Bad Day

It's interesting because the song is kinda in the same vein as "It's The End of the World As We Know It" (It was written the year before Document was released, but only released recently on In Time.)-- rapid fire information that you can barely keep up with.

Mike Mills makes an interesting comment on the booklet that comes with In Time: "We started writing this song in 1986. We finished writing it in 2003. The sad thing is, between those years nothing much has changed."

News programs in the last decade and a half have been increasingly designed to cram as much information into 3-6 minute segments as possible. The words to the song make virtually no real sense on their own-- after all, just how much in-depth information can you pack into a soundbite?

Forget it, screw it, we say. It's been a bad day; please don't take a picture of it. I've had enough and I don't want to see anymore. We're well aware that life sucks (in contrast to Akakuro here; we're not all ignorant and trying to blind ourselves, some of us are just frustrated and mad as hell and don't want to take anymore.) We don't get a story anymore. We just get overloaded.

I think that this song talks about the media and how a horrific tragedy is recorded forever and often horrifically twisted. I also think that the line, "A public service announcement followed me home" refers to the media being everywhere - almost like a Big Brother-esque situation.

LaurieHart:

'Sure all men are created equal Here's the Church, here's the steeple'

I believe is tongue-in-cheek for "Sure all men are created equal as long as they are Christians like me Ronald Reagan"

The song I believe was inspired by the press conference in which Reagan described the annihilation of countless non-Christian "other guys" as a "bad day." Some saw it as a flippant comment, given how Reagan viewed the Evil Empire and 'atheistic' regimes, and non-Christians in general.

Ok, here's my interpretation:

The first verse is about the media being jerking with stories that aren't independent, but somehow too politically biased, either telling "thick shit" about those they don't favour, or portraying others as "whitewashed" and non-stick ("Teflon") clean. And all this to a degree where we just "pay it never mind".

The second verse, I think, is about politicians acting crazy for the media, but if you "look behind the eyes" you see that they really mean to "save my own ass, screw these guys".

In the last two verse it gets more serious. I think the third verse is about oil. "We dug in deep" (for oil?) "the price is steep" (oil prices are raising fast?), and I have can easily follow that the oil traders can be some creaps. "The lights went out, the oil ran dry": America is very (too) dependent on oil, when there's no oil everything stops. All this we "blame on the other guy", who else but the favourite scapegoat of the 21th century: the arabic world/the middle east, which ties perfectly to the next verse: "sure we're all equal", but this is "THE church" saying nearly like Orwell puts it in Animal Farm, that some people (in this case the christians) are more equal than other (in this case the muslims). I think "ashes to ashes, we all fall down" is a way of saying that neither part will benefit from this growing tension, and if we don't "ignore the lower fear" (deap fear? - fear of the unknown/strange? - religions (being the ones "explaining" all the big questions we will never know the answers to)) then "this means war".

The bridges (the "Broadcast me ..."-part), I think, is about him (REM/Stipe) trying to be optimistical and make people cheerful and "count their blessings", but still returns to the pessimistic theme of the preceding verse.

So in conclusion it is no wonder that "It's been a bad day"!

Not too much to say about the song in general, except that it is a powerful political critique of politicians and the media reporting on them and topics of the day. That is, it is not just about someone having a bad day.

The main thing I wanted to add was the whole bit about "please don't take a picture." To me that has always been a funny tongue-in-cheek reference to political scandals and ethical / legal issues, where the white collar criminal always looks so stupid trying to hide their faces.

Everyone knows who it is, but in the era of images that stick around forever, they just don't want that clear, precise image of their face while they are in shackles. So people will go to great lengths to cover their faces . . . ducking, putting their hands up.

It has just always seemed obvious to me that they are playing on that in the "it's been a bad day. Please (a very pleading please) don't take a picture" riff.

To me, this some means life: so much crap can happen in one day it gets you down and when you think you can't go any further, you get pushed. Although I think with the "Please don't take a picture", it is referring mainly to the life of a celebrity. Great chord sequence.

this song is about the worst day in someone's life and the "please don't take a picture" part is about them not wanting to remember it.

See, I have to disagree with you two. I think it's about how America is suffering a political "bad day," and how we'd really rather not have it brought to our attention - hence the "please don't take a picture."

an all new song for in time, this song is great- no wonder it became a big hit. it's about how fucked up the world is (that's why there's tornados and violence and stuff in the music video) and how we need to forget these current times (dont take my picture) and make the world a better place by learning from mistakes.

I've been listening to this song a bit after digging out my CD the other day.

I see a definite political bent to the song that's alluded to in all these comments. My thoughts are kind of a little more general about it.

...We're sick of being jerked around ... we all fall down.

It's been a bad day, please don't take a picture.

It sounds more like a plea for mercy, asking that it when it comes down to THAT EVENT, none of us wants to be judged for the things we do on our "worse day", when we feel we've been wronged, and because we do all fall down, at some point.

Interesting correlation between the reference to St. Vitus dance and being "jerked around" here.