“Song for Sasha Banks” exists solely because of Twitter, which might be the best thing you can say for Twitter.

Track: “Song for Sasha Banks”
Album: Released on Bandcamp in 2018

At the time of this writing I guess it’s not called Twitter anymore, but, whatever, it probably will be by the end of the month, and that’s a terrible preface for the fact that Sasha Banks, the wrestler, tweeted “Song for Sasha Banks” into existence in 2015 when she asked John Darnielle directly where the song was for her on Beat the Champ. He told her he’d do it before the end of the tour. He did it a few years later and told her, indirectly on the Bandcamp release, “your walk is just beginning and the day will come when all your setbacks look like steps on a ladder.”

You really have your pick with “Song for Sasha Banks.” If you want, there’s just the story of the creation, wherein someone typed three words into their phone and caused John Darnielle to read up on the story of Sasha Banks and write this song. Also, if you want, there’s the art itself, which is a really solid song that would absolutely be at home on Beat the Champ, if a little modern compared to many of the rest of the tales. Also, on a third hand, if you want, there’s the hope tucked into that final verse that paints a much more positive picture than much of the rest of the album where “everyone I love is gonna have their own safe place.” What a thing to exist at all and what a story it both tells and suggests, beyond the text itself.