Watch Eddie Vedder, Bill Murray and Derek Trucks Sing ‘The Weight’ at Post-World Series House Party
During Game Five of the World Series on Sunday night, Eddie Vedder led the Wrigley Field faithful in a rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” but that wasn’t the only singing he did this weekend. The night before, he, Bill Murray and former Allman Brothers Band guitarist Derek Trucks were captured on video singing the Band’s 1968 classic “The Weight” at a house party in the Wrigleyville neighborhood of Chicago.
The video was posted on Pearl Jam Radio’s Facebook page. Vedder and Trucks are playing acoustic guitars while seated in front of a piano, while Murray is just to the right of the person who provided the clip. It comes in midway through the third verse, with Vedder adapting bits of Rick Danko’s phrasing from The Last Waltz during the fourth, and goes through to the end. Despite having fallen behind three games to one in the best-of seven series, they appear to be in good spirits.
Earlier today, another lifelong Cubs fan, Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan, took exception to the idea that so many famous people are claiming to be Cubs fans now that they’re no longer the lovable losers of the past. “I don’t talk to other Cubs celebrities,” he said. “In fact, I’m anti-Cubs celebrity. Although I know a few Cubs celebrities, other Cubs celebrities tend to show up when the playoffs are around. I don’t necessarily see them in June. I might be a little biased being a Chicagoan year-round.”
While Chicago natives Murray and Vedder have long established their Cubs bona fides, the baseball loyalties of Trucks, who was raised in Jacksonville, Fla., are unknown. However, his great-uncle was pitcher Virgil Trucks, who won 177 games and strike out 1,534 batters in a career that saw him play for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Athletics and the New York Yankees from 1941-1958. In 1952, he pitched two no-hitters for the Tigers, and Ted Williams, one of the greatest hitters of all time, called him "the hardest throwing right-hander I ever faced."
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