What’s That Song…

Growing up in Oregon, the Oregon Ducks have been my college team. I can root for others – even some from the Pac-12, but the Ducks are my team.

This last week I went to the sold-out Utah v. Oregon game. A late game. A nail-biter. A tad on the chilly side (28 degrees at the end of the game)…Not the prettiest football, but the Ducks pulled out a win through the play of their defense. But that’s not what this post is about…

I presume this is true in all/most stadiums – they have their traditions, songs that are played each week, or each situation. Oregon games open with Coming Home (Oregon) by Mat Kearney. Between the 3rd and 4th quarters, everyone participates in singing along with Shout by the Isley Bros. But there is one song that is the reason for this post. It’s really more of the guitar riff that plays rather than the whole song. It’s the song that plays when it’s 3rd down, and the defense is on the field. “What is this dang song…!?!” Surprisingly, Shazam doesn’t work that great when 54,000+ are screaming “OOOOOOOOOOO” at the top of their lungs, cheering on the defense. It’s a pretty good indicator that it’s loud when you watch gives you a warning that continued exposure to noise at this level can cause hearing damage (gotta love college football). But thankfully, one of the guys I work with has a vast reservoir of little know facts and borderline worthless information immediately accessible for recall… and he’s a few years younger, so he grew up when the song was popular.

The song is Joker and the Thief by Wolfmother (specifically at about the 39-second mark). When you’re standing around with 54,000+ of your closest friends, this riff starts grinding through the PA system, and everyone is yelling – it’s one of my favorite college football experiences.

I’d spent a ton of time trying to figure this out… and not only did my buddy pull the answer seemingly out of thin air, but recently, when 100 previous Google searches had failed me, I came across a post from a few years ago that ALSO had the answer. You can check out the post “The Sounds of Autzen Stadium” by texasbigdawg. The post includes a cool video of the Shout song from what looks like in/near the student section of Autzen.

So, the next time I have to ask the question, “What’s the song…” I can at least come back to this post.

This also stirs the question – what are the songs or traditions that make up your favorite college football stadium experience? I’d love to hear your comments.

For those of you in the US celebrating Thanksgiving in a few days – enjoy. Even though it may not feel like it at times. We have much to be thankful for. Make a choice to look for and choose gratitude.

Until then, enjoy the songs and Go Ducks.