"At Least It Was Here" is an indie rock song by The 88, released on an album of the same name in 2009. It is most famous as the theme song for the television show Community (which also debuted in 2009), which uses a portion of the first verse and second chorus in its intro. At a little under three minutes, the song is a light, jangly pop song that is both uptempo and melancholy and that somehow magically communicates the essence of the year 2009.
One thing I have been unable to find an answer to is whether the song was written especially for the show, or whether it was repurposed for that use. In the first case, and perhaps in the second, it is not clear whether the lyrics refer specifically to the characters or events of the show. The lyrics that play during the show's opening are:
Give me some rope tie me to dream
Give me the hope to run out of steam
Somebody said it can be here
We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year
But I can’t count the reasons I should stay
One by one they all just fade away
Lyrics that, even when properly heard ("tie me to dream" is often heard as "tie me to a tree", seemingly a reference to
hanging/
suicide) seem to be about a mixture of optimism and fear. It does seem to represent the show's main theme, of people from diverse groups, coming together to learn from one another---even if it can only be temporary, and they will eventually "all just fade away".
I watched Community in July of 2020, still sick with Covid-19, wondering what was going on around me, and wondering if we would, indeed all be "dead in a year". And at that time, I understood totally what one of the chorus' (that I hadn't heard yet) meant:
But I love you more than words can say
I can’t count the reasons I should stay
And if you have ever felt that way, you have my sympathies, and if you have never felt that way, I feel sorry for you.