One of my favorite songs of late is named Mad As A Hatter, by Larkin Poe. The song is about their grandfather, who has schizophrenia, and their grandmother, who has dementia.
All my life I have known someone who has schizophrenia, and in the last 20 years I’ve also known quite a few people who had dementia and/or Alzheimers, so it’s a touching song in multiple ways. YouTube has this terrific live performance of “Mad as a Hatter”.
Here are some of the lyrics from Mad As a Hatter:
If you must then just please wait and let me have some time
(Let me have some time)
Please don’t come for me
Mind over matter (it don’t matter) when you’re as mad as a hatter
The song ends with these repeated lyrics:
Off with her head, off with her head...
Paint the roses, paint the roses...
I assume the ending lyrics relate to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
