It's a Bitter Sweet Symphony for Seattle

One of the most time-honored traditions of getting the crowd pumped before a football game is the entrance music played by each team as they run out of the tunnel. Generally, as one might expect, the tune is designed to get feet stomping and the fans screaming—you know, an upbeat party song.

Fans watching Super Bowl XLIX Sunday were likely not too surprised by the New England Patriots’ regular choice—the DeflateGate-proof “Crazy Train,” Ozzy Osbourne’s ageless party hit which has spurred listeners to yell “ay ay ay” since 1980. However, when the Seattle Seahawks raced onto the field, they were accompanied by the dreamy strains of English band the Verve’s biggest hit, 1997’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony.”

Of course, this is nothing new to Seattle—the team has used the song for a decade now, including last year’s first-time Super Bowl victory over the Denver Broncos. Still, despite its enduring history with the Seahawks, it’s a consistent mystery as to why a team based in a city rich in musical history would choose a non-native (not even American) band to represent.

Ozzy Osbourne isn’t American either, but it goes further than that. Not only does the song not have any ties to Seattle whatsoever, “Bitter Sweet Symphony” has intrinsically about as much to do with the NFL as the Easter Bunny. Virtually the only tie to the Seahawks is that singer Richard Ashcroft shares the same first name as the team’s star cornerback.

Or perhaps running back Marshawn Lynch’s ability to get where he wants to go?

Based around a sample of another British band—namely, an orchestral version of the Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time”—the lyrics of the tune are undeniably bleak, outlining such ideals as “You’re a slave to money then you die,” and “have you ever been down?” Not exactly fodder for touchdowns (or even a safety, as demonstrated in last year’s Bowl).

As has been posed before, wouldn’t it make more sense for a Seattle team to take the field to the strains of one of its many legends; say, Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire”? Macklemore’s “Can’t Hold Us”? The iconic opening chords of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”… or even Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back”?

Some fans do think the song sends the wrong message. On the other hand, Seattle is a city that is seeped in dark vs. light; one that’s never tried to conform to what the rest of the nation is doing. Plus, the video which accompanies the song is about as unapologetically rough as a football team could want, featuring Ashcroft banging into passers-by without care for anywhere but where he wants to go. Not a bad visual metaphor for a team that proved itself in a seemingly magical end to the NFC championship game last month.

Still, we’re wondering what Seattle’s head coach Pete Carroll—who came to the NFL from the University of Southern California, a team known for one of the most upbeat fight songs in history; as well as the classic driver “Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac—thinks of all this. Regardless, it’s clear this team “can’t change its mold.”