Freudian Excuses in music.
- Anna Russell's song "Jolly Old Sigmund Freud."At three I had a feeling of ambivalence towards my brothers,
And so it follows naturally I've poisoned all my lovers,
But I am happy now I've learned the lesson this has taught,
That everything I do that's wrong is someone else's fault! - "Had Enough" by Breaking Benjamin may be an example of this trope, as it could be about an Omnicidal Maniac who is motivated by hatred for someone, possibly his father.You should have learned by now, I'll burn this whole world down
I need some peace of mind, no fear of what's behind
You think you've won this fight, you've only lost your mind
You had to have it all, well have you had enough?
You greedy little bastard, you will get what you deserve
When all is said and done, I will be the one
To leave you in your misery and hate what you've become - The Eagles' "Get Over It" has this line:Victim of this, victim of that,
Your momma's too thin and your daddy's too fat. - The titular protagonist of Elton John's "All the Girls Love Alice" has her teenage rebellion attributed to "a simple case of Mummy Doesn't Love Me Blues."
- In Eminem's earlier work, this is somewhat parodied - his character Slim Shady had an awful life with a Hilariously Abusive Childhood, but apart from a few spots of revenge fantasy and a bit of standard Gangsta Rap stuff it doesn't justify or, really, explain his absurd actions. However, in "Insane", we learn that Slim was repeatedly raped by his stepfather growing up, and this is given as a reason for why he's so broken now - having little control over his own actions. Unlike in previous Slim Shady songs, Slim never gets revenge on anyone involved in the song - it ends with him flashing back to a rape, presumably reliving it forever. He even mockingly quotes bystanders who think he's cool, to draw attention to how pathetic it actually would be to be Slim:Ain't he raw? Yeah, maniac, that's Shady, dawg
Man that motherfucker's gangsta, ain't he dawg?
Shady, dawg, what be goin' through that fuckin' brain of yours? - Just about every villain, hero, or something else
in the Evillous Chronicles has this. - Fall Out Boy, "My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark (Light 'Em Up)":My childhood spat back out the monster that you see
- Many Gangsta Rap artist used the back story of them being poor and growing up in a dangerous neighborhoods with no opportunities as their reasons for embracing the thug life of selling drugs, pimping, gang banging, etc. At first it was a genuine call for help and action. Now the tragic story songs are used to help justify the songs glorifying the criminal lyrics.
- George Michael's "Star People"'s refrain seems to suggest this:Maybe your momma gave you up, boy.
Maybe your daddy didn't love you enough, girl. - GWAR: The reason why Oderus Urungus became a genocidal space barbarian is because, shortly after he was spawned from a Scumdoggian breeding hive, he was forced to fight off rapist little people in an arena with nothing but a sword. It's that kind of band.
- A particularly Anvilicious case is Harry Chapin's "Sniper," about a boy whose mother never makes time for him, so he grows up to be a deranged mass murderer who explicitly voices his hatred for her at the climax. Can be considered a darker version of Chapin's "Cats in the Cradle."
- The person the singer is singing to in "Numb" by Linkin Park has one, apparently ("but I know you were just like me with someone disappointed in you").
- Same in "Points of Authority":You want someone to hurt like you (you live what you've learned)
You want to share what you've been through (you live what you've learned)
- Same in "Points of Authority":
- John Flansburgh (of They Might Be Giants fame) has recorded a song called "It Never Fails", about cops manipulating the psychological problems of criminals in order to keep their arrest quotas up.
- Madonna's "Oh Father" has this verse, speaking about her abusive father:Maybe someday,
When I look back I'll be able to say
You didn't mean to be cruel;
Somebody hurt you too. - "Pseudothyrum Song" by the Mountain Goats:I think someone was mean to you, when you were little
That's what I think
I think someone was mean to you - In the Pink Floyd Concept Album, The Wall, Pink is born to a father absent to him due to dying in World War II and an overprotective mother who micromanages his love life and leaves him paranoid and dependent. His teachers are cruel and oppressive, humiliating his artistic inclinations in front of the classroom. He becomes a famous rock star, but his Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll lifestyle, penchant for groupies and self-indulgence, and emotional coldness towards his wife (due partly to the female issues his mother instilled in him) led his wife to cheat on him (or at least Pink takes it this way when another man answers the phone when he calls her from his hotel room, and his manager injects drugs into him to keep him performing, even against his will. With each predicament, Pink layers a metaphorical "brick" on his "wall", leading to Pink isolating himself and decaying. In his madness, he imagines himself as a contemptuous, fascistic figure, leading his audience to a pseudo-Nazi-like rally until his the judge and jury in brain hold him for trial and tear down his wall. Then the cycle repeats itself...
- It is overall subverted, though; the story of both the film and the album, and Roger Waters himself, has made it clear that Pink is at least partially responsible for his own problems by choosing to maintain his wall rather than trying to confronting his inner demons, and that he was treating his wife unfairly and she had some pretty good reasons to resent him.
- "Swift Kick in the Rear" by Power Salad, from the point of view of a disgruntled therapist:You don't even have to speak, I've heard it all before
You're impotent cause you did not get that bike when you were four - The Sara Bareilles song "Machine Gun," about the jerk whose sole purpose in life is to aggravate those around him:Maybe nobody loved you when you were young
Maybe boy when you cried nobody'd ever come
Will you try it once? Give up the machine gun... - "The Wound that Never Heals" by Jim White, is about a Black Widow. It has this to say about her backstory:She runs from devils, she runs from angels
She runs from the ghost of her father and five different uncles.
Blinded by their memory, seared by their pain
She'd like to kill 'em all, yeah, kill 'em all again
She don't think much about what she's done, or the funny way she feels (No, she don't)
To her it's just a condition she picked up as a child
A little thing she calls "The Wound that Never Heals" - Taylor Swift's "Mean", suggests it for the song target:I bet you got pushed around,
Somebody made you cold.
But the cycle ends right now,
'Cause you can't lead me down that road. - Tomahawk's self-titled album is supposedly a concept album about a Serial Killer, which would make the song "Flashback" the main character's Freudian Excuse, as it's about his repressed memories of a disturbingly abusive childhood.
- Defied in "Angels" by Within Temptation. The singer tells the subject that even if the world had failed him, he's still responsible for his own choices, and now karma has come to collect.The world may have failed you, it doesn't give you reason why
You could have chosen a different path in life.
