Bill Callahan, born in Silver Spring, Maryland. Callahan followed the lo-fi… Read Full Bio ↴Bill Callahan, born in Silver Spring, Maryland. Callahan followed the lo-fi genre of underground rock, with homemade tape-albums recorded on four track tape recorders. Later he signed a record contract with the label Drag City.
Callahan started out as a highly experimental artist, utilizing sub-standard instruments and recording equipment. His reason for using the lo-fi approach was not so much an aesthetic choice, rather it came from his lack of knowledge of recording studios, and fear of giving up control to professional engineers.
His later work saw him overcoming his fear of studios and producers, and in this period he recorded two albums with the influential producer Jim O'Rourke and musicians from the circles around Drag City, as well as collaborating with the similar-minded Neil Hagerty.
His songs are based on simple, repetitive structures, strikingly characterized by his baritone vocal. His lyrics are often centered around themes of spiritual searching and the complexity of emotions, with the use of subtlety and dark irony in the classic sense. There is also a broad swathe of joy throughout Callahan's work (and a singular obsession with horses that he shares with Will Oldham and Mark Linkous). He is a keen storyteller using simple words to project large and deeply echoing tales.
Callahan's love life has been documented with vigor in numerous hipster publications, including his romantic relationship with Chan Marshall (Cat Power), who allegedly penned "To Be a Good Woman" in tribute to Callahan while referencing his song "To Be Of Use." It has recently been rumored that Callahan is now involved with Drag City labelmate Joanna Newsom.
Callahan is widely seen as one of the important figures of American rock in the '90s. He currently resides in Austin, TX.
On his 2007 album "Woke on a Whaleheart" he dropped the name Smog and used his real name, Bill Callahan.

There are other artists with the same name:

2. Smog was a psychedelic rock band from Perù, wich in 1971 released the single Time for the Blues

3. Sludge/doom metal from Nuremberg, Germany

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4. Black metal from Kraków, Poland

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Rock Bottom Riser
Smog Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I love my mother
I love my father
I love my sisters, too.
I bought this guitar
To pledge my love
To pledge my love to you.

I am a rock bottom riser

And I owe it all to you
I am a rock bottom riser
And I owe it all to you

I saw a gold ring
At the bottom of the river
Glinting at my foolish heart
So my foolish heart
Had to go diving
Diving, diving, diving
Into the murk

And from the bottom of the river
I looked up for the sun
Which had shattered in the water
And pieces were rained down
Like gold rings
That passed through my hands
As I thrashed and I grabbed
I started rising, rising, rising

I left my mother
I left my father
I left my sisters, too
I left them standing on the banks
And they pulled me out
Of this mighty, mighty, mighty river

I am a rock bottom riser
And I owe it all to you
I am a rock bottom riser
And I owe it all to you

I love my mother
I love my father
I love my sisters, too.
I bought this guitar

To pledge my love
To pledge my love to you

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of "Rock Bottom Riser" by Smog tell the story of someone who has hit rock bottom and gone through a transformative experience, symbolized by diving into a river and rising back up. The opening stanza establishes the theme of love, with the singer expressing love for their family and dedicating the purchase of their guitar to someone special. The repetition of "I love" emphasizes the importance of this emotion in the singer's life.

The chorus declares the singer to be a "rock bottom riser" and credits this transformation to the person they are singing to, emphasizing the significant role this person plays in their life. The contrast between the positive word "riser" and the negative phrase "rock bottom" suggests that the journey has been difficult, but ultimately leads to growth and change.

The second stanza describes a moment of reckless impulse - the singer sees a gold ring in the river and jumps in to retrieve it, even though it may be dangerous. As they dive deeper into the murky water, they lose sight of the sun and become disoriented. However, they begin to rise back up towards the surface as they grasp at the gold rings raining down around them.

The final stanza acknowledges the singer's love for their family again, but highlights the fact that they had to leave them behind to undergo this transformative journey. The repetition of "mighty" when describing the river suggests that it was a formidable obstacle to overcome, and that the singer needed help to escape its grasp.

Overall, the lyrics of "Rock Bottom Riser" convey a sense of struggle and perseverance in the face of hardship, with the motif of the river serving as a metaphor for the journey of self-discovery.

Line by Line Meaning

I love my mother
I have great affection for my mother.

I love my father
I have great affection for my father.

I love my sisters, too.
I have great affection for my sisters.

I bought this guitar
I purchased a guitar.

To pledge my love
To demonstrate my love.

To pledge my love to you.
To demonstrate my love to you.

I am a rock bottom riser
I have gone through hard times, but I am on my way up.

And I owe it all to you
And it's all because of you.

I saw a gold ring
I saw a valuable ring.

At the bottom of the river
It was at the bottom of the river.

Glinting at my foolish heart
It caught my attention and I was foolishly drawn to it.