VCV: Mudhoney – “Today, Is A Good Day”

It's Opposite Day, brought to you by our Secretary of Irony, Mudhoney.

I wonder how many people listened to the refrain, "Today, is a good day!" and thought this was an Up With People anthem.  I remember hearing this song used in sports highlight packages and I shook my head in disbelief.  It reminds me of President Reagan using "Born in the U.S.A." as a campaign song.  I don't blame President Reagan for getting the song wrong.  He was in his 70s and probably hadn't been to an E Street Band show in his life.  Some staffer listened to the chorus and brought this idea in and no one actually listened to the whole song.  That guy should still running laps for that gaffe.

Back to Mudhoney.  "Today is a good day" seems an obvious enough refrain.  How can you be accused of reading too much into that?  Can a statement get any more simple?  How could you misinterpret that?

Context, boys and girls.  Let's go to the first verse:

Nothing but dust dripping out the pump
The cows are milking blood
God only knows what that is
raining down from above

Today is a good day, all right, and it gets even happier in the second verse.

The crops are all diseased
rotten fish lined the dried river bed
orphan cries fill the valley
nearly every mother's dead

Excellent.  I suppose one could argue this is why grunge had trouble sustaining its mojo in the '90s.  Half the people listened to the song and missed the point.  The other half didn't, if you catch my drift.  Before any of you dismiss Mudhoney as dour poets of doom, let's get a little more context.  Listen to the song and let your face melt from the heat of that monster riff.  Hear vocalist Mark Arm smirk and sneer. 

Today, is a good day.