This is totally awesome, exactly as Bearly Clad stated! The whole stadium singing "California", exactly what we Cal fans should be doing!

BearGreg said:

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Two things:

First, let's all sit back and recognize that Cal is finally thinking out of the box, looking to do something fun and innovative - That's the headline here.

Second, please recognize that there is NO song that everyone is going to love (not hate) and frankly none of us are going to know whether a particular song works or not until they try it.

This is a safe place for people to share opinions and we all know there's almost no topic that will have more subjective views than Music. That said, if we don't recognize that the bigger thing is that Cal is actually trying to improve the gameday experience then we lose the forest through the trees.

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Now that Cal is thinking outside the box, can we get BearGreg to think outside the box and let us star your posts. I feel like its authoritarian rule by Big Forum to keep us from liking your posts.

edit: also I think sing a long songs should be fairly well known songs that even opposing fans want to join in singing it like "West Virgnia"..I think that Phantom Planet California song fits pretty good.

~ is the Train cat an alum? no hot Counting Crows tracks?

~ which sports stadium crowd rock this . . .

Not for a sing a long but for a hype song, imagine tell me when too go while waiting in the tunnel, the players and the stadium getting hyped, then giving way to fire works as the band starts playing and
the players run out of the tunnel! This would give me goosebumps!!!

If it's a warm day.



Also, the song honors our western heritage.

Here's another Sons of the Pioneers number, also Cal-appropriate:


Note one lyric, "Every beating heart beats a rhythm that is blue"
What could be better?

We are THE university of CALIFORNIA.

No state in the country has more songs about it than California.

No offense to Stanford or Washington, but no one is writing a ton of songs about either one of those places.

It would be a travesty not to fully embrace California in a sing along. There are a lot of good options. We can try a different one every game for a couple of years until we find one that sticks...

We could also embrace singing along with just chorus's of some songs. The whole song "California Love" is not going to be a great stadium sing along...but play that intro and do a few chorus's of "California knows how to party" and you'll get the crowd up and into it as the game returns from a commercial break. Its got a strong beat and few words for drunk college students to forget.

Obviously it would have to be mixed with a healthy dose of the Cal band to be truly effective, but there are so many options....

MrGPAC said:

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We are THE university of CALIFORNIA.

No state in the country has more songs about it than California.

No offense to Stanford or Washington, but no one is writing a ton of songs about either one of those places.

It would be a travesty not to fully embrace California in a sing along. There are a lot of good options. We can try a different one every game for a couple of years until we find one that sticks...

We could also embrace singing along with just chorus's of some songs. The whole song "California Love" is not going to be a great stadium sing along...but play that intro and do a few chorus's of "California knows how to party" and you'll get the crowd up and into it as the game returns from a commercial break. Its got a strong beat and few words for drunk college students to forget.

Obviously it would have to be mixed with a healthy dose of the Cal band to be truly effective, but there are so many options....

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The issue with making "California Love" a singalong is that most of the lyrics are about SoCal. Yes, they pepper in some NorCal lines in the verses but the chorus is all L.A. stuff. A bit awkward for a Bay Area team.

sycasey said:

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MrGPAC said:

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We are THE university of CALIFORNIA.

No state in the country has more songs about it than California.

No offense to Stanford or Washington, but no one is writing a ton of songs about either one of those places.

It would be a travesty not to fully embrace California in a sing along. There are a lot of good options. We can try a different one every game for a couple of years until we find one that sticks...

We could also embrace singing along with just chorus's of some songs. The whole song "California Love" is not going to be a great stadium sing along...but play that intro and do a few chorus's of "California knows how to party" and you'll get the crowd up and into it as the game returns from a commercial break. Its got a strong beat and few words for drunk college students to forget.

Obviously it would have to be mixed with a healthy dose of the Cal band to be truly effective, but there are so many options....

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The issue with making "California Love" a singalong is that most of the lyrics are about SoCal. Yes, they pepper in some NorCal lines in the verses but the chorus is all L.A. stuff. A bit awkward for a Bay Area team.

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We aren't the university of Northern California. We are the university of California.

That said, its a long rap with a lot of fast flowing words that are hard for drunk people to keep up with. Doing the entire song would not work well.

But 30 seconds before commercial break comes back play the intro (will get everyone's attention) and sing the chorus "California knows how to party" 3-4 times then fade the song out as the action starts.

Berkeley based musician: Johnny Otis

Beach Boys, California Girls? I wish they all could be California….

MrGPAC said:

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sycasey said:

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MrGPAC said:

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We are THE university of CALIFORNIA.

No state in the country has more songs about it than California.

No offense to Stanford or Washington, but no one is writing a ton of songs about either one of those places.

It would be a travesty not to fully embrace California in a sing along. There are a lot of good options. We can try a different one every game for a couple of years until we find one that sticks...

We could also embrace singing along with just chorus's of some songs. The whole song "California Love" is not going to be a great stadium sing along...but play that intro and do a few chorus's of "California knows how to party" and you'll get the crowd up and into it as the game returns from a commercial break. Its got a strong beat and few words for drunk college students to forget.

Obviously it would have to be mixed with a healthy dose of the Cal band to be truly effective, but there are so many options....

---

The issue with making "California Love" a singalong is that most of the lyrics are about SoCal. Yes, they pepper in some NorCal lines in the verses but the chorus is all L.A. stuff. A bit awkward for a Bay Area team.

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We aren't the university of Northern California. We are the university of California.

That said, its a long rap with a lot of fast flowing words that are hard for drunk people to keep up with. Doing the entire song would not work well.

But 30 seconds before commercial break comes back play the intro (will get everyone's attention) and sing the chorus "California knows how to party" 3-4 times then fade the song out as the action starts.

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Yes, we are CALIFORNIA, not any one part of the state as great as they all are. If we were SF State or USF we could sing about San Francisco. Plus it is not a well known song anyway. If you had to do a San Francisco song the best would be "Lights" by Journey, though I think the Giants use it?

It should either be a Cal song, a California song or something iconic like my idea, "Three Little Birds (Bears)" ("Don't worry, bout a thing, cause every little thing is going to be alright" is the perfect mantra for Cal fans going into the 4th quarter). It should also be a song the Cal Band plays (we can mic them) instead of pumped in music.

Go!Bears said:

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Beach Boys, California Girls? I wish they all could be California….

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Definitely a candidate along with Hotel California and California Dreaming. None are perfect.

California Love over the loudspeakers pregame is PERFECTION.

Best Beach Boys CA song with a shout out to Berkeley's own Country Joe

Hotel California - Eagles

Let's do a BI contest. Create your own song using AI and submit it for votes. Best 3 are sent to Cal AD.

I'm a leader, I'm a winner, and I'm cleaner
'Cause I'm awesome
I don't need you 'cause I'm neato and I beat you
'Cause I'm awesome
That's right

They say I'm gifted, uh huh
Well I'm a certified prodigy
I'm gonna own you, uh huh
I'm gonna bring you to your knees

I always tell you how smart you are
It's cause my brain is really supersized
You're an academic superstar
Just look at me

Pretty sure I just heard all of Louisville's fans just stadium sing-along all of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin" as they close it out against JMU.

Golden One said:

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panoramicknob said:

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I don't want to be the grumpy old guy, but I am, so I'll be the grumpy old guy: what does this song have to do with Cal?!? Why not just let the band get after it like they used to...

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Agree! The song sucks.

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it's bad. If you like J Giles I suppose it's fine. Did a 65 year old come up with this?

Bearspot said:

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Pretty sure I just heard all of Louisville's fans just stadium sing-along all of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin" as they close it out against JMU.

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should be a rule as to no journey or Neil diamond songs. Maybe some Parliment

calumnus said:

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Go!Bears said:

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Beach Boys, California Girls? I wish they all could be California….

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Definitely a candidate along with Hotel California and California Dreaming. None are perfect.

California Love over the loudspeakers pregame is PERFECTION.

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……assuming those fans can make it up the hill to CMS.

JMO but I also don't think the song necessarily has to have any connection to the school or area. Not every one is WVU singing John Denver. PSU did 'Sweet Caroline' for the longest time, Stanford does 'It's Alright Now', Michigan does 'Mr. Brightside', I'm sure there's tons of others but that's just off the top of my head. I'd bet that dozens of stadiums do 'Don't Stop Believin'

Really what matters is that it's fun and catchy and can appeal across generations by just being an upbeat classic. To that end: we should consider 'Come on Eileen', it's a song that I defy anyone to dislike. It's uptempo but not craze-inducing, and I don't think anyone uses it yet so it could still be a unique tradition to us.

There's lots of hip hop or R&B songs from or about the area/stats but idk if it would ever appeal to the old blues and I also don't think a stadium would ever be able to keep up in singing/rapping along. The only time I think going with new(er) genres ever worked is for Clemson where they play 'Sandstorm'. If you've never been to a Clemson home game to witness the intensity of 60/70 year old southerners jumping up and down and screaming completely unhinged to an utterly insane techno song it is definitely something.

But, if you'll notice, all of these song traditions except for PSU and Stanford popped up the last couple decades. It proves we *can* institute something new and make it a part of our history over time. Don't poo-poo it because it's not what we've always done. We can make this and other changes work if we want to

Airplane on Dick Cavett a couple of days after their appearance at Woodstock. One of the best back up singers in Rock helping out, David Crosby. Many of the band members played on Crosby's first solo album, If Only I Could Remember my Name (1970).

thanks B. one evening, maybe a decade ago, we lucked into hearing her sing at the santa clara county fairgrounds. turns out, big surprise, the lady is still with us..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Slick
https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/rock-stars/grace-slick-net-worth

It doesn't have to be about California, but if not, being about a place that is NOT California or Berkeley is ... Odd.

Why don't we do Sweet Home Alabama, or Country Roads? Because a location based song for a place that is not that location is silly.

Cal2005 said:

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Switch the last two lines of the chorus of "Save me San Francisco" to something like these lyrics and maybe folks will get behind it:

I been high
I been low
I been yes
And I been GO BEARS GO
But I'm never gonna bore ya
Won't you save me CALIFORNIA

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It has to be something with the rights, that they can't dub that part. Which would mean we shouldn't use that song.

A song about SF for an East Bay team is pretending SF has a vibe like the East Bay, and it absolutely does not.

I can easily imagine a stadium full singing "Lights" by Journey. Play it next week and watch it happen organically. I dunno. Maybe I'm too old, but kids these days sure know who Journey is, and everyone over 45 could hang

I was never in to Journey, but I'll tell you what, Lights and Don't Stop Believin' are great songs that were fantastically sung by Steve Perry. Good call.

Steam67 said:

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I can easily imagine a stadium full singing "Lights" by Journey. Play it next week and watch it happen organically. I dunno. Maybe I'm too old, but kids these days sure know who Journey is, and everyone over 45 could hang

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we have the fast dimming and returning led lights right? Would be great to do that and have the cell phone flashlights and lighters waving. Maybe just for night games.

Steam67 said:

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I can easily imagine a stadium full singing "Lights" by Journey. Play it next week and watch it happen organically. I dunno. Maybe I'm too old, but kids these days sure know who Journey is, and everyone over 45 could hang

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To each his own -- and I mean that -- but that song always made me retch. And I am of the right generation for it.

Well, maybe if we did it ironically, it would work. When the Cal Band plays "Dancing Queen", that's meant in irony, right?

Maybe just go full-on irony and really get passionate with 1-800 Kars for Kids. This would be the finale of my amazing show idea for the Cal Band: The Irony Show!