Day After Day #235: Institutionalized

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Institutionalized (1983)

Every so often a song comes out of nowhere that becomes a generational touchstone. Even if it wasn't a hit in the traditional sense of the word, "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies captured the trials and tribulations of a suburban teen who wasn't fighting for his right to party but just trying to figure things out. Not only did the song become popular in many strange ways, it also introduced hardcore punk to the MTV audience.

Suicidal Tendencies was formed in 1980 in Venice, California, by singer Mike Muir. The band's lineup was ever-changing, but they eventually built an audience in the Venice area and signed a contract with indie label Frontier Records in 1983. Their self-titled debut came out in July 1983, combining hardcore punk with sped-up metal; the album was cited as an early influence for the big thrash metal acts that soon followed: Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax. 

On "Institutionalized," Muir's verses are spoken and the choruses shouted, articulating the rage felt by many teens whose parents don't know how to communicate with them.

"Sometimes I try to do things/And it just doesn't work out the way I want it to/And I get real frustrated/And like, I try hard to do it/And I like, take my time, but it just doesn't work out the way I want it to/It's like I concentrate on it real hard/But it just doesn't work out/And everything I do and everything I try/It never turns out/It's like, I need time to figure these things out/But there's always someone there going/'Hey Mike, you know, we've been noticing you've been having a lot of problems lately, you know?/You should maybe get away/And like, maybe you should talk about it, you'll feel a lot better'/And I go, 'No, it's okay, you know, I'll figure it out/Just leave me alone, I'll figure it out, you know?/I'm just working on myself'/They go, 'Well you know, if you wanna talk about it, I'll be here, you know/And you'll probably feel a lot better if you talk about it/So why don't you talk about it?'/I go, 'No I don't want to, I'm okay, I'll figure it out myself'/But they just keep bugging me/They just keep bugging me and it builds up inside."

But his parents escalate the situation.

"So you're gonna be institutionalized/You'll come out brainwashed with bloodshot eyes/You won't have any say/They'll brainwash you until you see their way/I'm not crazy (Institutionalized)/You're the one that's crazy (Institutionalized)/You're driving me crazy (Institutionalized)/They stick me in an institution/Said it was the only solution/To give me the needed professional help/To protect me from the enemy, myself."

The most famous part of the song comes during a back-and-forth with the protagonist and his mother.

"She goes, 'What's the matter with you?'/I go, 'There's nothing wrong, Mom'/She goes, 'Don't tell me that, you're on drugs'/I go, 'No Mom, I'm not on drugs, I'm okay, I'm just thinking, you know? Why don't you get me a Pepsi?'/She goes, 'No, you're on drugs'/I go, "Mom, I'm okay, I'm just thinking'/And she goes, "No, you're not thinking, you're on drugs/Normal people don't act that way'/I go, "Mom, just get me a Pepsi, please? All I want's a Pepsi'/And she wouldn't give it to me/All I wanted was a Pepsi/Just one Pepsi/And she wouldn't give it to me/Just a Pepsi."

Los Angeles radio station KROQ gave it regular airplay in 1983 and it was ranked #23 on the station's top songs of the year. The song was featured on the Repo Man soundtrack in 1984 along with Black Flag's "TV Party," the Circle Jerks, Fear and Iggy Pop. This led to "Institutionalized" getting played on radio stations like Boston's WBCN, where I first heard it, and getting a video on MTV. The video features Mary Woronov, who was the principal in the Ramones movie Rock and Roll High School, as Mike's mom and Jack Nance of Eraserhead fame as his dad, and it brought Suicidal Tendencies to a whole new audience. 

"I'm sitting in my room, and mom and dad came in/They pulled up a chair and they sat down/They go, 'Mike, we need to talk to you'/And I go, 'Okay, what's the matter?'/They go, 'Me and your mom, we've been noticing lately you've been having a lot of problems/And you've been going off for no reason/And we're afraid you're gonna hurt somebody/And we're afraid you're gonna hurt yourself/So we decided that it would be in your best interest/If we put you somewhere where you could get the help that you need'/And I go, 'Wait, what are you talking about?/We decided? My best interest?/How do you know what my best interest is?/How can you say what my best interest is?/What are you trying to say? I'm crazy?/When I went to your schools/I went to your churches/I went to your institutional learning facilities/So how can you say I'm crazy?'"

Suicidal Tendencies even ended up playing the song in a scene from the Miami Vice episode "Free Verse," which aired in April 1986. Despite all this momentum, the band didn't release another album until 1987, leaning into more of a thrash metal sound. Although they alienated some of their punk fans, they were gaining fans from the metal community and were getting played on MTV's Headbangers Ball. In 1989, Robert Trujillo joined the band on bass (he later went on to play with Metallica), who brought a funk influence to the mix. Eventually, Muir and Trujillo formed a funk metal side project called Infectious Grooves. 

The band released several more albums before splitting up in 1995, then reuniting the following year. They've continued releasing albums and touring. The current lineup features Muir as the only original member left, with Trujillo's teenage son Tye on bass and Jay Weinberg (formerly of Slipknot and also Max's son) on drums.

There have been many covers of "Institutionalized" over the years, from Body Count to Amanda Palmer to an Alvin and the Chipmunks-esque version by The Radioactive Chicken Heads. It has also been sampled in Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill a Man" and referenced in numerous other songs.

As a teenage metal fan and straight edge dork at the time, I liked the song from the first time I heard it on WBCN. Definitely could relate to the parents not understanding me part, if not the institutionalization part. Even though Muir is now 61 and no doubt still performing the song, it still holds up.