relatives, loved ones, carers of those who suffer and the number is huge. I’m sorry to hear about your brother in law – having seen how it took my parents away I know what your family must be going through.

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  15. This song struck a chord with me as my mother has Lewy Body and both myself and my sister have both said we hope that we don’t end up like our mother a natural reaction I think but maybe some don’t say it out loud…Good choice thank you, Clive xx

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