my name is Eros, my pronouns are he/him, and I made this blog as a place to store all my academic ramblings or other nerdisms (everything I post here will be something I've written for school*)
An Analysis of Will Wood's “Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally"
Just like my previous Will Wood essay, this was written for my Rhythm and Revolutions: Music and Social Change class, which examines the relationship between music and social change (or social commentary, in this case). It was a very fun class and this was my final paper for it. There was a lot I wanted to talk about but wasn't able to add because it didn't fit the framework I was using (and also because Will Wood just has so much going on in his songs). Enjoy!
For as long as any society has existed, there have been expectations for its members to fit themselves into the larger group. In The Normal Album, Will Wood examines these expectations as they exist in America and explores how one may go against (or with) the grain. The album’s opening track, “Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally,” encapsulates The Normal Album’s message by scrutinizing the ideas of normalcy and conformity, as well as the values of each.
Encyclopaedia Britannica describes an overture as “the orchestral introduction to a musical work,” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022). It goes on to summarize trends that overtures have followed throughout history. One in particular stands out: Christoph Gluck declared in 1976 that an overture should prepare the audience for the coming play. Other composers such as Richard Wagner, Mozart, and Beethoven followed this technique (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022). Will Wood does as well–The Normal Album is not an orchestral piece but “Suburbia Overture,” as its title suggests, does introduce musical elements present in later songs. In an interview with SwitchBitch Noise, Wood says that, with this song, he intended to “[create] a piece of music that set the tone of the rest of the album and hint[ed] at melodies, chord progressions, lyrics, and motifs you would hear throughout the rest of it” (Garniss et al., 2020). More importantly, “Suburbia Overture” establishes the themes examined in the entire album: normalcy (in mainstream American society) and conformity (to mainstream American values).
Wood does so by breaking the song into three sections–“Greetings from Mary Bell Township!”, “(Vampire) Culture,” and “Love Me, Normally”–not unlike the three-act structure used in storytelling. Fija Callaghan on Scribophile describes the three-act structure, in basic terms, as such: “The first act introduces the central characters and conflicts; the second act explores the way the central characters react to these conflicts; and the third act reveals the repercussions of these reactions and choices” (Callaghan, n.d.).
Greetings from Mary Bell Township!
This is the first act of “Suburbia Overture.” According to Callaghan, not only is it where the central characters (in this case, ideas) are introduced, the first act also “lays the groundwork for the conflict and revelations to come” (Callaghan, n.d.). Here, Wood introduces the “normal” way of living–the culture of an American Dream suburbia–and its underlying dangers.
The first 15 seconds of “Greetings from Mary Bell Township!” set the scene: a doorbell rings and then a doo-wop inspired introduction builds into a chorus of voices that chime, “Good morning!” (Wood, 2020b). These aural cues tell the listener that they’re somewhere in 1950s suburbia, where there are identical, perfect houses and cheerful, fit-for-TV nuclear families. The first lines Wood sings after this introduction are, “White picket fences / Barbed wire and trenches” (Wood, 2020b), which both reinforce the image of suburbia and introduce a new, seemingly discordant element: violence. This theme is continued throughout the section with lines that invoke the Cold War; for instance, in the first verse, Wood sings, “You elbow the jukebox and sing ‘Duck and Cover’” (Wood, 2020b), a reference to the 1951 Civil Defense Film Duck and Cover that instructed viewers on how to prepare for a nuclear bomb (Mauer & Rizzo, 1951). By putting a jukebox–something people commonly used for fun–together with Duck and Cover, Wood shows that warfare or violence are commonplace things in suburbia, despite–or perhaps because of–its perfect nature. His image of suburbia not only represents the literal suburbs present across America, especially in the 1950s and 60s, it is also his symbol for a widespread culture that forcibly assimilates everything else into itself or otherwise ostracizes outsiders, a conflict that will come into play later in the song.
Another aspect of suburbia that Wood emphasizes in “Greetings from Mary Bell Township!” is its wariness of and lack of empathy towards others. Judit Carrera explains in an article on BBC that the setup of suburbia, which promoted individual freedom and opportunity, also “incentivised fear of the other” (Nicholls-Lee, 2024). In the second verse of this section, Wood sings,
Your ear to the playground, your eye on the ball
Your head in the gutter, your brains on the wall
Oh well
Home is where the heart is
You ain’t homeless, but you’re heartless (Wood, 2020b)
The first line references the phrases “keep [one’s] ear to the ground” and “keep [one’s] eye on the ball,” which respectively mean to gather information and to stay focused. Part of life in suburbia, Wood says, is the need to obsessively gather information about everyone else, in case someone starts acting in a way they shouldn’t. However, this way of living does not keep the community safe. To have “[one’s] head in the gutter” means to see vulgar or inappropriate meanings in innocuous statements; denizens of suburbia are so obsessed with weeding out the “other” that they start seeing anomalies that aren’t really there. Because they attack anyone deemed abnormal, this leads to the community harming itself in its attempts to force everyone to act the same, perfect way.
Additionally, the last two lines quoted in the above paragraph state that, not only is suburbia wary of and violent towards outsiders, it also does not care about them. “Home is where the heart is” is a phrase that means that “home” is not necessarily a place, it is where whatever one loves is. However, by following this with the line “You ain’t homeless, but you’re heartless,” Wood argues that, while suburbia is physically a place to live, it is not somewhere that provides comfort. Everyone there is “heartless,” meaning they do not care about anyone that is not themselves or those like them; they do not care about outsiders or any harm that suburbia itself may cause to them. This is another conflict addressed later in the song.
The central theme of “Suburbia Overture” is that being the same as everyone else is ideal in mainstream culture; anyone outside of this norm is expected to change themselves to fit in. However, when someone is “abnormal” (i.e. they don’t fit in with suburbia culture), then they will be ostracized or forced to conform to suburbia’s ideals, image, and way of life.
(Vampire) Culture
If “Greetings from Mary Bell Township!” was where possible conflicts against or within suburbia culture were set up, then “(Vampire) Culture,” the second act, is where those conflicts play out. This section is much more overtly violent than the previous, and Wood likens suburbia culture to something vampiric in how it drains outsiders of their own way of life in order to assimilate them into suburbia.
“(Vampire) Culture” opens with an instrumental break reminiscent of rock songs–unlike the piano and horns mainly featured in the previous, doo-wop inspired section, there are now heavy drums and electric guitar (though the other instruments still feature). Wood’s vocals are also much more guttural. The first verse of “(Vampire) Culture” begins, “I dropped my eyeballs in the bonfire, we fucked on a bed of nails,” a line which Wood said in a Genius lyrics annotation was meant to be a tone setter rather than a profound statement (Wood, 2020b). Together, all of these elements evoke something like the Satanic Panic. As Kier-La Janisse explains to Vice,
The 1970s popularized the idea that occultism was prevalent even in suburban neighbourhoods, so that made it easier for people to buy into the hysteria when it happened [in the 1980s]. [...] If [parents] didn’t believe in the wider conspiracy, they at least believed in the existence of self-identified “Satanists” (usually teenagers) that were bad influences on their own kids. (Kelly, 2015)
The Satanic Panic and of the beginning “(Vampire) Culture” both seem to go directly against suburbia’s perfect, idyllic image. However, Wood has already established in this song that suburbia has a violent underside; “(Vampire) Culture” actually works to bring it to the surface. Wood uses the rock genre and Satanic Panic influences to deliberately contrast this section against the previous.
The vampire metaphor regarding suburbia culture actually begins in “Greetings from Mary Bell Township!” not “(Vampire) Culture.” In the first verse of the first section, Wood sings, “And breed out our incisors, feed on white wine and Pfizer” (in an annotation on Genius lyrics, Wood adds, “I got canines/fangs and incisors confused, and then couldn’t part with the rhyme scheme”) (Wood, 2020b). Here, he implies that suburbia denizens used to be monstrous, but now they’re “civilized” and use (socially acceptable types of) alcohol and drugs to survive instead of someone else’s (metaphorical) blood. However, in the third verse he says, “I can tell that you know where paradise is / Where parasites don’t care what your blood type is,” (Wood, 2020b) which shows that suburbia’s life-draining tendencies do still exist. In fact, the culture does not care what an outsider’s lifestyle (blood type) is; it will take it from them and force them to join suburbia (become a vampire) no matter what.
This comes into play in the chorus of “(Vampire) Culture.” There, Wood sings, “Blood, didn’t they want your blood? / So don’t apologize for being blue and cold?” (Wood, 2020b). Here, the listener is an outsider to suburbia culture–someone abnormal–who has been forced to conform. Their own culture and uniqueness have been taken away, leaving them as another cookie-cutter, “normal” member of suburbia. They are literally “blue and cold,” like a vampire, but also in the metaphorical sense, as they are now as apathetic as everyone else in suburbia. In a Genius lyrics annotation, Wood adds, “Aren't these people the vampires who chose to hurt you in the way that made you all messed up? So fuck ‘em, don’t seek their approval or forgiveness for your dysfunction’” (Wood, 2020b). He points out that suburbia is what caused the listener’s own apathy, so therefore the listener–and any other outsider or unwilling participant in suburbia culture–should not listen to what suburbia is preaching.
This defiant stance against suburbia continues in the following verse. There, Wood sings, “Culture’s not your friend / Hey, fuck your culture, I ain’t got no culture / It’s only culture, and it's more afraid of you than you are of it” (Wood, 2020b). “Culture’s not your friend” continues Wood’s statement from the chorus: suburbia is not something that will treat anyone outside itself kindly, no matter how nice it may present itself. He outright rejects suburbia when he says, “I ain’t got no culture;” he does have his own lifestyle and values, which would otherwise constitute as a “culture,” but he does not hold any of suburbia’s values, nor does he want to. Finally, the verse ends with Wood saying, “It’s only culture, and it’s more afraid of you than you are of it” (Wood, 2020b), a phrase used to assure someone that whatever creature they’re scared of won’t actually hurt them. This statement also ties back to suburbia’s wariness of outsiders; people in suburbia are so afraid of someone “other” than them that they’ll attempt to force that person to conform to suburbia’s culture, but they can’t do anything if no one gives them that chance.
“(Vampire) Culture” is Wood’s challenge to suburbia’s culture of perfection, assimilation, and apathy. He brings its violence into the light and points out the effect it has on anyone outside what is considered “normal.” This act is also the part of the song where he decries the culture of suburbia and encourages others to do the same.
Love Me, Normally
Since Wood clearly does not agree with the lifestyle and values of suburbia, and The Normal Album aims to scrutinize normalcy and conformity, then it would not be a bad assumption to think that “Suburbia Overture” ends with him discussing a happy life free from suburbia’s strict guidelines. This is not what he does. As Callaghan explains, “the third act reveals the repercussions of these reactions and choices [from the previous acts]” (Callaghan, n.d.), and in this final act of the song, Wood explores what happens when someone tries to be “normal” and fails.
“Love Me, Normally” shares a title (mostly) and a melody with the penultimate song of The Normal Album, “Love, Me Normally.” This is another place where Wood uses “Suburbia Overture” to set up the rest of The Normal Album. In “Love, Me Normally,” the narrator reflects on their life and wishes that they could be normal, a desire summarized in the song’s chorus:
And I'd rather be normal, yes, so normal
I suggest that we keep this informal
'Cause a normal human being wouldn't need
To pretend to be normal, to be normal
Well I guess that's the least that I owe ya
To be normal in a way I couldn’t be
C’mon, c’mon, and love me normally (Wood, 2020a)
They want to be accepted–loved–without having to put on an act. However, if they live in suburbia, then they will always have to conform to that culture in order to fit in. Additionally, “Love, Me Normally” is, as stated above, the narrator reflecting on their past actions and wishing they could have been “normal” to fit in instead of trying to act against what was expected of them. “Love Me, Normally” is not only the conclusion of “Suburbia Overture” but also the prequel to “Love, Me Normally,” because it sets up the dissatisfaction that the narrator of the latter song feels.
At the start of “Love Me, Normally,” Wood sings, “Do you know the difference between blazing trails and slash-and-burn? / Going against the grain and catching splinters? / You pull out your Rorschach like a paint-by-numbers treasure map” (Wood, 2020b). According to Psychology Today, the Rorschach test is a psychological assessment of someone based on what they see in a series of inkblots (Psychology Today Staff, n.d.). By likening the test to a “paint-by-numbers treasure map,” Wood posits that the listener will not get any real insights about themself via the Rorschach; they instead answer the test in a way that will get them what they want to hear. Thus, his question in the first two lines is whether or not the listener is truly finding their own, unique lifestyle by acting outside of the norm; if they know and dislike how they are expected to act in suburbia, then they will act contrary to that, whether or not either attitude aligns with their own beliefs. The listener in “Love Me, Normally” becomes the narrator of “Love, Me Normally;” with hindsight, they realize that how they acted was not genuine, nor did it help them feel “normal.”
The verse continues, “The Lord looked down, said, ‘Hey, you’re only mortal’ / Giveth and taketh away ‘til things come out a certain way / Leave you wondering when they might go back to normal” (Wood, 2020b). In a Genius annotation, Wood explains that oftentimes, it feels as though some cosmic force–God, in this case–is forever nudging things around until everything has changed, “and all you want to do is go back to the time before the damage was done” and everything was normal. However, Wood thinks that there was never really some perfect, “normal” time–it was simply the past, “before things got hard” (Wood, 2020b). This, too, ties into the narrator’s desires in “Love, Me Normally;” they look back on their life and wish they could have been normal so that they would have fit in, but there was no such thing as “normal.” Perhaps suburbia culture is the mainstream and expected way to act, but it is only one way of living, and there are plenty of happy people outside of it (despite suburbia’s best efforts).
In “Suburbia Overture,” Wood questions what “normalcy” really is and whether one should conform to that way of living. As the first act of the song, “Greetings from Mary Bell Township!” introduces suburbia–uniform and quietly violent–as the “normal” way to live; anyone who does not conform to this culture is either shunned or forcibly assimilated. “(Vampire) Culture,” the song’s second act, both elaborates on suburbia’s inhospitality and urges listeners to not conform with its draining, apathetic culture. Finally, “Love Me, Normally,” introduces the question of if there truly is a normal way of living; the answer is no, but people nonetheless desire to fit in. “Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally” says a lot of things, but its most important message–one that is echoed throughout The Normal Album–is that society’s expectations are an unhelpful guideline; one should live by their own ideals, not by what everyone around them is doing.
Callaghan, F. (n.d.). The Three-Act Structure: How to Write the Oldest Story (With Examples). Scribophile. https://www.scribophile.com/academy/what-is-the-three-act-structure
Garniss, J., Brant, A., & Wood, W. (2020, September 8). Interview: Genre-defying artist Will Wood discusses latest album, mental health, and the challenges of livestreaming. SwitchBitch Noise. other. Retrieved April 30, 2025,.
Kelly, K. (2015, July 3). Revisiting America’s Satanic Panic: When Heavy Metal and the Devil Himself Stalked the Earth. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/satanic-panic-interviews/
Mauer, R. J. (1951). Duck and Cover starring Bert the Turtle. Archer Productions. Retrieved May 3, 2025, from https://youtu.be/IKqXu-5jw60?si=s65LonNUkOhGmBWb.
Nicholls-Lee, D. (2024, May 22). How the American Dream came to represent both a utopia and a dystopia. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240521-how-the-american-dream-came-to-represent-both-a-utopia-and-a-dystopia
Wood, W. (2020a, July 10). Love, Me Normally. Genius. https://genius.com/Will-wood-love-me-normally-lyrics
Wood, W. (2020b, July 10). Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally. Genius Lyrics. https://genius.com/Will-wood-suburbia-overture-greetings-from-mary-bell-township-vampire-culture-love-me-normally-lyrics
An Analysis of Will Wood's “Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally"
Just like my previous Will Wood essay, this was written for my Rhythm and Revolutions: Music and Social Change class, which examines the relationship between music and social change (or social commentary, in this case). It was a very fun class and this was my final paper for it. There was a lot I wanted to talk about but wasn't able to add because it didn't fit the framework I was using (and also because Will Wood just has so much going on in his songs). Enjoy!
For as long as any society has existed, there have been expectations for its members to fit themselves into the larger group. In The Normal Album, Will Wood examines these expectations as they exist in America and explores how one may go against (or with) the grain. The album’s opening track, “Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally,” encapsulates The Normal Album’s message by scrutinizing the ideas of normalcy and conformity, as well as the values of each.
Encyclopaedia Britannica describes an overture as “the orchestral introduction to a musical work,” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022). It goes on to summarize trends that overtures have followed throughout history. One in particular stands out: Christoph Gluck declared in 1976 that an overture should prepare the audience for the coming play. Other composers such as Richard Wagner, Mozart, and Beethoven followed this technique (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022). Will Wood does as well–The Normal Album is not an orchestral piece but “Suburbia Overture,” as its title suggests, does introduce musical elements present in later songs. In an interview with SwitchBitch Noise, Wood says that, with this song, he intended to “[create] a piece of music that set the tone of the rest of the album and hint[ed] at melodies, chord progressions, lyrics, and motifs you would hear throughout the rest of it” (Garniss et al., 2020). More importantly, “Suburbia Overture” establishes the themes examined in the entire album: normalcy (in mainstream American society) and conformity (to mainstream American values).
Wood does so by breaking the song into three sections–“Greetings from Mary Bell Township!”, “(Vampire) Culture,” and “Love Me, Normally”–not unlike the three-act structure used in storytelling. Fija Callaghan on Scribophile describes the three-act structure, in basic terms, as such: “The first act introduces the central characters and conflicts; the second act explores the way the central characters react to these conflicts; and the third act reveals the repercussions of these reactions and choices” (Callaghan, n.d.).
Greetings from Mary Bell Township!
This is the first act of “Suburbia Overture.” According to Callaghan, not only is it where the central characters (in this case, ideas) are introduced, the first act also “lays the groundwork for the conflict and revelations to come” (Callaghan, n.d.). Here, Wood introduces the “normal” way of living–the culture of an American Dream suburbia–and its underlying dangers.
The first 15 seconds of “Greetings from Mary Bell Township!” set the scene: a doorbell rings and then a doo-wop inspired introduction builds into a chorus of voices that chime, “Good morning!” (Wood, 2020b). These aural cues tell the listener that they’re somewhere in 1950s suburbia, where there are identical, perfect houses and cheerful, fit-for-TV nuclear families. The first lines Wood sings after this introduction are, “White picket fences / Barbed wire and trenches” (Wood, 2020b), which both reinforce the image of suburbia and introduce a new, seemingly discordant element: violence. This theme is continued throughout the section with lines that invoke the Cold War; for instance, in the first verse, Wood sings, “You elbow the jukebox and sing ‘Duck and Cover’” (Wood, 2020b), a reference to the 1951 Civil Defense Film Duck and Cover that instructed viewers on how to prepare for a nuclear bomb (Mauer & Rizzo, 1951). By putting a jukebox–something people commonly used for fun–together with Duck and Cover, Wood shows that warfare or violence are commonplace things in suburbia, despite–or perhaps because of–its perfect nature. His image of suburbia not only represents the literal suburbs present across America, especially in the 1950s and 60s, it is also his symbol for a widespread culture that forcibly assimilates everything else into itself or otherwise ostracizes outsiders, a conflict that will come into play later in the song.
Another aspect of suburbia that Wood emphasizes in “Greetings from Mary Bell Township!” is its wariness of and lack of empathy towards others. Judit Carrera explains in an article on BBC that the setup of suburbia, which promoted individual freedom and opportunity, also “incentivised fear of the other” (Nicholls-Lee, 2024). In the second verse of this section, Wood sings,
Your ear to the playground, your eye on the ball
Your head in the gutter, your brains on the wall
Oh well
Home is where the heart is
You ain’t homeless, but you’re heartless (Wood, 2020b)
The first line references the phrases “keep [one’s] ear to the ground” and “keep [one’s] eye on the ball,” which respectively mean to gather information and to stay focused. Part of life in suburbia, Wood says, is the need to obsessively gather information about everyone else, in case someone starts acting in a way they shouldn’t. However, this way of living does not keep the community safe. To have “[one’s] head in the gutter” means to see vulgar or inappropriate meanings in innocuous statements; denizens of suburbia are so obsessed with weeding out the “other” that they start seeing anomalies that aren’t really there. Because they attack anyone deemed abnormal, this leads to the community harming itself in its attempts to force everyone to act the same, perfect way.
Additionally, the last two lines quoted in the above paragraph state that, not only is suburbia wary of and violent towards outsiders, it also does not care about them. “Home is where the heart is” is a phrase that means that “home” is not necessarily a place, it is where whatever one loves is. However, by following this with the line “You ain’t homeless, but you’re heartless,” Wood argues that, while suburbia is physically a place to live, it is not somewhere that provides comfort. Everyone there is “heartless,” meaning they do not care about anyone that is not themselves or those like them; they do not care about outsiders or any harm that suburbia itself may cause to them. This is another conflict addressed later in the song.
The central theme of “Suburbia Overture” is that being the same as everyone else is ideal in mainstream culture; anyone outside of this norm is expected to change themselves to fit in. However, when someone is “abnormal” (i.e. they don’t fit in with suburbia culture), then they will be ostracized or forced to conform to suburbia’s ideals, image, and way of life.
(Vampire) Culture
If “Greetings from Mary Bell Township!” was where possible conflicts against or within suburbia culture were set up, then “(Vampire) Culture,” the second act, is where those conflicts play out. This section is much more overtly violent than the previous, and Wood likens suburbia culture to something vampiric in how it drains outsiders of their own way of life in order to assimilate them into suburbia.
“(Vampire) Culture” opens with an instrumental break reminiscent of rock songs–unlike the piano and horns mainly featured in the previous, doo-wop inspired section, there are now heavy drums and electric guitar (though the other instruments still feature). Wood’s vocals are also much more guttural. The first verse of “(Vampire) Culture” begins, “I dropped my eyeballs in the bonfire, we fucked on a bed of nails,” a line which Wood said in a Genius lyrics annotation was meant to be a tone setter rather than a profound statement (Wood, 2020b). Together, all of these elements evoke something like the Satanic Panic. As Kier-La Janisse explains to Vice,
The 1970s popularized the idea that occultism was prevalent even in suburban neighbourhoods, so that made it easier for people to buy into the hysteria when it happened [in the 1980s]. [...] If [parents] didn’t believe in the wider conspiracy, they at least believed in the existence of self-identified “Satanists” (usually teenagers) that were bad influences on their own kids. (Kelly, 2015)
The Satanic Panic and of the beginning “(Vampire) Culture” both seem to go directly against suburbia’s perfect, idyllic image. However, Wood has already established in this song that suburbia has a violent underside; “(Vampire) Culture” actually works to bring it to the surface. Wood uses the rock genre and Satanic Panic influences to deliberately contrast this section against the previous.
The vampire metaphor regarding suburbia culture actually begins in “Greetings from Mary Bell Township!” not “(Vampire) Culture.” In the first verse of the first section, Wood sings, “And breed out our incisors, feed on white wine and Pfizer” (in an annotation on Genius lyrics, Wood adds, “I got canines/fangs and incisors confused, and then couldn’t part with the rhyme scheme”) (Wood, 2020b). Here, he implies that suburbia denizens used to be monstrous, but now they’re “civilized” and use (socially acceptable types of) alcohol and drugs to survive instead of someone else’s (metaphorical) blood. However, in the third verse he says, “I can tell that you know where paradise is / Where parasites don’t care what your blood type is,” (Wood, 2020b) which shows that suburbia’s life-draining tendencies do still exist. In fact, the culture does not care what an outsider’s lifestyle (blood type) is; it will take it from them and force them to join suburbia (become a vampire) no matter what.
This comes into play in the chorus of “(Vampire) Culture.” There, Wood sings, “Blood, didn’t they want your blood? / So don’t apologize for being blue and cold?” (Wood, 2020b). Here, the listener is an outsider to suburbia culture–someone abnormal–who has been forced to conform. Their own culture and uniqueness have been taken away, leaving them as another cookie-cutter, “normal” member of suburbia. They are literally “blue and cold,” like a vampire, but also in the metaphorical sense, as they are now as apathetic as everyone else in suburbia. In a Genius lyrics annotation, Wood adds, “Aren't these people the vampires who chose to hurt you in the way that made you all messed up? So fuck ‘em, don’t seek their approval or forgiveness for your dysfunction’” (Wood, 2020b). He points out that suburbia is what caused the listener’s own apathy, so therefore the listener–and any other outsider or unwilling participant in suburbia culture–should not listen to what suburbia is preaching.
This defiant stance against suburbia continues in the following verse. There, Wood sings, “Culture’s not your friend / Hey, fuck your culture, I ain’t got no culture / It’s only culture, and it's more afraid of you than you are of it” (Wood, 2020b). “Culture’s not your friend” continues Wood’s statement from the chorus: suburbia is not something that will treat anyone outside itself kindly, no matter how nice it may present itself. He outright rejects suburbia when he says, “I ain’t got no culture;” he does have his own lifestyle and values, which would otherwise constitute as a “culture,” but he does not hold any of suburbia’s values, nor does he want to. Finally, the verse ends with Wood saying, “It’s only culture, and it’s more afraid of you than you are of it” (Wood, 2020b), a phrase used to assure someone that whatever creature they’re scared of won’t actually hurt them. This statement also ties back to suburbia’s wariness of outsiders; people in suburbia are so afraid of someone “other” than them that they’ll attempt to force that person to conform to suburbia’s culture, but they can’t do anything if no one gives them that chance.
“(Vampire) Culture” is Wood’s challenge to suburbia’s culture of perfection, assimilation, and apathy. He brings its violence into the light and points out the effect it has on anyone outside what is considered “normal.” This act is also the part of the song where he decries the culture of suburbia and encourages others to do the same.
Love Me, Normally
Since Wood clearly does not agree with the lifestyle and values of suburbia, and The Normal Album aims to scrutinize normalcy and conformity, then it would not be a bad assumption to think that “Suburbia Overture” ends with him discussing a happy life free from suburbia’s strict guidelines. This is not what he does. As Callaghan explains, “the third act reveals the repercussions of these reactions and choices [from the previous acts]” (Callaghan, n.d.), and in this final act of the song, Wood explores what happens when someone tries to be “normal” and fails.
“Love Me, Normally” shares a title (mostly) and a melody with the penultimate song of The Normal Album, “Love, Me Normally.” This is another place where Wood uses “Suburbia Overture” to set up the rest of The Normal Album. In “Love, Me Normally,” the narrator reflects on their life and wishes that they could be normal, a desire summarized in the song’s chorus:
And I'd rather be normal, yes, so normal
I suggest that we keep this informal
'Cause a normal human being wouldn't need
To pretend to be normal, to be normal
Well I guess that's the least that I owe ya
To be normal in a way I couldn’t be
C’mon, c’mon, and love me normally (Wood, 2020a)
They want to be accepted–loved–without having to put on an act. However, if they live in suburbia, then they will always have to conform to that culture in order to fit in. Additionally, “Love, Me Normally” is, as stated above, the narrator reflecting on their past actions and wishing they could have been “normal” to fit in instead of trying to act against what was expected of them. “Love Me, Normally” is not only the conclusion of “Suburbia Overture” but also the prequel to “Love, Me Normally,” because it sets up the dissatisfaction that the narrator of the latter song feels.
At the start of “Love Me, Normally,” Wood sings, “Do you know the difference between blazing trails and slash-and-burn? / Going against the grain and catching splinters? / You pull out your Rorschach like a paint-by-numbers treasure map” (Wood, 2020b). According to Psychology Today, the Rorschach test is a psychological assessment of someone based on what they see in a series of inkblots (Psychology Today Staff, n.d.). By likening the test to a “paint-by-numbers treasure map,” Wood posits that the listener will not get any real insights about themself via the Rorschach; they instead answer the test in a way that will get them what they want to hear. Thus, his question in the first two lines is whether or not the listener is truly finding their own, unique lifestyle by acting outside of the norm; if they know and dislike how they are expected to act in suburbia, then they will act contrary to that, whether or not either attitude aligns with their own beliefs. The listener in “Love Me, Normally” becomes the narrator of “Love, Me Normally;” with hindsight, they realize that how they acted was not genuine, nor did it help them feel “normal.”
The verse continues, “The Lord looked down, said, ‘Hey, you’re only mortal’ / Giveth and taketh away ‘til things come out a certain way / Leave you wondering when they might go back to normal” (Wood, 2020b). In a Genius annotation, Wood explains that oftentimes, it feels as though some cosmic force–God, in this case–is forever nudging things around until everything has changed, “and all you want to do is go back to the time before the damage was done” and everything was normal. However, Wood thinks that there was never really some perfect, “normal” time–it was simply the past, “before things got hard” (Wood, 2020b). This, too, ties into the narrator’s desires in “Love, Me Normally;” they look back on their life and wish they could have been normal so that they would have fit in, but there was no such thing as “normal.” Perhaps suburbia culture is the mainstream and expected way to act, but it is only one way of living, and there are plenty of happy people outside of it (despite suburbia’s best efforts).
In “Suburbia Overture,” Wood questions what “normalcy” really is and whether one should conform to that way of living. As the first act of the song, “Greetings from Mary Bell Township!” introduces suburbia–uniform and quietly violent–as the “normal” way to live; anyone who does not conform to this culture is either shunned or forcibly assimilated. “(Vampire) Culture,” the song’s second act, both elaborates on suburbia’s inhospitality and urges listeners to not conform with its draining, apathetic culture. Finally, “Love Me, Normally,” introduces the question of if there truly is a normal way of living; the answer is no, but people nonetheless desire to fit in. “Suburbia Overture / Greetings from Mary Bell Township! / (Vampire) Culture / Love Me, Normally” says a lot of things, but its most important message–one that is echoed throughout The Normal Album–is that society’s expectations are an unhelpful guideline; one should live by their own ideals, not by what everyone around them is doing.
America, Thankk You for the Mental Health Crises, but I Need You to Stop: An Analysis of Will Wood's "Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Stop"
I wrote this for my midterm in my Rhythm and Revolutions: Music and Social Change class, which examines the relationship between music/musicians and social change or social movements. It's a really fun class and this was a very fun essay to write. Please enjoy!
America is in a mental health crisis. Although there is no one thing to point at as the direct cause, there are two polarized viewpoints on mental illness that have exacerbated the issue into the ongoing crisis it is today. On one side of the divide are those who ignore mental illness and see it as a shameful weakness; on the other side are those obsessed with pop psychology and the pathologization of all aspects of human existence. In his song “Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave” from The Normal Album, Will Wood confronts both viewpoints in a parody of dialectical behavioral therapy.
The title of the song refers to psychologist Marsha Linehan, the creator of dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). She hoped to treat patients struggling with therapy that focused on changing their thoughts and behaviors by instead teaching them to recognize how their different systems of thought influence each other and how to balance these reactions. At its core, DBT aims to synthesize contrasting views (Swales, 2009). Additionally, the American Psychological Association’s (APA) dictionary of psychology defines “dialectic[s]” as “any investigation of the truth of ideas through juxtaposition of opposing or contradictory opinions” (APA, 2018a). These concepts serve as the framework for “Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave.”
In an interview with New Jersey Stage, Wood explains why he based his song around dialectic theory: “I think the major directions people come from in the mental health discourse are both deeply flawed but mostly well-intended.” The two directions he focuses on in “Marsha, Thankk You” are of those who dismiss mental illness and those who define themselves by it. He also says, “The level of vitriol with which people identify with their often-extreme perspectives on the subject prevent the conversation from making serious progress.” In this song, he expresses his frustrations with the current conversations surrounding mental health, but he also hopes that the song will bring comfort to those struggling with their own uncertainty about mental illness, as well as push them to examine the ways they feel and speak about the topic (“Will Wood Releases,” 2020). He does so by contrasting the two above perspectives in a way that satirizes them both, highlighting how absurd he thinks both extreme sides of the conversation around mental illness are.
Throughout most of “Marsha, Thankk You,” Wood speaks to the listener as if they are someone who defines themself by their mental illness, whether or not that diagnosis is true or self-assigned. In doing so, he addresses issues that plague modern psychology and society, such as over-medicating and the increasing prevalence of pop psychology which pathologizes all aspects of being alive.
One problem with how mental illness is currently treated is the over-prescription of psychiatric drugs. In an interview with psychologist Lawrence Rubin, psychiatrist Allen Frances explains that the expanded diagnosis criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), has led to over-diagnosis and over-prescribing. “Drug companies have become experts in selling the ill to peddle the pill,” he tells Rubin, meaning that these companies take advantage of the too-broad definitions in the DSM-5 to profit off of people who do not actually need medication but believe they do, based on an unnecessary diagnosis. (Rubin & Frances, 2018) “How many milligrams of you are still left in there?” Wood asks the listener in the song’s chorus (Wood, 2020), implying that their true self is being replaced by who they are when taking drugs that they rely on but don’t need.
He expands on his implied criticism of this attitude in an interview with Kill the Music. This perspective, he says, is pushing the belief that mental illness is inherently unfixable and is telling those who are mentally ill that, “[their] only hope is spending the rest of your inherently sick existence worshiping the chemical technology the heavens sent down to us through AstraZeneca,” a global pharmaceutical company. Wood finds this hopeless, over-reliant perspective to be unproductive. (Mohler, 2020)
He adds that these people also find it necessary to “fanatically identify with pop psychology platitudes,” (Mohler, 2020), which is the main issue he speaks against in “Marsha, Thankk You.” The APA dictionary of psychology defines “popular psychology” as “psychological knowledge as understood by members of the general public, which may be oversimplified, misinterpreted, and out of date” (APA, 2018b). Pop psychology has always existed, but it gained traction in modern times through self-help books and magazines. Recent years have seen the rise of mental health influencers–people who spread mental health knowledge and advice on social media platforms–which has led to even more pop psychology “facts” becoming general knowledge. As Wood pointed out in the interview above, people begin to rely on or obsess over the tips and tricks in pop psychology videos and self-help books. This leads to them defining their lives by a mental illness or psychological condition they may not even have.
Throughout the song, Wood’s lyrics point out how absurd this way of living is; he criticizes the lifestyle in the hope that people will realize the ridiculousness of what they’re doing and reassess how they think about themselves. “You could sing a pretty malady like a black canary, but a crow don’t know the smell of carbon monoxide,” he tells the listener in the first verse (Wood, 2020). “A canary in a coal mine” is an expression that indicates an early warning of danger, based on how coal miners used canaries to detect carbon monoxide. Wood likens the listener to a crow mimicking the real thing: it can make the noise, but it cannot actually do the job, and the listener can fake the symptoms of a mental illness but that doesn’t mean they actually have it.
The bridge of “Marsha, Thankk You” especially draws attention to pop psychology’s tendency to pathologize normal aspects of life. In this part of the song, Wood takes the stance he has been criticizing, singing as if he is the one obsessing over a perceived symptom or unnecessary diagnosis. “Doctor, what’s my prognosis if the studies show that / Disease is in the eye of the beholder?” he asks in the first two lines of the bridge (Wood, 2020). “Disease is in the eye of the beholder” is a play on the saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” which means that everyone has their own standard of what is beautiful; in these lines, Wood says that pop psychologists redefine mental illness to be whatever they think fits them best, whether that is true or not.
Throughout the rest of the bridge, he satirizes this attitude, ending the section by saying, “We’ll all sing when the bell curve rings in lyrics symptomatic of the way we think / If our harmonies don’t sync, we can change our voices / A chorus on condition of our diagnosis” (Wood, 2020). The bell curve refers to the visualization of statistical average, also known as “normal distribution” in statistics; this line ties the song into the themes of normality and conformity that Wood explores in The Normal Album. He is saying that all these people who buy into pop psychology beliefs do so because they want to feel “normal,” and pop psychology gives them ways to treat symptoms or actions that they see as “abnormal” (whether they are or not). When he adds, “If our harmonies don’t sync, we can change our voices / A chorus on condition of our diagnosis” (Wood, 2020), he means that these people change how they act or see themselves based on what the most recent pop psychologist (a self-help blogger, a mental health influencer, etc.) says their “symptoms” (pathologized human behavior) mean. They will do anything to fit into an acceptable box, even if that label doesn’t truly apply to them or doesn’t actually mean what they’ve been told it means.
All of “Marsha, Thankk You,” but especially the bridge, forces the listeners to examine how they think about their own mental health and whether or not they are susceptible to over-relying on pop psychology. However, the song is meant to be a critical comparison between two perspectives, so over-pathologizing is not the only attitude Wood discusses; he also comments on the opposite side of the spectrum, in which people dismiss mental illness entirely.
Attitudes towards mental health have changed drastically over time. The pop psychology trend is mainly prevalent in younger generations; in contrast, older generations are more likely to ignore or deride mental illness. According to Arielle Kanitz, director of dialectical behavioral therapy at FHE Health, the Silent Generation, Baby Boomer generation, and Generation X all carry a heavy stigma against mental health. For the former two generations, it was assumed that anyone being treated for mental illness was insane, and treatment for those outside that label was unheard of; for the latter generation, they “suck[ed] it up and deal[t] with it” (Robb-Dover, 2023). Even today, when conversations regarding mental health are much more normalized and acceptable, those attitudes and beliefs remain.
Wood uses the choruses of “Marsha, Thankk You” to mock that perspective of mental illness. In the first chorus, he puts himself in the older generations’ shoes and sings, “Back in my day we didn’t need no feel-good pills and no psychiatrists / No, we just drank ourselves to death / And god damn it, we liked it” (Wood, 2020). The phrase “back in my day” is associated with reminiscing on the past, especially in a fond way, but oftentimes the past was not as good as it is remembered. Wood, speaking as the older generation, derides therapy and pharmaceutical drugs and in the same phrase lauds self-medication through alcohol. This contrast emphasizes the absurdity of dismissing valid treatments for mental illness in favor of ignorance and harmful coping mechanisms.
In the next two choruses of the song, Wood reiterates this criticism by increasing the disparity between the speaker’s judgement of modern mental health treatment and their acceptance of harmful ways to deal with the issue. In the second chorus, he replaces the second line of the quoted lyrics above with “No, we just bled out in our baths.” By following that statement with “And god damn it, we liked it,” (Wood, 2020), he points out how foolish it is to dismiss mental health treatment, because back in the “good old days” when that treatment wasn’t normalized, people killed themselves when they were unable to receive help.
Finally, in the third and last chorus, he sings, “I said, back in the days of lobotomies and shock therapy and mad scientists,” (Wood, 2020) in reference to some of the common ways to treat mental illness that were prevalent in the late 1800s and early-mid 1900s. Not only were these methods later decided to be harmful and unethical, they were also mainly used on patients with more stigmatized mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder; if a patient was receiving these treatments, it was because they needed to be “fixed.” As a result, people who grew up when these treatments were more common still hold the attitude that mental illness is something bad or shameful, even when modern treatments (the “feel-good pills” and therapy that Wood mentions) are proven to be beneficial. This attitude means that these people refuse to reassess their own mental wellbeing, even when they are hurting because of it. Wood finds this attitude equally as unproductive and harmful as over-relying on pop psychology.
“Marsha, Thankk You” is meant to parody a dialectical behavioral therapy session in how it seeks to juxtapose two contrasting perspectives on mental illness. This becomes especially evident in the song’s outro, where Wood speaks as the listener’s therapist, forcing them to face harsh truths about themself. Regarding their identity, in relation to mental illness, he tells them, “It’s not the way that you were raised, or what the advertisements say / Not what you pay for, what you pray for, what you want, or what you say” (Wood, 2020). These statements address both perspectives that he has criticized throughout the song: the listener’s beliefs about mental illness should not solely be formed by the stigma they grew up with, nor by the self-help “guides” trying to sell them something. Their personal mental state, and any diagnoses they may need, are not reliant on what they buy into, what they hope for, or what they tell others (or themself) that they have. These lyrics summarize Wood’s goal with this song, which was–as he told New Jersey Stage–to get people to examine their attitudes towards mental illness and, hopefully, get them to become more comfortable with themselves.
He continues with the lyrics, “And I see your tendency to redefine disease by what you need / And I’m afraid I can’t prescribe the diagnosis that you seek” (Wood, 2020). This once again frames the listener as someone on the pop psychology side of the conversation, over-reliant on a diagnosis to tell them who they are. Wood, in the position of the listener’s therapist, calls out this behavior and refuses to enable it. He tells the listener, “and something tells me / You prefer to be sitting there flipping through those old issues of People,” (Wood, 2020), implying that the listener cares more about the pop psychology anecdotes in the magazine than the real help their therapist is trying to give them. This final observation drives home Wood’s criticism of this type of person.
The last line of the song is spoken; Wood states, “Well that’s our time, see you next week” (Wood, 2020), effectively ending the dialectical behavioral therapy session and the conversation between the two perspectives he contrasted in the song.
Actual DBT aims to find a balance between conflicting thought processes or ideas. However, in this case, Wood thinks it would be more beneficial to get rid of these attitudes entirely. The conversation between pop psychologists and mental illness deniers is “getting us nowhere,” he says in an interview with Kill the Music. “It’s a game of tug of war with the teams a mile apart and no objective judge. We don’t need to meet in the middle, we need to give up the game” (Mohler, 2020). Although he used dialectic theory as the framework for “Marsha, Thankk You,” he does not actually believe that there is any way for these perspectives to reconcile. Neither are helping America’s mental health crisis, and in fact it may be more beneficial to society if both sides did not exist at all in the extremes that they do.
American Psychological Association. (2018a). Dialectic. APA Dictionary of Psychology. Retrieved March 22, 2025, from https://dictionary.apa.org/dialectic.
American Psychological Association. (2018b). Popular psychology. APA Dictionary of Psychology. Retrieved March 25, 2025, from https://dictionary.apa.org/popular-psychology.
Mohler, J. (2020, September 4). Premiere: Will Wood - Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave. Kill the Music. https://killthemusic.net/blog/premiere-will-wood-marsha-thankk-you-for-the-dialectics-but-i-need-you-to-leave
Robb-Dover, K. (2023, May 24). Generational Differences in Approaching Mental Health. FHE Health. https://fherehab.com/learning/generational-differences-mental-health
Rubin, L., & Frances, A. (2018). Allen Frances on the DSM-5, Mental Illness and Humane Treatment. Psychotherapy.net. other. Retrieved March 22, 2025,.
Swales, M. A. (2009). Dialectical Behaviour Therapy: Description, Research and Future Directions. International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy, 5(2), 164–177. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0100878
Will Wood Releases Lyric Video For “Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave.” New Jersey Stage. (2020, August 18). https://www.newjerseystage.com/articles/getarticle.php?titlelink=will-wood-releases-lyric-video-for-marsha-thankk-you-for-the-dialectics-but-i-need-you-to-leave
Wood, W. (2020, July 10). Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave. Genius Lyrics. https://genius.com/Will-wood-marsha-thankk-you-for-the-dialectics-but-i-need-you-to-leave-lyrics
America, Thankk You for the Mental Health Crises, but I Need You to Stop: An Analysis of Will Wood's "Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Stop"
I wrote this for my midterm in my Rhythm and Revolutions: Music and Social Change class, which examines the relationship between music/musicians and social change or social movements. It's a really fun class and this was a very fun essay to write. Please enjoy!
America is in a mental health crisis. Although there is no one thing to point at as the direct cause, there are two polarized viewpoints on mental illness that have exacerbated the issue into the ongoing crisis it is today. On one side of the divide are those who ignore mental illness and see it as a shameful weakness; on the other side are those obsessed with pop psychology and the pathologization of all aspects of human existence. In his song “Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave” from The Normal Album, Will Wood confronts both viewpoints in a parody of dialectical behavioral therapy.
The title of the song refers to psychologist Marsha Linehan, the creator of dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). She hoped to treat patients struggling with therapy that focused on changing their thoughts and behaviors by instead teaching them to recognize how their different systems of thought influence each other and how to balance these reactions. At its core, DBT aims to synthesize contrasting views (Swales, 2009). Additionally, the American Psychological Association’s (APA) dictionary of psychology defines “dialectic[s]” as “any investigation of the truth of ideas through juxtaposition of opposing or contradictory opinions” (APA, 2018a). These concepts serve as the framework for “Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave.”
In an interview with New Jersey Stage, Wood explains why he based his song around dialectic theory: “I think the major directions people come from in the mental health discourse are both deeply flawed but mostly well-intended.” The two directions he focuses on in “Marsha, Thankk You” are of those who dismiss mental illness and those who define themselves by it. He also says, “The level of vitriol with which people identify with their often-extreme perspectives on the subject prevent the conversation from making serious progress.” In this song, he expresses his frustrations with the current conversations surrounding mental health, but he also hopes that the song will bring comfort to those struggling with their own uncertainty about mental illness, as well as push them to examine the ways they feel and speak about the topic (“Will Wood Releases,” 2020). He does so by contrasting the two above perspectives in a way that satirizes them both, highlighting how absurd he thinks both extreme sides of the conversation around mental illness are.
Throughout most of “Marsha, Thankk You,” Wood speaks to the listener as if they are someone who defines themself by their mental illness, whether or not that diagnosis is true or self-assigned. In doing so, he addresses issues that plague modern psychology and society, such as over-medicating and the increasing prevalence of pop psychology which pathologizes all aspects of being alive.
One problem with how mental illness is currently treated is the over-prescription of psychiatric drugs. In an interview with psychologist Lawrence Rubin, psychiatrist Allen Frances explains that the expanded diagnosis criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), has led to over-diagnosis and over-prescribing. “Drug companies have become experts in selling the ill to peddle the pill,” he tells Rubin, meaning that these companies take advantage of the too-broad definitions in the DSM-5 to profit off of people who do not actually need medication but believe they do, based on an unnecessary diagnosis. (Rubin & Frances, 2018) “How many milligrams of you are still left in there?” Wood asks the listener in the song’s chorus (Wood, 2020), implying that their true self is being replaced by who they are when taking drugs that they rely on but don’t need.
He expands on his implied criticism of this attitude in an interview with Kill the Music. This perspective, he says, is pushing the belief that mental illness is inherently unfixable and is telling those who are mentally ill that, “[their] only hope is spending the rest of your inherently sick existence worshiping the chemical technology the heavens sent down to us through AstraZeneca,” a global pharmaceutical company. Wood finds this hopeless, over-reliant perspective to be unproductive. (Mohler, 2020)
He adds that these people also find it necessary to “fanatically identify with pop psychology platitudes,” (Mohler, 2020), which is the main issue he speaks against in “Marsha, Thankk You.” The APA dictionary of psychology defines “popular psychology” as “psychological knowledge as understood by members of the general public, which may be oversimplified, misinterpreted, and out of date” (APA, 2018b). Pop psychology has always existed, but it gained traction in modern times through self-help books and magazines. Recent years have seen the rise of mental health influencers–people who spread mental health knowledge and advice on social media platforms–which has led to even more pop psychology “facts” becoming general knowledge. As Wood pointed out in the interview above, people begin to rely on or obsess over the tips and tricks in pop psychology videos and self-help books. This leads to them defining their lives by a mental illness or psychological condition they may not even have.
Throughout the song, Wood’s lyrics point out how absurd this way of living is; he criticizes the lifestyle in the hope that people will realize the ridiculousness of what they’re doing and reassess how they think about themselves. “You could sing a pretty malady like a black canary, but a crow don’t know the smell of carbon monoxide,” he tells the listener in the first verse (Wood, 2020). “A canary in a coal mine” is an expression that indicates an early warning of danger, based on how coal miners used canaries to detect carbon monoxide. Wood likens the listener to a crow mimicking the real thing: it can make the noise, but it cannot actually do the job, and the listener can fake the symptoms of a mental illness but that doesn’t mean they actually have it.
The bridge of “Marsha, Thankk You” especially draws attention to pop psychology’s tendency to pathologize normal aspects of life. In this part of the song, Wood takes the stance he has been criticizing, singing as if he is the one obsessing over a perceived symptom or unnecessary diagnosis. “Doctor, what’s my prognosis if the studies show that / Disease is in the eye of the beholder?” he asks in the first two lines of the bridge (Wood, 2020). “Disease is in the eye of the beholder” is a play on the saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” which means that everyone has their own standard of what is beautiful; in these lines, Wood says that pop psychologists redefine mental illness to be whatever they think fits them best, whether that is true or not.
Throughout the rest of the bridge, he satirizes this attitude, ending the section by saying, “We’ll all sing when the bell curve rings in lyrics symptomatic of the way we think / If our harmonies don’t sync, we can change our voices / A chorus on condition of our diagnosis” (Wood, 2020). The bell curve refers to the visualization of statistical average, also known as “normal distribution” in statistics; this line ties the song into the themes of normality and conformity that Wood explores in The Normal Album. He is saying that all these people who buy into pop psychology beliefs do so because they want to feel “normal,” and pop psychology gives them ways to treat symptoms or actions that they see as “abnormal” (whether they are or not). When he adds, “If our harmonies don’t sync, we can change our voices / A chorus on condition of our diagnosis” (Wood, 2020), he means that these people change how they act or see themselves based on what the most recent pop psychologist (a self-help blogger, a mental health influencer, etc.) says their “symptoms” (pathologized human behavior) mean. They will do anything to fit into an acceptable box, even if that label doesn’t truly apply to them or doesn’t actually mean what they’ve been told it means.
All of “Marsha, Thankk You,” but especially the bridge, forces the listeners to examine how they think about their own mental health and whether or not they are susceptible to over-relying on pop psychology. However, the song is meant to be a critical comparison between two perspectives, so over-pathologizing is not the only attitude Wood discusses; he also comments on the opposite side of the spectrum, in which people dismiss mental illness entirely.
Attitudes towards mental health have changed drastically over time. The pop psychology trend is mainly prevalent in younger generations; in contrast, older generations are more likely to ignore or deride mental illness. According to Arielle Kanitz, director of dialectical behavioral therapy at FHE Health, the Silent Generation, Baby Boomer generation, and Generation X all carry a heavy stigma against mental health. For the former two generations, it was assumed that anyone being treated for mental illness was insane, and treatment for those outside that label was unheard of; for the latter generation, they “suck[ed] it up and deal[t] with it” (Robb-Dover, 2023). Even today, when conversations regarding mental health are much more normalized and acceptable, those attitudes and beliefs remain.
Wood uses the choruses of “Marsha, Thankk You” to mock that perspective of mental illness. In the first chorus, he puts himself in the older generations’ shoes and sings, “Back in my day we didn’t need no feel-good pills and no psychiatrists / No, we just drank ourselves to death / And god damn it, we liked it” (Wood, 2020). The phrase “back in my day” is associated with reminiscing on the past, especially in a fond way, but oftentimes the past was not as good as it is remembered. Wood, speaking as the older generation, derides therapy and pharmaceutical drugs and in the same phrase lauds self-medication through alcohol. This contrast emphasizes the absurdity of dismissing valid treatments for mental illness in favor of ignorance and harmful coping mechanisms.
In the next two choruses of the song, Wood reiterates this criticism by increasing the disparity between the speaker’s judgement of modern mental health treatment and their acceptance of harmful ways to deal with the issue. In the second chorus, he replaces the second line of the quoted lyrics above with “No, we just bled out in our baths.” By following that statement with “And god damn it, we liked it,” (Wood, 2020), he points out how foolish it is to dismiss mental health treatment, because back in the “good old days” when that treatment wasn’t normalized, people killed themselves when they were unable to receive help.
Finally, in the third and last chorus, he sings, “I said, back in the days of lobotomies and shock therapy and mad scientists,” (Wood, 2020) in reference to some of the common ways to treat mental illness that were prevalent in the late 1800s and early-mid 1900s. Not only were these methods later decided to be harmful and unethical, they were also mainly used on patients with more stigmatized mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder; if a patient was receiving these treatments, it was because they needed to be “fixed.” As a result, people who grew up when these treatments were more common still hold the attitude that mental illness is something bad or shameful, even when modern treatments (the “feel-good pills” and therapy that Wood mentions) are proven to be beneficial. This attitude means that these people refuse to reassess their own mental wellbeing, even when they are hurting because of it. Wood finds this attitude equally as unproductive and harmful as over-relying on pop psychology.
“Marsha, Thankk You” is meant to parody a dialectical behavioral therapy session in how it seeks to juxtapose two contrasting perspectives on mental illness. This becomes especially evident in the song’s outro, where Wood speaks as the listener’s therapist, forcing them to face harsh truths about themself. Regarding their identity, in relation to mental illness, he tells them, “It’s not the way that you were raised, or what the advertisements say / Not what you pay for, what you pray for, what you want, or what you say” (Wood, 2020). These statements address both perspectives that he has criticized throughout the song: the listener’s beliefs about mental illness should not solely be formed by the stigma they grew up with, nor by the self-help “guides” trying to sell them something. Their personal mental state, and any diagnoses they may need, are not reliant on what they buy into, what they hope for, or what they tell others (or themself) that they have. These lyrics summarize Wood’s goal with this song, which was–as he told New Jersey Stage–to get people to examine their attitudes towards mental illness and, hopefully, get them to become more comfortable with themselves.
He continues with the lyrics, “And I see your tendency to redefine disease by what you need / And I’m afraid I can’t prescribe the diagnosis that you seek” (Wood, 2020). This once again frames the listener as someone on the pop psychology side of the conversation, over-reliant on a diagnosis to tell them who they are. Wood, in the position of the listener’s therapist, calls out this behavior and refuses to enable it. He tells the listener, “and something tells me / You prefer to be sitting there flipping through those old issues of People,” (Wood, 2020), implying that the listener cares more about the pop psychology anecdotes in the magazine than the real help their therapist is trying to give them. This final observation drives home Wood’s criticism of this type of person.
The last line of the song is spoken; Wood states, “Well that’s our time, see you next week” (Wood, 2020), effectively ending the dialectical behavioral therapy session and the conversation between the two perspectives he contrasted in the song.
Actual DBT aims to find a balance between conflicting thought processes or ideas. However, in this case, Wood thinks it would be more beneficial to get rid of these attitudes entirely. The conversation between pop psychologists and mental illness deniers is “getting us nowhere,” he says in an interview with Kill the Music. “It’s a game of tug of war with the teams a mile apart and no objective judge. We don’t need to meet in the middle, we need to give up the game” (Mohler, 2020). Although he used dialectic theory as the framework for “Marsha, Thankk You,” he does not actually believe that there is any way for these perspectives to reconcile. Neither are helping America’s mental health crisis, and in fact it may be more beneficial to society if both sides did not exist at all in the extremes that they do.
An Analysis of God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We'd Feel Good On It by Michelle Ray
View the book and its details here
View more of Michelle Ray's pieces here
Something that always interests me in media is exploration of the lines between truth, reality, and fiction. I was originally drawn to this book because of its title, but I knew I was going to choose it for this paper when I read the author’s quote, “The enclosed account is partially true. It is also partially fabricated. But I assure you that all of it has been vigorously documented in a most honest manner” in the book’s description on Herron’s digital collection site (Herron Library). In her book God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We’d Feel Good On It, Michelle Ray tells a story of ocean travel that is completely fictional and yet simultaneously the truth.
In an interview with Herringbone Bindery, Ray says that she grew up in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt near the Little Shenango river. She has a background in sailing and has built small sailboats herself. Before she began studying book arts, she received a Masters in Library and Informational Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh (Fletcher). Elements from these settings–rurality, nature, water, materiality, organization–are woven through all of her works.
While completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh, Ray was introduced to book arts by her sculpture professor, who noticed her interest in combining words, form, and kinetic elements. Ray studied book arts independently for years, including a year-long residency at Small Craft Advisory Press in 2012, before receiving a Book Arts MFA from University of Alabama in 2013 (Fletcher).
God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We’d Feel Good On It was created in 2013 as part of Ray’s MFA while she was at the Small Craft Advisory Press residency (Fletcher). It was made in an edition of 50. The book itself consists of 11 7x3.5” pamphlets, throughout which the story is compiled, as well as a crew manifest that is 21x14” when unfolded. The papers are handmade cotton/abaca, French Construction, and Neena Environment, and the images and text were printed using photopolymer plates. The pamphlets and manifest are stored in a slip-and-slot envelope, which is itself stored in a compartment of a custom-made box. The box is 7x5.5x4.25” and is made from linen and basswood. Alongside the compartment for the envelope is an open, fixed tunnel book. All of these details are from Ray’s page on Vamp & Tramp Booksellers’ website.
The box is what introduces viewers to the story. The imagery incorporated into its design are present throughout the book itself: a whale skeleton stretching around the outside of the box, a sailboat on the box’s inside cover, a compartment that holds a fixed tunnel book depicting another sailboat at sea. At the center of the tunnel book, on the furthest back layer, is a whale (as if hidden in the waves below the sailboat) and the quote “Some things you cannot explain because they are too simple,” which is attributed to Bernard Moitessier (Ray).
By introducing readers to her story with the above quote, Ray implies that the following story will speak for itself; there will be no explanation surrounding why she wrote the anecdotes that she did. The readers will simply have to trust what they feel in order to know the truth of what she says. This idea is continued on an inside flap of the envelope in which the book’s pamphlets are held: Ray writes, “I ask you, dear reader of this fine story, for complete suspension of disbelief–as no truer account of ocean going has ever been created” (Ray). This quote is the thesis statement of the entire book, which encapsulates the feeling of an ocean voyage. Despite the anecdotes that make up the book being fiction, the emotions and sensations that Ray portrays are the “truth” of what it is like to be on the sea.
The envelope in which the book’s pamphlets are held acts as the book’s colophon. Besides Ray’s ask to the readers, two other inside flaps contain information: one shows the method by which the pamphlets were folded and another provides more information about Moitessier, the man quoted in the tunnel book. Ray explains how he would have won the first around-the-world solo sailing competition had he not changed course in the final stretch and continued sailing instead. He tossed a note onto the deck of a passing ship, in which he explained, “I am happy at sea, and perhaps because I want to save my soul” (Ray). The colophon’s paragraph about Moitessier provides context for why Ray chose his quote for the tunnel book. By adding his reasoning for continuing at sea, Ray also begins a through-line that goes through the entire story: the ocean provides men with contentment and a desire for something greater than themselves.
Additionally, the bottom panel of the envelope upon which the papers of the book rest contains traditional colophon information–where the book was created, the materials used to create it, and what number of the edition this copy is (28/50). It also has a continued artist statement:
My dear reader, while residing in the Deep South, I undertook a most wondrous imaginary adventure. The journey began with time spent aboard a cardboard boat on the linoleum headwaters of my apartment and led to points unknown. It started as cathartic play, it became this object.
The enclosed account is partially true. It is also partially fabricated. But I assure you that all of it has been vigorously documented in a most honest manner. (Ray)
Ray explains that the story told within God Created the Sea has originated from her imagination, but this does not mean it is an untrue account of the sea. Although the anecdotes she writes are both factual and fiction (it is never designated which are which, leaving the reader to decide for themself), the story she tells is a completely true (in the feelings it inspires) depiction of an ocean voyage.
God Created the Sea is told by an unnamed narrator (who is distinct from Ray). It recounts the experiences of a crew sailing aboard the ship The Ortolan. Although the same characters and events are referenced throughout the book, the anecdotes that make up the story are told non-linearly. The book also does not have a clear plotline; instead, Ray provides the readers with a collection of experiences that, when put together, give the sense of a tumultuous ocean voyage. Ray imitates the ever-changing, unpredictable state of the ocean in the non-linear way she organizes these anecdotes. She supplements them with footnotes that reference sailing legends, ocean phenomena, and other oceanic stories (such as Moby Dick), building a story that weaves fiction with reality in a way that creates an account that feels authentic. It is not the actual facts of the story that matter but rather how it feels to experience it.
Physically, the book is not a traditionally bound codex; instead, it is made up of 11 separate pamphlets and one crew manifest. The pamphlets are made from two pieces of paper accordion folded with four panels to a side. These pages were then sewn together at the valleys, which creates a diamond shape in the center when fully opened. All the pamphlets have text and/or imagery on both sides. Sometimes the anecdote on one side of the pamphlet is related to the anecdote or imagery on the other side of the pamphlet, but not always. Oftentimes, the leftmost and rightmost panels on a side have footnotes that provide more information or context about the anecdote(s) on the middle two panels.
Additionally, all of the pamphlets are oriented horizontally (if the paper is laid flat), but some are laid in the envelope so that the reader has to rotate or flip the paper in order to read the text or properly see the images. The footnotes on the outer panels are written parallel to the long side of the panel, requiring the viewer to orient the pamphlet vertically (if the paper is laid flat) in order to read the text. Assuming all the pamphlets were organized in the envelope as the author intended (as opposed to careless previous readers), the fact that the viewer has to rotate or flip the pamphlets so much in order to get the complete story implies the constantly shifting nature of the sea, which adds to Ray’s greater narrative about an ocean voyage.Overall, I greatly enjoyed God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We’d Feel Good On It. Ray explores the lines between a factual story and a story that is true in all aspects of the book: the non-linear narrative, the purposefully (I am assuming) disordered pages, the chosen references and images. When everything is brought together, it tells a story that may not have happened but is nonetheless a truthful account of travelling the sea.
Works Cited & Additional Images (taken myself) below cut:
Works Cited:
Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Codex.” Britannica, 3 Mar. 2025, www.britannica.com/topic/codex-manuscript.
Fletcher, Erin. “September Book Artist of the Month: Michelle Ray.” Herringbone Bindery, 2 Sept. 2013, www.herringbonebindery.com/blog/2013/09/02/september-book-artist-of-the-month-michelle-ray/#more-6821.
Golden, Alisa. “Never Mind the Colophon.” Making Handmade Books, 3 July 2012, makinghandmadebooks.blogspot.com/2012/07/never-mind-colophon.html.
Herron Library. “God Created the Sea and Painted It Blue so We’d Feel Good on It.” Herron Library Fine Press & Book Arts Collection, iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/BookArts/id/1443/rec/3. Accessed 10 Mar. 2025.
“Michelle Ray ~ Florida.” Vamp & Tramp Booksellers, 9 Nov. 2024, www.vampandtramp.com/finepress/r/michelle-ray.html.Ray, Michelle. God Created the Sea and Painted It Blue so We’d Feel Good On It. 2013.
An Analysis of God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We'd Feel Good On It by Michelle Ray
View the book and its details here
View more of Michelle Ray's pieces here
Something that always interests me in media is exploration of the lines between truth, reality, and fiction. I was originally drawn to this book because of its title, but I knew I was going to choose it for this paper when I read the author’s quote, “The enclosed account is partially true. It is also partially fabricated. But I assure you that all of it has been vigorously documented in a most honest manner” in the book’s description on Herron’s digital collection site (Herron Library). In her book God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We’d Feel Good On It, Michelle Ray tells a story of ocean travel that is completely fictional and yet simultaneously the truth.
In an interview with Herringbone Bindery, Ray says that she grew up in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt near the Little Shenango river. She has a background in sailing and has built small sailboats herself. Before she began studying book arts, she received a Masters in Library and Informational Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh (Fletcher). Elements from these settings–rurality, nature, water, materiality, organization–are woven through all of her works.
While completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh, Ray was introduced to book arts by her sculpture professor, who noticed her interest in combining words, form, and kinetic elements. Ray studied book arts independently for years, including a year-long residency at Small Craft Advisory Press in 2012, before receiving a Book Arts MFA from University of Alabama in 2013 (Fletcher).
God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We’d Feel Good On It was created in 2013 as part of Ray’s MFA while she was at the Small Craft Advisory Press residency (Fletcher). It was made in an edition of 50. The book itself consists of 11 7x3.5” pamphlets, throughout which the story is compiled, as well as a crew manifest that is 21x14” when unfolded. The papers are handmade cotton/abaca, French Construction, and Neena Environment, and the images and text were printed using photopolymer plates. The pamphlets and manifest are stored in a slip-and-slot envelope, which is itself stored in a compartment of a custom-made box. The box is 7x5.5x4.25” and is made from linen and basswood. Alongside the compartment for the envelope is an open, fixed tunnel book. All of these details are from Ray’s page on Vamp & Tramp Booksellers’ website.
The box is what introduces viewers to the story. The imagery incorporated into its design are present throughout the book itself: a whale skeleton stretching around the outside of the box, a sailboat on the box’s inside cover, a compartment that holds a fixed tunnel book depicting another sailboat at sea. At the center of the tunnel book, on the furthest back layer, is a whale (as if hidden in the waves below the sailboat) and the quote “Some things you cannot explain because they are too simple,” which is attributed to Bernard Moitessier (Ray).
By introducing readers to her story with the above quote, Ray implies that the following story will speak for itself; there will be no explanation surrounding why she wrote the anecdotes that she did. The readers will simply have to trust what they feel in order to know the truth of what she says. This idea is continued on an inside flap of the envelope in which the book’s pamphlets are held: Ray writes, “I ask you, dear reader of this fine story, for complete suspension of disbelief–as no truer account of ocean going has ever been created” (Ray). This quote is the thesis statement of the entire book, which encapsulates the feeling of an ocean voyage. Despite the anecdotes that make up the book being fiction, the emotions and sensations that Ray portrays are the “truth” of what it is like to be on the sea.
The envelope in which the book’s pamphlets are held acts as the book’s colophon. Besides Ray’s ask to the readers, two other inside flaps contain information: one shows the method by which the pamphlets were folded and another provides more information about Moitessier, the man quoted in the tunnel book. Ray explains how he would have won the first around-the-world solo sailing competition had he not changed course in the final stretch and continued sailing instead. He tossed a note onto the deck of a passing ship, in which he explained, “I am happy at sea, and perhaps because I want to save my soul” (Ray). The colophon’s paragraph about Moitessier provides context for why Ray chose his quote for the tunnel book. By adding his reasoning for continuing at sea, Ray also begins a through-line that goes through the entire story: the ocean provides men with contentment and a desire for something greater than themselves.
Additionally, the bottom panel of the envelope upon which the papers of the book rest contains traditional colophon information–where the book was created, the materials used to create it, and what number of the edition this copy is (28/50). It also has a continued artist statement:
My dear reader, while residing in the Deep South, I undertook a most wondrous imaginary adventure. The journey began with time spent aboard a cardboard boat on the linoleum headwaters of my apartment and led to points unknown. It started as cathartic play, it became this object.
The enclosed account is partially true. It is also partially fabricated. But I assure you that all of it has been vigorously documented in a most honest manner. (Ray)
Ray explains that the story told within God Created the Sea has originated from her imagination, but this does not mean it is an untrue account of the sea. Although the anecdotes she writes are both factual and fiction (it is never designated which are which, leaving the reader to decide for themself), the story she tells is a completely true (in the feelings it inspires) depiction of an ocean voyage.
God Created the Sea is told by an unnamed narrator (who is distinct from Ray). It recounts the experiences of a crew sailing aboard the ship The Ortolan. Although the same characters and events are referenced throughout the book, the anecdotes that make up the story are told non-linearly. The book also does not have a clear plotline; instead, Ray provides the readers with a collection of experiences that, when put together, give the sense of a tumultuous ocean voyage. Ray imitates the ever-changing, unpredictable state of the ocean in the non-linear way she organizes these anecdotes. She supplements them with footnotes that reference sailing legends, ocean phenomena, and other oceanic stories (such as Moby Dick), building a story that weaves fiction with reality in a way that creates an account that feels authentic. It is not the actual facts of the story that matter but rather how it feels to experience it.
Physically, the book is not a traditionally bound codex; instead, it is made up of 11 separate pamphlets and one crew manifest. The pamphlets are made from two pieces of paper accordion folded with four panels to a side. These pages were then sewn together at the valleys, which creates a diamond shape in the center when fully opened. All the pamphlets have text and/or imagery on both sides. Sometimes the anecdote on one side of the pamphlet is related to the anecdote or imagery on the other side of the pamphlet, but not always. Oftentimes, the leftmost and rightmost panels on a side have footnotes that provide more information or context about the anecdote(s) on the middle two panels.
Additionally, all of the pamphlets are oriented horizontally (if the paper is laid flat), but some are laid in the envelope so that the reader has to rotate or flip the paper in order to read the text or properly see the images. The footnotes on the outer panels are written parallel to the long side of the panel, requiring the viewer to orient the pamphlet vertically (if the paper is laid flat) in order to read the text. Assuming all the pamphlets were organized in the envelope as the author intended (as opposed to careless previous readers), the fact that the viewer has to rotate or flip the pamphlets so much in order to get the complete story implies the constantly shifting nature of the sea, which adds to Ray’s greater narrative about an ocean voyage.Overall, I greatly enjoyed God Created the Sea and Painted it Blue so We’d Feel Good On It. Ray explores the lines between a factual story and a story that is true in all aspects of the book: the non-linear narrative, the purposefully (I am assuming) disordered pages, the chosen references and images. When everything is brought together, it tells a story that may not have happened but is nonetheless a truthful account of travelling the sea.
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