San Francisco Songs and Sports

New column theme for the beginning of the new year – “California Dreamin’.” It was 50 years ago, 1969, that I moved to California from the New York area. 

Big changes in the state this year - new SF mayor London Breed (first African American woman), new governor Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi back as speaker of the House, Orange County went from red to blue.  Some hope….

But also - big state, big problems -  poverty, homelessness, fire, earthquake. 

Maybe some of our San Francisco songs and sports can help explain the Golden State.

When the San Francisco Giants win a ball game, the fans linger, looking out at the SF Bay from the fabulous AT&T Park and sing along with Tony Bennett, "I Left my Heart in San Francisco," played only after a win.  Down the road in Santa Clara at the new Levi Stadium, fans of the San Francisco 49ers occasionally get to sing their touchdown song as well, "San Francisco, Open Your Golden Gate."  

These two songs are the official songs of the city of San Francisco and beloved in all of California. (Well, at least Northern California. I doubt the LA Rams or the LA Dodgers sing those songs.  California is really two states, northern and southern, and as a northerner, I will probably write more about this, the superior half of the Golden State.)

Here are the lyrics:

“I Left My Heart in San Francisco”

The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gray
The glory that was Rome is of another day
I've been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan

I'm going home to my city by the Bay

I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me
To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars
The morning fog may chill the air, I don't care

My love waits there in San Francisco
Above the blue and windy sea
When I come home to you, San Francisco
Your golden sun will shine for me

“San Francisco Open Your Golden Gate”

It only takes a tiny corner of 
This great big world to make a place you love
My home up on the hill
I find I love you still
I've been away but now I'm back to tell you

San Francisco 
Open your golden gate
You let no stranger wait outside your door

San Francisco
Here is your wandering one 
Saying I'll wander no more
Other places only make me love you best
Tell me you're the heart of all the golden west

San Francisco
Welcome me home again
I'm coming home To go roaming no more

If you know these two songs, and these two ball clubs, you’ll know just about all you need to know about California:

• We love to sing and make music - rock and roll, Chicano rock, hip hop, surf rock, folk revival, Monterey Pop and Monterey Jazz, movie music.
• The morning sun will shine on me -we like our beaches and fun in the sun.
• We have a Mediterranean climate and lots of Mediterraneans, like Italian Tony Benedetto.
• Whole lotta shaking going on - The 49er's song was first sung in the 1936 film “San Francisco,” by Jeanette MacDonald defiantly standing atop the rubble of the 1906 earthquake and proclaiming a bright future for the devastated city.  It's still sung each year on April 18 at commemorations of that deadly day.
• Yes, we in California do open our gates.  Few strangers wait outside our doors - we have many sanctuary cities, many immigrants, many folks without papers and incredible diversity.
• The SF Giants came east from NYC – lots of folks, like me, were enticed to leave the east for a better life, job, stadium, fan base, in California.
• The Niners are named for the gold rush folks who came here in 1849 and their mascot is a pretty corny prospector, Sourdough Sam.
• We have more than our share of stupid greedy rich people, and not just the tech entrepreneurs.   The owners of all our football teams, especially the owners of the Niners and the Raiders, have stolen our teams and taken them to foreign lands (Santa Clara, Las Vegas).
• We also have some pretty cool owners and entrepreneurs, like the Giants’ Larry Baer, under whose leadership the Giants were the first major league sports team to have LGBT Days, and a Grateful Dead Tribute Day.
• The "San Francisco" Niners play 50 miles away in Santa Clara, also the site of another holy gathering place, the Santa Clara Mission, one of 12 missions founded by Father Junipero Serra.
• They play in "Levi Stadium" naming rights paid for by the Levi Strauss Company. The first of many California blockbuster clothing companies (Gap, etc), it was founded by gold prospector/entrepreneur Levi Strauss who perfected the blue jean with rivets, another California sign and symbol.  He was one of many Jewish immigrants welcomed through the Golden Gate, in 1853.
• We are fit and athletic and competitive, but our sports teams these days do not match our competitive spirit.  We are not singing these great winning songs nearly enough.  The glory that was Joe Montana and Willie Mays is of another day.

I might keep writing about California simply from its songbook.  There are hundreds of entries under “California Songs” on Wikipedia, from Al Jolson to the Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchel to Tupac Shakur, Merle Haggard to Pink.  Tune in next week……

Copyright © Deborah Streeter