Blues Run the Game (2001 – Remaster) by Jackson C. Frank

This week’s Song of the Week was recommended by MIA Founder Robert Whitaker:

“This is one of the most haunting songs I have ever heard, and the first time I heard it, I looked up the life story of this musician I had never heard of before. His story tells of traumatic childhood (when he was 11 years old, a furnace exploded at his school, killing 15 of his schoolmates and leaving him badly burned), a period of growing fame as an extraordinary musician, with Paul Simon producing his first and only album in 1965, and then a subsequent life of breakdowns and heartbreak. A diagnosis of schizophrenia and homelessness marked his later years.

Every time now when I hear this song, it takes my breath away.”

-Robert Whitaker

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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