In the 1980s, REM's Michael Stipe wrote the song above, a deconstruction of mass media and takedown of Ronald Reagan. The band made a demo of the track and originally planned to record it for Life's Rich Pageant (1986), but it didn't end up making the cut. However, it did serve as a prototype for "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" while the original version was finally recorded and released in a polished form as "Bad Day" on REM's 2003 compilation album "In Time: The Best of REM 1988-2003). From Wikipedia:
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". 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."
