Ian Dury
Dury, who had polio-related disability himself, wrote this as a provocation aimed squarely at the pity and condescension…
disability and stigma defiant self-naming mockery of charity and pity
Neil Young
A spare, hymn-like address to fear and mortality, written for Jonathan Demme's film about a man dying of AIDS-related illness…
mortality stigma and shame need for belonging
Pearl Jam
A cover originally written by Victoria Williams, this Pearl Jam rendition tells the story of a marginalized, possibly mentally…
outsiderhood and stigma small-town cruelty and complicity fear versus compassion
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth's "Schizophrenia" builds a fractured character sketch around a woman whose mental illness is treated with unsettling…
mental illness and stigma unreliable perception family cruelty
Deerhunter
A funk-inflected litany of self-definition, "Snakeskin" strings together a series of blunt "I was born" and "I was" declarations…
disability and bodily difference fatalism versus resilience identity as inherited condition
Florence + the Machine
A song about anxiety as a physical predator and dancing as the only available exit from it. Florence Welch frames mental illness…
anxiety and mental illness stigma and self-doubt catharsis through music/dance
Don McLean
Don McLean's tribute to Vincent van Gogh translates the painter's canvases into verse, using his imagery to build an argument…
artistic isolation mental illness and stigma posthumous recognition
B.B. King
B.B. King uses a first-person narrator identified as an aging traveling musician to plead for dignity and recognition, framing…
itinerant hardship dignity under judgment aging and endurance