C/D: Van Halen's "I'll Wait"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Eddie throws in a perfunctory guitar solo cuz there has to be one, but the song is a showcase for his keyboard skills. Lame.

(also, i was surprised to find that according to van halen's site, 1984 never hit number one despite going quadruple platinum in, uh, 1984)

― john'n'chicago, Wednesday, 25 May 2005 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah. They didn't score their first number one til "5150."

Perfunctory tune, yeah (David sounds uncharacteristically restrained), but the synth lines are interesting.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

great song. no match for "jump" or "panama" in the synth-pomp stakes, but very of-its-time in the best possible sense.

― a collectivist romantic fling! (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I think to really get the song you have to put yourself in the place of a guy with a girlfriend who just smiles and the picture sells. Think for a moment about what that might do to a man.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Didn't we already do this thread?

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

This song rules, fules.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)

The lost single from the album.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Classic.

― mcd (mcd), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

It was discussed at length on Van Halen Album Covers and Questions We May Have Abou them.... , but I can completely understand how that would've been hard to search out.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Classic. DLR proved that he could credibly play it straight for an entire song, it didn't just have to be Mr. Showman all the time.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah, yes — great, great thread.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I love Van Halen threads, really. I think they're the real reason I keep coming back to ILM everyday.

That said, "I'll Wait" is one I like and appreciate much more now than I did 10 or 20 years ago. (20 years?! Cripes!)

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll Wait taps into that sadness that Roth had about him sometimes...it seems sorta spooky and melancholy to me.....like Jamie's Crying

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

That link Pleasant Plains pasted was the greatest ILM thread ever.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

On some level I hate it because it's sort of a dead ringer for Van Hagar, sort of like when Bon's voice gets haggard near the end of the live version of "High Voltage" and he foreshadows life under Brian Johnson for a minute. But its still arguably the best "Van Hagar" song ever.

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I always preferred "Why Can't This Be Love" to "I'll Wait."

(ducks)

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll Wait taps into that sadness that Roth had about him sometimes...it seems sorta spooky and melancholy to me.....like Jamie's Crying

I know exactly what you mean, like most of Fair Warning.

― mcd (mcd), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

yep, exactly....that's a great album.

Roth is such a fucking GIANT compared to Sammy Hagar.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 17:48 (twenty-one years ago)

The drums on this track kick a significant amount of ass.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Not bad for VH; not bad for the time.

But I don't think I need to hear this or "Jump" ever again. The melding of "we're a badass guitar-driven hard rock band" with "and oh by the way hey listen to this cute poppy cheesy synth line" never really worked for me.

― The Mad Puffin, Wednesday, 25 May 2005 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

(I saw Sammy Hagar parking his Ferrari down the street in little ol' Forest Park, IL the other day - no joke [even if it made me laugh])

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 22:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Lost single, indeed; there was never a video. Didn't Roth say something like he didn't want to mope around a tree while lip syncing it?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

But I don't think I need to hear this or "Jump" ever again

i appreciate "jump" much more now than i did, say, in the few years after it was a hit and i decided i was sick of it. (i did love it when it first came out. how could i not? i was a kid and i thought DLR/EVH were hilarious!)

― a collectivist romantic fling! (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 23:06 (twenty-one years ago)

and i liked it way better than the pointer sisters' "jump" -- which i thought was kind of vapid in that way that (non-prince, non- jam/lewis) mid '80s r&b tended to be.

― a collectivist romantic fling! (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 23:08 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.