Song · The Decemberists
“The Sporting Life” by The Decemberists
From the album Picaresque (2005)
“The Sporting Life” by The Decemberists appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 2022 and 2025. It was first released in 2005 on the album Picaresque. Its best result is #839 on the 893 Essential Songs of The Current: 2005 to Now. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #8,057 indie & aaa song of all time.
"The Sporting Life" turns up on Picaresque, the third studio album the Decemberists released on Kill Rock Stars in 2005, a record whose title borrows the Spanish-born literary form of satirical tales about low-born rogues living on their wits in a crooked world. Colin Meloy wrote the words and music.
The band produced it together with Chris Walla, Death Cab for Cutie's guitarist, and Walla mixed it as well. The album was cut in the Prescott Church in northeast Portland, rented out to the band for a month during the summer of 2004, and to keep writer's block away they crammed slips of paper, each carrying an idea or a strategy to try, into a secondhand bike helmet.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 887 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 2000s | 907 |
| 2025 | 839 | The Current | 893 Essential Songs of The Current: 2005 to Now | 893 |
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