The giant pink robots are a symbol for her cancer, and the humanity she is trying to save is her own existence. It’s the most concept-like song on the album, introducing us to the kung-fu master and her mission to defeat the giant pink robots and save all of humanity. 1’ is a party for the main woman herself. Probably one of the better known and most celebrated tracks on the album, ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots: Pt. Towards the end of 3000–21’s bouncing story, these monotone noises are the only things left and they bring us back to the uncertainty that surrounds Yoshimi and her future. Unit 3000–21 opens its eyes in ‘One More Robot/Sympathy 3000–21’, and in the background of some strangely happy sounding lyrics about a robot developing emotive capabilities, there is a constant flow of glitchy radio fuzz, and those augmented vibes and sounds that prevent any of these tracks from falling into the pop realm. There is an augmented vibe that ties the whole album together, as a way of illustrating the mecha universe that acts as the stage for Yoshimi’s battle with disease. It’s a great, simple melodic tribute to avoidance. Setting all of this aside, the song doesn’t try to be complex, or present you with the full force of the Lips’ experimental capabilities. The Lips now receive 25 per cent of the royalites for ‘Fight Test’, and Stevens gets the rest. In 2003 it was agreed that the song bore a striking resemblance to Cat Stevens’ (Yusuf Islam) 1970’s song ‘Father and Son’, and a settlement was reached between Sony/ATV Music Publicity and EMI Records. It’s a song about regret, and the all too familiar feeling of having to face up to something difficult, which in this case is fighting over a girl. Track one, ‘Fight Test’, is a slow roasted indie jam with a half-borrowed recipe. Eventually, a forty-seven and a half minute fusion of electronic, orchestral psychedelia and indie rock was born, on the Warner Bros. The band had also lost a friend to illness some time before this - also Japanese - and her death inspired them to write a song in her memory. They joined her and her band in Austin, and it was a recording of her scream (heard in ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 2’) that inspired visions of a Japanese woman battling giant machines in singer and guitarist Wayne Coyne’s mind. Her name was Yoshimi P-We, from the band The Boredoms. Around the time the band began recording together with a new album in mind, a friend of theirs was recording in Austin, Texas - the next state over to where the Flaming Lips formed and made their debut in 1983. It is unintended, in that the band did not set out with any story in mind when they began recording for the album, it just ended up playing out that way. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is an unintended concept album that tells the story of one Japanese woman’s battle with cancer. It has just the right mix of clutter and harmony and escapism.The original album cover (middle) was drawn by vocalist Wayne CoyneĪ strange and finely crafted masterpiece. Well, heck, “Bad Days” is pretty much a song you will love. But if you have an open mind, if you like stomping beats, ringing chimes, splashy drums, bouncy bass parts, fuzzy guitars, choruses you can sing along with, lyrics that are easy to remember. It’s like the ultimate in lazy, grumpy teenaged yelping. Coyne’s (purposefully) awkward vocal approach. Our bad days go away, our concerns evaporate.Īnd the sound! The sound, my friends. We can travel planets, we can do anything. “You have to sleep late when you can, and all your bad days will end.” Dreams, the escape from what we have to the fantasy world where we can not only be what we want to be, but where we don’t even have to be limited to that. “You’re sorta stuck where you are / but in your dreams, you can buy expensive cars or live on Mars / and have it your way.” Who among us doesn’t dream of having it our way, every once in a while? It’s quirky and universal at the same time. And “Bad Days” is such a happy, upbeat, celebratory song of sleeping, breaking out of the grind and doing what you want to do within the safety of dreams. We all have those “take this job and shove it” moments. I think that describes Emily’s and my antics fairly well! It is daffy, it is hilarious, it is human. And sometimes this song almost feels like a soundtrack to that. Sometimes Emily and I can get a bit goofy, we’ll babble to ourselves or at each other. These are the discussions Emily and I have had.īut put on “Bad Days,” and all is forgiven.
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