Flaming Lips Clinch “Oklahoma State Rock Song” Honor

Oklahoma’s Flaming Lips love their home state, and clearly, their home state loves them back: the band’s “Do You Realize??” has been named the official Oklahoma state rock song.

Oklahoma’s Flaming Lips love their home state, and clearly, their home state loves them back: the band’s “Do You Realize??” has been named the official Oklahoma state rock song.

Oklahomans voted for the 2002 Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots cut to represent the Sooner State. The Lips faced stiff competition from other “hometown” heroes, including the Ventures (“Walk Don’t Run”) and All American Rejects (“Move Along”). Okay, so maybe with the All American Rejects, it was a given (it’s right there in the name), but “Do You Realize” also had to do battle with Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” which was co-written by Oklahoma school teacher Mae Boren Axton.

All in all, 454 rock songs were considered, and the Lips clinched 51 percent of the vote. Of course, the psychedelic rockers can only claim to have written the state’s official “rock song.”

The official “state song?” That’d be Roger and Hammerstein’s “Oklahomah.”

Kind of hard to beat that one.