The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 891: Musicians who lost it, part 2

Sometimes, life becomes too much. Things get too weird. There’s too much pressure. Too many decisions to make leading to too many wrong decisions. The uncertainty builds and builds and–well, then you just kinda lose it.

We lose the plot, go off the rails, hit the ditch, blow a gasket, and generally freak out. Sometimes these incidents are fueled by drugs, alcohol, and mental illness. Other things it’s the body and brain’s way of saying “Thanks, but I’ve had quite about enough for now. I’m going to sit in the corner and have me a little breakdown.”

Creative types can be especially vulnerable to these problems. Maybe it’s because they’re wired differently. Maybe they’ve developed some bad, self-destructive habits that were tolerated or even encouraged by people around them. Or because they live in a bubble, they’re so divorced from the concept of “normal” that they don’t realize that things have gone terribly wrong.

The results can be scary. And if we don’t know the backstory to these breakdowns and freakouts, it’s very hard to help these people in their time of need. But the mroe we understand how and why people find themselves in these situations, the more we can help. And maybe the more we can learn to cope with life ourselves.

This is Musicians Who Lost It, part 2.

Songs heard on this show:

• Suicidal Tendencies, Institutionalized
• Killing Joke, Love Like Blood
• Depeche Mode, Walking in My Shoes
• Ministry, Jesus Built My Hotrod
• Enter a Uh, John Frusciante
• Red Hot Chili Peppers, Give It Away (Remix)
• Puddle of Mudd, Blurry
• Green Day, Basketcase (Live)

And the playlsit from Eric Wilhite.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:

• 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday at 7 pm
• Q107/Toronto – Sunday at 9 pm
• Live 88-5/Ottawa
• 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday at 8p pm
• Big Kingston – Saturday and Sunday at 11 pm
• The Wolf, Peterborough – Sunday at 8 pm
• FM96/London – Sunday night at 7, Monday night at 11
• Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday at 8 am
• Sonic 102.9/Edmonton
• The Zone/Victoria
• The Fox/Vancouver – Sunday at 11 pm
• WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown The show runs at 11 am Sunday. This, by the way, is a great option for American listeners who are prevented from listening to the show live because of geo-blocking,

We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor,  Montreal, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.

If you ever miss a show, you can always get the podcast edition available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your on-demand audio.