Day After Day #223: Waitin' for a Superman

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Waitin' for a Superman (1999)

When you ask people about their favorite albums by a particular artist, they often say the early ones. There's that raw, fresh sound when a band's just starting out that may get smoothed over or lost as the band gets older, bigger, more commercial. But sometimes artists find another level or a different sound later in their career that changes their entire trajectory.

That's what happened with the Flaming Lips. The band was formed in Oklahoma City in 1983 by Wayne Coyne (guitar), his brother Mark (lead vocals), Michael Ivins (bass) and Dave Kotska (drums). They released one EP before Mark left the band and Wayne took over as vocalist. The band's first album, 1986's Hear It Is, was psychedelic noise rock with touches of country and punk. They were weird, but nowhere near what they would do in the future. 

On their fourth album, 1990's In a Priest Driven Ambulance, the band really caught its stride, ripping through hot guitar-drenched rippers like "Unconsciously Screamin'," "Shine On Sweet Jesus," "Rainin' Babies" and "God Walks Among Us Now." A concept album about religion, it's relentlessly trippy and awesome. The band signed with Warner Bros. and released Hit to Death in the Future Head in 1992. But it wasn't until their sixth album, 1993's Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, that the Lips got any attention, thanks to "She Don't Use Jelly" after it was featured on Beavis and Butt-Head. The song hit #55 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was a top 30 hit in Australia. It even got them on TV, playing the Peach Pit on Beverly Hills 90210.

The Lips were unable to sustain the momentum on their next album, Clouds Taste Metallic, which was critically lauded but didn't sell as well as its predecessor. They responded by releasing Zaireeka, a four-CD album that meant to be listened to by playing all four CDs in four separate players simultaneously. 

But things would change in 1999 with The Soft Bulletin, which incorporated catchier songs, more synths and symphonic touches, and booming drums. It still has its psychedelic moments, but everything was just more...majestic. And critics and fans alike loved it, with many comparisons to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album. Many proclaimed it the best album of 1999, and some called it the best album of the '90s.

The band had been going through a lot in the leadup to The Soft Bulletin. Drozd was battling a serious heroin addiction and almost lost his arm to an abscessed hypodermic puncture. Ivins nearly died in a car accident. And Coyne's father died after a long battle with cancer, leaving the frontman depressed. At this point, the band was a trio because lead guitarist Ronald Jones quit the band, leaving Coyne, Ivins and drummer Steven Drozd, who also began playing guitar, bass and keyboards. Eventually, Kliph Scurlock joined to take over on drums while Drozd played other instruments.

"Waitin' for a Superman" (sometimes with the subtitle "Is It Gettin' Heavy??") finds Coyne in a life-affirming mood, wondering if there isn't a Superman to ease our burdens, maybe we need to rely on each other.

"I asked you a question/I didn't need you to reply/Is it gettin' heavy?/But then I realized/Is it gettin' heavy?/Well I thought it was already as heavy as can be/Is it overwhelming to use a crane to crush a fly?/It's a good time for Superman/To lift the sun into the sky."

The song's vulnerability takes the band to places it hasn't been before. Nobody's spreading Vaseline on toast here. 

"Tell everybody/Waitin' for Superman/That they should try to hold on best they can/He hasn't dropped them/Forgot them or anything/It's just too heavy for Superman to lift."

With this song and the rest of the album ("Race for the Prize" and "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" are just two more examples), the Lips had become downright inspirational, which was something nobody would have believed a decade earlier when they were writing songs like "Chrome Plated Suicide" and "Hari-Krishna Stomp Wagon (Fuck Led Zeppelin)."

The band's 2002 follow-up Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was similarly affecting, with songs like "Do You Realize??" and "Fight Test" especially hitting home. That year, the Lips opened for and were the backing band for Beck on his Sea Change tour. But the Lips didn't just keep making those kinds of albums and going for the NPR crowd. They embraced the weird like they always have, collaborating with everyone from Lightning Bolt to Neon Indian to Henry Rollins to Miley Cyrus, recording a 24-hour song, playing eight live concerts in 24 hours and appearing on Yo Gabba Gabba.

I haven't really kept up with their last several studio albums, but that's OK. There's so much good stuff in their catalog, especially The Soft Bulletin, that it doesn't really matter.