SOTD 1: Smog - Let Me See The Colts (2007)

This is my first post in a multiple part series I plan to help get me back into blogging on a regular basis. I'm going to try to feature a 'Song Of The Day' every, you guessed it, day. As a huge fan of listening to whole albums, I've taken surprisingly little time in my young life to devote time to single songs and really become enveloped in them. However, during this exam period I started to take more of a concentrated interest in some bands/songs and through heavily repeated listening, thought how nice it would be to write some posts like this!

Let Me See The Colts is from Smog's 2007 album "A River Ain't Too Much" and it closes the album off beautifully. Musically, it's a meandering folk jam which conjures imagery of a late night set in a crowded Midwest bar. You can imagine the musicians just staying up there on the stage, never wanting to come off. Simple strummed chords accompanied by light strings and plodding drums guide the listener through another one of Bill Callahan's fantastic tales.

On a very surface level, the narration gives the idea of a young boy wanting to see the next year's American Football team from the local college. It sparks up ideas in my mind from the film "Friday Night Lights" and that Texan town's obsession with their local team. He even seeks the advice of a wise local gambler, but here lies further meaning.

I personally believe the song to be more about decision making and the future, following one path or another, and the possibilities of leaving everything behind, like a girlfriend, friend and the town one has grown up in.

"Knocked on your door at dawn
With a spark in my heart
Dragged you from your bed"

"We walked out through
The dew dappled brambles
And sat upon the fence"

With a song like this, full of imagery, it is possible to interpret it one of many ways, and I think that is where the beauty lies with this track. It's certainly a song suited equally to listening alone, or with a group of friends.



Smog - Let Me See The Colts