Right Now (Van Halen song)

"Right Now"
Single by Van Halen
from the album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
Released	February 15, 1992 (1992-02-15)
Recorded	March 1990 - April 1991 at 5150 Studios, Hollywood, CA
Genre	Hard rock
Length	5:21
Label	Warner Bros.
Writer(s)	Van Halen
Producer	Van Halen Ted Templeman Andy Johns
Van Halen singles chronology
"Poundcake" (1991) "Right Now" (1992) "Runaround" (1992)

"Right Now" is a rock song written by the group Van Halen for their album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. The song reflects on living for the moment and not being afraid of making a change. Vocalist Sammy Hagar has said that he was writing the lyrics to this song at the studio very late one night, and he heard Eddie Van Halen in an adjacent room working on a piano melody. Hagar said he suddenly realized that "we were writing the same song," so he walked into the room and began singing his words over Van Halen's music.^{[citation needed]} This story is debatable since a version of the melody appears in the 1984 movie The Wild Life which was scored by Eddie Van Halen.^{[citation needed]}

Hagar says the lyrics for "Right Now" were the best he ever wrote for a Van Halen song. "I was tired of writing cheap sex songs," he recalled almost two decades later. "Eddie and I wanted to get serious and talk about world issues." He was one of the few not impressed with the song's music video, since he felt it took attention away from the song. It won Video of the Year at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, and served as the basis for a soda commercial. Different edits of the video have been used to make more explicitly political statements in later years.

Music video

The music video (directed by Mark Fenske) reflected on events that were occurring at the time, both within the band and social issues in the world around them. It used big block letters to display sentences such as "right now, people are having unprotected sex" and "right now, someone is working too hard for minimum wage", to describe the footage in the background. This concept was used previously in videos like Phil Collins' "Another Day in Paradise".

Hagar was opposed to the video's concept when it was first explained to him. "People ain't even going to be listening to what I'm saying because they'll be reading these subtitles". Despite Warner chairman Mo Ostin calling him and telling him it would be the biggest video the group had ever had, he was still so angry he disappeared to South Carolina for a week with his then-girlfriend.

During the actual shoot he had pneumonia and was suffering from a fever, which intensified his anger over the video. Fenske says he didn't notice, but allows that he was nervous and busy since it was the first video he had directed and he had many other things to pay attention to. According to Hagar, the scene where he folds his arms and refuses to sing, and the end of the video where he slams the dressing room door were not staged—he was genuinely angry.

"For the idea of the girl setting fire to a guy's photo", Fenske recalls, "I had a photo of me at 24 that I didn't mind burning." He says everyone in the video was either a crewmember or bandmember, save one—his mother. He brought her to the Video Music Awards as his date.

The video won three awards at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, including the award for Video of the Year. It was later used in Crystal Pepsi commercials between 1992 and 1993. Bassist Michael Anthony said in a 2011 book that he thought it was the best video Van Halen had ever done. Hagar was still disappointed with the result despite the accolades it received. "I don't think it's enough about the band."

Cultural references

The song is used as the soundtrack for the Drop Tower: Scream Zone ride at the Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. Notably, the ride drops immediately upon the start of the chorus.

Politics

The song has also been used a number of times by U.S. political candidates. On August 29, 2008 during a campaign rally in Ohio, after Senator John McCain's announcement of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate and her remarks, this song was played over the sound system. Band members reportedly disagreed about its use at the McCain rally—Alex and Eddie Van Halen (both of whom backed Barack Obama for president) issued a statement saying "Permission was not sought or granted nor would it have been given."

The band has also used the song for political statements. Although Van Halen vocalist Sammy Hagar was a financial supporter of President George W. Bush in his 2004 re-election campaign, during the 2004 reunion tour, the band projected the "Right Now" music video, with a few extra modern scenes, on a large screen behind them while they performed the song. Some new modern scenes were, "Right now, someone is driving too fast for the last time" and "Right now, a 13-year-old is illegally downloading this song." Another of the updates was a new image of the U.S. President, George W. Bush, accompanied by the caption "Right now, nothing is more expensive than regret."

See also

• Motivation