If psychoanalysis were a type of music, it would obviously be prog rock, as despite the fact it is largely a triumph of style over substance there are still a few gems hidden among all the self-indulgent widdling.
So why hasn’t anyone made a Freudian prog rock concept album you ask? The answer is that they have, but we’ve just repressed it.
Scottish singer-songwriter Eric Woolfson started a band in the mid-1970s with ex-Pink Floyd producer Alan Parsons. Rather narcissistically, the group was named The Alan Parsons Project.
In the late 80s they decided to create a concept album based on the theories of Sigmund Freud, entitled Freudiana.
In a great irony that has been repeated throughout the history of psychoanalysis, their work on a theory that attempts to resolve conflicts resulted in them falling out and splitting up.
The album appeared in 1990, however, credited to Woolfson, and with a rather bizarre list of contributors. To name but a few, it includes contributions from Leo Sayer, The Flying Pickets, Kiki Dee and, I titter ye not, Frankie Howerd.
So what does an artist do when their labour of love destroys their creative partnership? Why, they turn it into a German language musical that only plays in Vienna before being bogged down in legal wranglings over copyright.
There’s a clip on YouTube, and it’s, erm… very special. Glam Kraut Freud Rock, if you will.
Actually, most of the tracks from the album are on YouTube, so if you want to listen to The Nirvana Principle, Little Hans, Dora, Beyond the Pleasure Principle or No One Can Love You Better Than Me you should be able to find them.
Link to Wikipedia page on Freudiana.
Link to clip of Freudiana the musical.
Mind Hacks 