Dear Carter: This is your life, Pearl Jam style

In 1993, long before your father and I ever met, we both went and saw a band that you will understand the importance of at a very young age and that band is Pearl Jam. I saw the band in Chicago and your father saw them in South Florida. Your father's love for the band grew and grew and grew, while I kept buying their albums but wasn't nearly obsessed as your father.

Over the years, your father collected hundreds of bootlegs which by the time you're listening to them will most likely be on a computer hard drive and not analog tapes. He traveled all over the country to see Pearl Jam and their side projects especially during his college and post college years. Some 30+ times for Pearl Jam and at least a dozen others for the side projects. When he finally moved to Chicago I became your father's concert partner and we went to many shows in Chicago and in neighboring states. Your father brags that he's seen every Pearl Jam tour since his first one.

We tried for a very long time to have you. And after a year of trying without any luck, I needed a vacation, something to look forward to. I suggested that we go to London to see your father's beloved Dolphins play. However, your father had another idea. Instead of going to London to see the Dolphins, he wanted to go to London to see Pearl Jam. I was so desperate for a vacation and that was a good enough reason to hold your father responsible for planning the entire trip, I agreed to it. Two weeks before we were scheduled to leave, we found out I was pregnant with you. You experienced your first Pearl Jam concert in utero at London's Wembley Stadium and then six weeks later, you got to hear Pearl Jam again when they rocked Lollapalooza. By the time you are able to able to read this and fully understand it, Lollapalooza will be a thing of the past, but we'll tell you all about the many Lollapaloozas we went to when we were young and cool.

This year, for the first time in 15 years, your father missed a tour and he wasn't even upset about it; he wanted to stay home with you. But we were able take in a little PJ-related action last night. After putting you to bed, Grampy stayed and babysat while we went to see Eddie Vedder play a solo show. (Thank you, thank you, thank you Grampy for babysitting!!!!!!)

It was acoustically perfect with a rarity filled setlist that your father's online friends drooled over. We got home after 11 p.m. and you hadn't even stirred. Someday, hopefully we'll get to take you to a show too, with headphones. Here are the lyrics to a song Eddie wrote for our beloved Cubbies which he also played last night for only the second time. He hopes this is the Cubs' year just as much as the rest of us:

"Someday We'll Go All the Way"

Yeah, don't let them say that it's just a game.
Well, I've seen other teams and it is never the same.
When you go to Chicago, you're blessed and you're healed, The first time you walk into Wrigley Field.
Heroes with pinstripes and heroes in blue, Give us the chance to feel like heroes do.
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.

We are one with the Cubs, with the Cubs we're in love.
Hold our heads tall as the underdogs.
We are not fairweather, but farweather fans.
Like brothers in arms, in the suites and the stands.
There's magic in the Ivy and the old score board.
The same one I stared at as a kid keeping score.
In a world full of greed, we could never want more.
Someday we'll go all the way.
Yeah, someday we'll go all the way.

Here's to the men and the legends we've known.
Giving us faith and giving us hope.
United we stand and united we'll fall
Down to our knees the day we win it all.
Yeah Ernie Banks said, "oh, let's play two".
I think he meant two hundred years.
Playing at Wrigley, our diamond, our jewel.
The home of our joy and our fears.
Keeping traditions, and wishes anew,
The place where our grandfathers' fathers they grew.
The spitual feeling if I ever knew.
And when the day comes for that last winning run, and I'm crying and covered with beer.
I look to the sky and know I was right today.
Someday we'll go all the way.
Yeah, someday we'll go all the way.

Comments

[Carlos]

Thanks for transcribing the lyrics!