Have A Bad Day

***Have A Bad Day*** is the twenty-second studio album by The Residents, released in 1996 by East Side Digital in the US and Euro Ralph in Europe. The album features "treatments" of music created for the group's 1995 CD-ROM game *Bad Day On The Midway*, but was designed to act as a standalone album *inspired* by the game, rather than as the game's score.

Further mixes of the *Bad Day On The Midway* soundtrack were released in 2012 as *Bad Day On The Midway: Music From The Game Reconsidered*.

## History

The Residents' 1995 CD-ROM game *Bad Day On The Midway* was met with undeniable success, winning two Macrovision International User Conference Awards and being considered for a never-completed TV pilot co-produced by David Lynch. To capitalize on this success, The Residents sought to collect pieces of the vast sound-work they had done for the game into an album.

Uniquely, *Have A Bad Day* was not a typical soundtrack album; the Spring '96 Buy Or Die! catalog refers to it more as a "treatment" rather than a "soundtrack." Opposed to simply "stringing a bunch of tunes together," the group used the game as the inspiration for a suite of mostly instrumental songs.

As a result, *Have A Bad Day* is unlike their previous two CD-ROM projects ('Freak Show' and 'Gingerbread Man') in that it is an album based on a CD-ROM, rather than the other way around. In addition, the sole track unchanged from its game counterpart is "Lottie The Human Log."

### Recording

Sessions for the album were concurrent with production on *Bad Day on the Midway**.* The plan was for the album was for it to be inspired by the game and a direct rip of the game's audio. In the studio, The Residents were assisted by Molly Harvey and Diana Alden, both regular collaborators. John Sanborn, who had previously worked with The Residents on several video projects throughout the early 1990s, also assisted. Newcomers to The Residents' creative team included Sharon Ludtke and Mark Morgan.

A track titled '*Trying to Beat It*' was recorded during the album's sessions but was cut. The reasoning was because of the references to Michael Jackson, who had become something of a controversial figure around the album's production.

### Legacy

Due to the album resembling a soundscape instead of a collection of traditional songs, material from *Have A Bad Day* is rarely performed live, and only two of the album's tracks have ever seen live treatments. The first conducted was of the more traditionally structured *Lottie The Human Log**,* played during the group's 1997 Fillmore performances, immediately before a song called '*Ted*,' based on a cut-scene from the game.

In 2001, the Residents performed a ten-minute-long concentrate on some of the album's themes during their Icky Flix tour. This suite was based on a recording that appeared on the Icky Flix DVD.

The album received a total rework in 2012, which was included with copies of the game's novelization.

## Track listing

1. Bad Day On The Midway (1:59)
2. Dagmar The Dog Woman (3:30)
3. I Ain't Seen No Rats (3:30)
4. Tears Of The Taxman (2:50)
5. God's Teardrops (5:14)
6. The Seven Tattoos (3:17)
7. The Marvels of Mayhem (3:38)
8. Lottie The Human Log (4:38)
9. Ugly Liberation (6:15)
10. Daddy's Poems (6:15)
11. The Red Head of Death (3:48)
12. Timmy (3:05)

## Liner notes

> **The original soundtrack album. Sort of.**
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> The Residents are famous for their, shall we say, unusual approach to media. The impact of their collective thoughts have redefined musical forms, pointed the way for music video, and blurred the lines between concert and traditional theater. But, perhaps, their greatest impact has been on the art form of CD-ROM.
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> The Residents have created an interactive ROM music album, The Gingerbread Man, and two game-like CD-ROMs, Freak Show and Bad Day On The Midway.
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> Bad Day On The Midway, released in 1995, has set critics afire with remarks like:
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> "A+... top five multimedia titles of 1995" - Entertainment Weekly
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> "...straddles the line between Art with a capital A and bad-boy gross-out fun" - Rolling Stone
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> "David Lynch could take lessons from (The Residents)" - Newsweek
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> ...as well as winning Macromedia's People Choice Award for "Best Entertainment Title of 1995".
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> When the time came to issue an audio-only "soundtrack" style music album from Bad Day On The Midway, The Residents felt that the ROM should be the jumping off point for creating a musical work based on Bad Day On The Midway rather than just stringing a bunch of tunes together. Hence, Have A Bad Day was born out of the inspiration that brought the ROM to life.
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> Put this disc in your player and prepare for your own private hell.
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> Have a bad day.
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## Credits

* ***Have a Bad Day* is written, performed & produced by**: The Residents
* **Additional voices are**: Molly Harvey, Sharon Ludtke, Diana Alden, John Sanborn & Mark Morgan.
* **Cover art by**: Leigh Barbier
* **Package designed by**: 4=1
* **Characters designed by**: Jim Ludtke

## See also

* *Bad Day On The Midway*
* *Bad Day On The Midway: Music From The Game Reconsidered*
* *Bad Day On The Midway* (novel)
* "Tryin' To Beat It"

## External links and references

* *Have A Bad Day* at The Residents Historical
* *Have A Bad Day* at RZWeb
* *Have A Bad Day* at Discogs

**Ralph Records (1972 - 1987)**
*Meet The Residents* (1974) · *The Third Reich 'n Roll* (1976) · *Fingerprince* (1977) · *Duck Stab!/Buster & Glen* (1978)*Not Available* (1978) · *Eskimo* (1979) · *Commercial Album* (1980) · *Mark of the Mole* (1981) *The Tunes of Two Cities* (1982) · *George & James* (1984) · *The Big Bubble* (1985) · *Stars & Hank Forever!* (1986)
**Ryko and Enigma (1988 - 1989)**
*God In Three Persons* (1988) · *The King & Eye* (1989)
**East Side Digital (1990 - 2002)**
*Freak Show* (1990) · *Our Finest Flowers* (1992) · *Gingerbread Man* (1994) · ***Have A Bad Day*** (1996) *Wormwood* (1998) · *Demons Dance Alone* (2002)
**Mute Records (2004 - 2007)** *Animal Lover* (2005) · *Tweedles!* (2006) · *The Voice of Midnight* (2007)
**MVD Audio (2008 - 2015)**
*The Bunny Boy* (2008) · *Lonely Teenager* (2011) · *Mush-Room* (2013)
**MVD Audio and Cherry Red (2016 - present)** *The Ghost of Hope* (2017) · *Intruders* (2018) · *Metal, Meat & Bone* (2020)

**Fan club / off-label albums**
*Buckaroo Blues* (1989) · *The 12 Days of Brumalia* (2004) · *Night of the Hunters* (2007)*Hades* (2009) · *Dollar General* (2010) · *Night Train To Nowhere!* (2012)
**Soundtrack albums**
*Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?* (1984) · *The Census Taker* (1985) · *Hunters* (1995) · *Icky Flix* (2001) *I Murdered Mommy!* (2004) · *Postcards From Patmos* (2008) ·  *Strange Culture/Haeckel's Tale* (2010)*Chuck's Ghost Music* (2011) · *Theory of Obscurity Soundtrack* (2014) · *Sculpt* (2016) · *Music to Eat Bricks By* (2019) · *Triple Trouble* (2022)
**Collaborative albums**
*Title In Limbo* with Renaldo & The Loaf (1983) · *I Am A Resident!* with You? (2018)
**Live in the studio**
*Assorted Secrets* (1984) · *Roadworms: The Berlin Sessions* (2000) · *Talking Light Live In Rehearsal, Santa Cruz, California* (2010)*Mole Dance 82* (2021) · *Duck Stab! Alive!* (2021)
**Related articles**
The Residents discography (W.E.I.R.D., 1979) · Ralph Records discography