"All the Way" (also known as "(Someday We'll Go) All the Way" and referred to as "Go All the Way") is a song written and performed by

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...

native and

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The band's lineup consists of founding members Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guita ...

vocalist

Eddie Vedder Eddie Jerome Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist and one of four guitarists of the rock band Pearl Jam. He also appeared as a guest vocalist i ...

about the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

. It was first performed in public on August 2, 2007, recorded on August 21, 2008 and August 22, 2008, and released as a single on September 18, 2008. At the time of the song's release in 2008, it had been 100 years since the Cubs had last won the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

. Vedder has been a lifelong Cubs fan. The song, which fondly looks forward to the Cubs' next World Series victory, was written with the encouragement of certain Chicago Cubs, most notably

Ernie Banks Ernest Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015), nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who starred in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between ...

. The song was first performed in Chicago and was recorded over two nights in 2008 at the end Vedder's first solo tour. The song was accompanied by an official video release by the team following their victory in the

2016 World Series The 2016 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2016 season. The 112th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Chicago Cubs and the American Leag ...

Origin and recording

vocalist

was raised in Evanston, Illinois and later

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

; and even though he is closely associated with

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

grunge music Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of pu ...

, Vedder has been a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan. He has performed the song "

Take Me Out to the Ball Game "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a 1908 Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which has become the unofficial anthem of North American baseball, although neither of its authors had attended a game prior to writing the song ...

" during the

seventh-inning stretch In baseball in the United States and Canada, the seventh-inning stretch is a long-standing tradition that takes place between the halves of the seventh inning of a game. Fans generally stand up and stretch out their arms and legs and sometimes w ...

at several Cubs games and thrown out the

ceremonial first pitch The ceremonial first pitch is a longstanding ritual of baseball in which a guest of honor throws a ball to mark the end of pregame festivities and the start of the game. Originally, the guest threw a ball from their seat in the grandstand to ...

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Wh ...

. His first seventh-inning stretch performance was on

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Man ...

(July 4) 1998. Vedder has attended the Cubs fantasy camp for several years.Brown, David
"Answer Man: Kerry Wood talks Eddie Vedder, bowling, nudity"

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

. June 26, 2008. While attending the camp one year, former Cubs

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists who ...

and

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

Ernie Banks requested that Vedder write a song about the Cubs. Vedder wrote "All the Way" the night before the camp started and first performed it at Pearl Jam's concert of August 2, 2007 at

The Vic Theatre The Vic Theatre is a music venue located in Chicago, Illinois. Vic Theatre can easily accommodate 1,400 people or with a seated capacity of 1,000. History Vic Theatre, designed by architect John Eberson, opened in 1912 as the Victoria Theatre. I ...

in Chicago with Cubs

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Kerry Wood Kerry Lee Wood (born June 16, 1977) is an American former baseball pitcher who played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, and New York Yankees. Wood first came to prominence as a 20-year-old rooki ...

and other Cubs players in attendance. On August 3, 2007, one day after "All the Way" was premiered live, Vedder performed "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field for the fourth time and threw out the first pitch for the first time. Vedder's band, Pearl Jam, was in Chicago that week to perform at

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...

, where the band was the headlining act for the three-day festival that ended on August 5, 2007. 20080821 Eddie Vedder at Auditorium Theater

The version of "All the Way" heard on the commercial single release is mixed from recordings of the August 21, 2008 and August 22, 2008 solo performances of the song by Vedder at the

Auditorium Theatre The Auditorium Theatre is a music and performance venue located inside the Auditorium Building at 50 Ida B. Wells Drive in Chicago, Illinois. Inspired by the Richardsonian Romanesque Style of architect Henry Hobson Richardson, the building was d ...

in Chicago. Vedder performed at the Auditorium Theatre on August 21 and 22, 2008 on a three-week extension of his solo tour that began in Boston, Massachusetts at the

Boston Opera House (1980) The Boston Opera House, also known as the Citizens Bank Opera House, is a performing arts and esports venue located at 539 Washington St. in Boston, Massachusetts. It was originally built as the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre, a movie palace in ...

and ended in Chicago. The solo tour had originally begun in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada at The Centre on April 2, 2008. This tour was Vedder's first solo tour.

Lyrics

The 3:39 song is in the

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

genre, and it is perceived as a sing-along

sea chantey A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional Folk music, folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large Merchant vessel, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessels. The term ''shanty ...

drinking song A drinking song is a song sung while drinking Alcoholic beverage, alcohol. Most drinking songs are Folk music, folk songs or commercium songs, and may be varied from person to person and region to region, in both the lyrics and in the music. ...

. The lyrics to the song include lines such as "Our heroes wear pinstripes/Pinstripes in blue/Give us a chance to feel like heroes, too." The song makes references to Ernie Banks, Wrigley Field, and a specific reference to Banks'

catch phrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

of "Let's play two!" The

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...

includes the phrase "Someday we'll go all the way, Yeah, someday we'll go all the way," which anticipates the day the Cubs win the

, gives the song its name.

Release and reception

On September 18, 2008, "All the Way" was made available for digital download via Pearl Jam's official website for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

0.99. On approximately September 30, 2008, a

CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...

version was made available for purchase at select stores in the Chicago area. A souvenir 45 single format version is also a possibility. The digital download and CD single have been released with an associated single

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), music album (album art), ...

image that is a modified version of the Wrigley Field

outfield The outfield, in cricket, baseball and softball is the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield. In association football, the outfield players are positioned outside the goal area. In cricket, baseball and ...

wall.

Philip K. Wrigley Philip Knight Wrigley (December 5, 1894 – April 12, 1977), often called P. K. Wrigley, was an American chewing gum manufacturer and a Major League Baseball executive, inheriting both of those roles as the quiet son of his much more flamboyant fa ...

had employee Bill Veeck Jr. add ivy to the outfield walls of Wrigley Field in September 1937. Wrigley Field is the home stadium for the Chicago Cubs, and its wall is well known for being covered in

ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...

except for a few select places where signs are present as well as doors to locker rooms and such. The brick is visible under the ivy at the stadium in locations where the signs designate the distance from the wall to

home plate A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...

measured in feet. The cover art image replaces the distance with the words "All the Way". By the time of the single release, local Chicago radio stations and sports bars had begun to play the song in anticipation of the 2008 Cubs' playoff run. The song is considered to be an earnest tribute to the Cubs. According to at least one source, the song is reminiscent of "

A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" is a song written by American musician and Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962 and recorded later that year for his second album, ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963). Its lyrical structure is modeled after ...

" by American singer-songwriter

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

and much less upbeat than the song "

Go, Cubs, Go "Go Cubs Go", "Go, Cubs, Go" or "Go, Cubs, Go!" is a song written by Steve Goodman in 1984. At various times the Goodman version of the song has been the official Chicago Cubs team song and the official Cubs victory song, playing after every home ...

" by American

singer-songwriter

Steve Goodman Steven Benjamin Goodman (July 25, 1948 – September 20, 1984) was an American folk and country singer-songwriter from Chicago. He wrote the song "City of New Orleans", which was recorded by Arlo Guthrie and many others including John Denver, ...

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

encourages listeners to compare the song to Goodman's "Go, Cubs, Go". Another source compares the song to American country-folk singer-songwriter

John Prine John Edward Prine (; October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. He was active as a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until his death. He ...

's 1974 song "Dear Abby" in terms of

melody A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...

and

cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (1999) ...

as well as the

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

of Goodman's "A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request". At

The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamb ...

' concert of November 20, 2008 at the

Chicago Theatre The Chicago Theatre, originally known as the Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre, is a landmark theater located on North State Street in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1921, the Chicago Theatre was the flagship for the Balaban an ...

, frontman

Billy Corgan William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the ...

criticized Vedder and the song. Corgan stated, "If the Cubs did have a chance this last year that just passed, fuckin' Eddie Vedder killed that shit dead. Last I checked Eddie ain't living here, okay? Eddie ain't living here to write a song about my fuckin' team." When the Cubs won the

they released a video set to "All The Way".

References

External links

Download at pearljam.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:All The Way (Eddie Vedder Song) 2008 singles Chicago Cubs Eddie Vedder songs Songs about Chicago Songs written by Eddie Vedder Baseball songs and chants 2007 songs