The song Sammy Hagar could sing the rest of his life: “The best lyrics I’ve ever written”
Sammy Hagar never got into this business to stay 25 forever.
The entire appeal of rock and roll is often a young man’s game, but whenever artists get done singing songs of rebellion, there comes a point where you want something more out of the business. Having a catchy tune is one thing, but the real songwriters want to have the kind of tunes that will be playing through speakers long after they’ve left this world.
And while Hagar definitely deserves to be in that company, it’s not like that didn’t come with its hangups. Say what you will about that era of Van Halen, but there was a strong stench of dad rock radiating off of them after a while. But before everyone starts making jokes about their audience being a bunch of guys with beer bellies that want to play this at their next barbecue, dad rock is far from the insult you think it is.
Sure, there are people who fit that description who listen to this music, but there are also a lot of thoughtful songs that come out of this genre of music. I mean, for all of the vitriol that ‘The Dude’ has thrown their way, Eagles have had fantastic tunes that take a look at the human condition in a way that people like Led Zeppelin simply don’t.
So when Van Halen started making tunes with ‘The Red Rocker’, things were bound to get a little more cerebral. Or at least, a bit more thoughtful than what was going on with David Lee Roth. You see, most of Roth’s lyrics could have made for a decent playlist at a keg party, but the more that people separate themselves from how they felt when they were 16 years old, songs like ‘Feel Your Love Tonight’ can’t help but feel awkward when groaned out by someone in their 70s.
Not so with Van Hagar. They did have their silly moments and the odd dumb tune about sex like ‘Good Enough’, but ‘Right Now’ was the first time they hit on a different kind of magic. ‘Dreams’ took them to new heights, but it did still scan properly as a love song in many respects. With ‘Right Now’, Hagar was giving a message to his audience about living for the moment, and even decades on, he’s still proud of the kind of message he was delivering to the kids.
Although any Hagar lyric was going to look different next to Roth’s, he felt that his tunes were going to hold up a lot better than ‘Diamond Dave’ ever could, saying, “The point is that I thought ‘Right Now’ was a great way to grow up. Singing ‘Hot for Teacher’ now, at 77 years old — I’m sorry, it’s embarrassing. I wanted to sing lyrics that I could sing for the rest of my life. I’m like, ‘I just wrote the best lyrics I’ve ever written.’”
While a lot of that got covered up by the video, it’s not like it took away from the lyrics or not. If anything, the music video for the song might be the best one the band ever made, especially with the striking imagery of every shot and how they show all of the statistics of what’s happening around the world, whether that’s people needing help in foreign countries or throwaway gags.
Despite the song not featuring as much ripping guitar from Eddie, this is the few times where the power of the tune doesn’t warrant a massive guitar solo. Van Halen could wow people with raw musicianship when they wanted to, but the true artists are the ones that can tug at your heartstrings as well.
