Midlife crisis

Midlife crisis is a term first coined by Elliott Jaques referring to a critical phase in a person's life during the forties to early sixties, based on periods of transition. The period is said to vary among individuals and between men and women. Despite popular perception of this phenomenon, empirical research has failed to show that the midlife crisis is a universal experience, or even a real condition at all.

According to psychologist and writer Oliver Robinson, a life crisis is defined as a period characterized by unstable mental and emotional health, altering the course of life of those affected by it, and affecting them for a year or longer. Life crises usually have similar characteristics for each age group. Those in the early midlife stage are more likely to experience the deaths of loved ones, while declines in physical strength and vitality and impending death or work stoppage are more likely to affect people in late midlife. Effects of crises vary from being beneficial to some and life altering in a negative way for others. About half the people studied found results of their crises to be positive.

Midlife Crisis

"Midlife Crisis" is a song by the American rock band Faith No More. It was released on May 26, 1992 as the first single from their fourth album, Angel Dust. It became their sole number-one hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Music and lyrics

"Midlife Crisis" is a rock song, which incorporates progressive rock and hip hop elements.

Mike Patton has denied that the song is about having a midlife crisis, as he did not know what one would feel like, but says that "it's more about creating false emotion, being emotional, dwelling on your emotions and in a sense inventing them" and that:

Production

During production the song was given the working title of "Madonna" which was later maintained as a setlist name during live performances. The drum track for the song contains a sample of the first bar of the song "Cecilia", as performed by Simon and Garfunkel, repeated throughout. sample  The bridge features a sample of "Car Thief" by the Beastie Boys.

Music video

The video for this song was directed by Kevin Kerslake, who also directed their shoestring video for the song "Everything's Ruined". The version on the Who Cares a Lot?: Greatest Videos collection features the uncensored version that contains some shots omitted from pre-watershed broadcasts of the video. Most noticeably during the bridge which shows a man being stretched by four horses (alluding to an old French punishment for regicide, known as "quartering") - the censored version features additional shots of choirboys running to a big cross instead. Singer Mike Patton can also be seen dancing around holding a spade.