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Bad Day

Certain Songs #1758: R.E.M. – “Bad Day”

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Album: In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003
Year: 2003

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File Under Broadcast

Way back in the previous decade, I already discussed how I found the original demo version of “Bad Day (PSA)” in a record store in London back in 1992, and how it became one of my favorite R.E.M. songs.

So you can imagine my thrill when they announced that they were going to issue it as a bonus track on their first Warner Bros best-of, In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003, though I don’t think I knew that they were going to rework it into more of a political screed.

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Certain Songs #1713: R.E.M. – “Bad Day (PSA)”

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Demo, 1986

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File Under PSA

It was late June, 1992. I was in London. London, England, that is, hanging out with Tim, who was showing me all of his favorite record stores, including one in Camden Town that sold bootlegs.

Now, of course, R.E.M. bootlegs started appearing in the mid-1980s, encouraged by the band themselves, who instinctively understood that live recordings, outtakes and other ephemera weren’t bad for them, but rather, good for them. Hardcore fans weren’t going to buy the next R.E.M. album just because they had a live recording that happened to included early versions of those songs. So R.E.M. allowed their shows to be recorded, both for the radio and otherwise, and even said in interviews that they themselves bought R.E.M. bootlegs.

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