Much is spoken these days on the subject of mental health and how social services and society in general are way behind the curve when it comes to arriving at long term solutions. In former days the authorities were a little (well, a lot actually) less sympathetic when it came to the treatment of those who were deemed to be a little' crazy'. In fact many of the methods used were nothing less than barbaric and anybody sent to the ‘funny farm’ rarely came back cured, if they came back at all.
It’s a bit of a cliche I know to say that love can make you lose your sense of reality and in many instances can drive you to the brink of insanity but anyway, that’s how the idea for "Rubber room” came about. Rubber rooms are I hope a thing of the past, but for the benefit of those younger readers who may be wondering what I’m on about they were cells that weren’t made of rubber at all but were completely padded with cushioning so that anyone in them wouldn’t be unable to injure themselves by bashing into the walls, hence they are now commonly known as padded cells. As an extra precaution the patient would often be trussed up in a nice white strait jacket (invented way back in the 18th century) just to make absolutely sure he also didn’t use his hands to harm himself.
Maybe I was pushing the lyrical boundaries a bit far to suggest that someone on the receiving end of good love gone bad would actually resort to such extreme measures but if you’ve ever been there (and I’m sure plenty of you have) you could be forgiven if you’ve given it more than just a passing thought. Let’s be honest, if you’re feeling used and/or bruised a nice quiet rubber room could just be the perfect sanctuary to get away from it all.
Keith.
Song info:
Vocals & guitars - Keith
Bass & Keyboards - Dave
Drums - Paul Beavis
Engineering & recording – Tony Arnold
Production - Dave and Malcolm
Mastering - Malcolm