Until 2006, the song traditionally played before each Cubs home game was Van Halen’s “Jump.” In 2006, the Cubs began rotating in some other songs, including U2′s “Beautiful Day” and Pearl Jam’s “Even Flow.” That disappointed me, because I, for one, can’t hear the song “Jump” without thinking of the Cubs teams of the 80′s, and I enjoyed the pregame tradition, no matter how flamingly gay the video is.
On the other hand, after each Cubs victory at Wrigley a generally plastered and happy crowd sings along to Steve Goodman’s “Go Cubs Go,” a cheesy song which is catchy enough that even drunken, sleeveless Yankees fans will sometimes join in on the fun.
So, for this special musical version of the Fukudome, who do you like?
Regardless of how gay the video for Jump is, the song is so incredibly gay in and of itself it would make a back drop of a Young Republicans meeting discussing the virtues of abstinence only sexual education appear overtly homosexual.
75% of us ARE homosexual.
That’s repressed homosexuality, I said overt.
Well it’s good to see that Republicans are finally coming to terms with their log cabin tendencies.
Nice work faggot.
Although its an old song I think the Hey Hey Holy Mackerel song is also a good song
Tough, tough call. I still haven’t voted.
I’ll have to sleep on it.
i voted for go cubs go, as its connected with the far too many games i watched on tv this summer, with that playing in the background wehn we won.
gotta say this for the white sox, though, thunderstruck beats the crap outta both these songs. why cant we get something to pump us up like that?
John Mayer never gets any love in the Fukudome
I have to say it’s Jump. Too many good feelings associated with it. Even though they have sucked for most of the years I remember it, it was something my dad played all the time. Just a feeling of “God I love(/hate) being a cubs fan.” As far as Goodman’s song, it’s alright but if I had to chose a recent song, it would be the one that had the line of “Chicago, Chicago, Chicago Cubs.” I don’t remember when that was but it was a great feeling to here that whenever they came on the radio.
Any takers for the Beach Boys’ “Here Come the Cubs”?
No?
Just thought I’d ask.
VH Fan 4 Life.
Jump.
Might as well.
My dad was one of Steve Goodman’s frat brothers down at the U of I. Supposedly the man told “The Aristocrats” better than anyone else ever, as well as being a hell of a performer and a talented songwriter. Did you know that “City of New Orleans” is actually about the train Goodman took to get from Chicago to Champaign? The end of the line was New Orleans. Yeah, useless stupid trivia of the day, I know.
Anyways, Steve Goodman for the win. Go Cubs Go is a great, catchy song that was actually written by an honest-to-god fan with tremendous talent.
I had to vote for “Go Cubs Go”. The other song is something I hear in other arenas, and isn’t uniquely Chicago. And, it’s easy to sing along with it (try and get Wrigley Field to sing along with “Jump” – everyone would just stand around).
I did want to acknowledge Al’s point about “Hey, Hey, Holy Mackerel” I have very fond memories of it as well. Here’s the rest of the words (at least as good as I can remember them):
Hey, Hey, Holy Mackerel
No doubt about it!
The Cubs are on their way.
The Cubs are going to ____ today, they’re going to ____ today, they’re going to _____ today,
Come what may, the Cubs are going to win today.
Hey, Hey, Holy Mackerel,
No doubt about it!
The Cubs are on their way.
They’ve got the hustle, they’ve got the muscle,
The Chicago Cubs are on their way!
By the way, who among us remembers the song WGN radio played at the beginning of every Cubs’ radio broadcast?
It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame, for a ballgame today.
The fans are out to get a ticket or two, from Walla Walla, Washington to Kalamazoo.
It’s a beautiful day for a home run, or even a triple’s Ok.
We’re going to cheer…, and boo, and raise a hullabaloo,
at the ballgame, today!
I know there are negative connotations to the song but, does anyone know the other Steve Goodman song with the lyrics “Do They still play the blues in Chicago, when baseball seasons rolls around
In the home of the brave, do the Cubbies still play, in their ivy covered burrial ground, when I was a boy they were my pride and joy, but now all they do is bring me tears. In the land the free, the home of the brave, and the doormat of the national league.”
I just think it’s the better of the two Steve Goodman songs out there.
At least, the song could become a bleacher tradition when we have to hang a L on the flagpole.
Could it be “The Last Dying Lament of a Cubs Fan”?
Yes, that’s a real song title folks. Indeed, my wife and friends have strict instructions to play that at my funeral. In the song, there’s a line about being up in heaven with the Angels, while you’re all down here with the Cubs.
These are the kinds of statements that I only accept from real Cubs fans. Outsiders need not apply.
“He said ‘Oh, play that lonesome losers tune. That’s the one I like the best.’
He closed his eyes, and slipped away,
And what we’ve got is the Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request.”
Every year I play that song on repeat in iTunes on the day the Cubs get eliminated from postseason play. It is clearly and without exaggeration the most accurate song ever written.
You made my day. I’m just thinkin if your drunk that ones easier and it would be easy to take after a win
and so very true in defeat.
Steve Goodman is a lyrical genius. Besides “the city of New Orleans” he also wrote the very popular
David Allan Coe song “Never Call me By My Name” or whatever it’s called.
He’s underexposed nationwide, but Illinoisans know him.
If I had put in “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request,” it would have been a total blowout. In my opinion, it’s the best Cubs song ever, and it’s not even close.
“Cubs in Five” by The Mountain Goats isn’t really about the Cubs, but it’s a catchy song. Basically, it talks about all these things that’ll never happen (“The Canterbury Tales will shoot up to the top of the best-sellers list and stay there for twenty-seven weeks”), and the refrain goes:
And the Chicago Cubs,
Will beat every team in the league.
And the Tampa Bay Bucs,
Will make it all the way through January.
And I will love you again.
I will love you.
Like I used to.
That song doesn’t say anything at all about trains, mama, or trucks, or getting drunk. Steve Goodman could fix that with something like. . .
I was drunk, the day my mom, got out of prison.
And I went, to pick her up, in the rain.
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck,
She got runned over by a damned ol’ train.
And that’s when I called up my good friend TDubbs and told him
“Now, I can safely say, You have written the perfect, Country And Western Song”
My only quibble (yes, quibble) about Go Cubs Go is that it technically should be played before Cubs games, though they play it after every Cubs’ home win now. I’m glad they finally dug it up and it makes for a nice new tradition, but the whole “Hey Chicago, whattaya say, the Cubs are gonna win today” rings a little hollow when played after the win.
As for Jump? Couldn’t the Cubs pick a song written and performed by an actual band from Chicago? Or at least by a Cubs’ fan? Surely they can find a Smashing Pumpkins song that doesn’t overtly deal with the death of God they can use. Or, have Eddie Vedder write something.
Now to violate everything I’ve just written, I still don’t understand why every Cubs’ homer out onto Waveland or Sheffield isn’t greeted by the chorus of “Out in the Street” by Bruce Springsteen. But that’s just me.
“Out in the Street” is a great song. Good call.
There’s a clip of Eddie from this summer at the Vic playing a Cubs song he wrote. The clip is from a private show they did right before Lollapalooza and a lot of the words are unintelliigible (surprise) but it’s called something like “Someday They’ll Go All Way”. It’s fucking awesome.
And this quote is the fucking balls:
“The chorus, “Someday, they’ll make it all the way” became an instant sing along, except for the small but vocal Sox fan contingent. He then said he’d written a song for the Sox called “Fuck ‘Em”, which drew laughs, applause and a few boos”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuRQGhrFxGU
“Couldn’t the Cubs pick a song written and performed by an actual band from Chicago?”
I’m sure Jim Belushi is working on something right now. He IS all things Chicago.
“Go Cubs Go” wins, if for no other reason than ensuring we never have to hear K.C. and the Fucking Sunshine Band after home victories ever again. (Can’t believe no one mentioned that).
Still, the Cubs taking the field to “Jump” is seared into my memory bank as a tradition, so it’s hard to diss that one too much (anyone remember when it was the intro to the TV broadcasts in the ’84 season, and WGN synched up the initial drum with the numbers in “1984″ in the on-screen graphic. Low-tech now, but that was the balls back then…)
If we’re following Kerm’s lead and nominating unappreciated Cubs songs, then I’m going with “Porno and Snuff Films” by underground punk legends The Lawrence Arms. The song features a 20-second sample of Pat Hughes’ call of Rondell White scoring on a throwing error to give the Cubs a 4-1 lead “on a beautiful Indian summer night in Chicago.” Totally random. (Well, not totally. The band also has another song that name-checks the wonderfully divey L&L Tavern at Belmont and Clark. They’re local.)
Thank God, no more KC and the sunshine Band. I had to vote “Go Cubs Go” just because I still have the original 45 my grandmother gave me back in 84. I don’t have anything to play it on anymore, but I also still have my “Men in Blue” 45 as well, which was actually sung by some of the guys from the 84 team. This was a year before the Super Bowl Shuffle, kids. Good times. My dad was stationed in Nevada at that time, so the Cubs were our connection to the folks back in Illinois. I really miss the days when all of the games were on WGN. It was easy to pretend we were back in Streator with all of our relatives while we were watching the ballgames.