Mental Health – Scruffy Theory

Song of the Day (The Chain): Pearl Jam – Jeremy

Day 29. From a song about an American teenager opening fire on her school to a song about another kind of American school shooting. Jeremy is about a 15 year old boy, Jeremy Delle, who committed suicide in front of his English class by self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Interestingly, the same set of circumstances seemed to contribute to Delle’s suicide as many more famous school shootings. Chiefly that Delle, like many school shooters, was mercilessly bullied by his classmates.

Pearl Jam wrote Jeremy in a bid to increase awareness of gun violence (specifically in schools), teen suicide & the dangers of unchecked bullying. As the description to the YouTube video states, “the themes of Jeremy highlighted by Pearl Jam in 1991, have sadly only become more relevant in the intervening 30 years as gun deaths continue to increase.”

At home drawing pictures
Of mountain tops
With him on top
Lemon yellow sun
Arms raised in a V
Dead lay in pools of maroon below
Daddy didn’t give attention
Oh, to the fact that mommy didn’t care
King Jeremy the wicked
Oh, ruled his world
Jeremy spoke in class today
Jeremy spoke in class today
Clearly I remember
Pickin’ on the boy
Seemed a harmless little fuck
But we unleashed the lion
Gnashed his teeth and bit the recessed lady’s breast
How could I forget
And he hit me with a surprise left
My jaw left hurting
Dropped wide open
Just like the day
Oh like the day I heard
Daddy didn’t give affection
And the boy was something that mommy wouldn’t wear
King Jeremy the wicked
Ruled his world
Jeremy spoke in class today
Jeremy spoke in class today
Jeremy spoke in class today
Try to forget this (try to forget this)
Try to erase this (try to erase this)
From the blackboard
Jeremy spoke in class today
Jeremy spoke in class today
Jeremy spoke in
Spoke in
Jeremy spoke in
Spoke in
Jeremy spoke in class today
Uh uh uh uh (spoke in, spoke in, spoke in)
(Spoke in)
Uh uh uh uh (spoke in, spoke in, spoke in)
Whoa oh (spoke in)
(Spoke in, spoke in)
Whoa oh (spoke in)
Whoa oh (spoke in, spoke in, spoke in)
Ah ah ah yeah
Ah ah ah ah (spoke in, spoke in, spoke in)
Yeah yeah ah ah ah (spoke in, spoke in, spoke in)
Ah ah ah ah ah

Keep up to date with the Song of the Day (The Chain) Spotify playlist.

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I really wanted to share this paragraph by Mark Fisher about depression, in relationship to Joy Division’s music, but I wasn’t sure exactly about the context I was able to give with this.

It struck a chord with me & I wanted to share it. He’s kind of talking about the difference between sadness & depression. Melancholia & someone feeling melancholic.I think that if someone is feeling sad or melancholic & isn’t sure whether or not they’d describe it as depression, this is a really succinct description of what depression feels like. I hope it helps.

The depressive experiences himself as walled off from the lifeworld, so that his own frozen inner life – or inner death – overwhelms everything; at the same time, he experiences himself as evacuated, totally denuded, a shell: there is nothing except the inside, but the inside is empty. For the depressive, the habits of the former lifeworld now seem to be, precisely, a mode of playacting, a series of pantomime gestures (‘a circus complete with all fools’), which they are both no longer capable of performing and which they no longer wish to perform – there’s no point, everything is a sham.
Mark Fisher, No Longer the Pleasures: Joy Division

In addition to sharing this paragraph, I also wanted to share some of Joy Division’s music videos. Primarily because I love them & hope you can get something out of them too. At the top of the post is an unofficial video for the excellent opening track from Unknown Pleasures, Disorder. Here too is the official performance video for the amazing single, Transmission.

I do plan to write more detailed & helpful posts about depression, & how it ties into our contemporary reality & what we can do to combat it, but I don’t think I’m ready yet. I hope this post helps a little & that you enjoy the music.

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