Perpetual Emotion Machine
from The Unforetold / Released as a Single
2009
Bad Day was the second song written for the 2009 album The Unforetold, and probably the piece I’ve spent the most time on since The Flight Deck.
The track originated from several fronts and inspiration points. Actually, the whole concept of the track originally stemmed from a point of anti-inspiration: my job. Basically, I hated my day job, and I had for some time. So the lyrics basically narrate what was going through my head during a typical weekday when I had to go to my job.
When I began this song, the lyrics were written at the same time as the music, which is a first for me; usually the words come after, because I find them so hard to write. For Bad Day, the lyric writing was almost effortless, because it was something I had been dealing with for a long time. The style of the vocals, either by accident or subconscious intent, ended up featuring spoken vocals, a concept I admired from the Pet Shop Boys‘ ‘Left To My Own Devices‘, as well as Karl Hyde‘s lyrical creations for Underworld.
The other concept behind this song, besides the job-hating, was that of being trapped in a place when you would much rather be somewhere else. In this case, I was feeling rather distant from my daughter, living several provinces away, and I was wondering if she felt the same thing I did. At the age of five, memories can be fleeting and I often wondered how much of me she retained. For myself, I felt that the whole experience of visiting her was kind of a dream, and that’s where the lyrics for this section came in.
I wanted a female voice to accompany mine for the singing bits. I was hoping that a female voice would play the part of my daughter in the song. Her and I would both be singing the same line, but in harmony. So I enlisted the help of Catherine Goodrick, the wife of a good friend on mine, and we recorded a couple of brief sessions. I loved the sound of it, the two parts sounded great together, and it was just what I wanted.
Shortly after beginning work on this, I realized that this was going to be a trilogy — a three part opener to the album, and that the whole thing was going to be in excess of twenty minutes. I had two other songs I was working on that were roughly the same key and tempo so I retooled them with this in mind. So once I was happy with all three, I went to work on the other successive parts, which ended up being Dad’s Day and Hard Candy, with the entire suite being entitled The Unforetold, and also the name of the album, ultimately. The three sections share elements from one to another which make them cohesive — the suite begins and ends with the same bass sound and sequence.
I experimented with this song, more than any other, and lived and breathed the track for weeks, even months all told. Thus, there are many versions and many more that didn’t survive a hard drive crash.
Bad Day also has its own music video and here it is.
Bad Day (Demo)
Perpetual Emotion Machine
The first version of the song, before the lyrics. Doesn’t seem to exist anymore.
Bad Day
Perpetual Emotion Machine
This is the album version, isolated from the Unforetold Suite.
The Unforetold: Bad Day, Dad’s Day, Hard Candy
Perpetual Emotion Machine
The complete suite as the opener for the album.
Credits
written, produced and arranged by Perpetual Emotion Machine. additional vocals by Catherine Goodrick-Werner. ©2009 Woof Boom Productions.
Bad Day (New Version)
Perpetual Emotion Machine
This is a remixed version which appeared on the Bad Day single.
Bad Day (Video Mix)
Perpetual Emotion Machine
A shorter edit of the single remix which was used on the video (created later).
Credits
written, produced and arranged by Perpetual Emotion Machine. additional vocals by Catherine Goodrick-Werner. Remixed by Perpetual Emotion Machine. ©2009 Woof Boom Productions.
Bad Day (Tweeked)
Perpetual Emotion Machine
An experiment where the percussive elements we fed through a digital overdrive and various filters were applied. Intended as a hidden track for one of the singles. This has disappeared.
The Nine-Oh-Five: (Hard Candy (Stripped), Dad’s Day (Extended), Bad Day (Overloaded))
Perpetual Emotion Machine
The companion suite to The Unforetold, this version contains an expanded version of the Tweeked experiment noted above as the third part.
Credits
written, produced and arranged by Perpetual Emotion Machine. ‘Dad’s Day’ co-written by Sanaa Rush. additional vocals by Catherine Goodrick-Werner. Remixed by The Immaculate Contraption. ©2009 Woof Boom Productions.
Bad Day (Earl Three’s Earban Mix)
Perpetual Emotion Machine
Remix produced for the single. Removes the chorus bits and focuses on the verses. Loosely based on the remix I did for Michael Jackson’s ‘They Don’t Care About Us’.
Credits
written, produced and arranged by Perpetual Emotion Machine. additional vocals by Dave Parkinson. Remixed by Earl Three. ©2009 Woof Boom Productions.
Bad Day (2011 Redux)
Perpetual Emotion Machine
Unreleased new version which was intended for a new cut of the music video. The feel is a bit different for this version and it features a new phrasing for the intro.
Credits
written, produced and arranged by Perpetual Emotion Machine. additional vocals by Catherine Goodrick-Werner. Reduxxed by Perpetual Emotion Machine. ©2009 Woof Boom Productions.
Bad Day (2019 Instrumental Redux)
Perpetual Emotion Machine
An attempt to recreate the 2009 instrumental of the track using the original stems (everything had to be resequenced. Since I no longer held the license for the FM7 synth, I had to change that to a similar synth.
Bad Day (2019 Percapella)
Perpetual Emotion Machine
An alternate mix/arrangement of the song, based on the 2019 redux.
Credits
written, produced and arranged by Perpetual Emotion Machine. additional vocals by Catherine Goodrick-Werner. Reduxxed by Perpetual Emotion Machine. ©2009/2019 Woof Boom Productions.
Lyrics
eyes drift open the television babysitter cigarette smoking halo around my sorry lips someone take that mirror down there's blood on my toothbrush the bus driver meets your half dead stare polyester airholes up and down greasy window glass where someone's rest his head in shame you think too much horses graze by the roadside they don't know when their time will come rising up the hillside at one foot per second watch and wait while the seconds wander by slow motion girders a concrete line cutting it's way through the green grey clouds and shadow a psychological echo just get to the safe house on time you are near me you are far away haphazard greetings and lumbar support new age screensaver and a corkboard shrine peanuts in a plastic jar how did you get to where you are? the photographs stare at you while the fax machine whines i let my fingers do the talking solving the problems of the world i pick up the phone but there's always no one there a DTMF nightmare somewhere in my mind an oasis of calm among the mental wreckage and cross-circuited imagery an island of serenity with all of the amenities of a life I think other people have but it's late now, too late the deadline's passed and you've begun to realize that you've forsaken everything you once held dear your prison is this chair inside this room you can't escape the status quo the pictures mock you but you can't turn away can't remember are you just a dream? you are near me you are far away can't remember are you just a dream?