John's Track of the Week: "Do You Realize??"

Song: Do You Realize??

Artist: The Flaming Lips

Album: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Year: 2002

This week, my track of the week sort of switches back to the type of stuff you'd normally see from me.  "Do You Realize??", probably The Flaming Lips' most popular and well-known song, is one of the many relaxing and spacious tracks off of 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.  Readers will probably recognize it from VH1 spots, as well as Mitsubishi and HP commercials, but before that, it was simply a song about struggling with addiction and the hardship left behind from a close loved one's death.

While in the studio recording Yoshimi, lead singer Wayne Coyne was still dealing with the death of his father, and bandmate Steven Drozd was struggling with kicking a drug addiction.  The emotions of these events combined allowed Coyne to pen "Do You Realize??", which indirectly deals with the two situations, while speaking of death and getting the most out of life.  The band actually enjoys the fact that people find this song rather endearing, and, entertainingly enough, it was named the state of Oklahoma's official rock song last month.  Though I wasn't aware that states had official rock songs, you can still enjoy Oklahoma's below.