So Long

Album: Concussion Soundtrack (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • Leon Bridges co-wrote and recorded this song for the NFL drama Concussion. The tune plays over the closing credits of the film, which stars Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, who in 2002 uncovered a pattern of significant brain injuries in former NFL players.

    "I'm so glad to have Leon's music in the movie," director Peter Landesman said. "His songs are a shot straight from the heart, full of feeling and emotion, power and heartbreak. And it's a perfect match for the movie, because I could describe Dr. Bennet Omalu the same way - in the movie, he's a spiritual person, standing up on his own against a world of powerful forces, using only his smarts, his courage and the knowledge that he's right."
  • Bridges told Rolling Stone how his feelings of being an outsider in his community helped him write the song: "I didn't want to write a song that was too literal to the film, so I just emailed a personal story about me going back home and these people back home saying I don't deserve to be where I'm at because I haven't been working as long as these other musicians who have been doing it longer. The song is saying that I love where I'm from but maybe I need to leave because I don't feel the love anymore."

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