A Playlist for Bills Fans

A playlist for Bills fans, by definition, cannot be happy.

And as a middle-aged Gen X guy whose formative years were guided by depressing music (grunge anyone?), I’ve put myself in charge.

Let me just summarize a few points in case you don’t read this blog regularly, which—as a pathological truth-teller—I can assure you is a massive number of people:

• The city of Buffalo has lost 52 percent of its population since the 1950 Census.
• Since the current Super Bowl format began in 1966, the Bills have won a grand total of zero of them.
• In the 1990s, the squad lost four Super Bowls in a row, including one on a missed last-second field goal.
• A few years later, the Bills lost a playoff game on a last-second kickoff return for a touchdown.
• The organization subsequently failed to make the playoffs for 17 years in a row, a streak that still stumps mathematicians for having defied all laws of probability.
• Since then, the team has made the playoffs in eight of nine seasons and seven in a row, forming a habit of finding creative and devastating ways to lose.

 

Given the last point, this playlist for Bills fans should come in handy next January as well.

 

“Numb” by Linkin Park

With repeated trauma, Chester Bennington knew that only one thing can happen.

And I know

I may end up failing too

But I know

You were just like me, with someone disappointed in you

I’ve become so numb…

 

“Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd

But as Pink Floyd showed, the numbness doesn’t have to be so angry—it can become comfortable.

I have become comfortably numb

I have become comfortably numb

 

“Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M.

Not everyone likes to sweep their emotions under the rug, preferring instead to get in touch with them. In this tune, Michael Stipe might have also been providing a reminder to hold on to the damn football.

And everybody hurts sometimes

So hold on, hold on…

 

“Down in a Hole” by Alice In Chains

No one, and I mean no one, could depress an entire generation quite like AIC.

Down in a hole, feelin’ so small

Down in a hole, losin’ my soul

I’d like to fly

But my wings have been so denied

 

“Something in the Way” by Nirvana

Kurt Cobain had a sixth sense that something was in the way, in this case that being the Bills themselves.

Something in the way, hmm-mmm

Something in the way, yeah, hmm-mmm…

 

“Black” by Pearl Jam

Eddie Vedder, whether he knew it or not, was singing on behalf of Bills fans to all those players on other teams who will win a Super Bowl.

I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life, I know you’ll be a star

In somebody else’s sky, but why, why

Why can’t it be, oh, can’t it be mine?

 

“Outshined” by Soundgarden

And Chris Cornell was just singing about Bills fans.

Well I’m feeling that I’m sober

Even though I’m drinking

Well I can’t get any lower

Still I feel I’m sinking

 

“Linger” by The Cranberries

Dolores O’Riordan was well aware how the pain of a playoff loss can stick around for a while.

Was it just a game to you?

But I’m in so deep

You know I’m such a fool for you

You got me wrapped around your finger

Do you have to let it linger?

 

“Vasoline” by Stone Temple Pilots

Was Scott Weiland somehow predicting that the same thing would happen every year?

Flies in the vasoline we are

Sometimes it blows my mind

Keep gettin’ stuck here all the time

 

“Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls

And finally, in a shout-out to their hometown team, Goo Goo Dolls seemed to begin their classic song with a lament about the evasive Super Bowl trophy and the early playoff exits.

And I’d give up forever to touch you

‘Cause I know that you feel me somehow

You’re the closest to Heaven that I’ll ever be

And I don’t wanna go home right now