Vedder's Cub song goes "All the Way"
Ernie Banks and Eddie Vedder were talking.
The conversation is rumored to have taken place last year at the Cubs fantasy camp, which Vedder regularly attends. That's when the Cubs legend supposedly asked the Pearl Jam frontman to write a song about the Cubs.
So Vedder - an Evanston native and lifelong Cubs fan - did just that, penning a folksy, Irish-sounding song called "All the Way." He performed a live acoustic guitar version of it during a show here in August, and the hometown fans went nuts for it.
Now that the Cubs are in THE playoffs, "All the Way" is being played on radio stations and in sports bars across Chicago. It was even played at Wrigley Field during Wednesday night's playoff game. (You can download it for 99 cents at pearljam.com).
Vedder wasn't granting interviews this week, but it's clear his lyrics were meant to capture Cubs fans' unwavering optimism:
Our heroes wear pinstripes and heroes in blue
Give us the chance to feel like heroes too
Whether we'll win and if we should lose,
We know someday we'll go all the way,
Yeah, someday we'll go all the way! It's nowhere near as popular as Maine East High School alumni Steve Goodman's "Go Cubs Go," but the fans still love it.
"I love the chorus. I want to sing it with a full beer, whether the Cubs win or whether the Cubs somehow miraculously lose," said WXRT disc jockey and Cubs season ticket holder Lin Brehmer. "It's the Cubs song I want sung over my grave site, which the way things are going, could be Monday."
Brehmer will play the song on a special Cubs edition of "Lin's Bin" at 7:15 a.m. and 6 p.m. today.
Not everyone loves the song, however. Critics call it "brutal," "stupid," and "only being played because Eddie Vedder sings it."
Jason "DJ Maz" Mazmanian, a DJ at the Cubby Bear North in Lincolnshire, said he never gets requests for it, probably because it doesn't have the energy level of "Go Cubs Go."
"White Sox have the Journey song ... but when the Cubs win, you expect to hear 'Go Cubs Go,' not 'All the Way,'" said Mazmanian, of Wheaton.
When WLUP disc jockey Jonathon Brandmeier plays the song on his morning show, it actually angers some listeners.
"As you can imagine, Sox fans hate it. They light the phones to get me to stop playing it. However, I think it's a pretty little ditty -no matter what it's about," Brandmeier said.
Brandmeier wrote a White Sox retort:
"2005 ain't 1908
If you're on the South Side, you just don't wait.
Excuses are lame
Throw out the blame
Cuz 2005 ain't 1908
2005 ain't 1908."