She Was Crazy, He Was Mad
A jaunty exploration of what it means to be judged crazy, or at least, not of the 'correct' mindset to fit into society. The question which surfaces is whether those enforcing society's rules and norms are themselves of sound mind. Leon originally planned the song to be in French.
"Clearly those who are called mad are called mad by those who are called sane... the couple in this song, dancing around all over the place instead of filling in tax forms, Backing Britain, launching Polaris submarines and investing money in De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd., indulging in fantasies instead of being pragmatic and realistic, are, without the shadow of a doubt, certifiable." - LR (Look Here (songbook) 1968)
“I actually started writing this song in French... I decided it might sound better in English. It was influenced, I guess, by the anti-psychiatry movement and the writings of RD Laing, who became a kind of guru at that time and who, as I understand it, was suggesting in books like ‘The Divided Self’ that schizophrenia was a mechanism for escaping from a repressive reality and an impossible family situation; that insanity was a social construct, a definition imposed on the different by those who called themselves normal.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p13)
“I actually started writing this song in French... I decided it might sound better in English. It was influenced, I guess, by the anti-psychiatry movement and the writings of RD Laing, who became a kind of guru at that time and who, as I understand it, was suggesting in books like ‘The Divided Self’ that schizophrenia was a mechanism for escaping from a repressive reality and an impossible family situation; that insanity was a social construct, a definition imposed on the different by those who called themselves normal.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), p13)
Recordings
Version 1 (1968) Live recording
Version 2 (1975)
Version 2 (1975)