On April 19, 1995 a bomb blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building located in the Flaming Lips' hometown, Oklahoma City, only a mile away from the studio where they were finishing their follow-up to 1993's Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. The bombing became subject behind the duo that closed the album Clouds Taste Metallic: "Evil Will Prevail" and "Bad Days." Later lead singer Wayne Coyne remarked on the music and the bombing as a whole, saying,
"Anyone with half a brain must know that goodness is sometimes not enough to conquer evil. Anyone who's been alive has seen a lot of shitty, evil things done and it doesn't take a bomb blowing up half of your town to know that."
While
Evil Will Prevail was about the realization that, "Yes,
everything sucks, but what are you gonna go about it?",
Bad Days provides the answer: Hold on to your dreams, and sleep late when you can.
Beautiful.
The song was featured in Batman Forever, introducing Jim Carrey as The Riddler to the audience full volume. Said
Wayne:
"We couldn't believe it, they used almost the entire song! We had remixed it for the film--before it was very low-fi. It's not that I'm a fan of low-fi stuff, but this was sort of...inferior-hi."
Bad Days closed out the Batman Forever Soundtrack, released June 6,
1995, as well as
Clouds Taste Metallic on September 19, 1995.
Lyrics:
You're sorta stuck where you are,
But in your dreams you can buy expensive cars,
Or live on Mars, and have it your way.
And you hate your boss at your job,
But in your dreams you can blow his head off,
In your dreams, show no mercy.
And all your bad days will end,
And all your bad days will end.
You have to sleep late when you can,
And all your bad days will end.