An outtake version of the song originally recorded for Lifes Rich Pageant finally appeared on EMI's 2006 compilation And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982–1987. A demo version from the same sessions appeared on the 25th Anniversary Edition of Lifes Rich Pageant in 2011. The arrangement of the song is slightly different in each version.
"Bad Day" is an anti-media rant which was inspired by a day when Michael Stipe opened his front door and found a camcorder lens in his face. The lyrics also reference the policies of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, as the song was originally written in the 1980s during his administration.[1] Stipe sang a few words of it during a concert in Albany, New York in 1985, as part of the Reconstruction Tour. Around the time of Lifes Rich Pageant, the song emerged in a more polished version with the title "PSA"—an abbreviation for "public service announcement".[2]
The song was never released but did serve as a sort of forerunner to "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", a song with a similar cadence and delivery. In 2003, Stipe saw that the song still had contemporary resonance due to the policies of George W. Bush, and the band finally recorded it for In Time, with only slightly updated lyrics and under the new title "Bad Day".[3] In the liner notes for In Time, Peter Buck wrote: "We started writing this song in 1986 [sic]. We finished writing it in 2003. The sad thing is, between those years nothing much has changed."[4]
The official music video was directed by Tim Hope and shot in Vancouver in May 2003.[5] It is a parody of cable news and was produced by Passion Pictures.[6] It appears on In View, the DVD companion of In Time, and is also found on the main CD of In Time.
In the video, Stipe appears as the Morning Team's news anchor Cliff Harris; Mike Mills doubles as roving reporter Ed Colbert and meteorologist Rick Jennings; and Buck as climate expert Geoff Sayers and the reporter Eric Nelson. News stories shown include a monsoon contained within an apartment, a senator's office flooding, and a tornado inside a boy's bedroom.
The song can be heard in a third-season episode of Alias, in the Scrubs episode "My Advice To You", in the 76th episode of Boston Public, in episode 1.11 "The Uncertainty Principle" of Joan of Arcadia and in the Smallville episode "Slumber."
