Bad Day (R.E.M. song)

"Bad Day" is one of two previously unreleased songs on and the lead single from R.E.M.'s 2003 compilation In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003.

Contents

• Music video
• In other media
• Track listing
• References

The song first appeared in 1985, when Michael Stipe sang a few words of it during a concert in Albany, New York, as part of the Reconstruction tour. Then, 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". An anti-media rant inspired by a day Stipe found a camcorder lens in his face when he answered the front door, 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, and the band finally recorded it for In Time, with only slightly updated lyrics and under the new title "Bad Day".

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.