Rethinking the whole Eddie Vedder thing
When I was in college, I dated a girl who loved Pearl Jam more than any other band, ever.
Of course, when we broke up, I swore off Pearl Jam as a bunch of hacks and Eddie Vedder as a talentless monkey. Since then, I've mellowed and realized how stupid it is to take out one's anger out on an entire band. It's safe to say that I've come back around again - not all the way, but far enough to dig this offering on the Cubs from Vedder.
It's a solid offering by Vedder, which I found this through a posting by Greg Kot:
“Go All the Way,” (is) a song he recorded during his two-night solo stand at the Auditorium Theatre in August. It’s a simple acoustic folk ditty, written at the request of Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, that poetically sings the praises of the city’s own field of dreams, Wrigley Field, and anticipates the day the perennial losers finally win it all...
The robust chorus turns it into the kind of sing-along sea chantey or drinking song that Vedder loves. As he said in a 2002 interview with the Tribune, “A big night for me is to have a few friends, a few beers, and you get really messy at the end of the night hanging with a bunch of fishermen, a bunch of old grizzly guys dancing barefoot while singing something like [Three Dog Night singing the Randy Newman song] ‘Mama Told Me Not to Come.’ That's just good.”
I really appreciate the fact that it's not just a sappy song about the futility of the Cubs and their off century, nor is it a cheap attempt to cash in on the "It's Gonna Happen!" buzz. That last one is probably prompting all-night jam sessions from all sorts of awful local bands looking to book the Cubby Bear as you read this.
I'm not ready to anoint this song as the new Cubs anthem to displace all others (does it make me a bad person to admit that I'm more than sick of "Go, Cubs Go?"), but it's catchy as hell. I definitely put it above "Tessie" by the Dropkick Murphys as far as loosely associated team anthems go.
(Image from: PearlJam.com)
Of course, when we broke up, I swore off Pearl Jam as a bunch of hacks and Eddie Vedder as a talentless monkey. Since then, I've mellowed and realized how stupid it is to take out one's anger out on an entire band. It's safe to say that I've come back around again - not all the way, but far enough to dig this offering on the Cubs from Vedder.It's a solid offering by Vedder, which I found this through a posting by Greg Kot:
“Go All the Way,” (is) a song he recorded during his two-night solo stand at the Auditorium Theatre in August. It’s a simple acoustic folk ditty, written at the request of Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, that poetically sings the praises of the city’s own field of dreams, Wrigley Field, and anticipates the day the perennial losers finally win it all...
The robust chorus turns it into the kind of sing-along sea chantey or drinking song that Vedder loves. As he said in a 2002 interview with the Tribune, “A big night for me is to have a few friends, a few beers, and you get really messy at the end of the night hanging with a bunch of fishermen, a bunch of old grizzly guys dancing barefoot while singing something like [Three Dog Night singing the Randy Newman song] ‘Mama Told Me Not to Come.’ That's just good.”
I really appreciate the fact that it's not just a sappy song about the futility of the Cubs and their off century, nor is it a cheap attempt to cash in on the "It's Gonna Happen!" buzz. That last one is probably prompting all-night jam sessions from all sorts of awful local bands looking to book the Cubby Bear as you read this.
I'm not ready to anoint this song as the new Cubs anthem to displace all others (does it make me a bad person to admit that I'm more than sick of "Go, Cubs Go?"), but it's catchy as hell. I definitely put it above "Tessie" by the Dropkick Murphys as far as loosely associated team anthems go.
(Image from: PearlJam.com)
Labels: Cubs
posted by Matt G at
9:15 PM
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