Go To Bed With The Chicago Cubs' WGN Telecast Intro With Van Halen's "Jump"
(If you didn't read it already, check out Rear Admiral's tribute blog to Eddie Van Halen. So well said, and even if you're too young to have been a fan, you'll learn how important the guy was to the story of music.)
Today sucked. One of the lower points in a really tough year. Politics aside, we lost a rock God, which was just a real kick in the balls.
But luckily we have things like this video right here.
The 1984 Cubs WGN intro video. Set to "Jump". One of the greatest rock n roll songs of all time.
To put just how fuckin big of a deal this song was back in the day in perspective, there was NOTHING cooler in the late 80s and 90s than the Blue Angels.
Know what their "song" was?
You fuckin guessed it.
They even commissioned one of the greatest military propaganda videos of all time.
Suck our thick American dicks Russia.
If this song doesn't give you goosebumps then please kindly close this blog.
The fact the Chicago Cubs of 1984 had the foresight to use this song as their "anthem" for both telecasts and to take the field to is such an alpha move I can't handle it.
Simpler times.
Better times.
So simple, and so better in fact that I'd like to picture the production team cutting this audio clip on reel to reel tape. If you listen closely you can hear a not-so-perfect edit job that skips a beat. And then loops three times while Milo Hamilton shouts out a slew of sponsors. (The third time it starts from the top is laugh out loud funny). So 80s. So pure. So great.
R.I.P. to one of the baddest mother fuckers to ever do it. You'll be missed.
p.s. - I try to avoid posting blogs about me, me, me, and I, I, I because I know the last thing anybody wants to read about is personal shit. But Van Halen and "Jump" will always hold a special place in my heart so I feel it's appropriate.
Back in 2015 when I landed the Cubs "audio engineer" job there was a lot of pressure on our team heading into opening day. It was the first time the Cubs would have video boards and a real sound system ever at Wrigley Field and people were pissed. It of course all worked out better than anybody could have hoped for. Still, at the time people stuck in the past and the traditionalists were livid that it would ruin the Wrigley experience, and were afraid it would usher in a new cheeseball era of promotions and gag-me mid-inning advertisements. Like at US Cellular.
Advertisement
A lot of people were also pretty skeptical about a DJ operating a military-grade sound system capable of being used as a weapon. (I'm not sure why.)
ESPN Game of The Week. Against the dreaded Cardinals. Bleachers still under construction. Packed house inside. Madhouse out on Clark St outside. Lester on the bump. Big night of baseball.
Needless to say there were a lot of eyeballs, and ears peeled for what the very first song played on Wrigley's new state of the art sound system would be. How to get off on the right foot into the future was a shit ton of pressure. Somehow, in a wild turn of events, Cubs brass left the choice completely in my hands. I had free reign.
It wasn't much of a choice because I knew there was one song and one song only that'd be fitting. Being from Massachusetts, I hadn't grown up a Cubs fan, but I knew how important tradition was. Especially at an institution as hallowed as Wrigley Field. I knew that I couldn't go wrong with "Jump".
If you listen closely you can hear it here. Pretty fuckin cool I was able to dig this up. Feels like just yesterday but at the same time feels like 10 years ago.