Right Now

"Right Now" is a rock song written by the group Van Halen for their 1991 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. The song was recently used for Drake's song, "Goodnight & Goodluck".

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.^[1] 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".

The video won three awards at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, including the award for Video of the Year.^[2] It was later used in Crystal Pepsi commercials between 1992 and 1993.^[3][4]

Homage

In October, 2008, Sammy Hagar released a video to his solo song "Cosmic Universal Fashion" that explicitly referred to the previous video and reworked it to consider contemporary issues.

Cultural references

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 S. McCain's announcement of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate and her remarks, this song was played over the sound system.^[5] 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."^[6] However, Sammy Hagar later issued a statement in regards to the controversy supporting use of the song by either major 2008 presidential candidate.^[7]

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,^[8] 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." According to Boston Globe music critic Sarah Rodman, one of the updates was a new image of the then contemporary U.S. President, George W. Bush. The photo was accompanied by a caption which read "right now nothing is more expensive than regret."^[9]

Other References

The introduction of this song (from the start to before the vocals make their appearance) has been used for the past several seasons as the music proceeding the tip-off to each Chicago Bulls home game. The introduction is also played when the Los Angeles Lakers are making their entrance onto the court. It is also played as the Minnesota Twins take the field before every home game. Likewise, the beginning piano melody is usually played after an opponent scores their first goal against the Wichita Thunder. In addition the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) had used it in a 2006 video montage, documenting some of the most significant moments in wrestling history. Reportedly the video was aired solely for the live event audiences, not on cable or pay-per-view broadcasts, to promote the experience of attending such an event in person.

References

See also

• Motivation