Right NOW!
A few songs changed the way I looked at the world, this is one of them. Van Halen isn't known for their political statements, not like Rage Against the Machine or The Clash or Alarm, but this song was a step away from their usual fair and it was a hit back in 1992. We didn't know it at the time, but with the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, we were moving into a time of gross prosperity and a technological boom unlike we had ever seen before. We were moving out of the era of trickle down economics when mentally ill people were turned onto the streets as we closed institions to save money and we turned a blind eye toward a disease that was killing thousands of people, but for the next 8 years, we would see a rise in the middle class, a period without war though not without threat or incident, we would start AmeriCorp, we would begin to accept that things could be better and then we would see that they were and we would get content and lazy.
Fifteen years later, we are now at war in two countries, people are being held for indefinate periods of time in secret prisons called "black dots" by our government but outside our country. Our president is debating what is meant by "torture" and tapping phone lines without warrants, student loan application information is being released to the FBI, embarassing pictures are coming out of American controlled prisons in Iraq, the president of a soveriegn nation claims that the US leadership threatened to "blow his country back to the stone age" if he refused to assist with the "War on Terror". Ironically, information was recently leaked to the press that clearly states that our government is aware that terrorism is on the rise and that we are in greater danger than we were before.
I wasn't particularly a fan of Van Halen, but this video caught my attention when it flashed across my screen and I quickly learned the lyrics. The band is minimally featured in the award winning video, instead it is filled with flashing images that coincide with socially conscious text that accompanies the pictures. The text I remember most is "Right now, your government is doing things you think only other countries do" and that line is what made me think again about this video and song.
I went in search of the video and was stunned at how many things that are mentioned in the video are still relevant or even in a worse state than they were back in '92, we hadn't done anything about them. Despite that, as the video says "Right now keeps happening" and as long as that is true, we have the opportunity to do something whether it is something to change our own lives, help the environment, assist animals, protest for peace, join AmeriCorp, Habitat for Humanity, the Peace Corp, a local literacy group… As long as Right now is happening we have the chance to change where we are going, but we have to do it RIGHT NOW!
The Lyrics
Don't wanna wait 'til tomorrow
Why put it off another day?
One by one, little problems
Build up, and stand in our way. Oh!
One step ahead, one step behind it
Now ya gotta run to get even
Make future plans I'll dream about yesterday, hey!
Come on turn, turn this thing around
Right now Hey! It's your tomorrow
Right now Come on, it's everything
Right now Catch your magic moment
Do it right here and now
It means everything
Miss a beat, you lose a rhythm
An nothin' falls into place. No!
Only missed by a fraction
Slipped a little off your pace. Oh!
The more things you get, the more you want
Just trade in one for another
Workin' so hard to make it easy
Whoa, got to turn. Come on, turn this thing around
Right now Hey, it's your tomorrow
Right now Come on, it's everything
Right now catch that magic moment
Do it right here and now
It means everything
Said a lie to me
Right now
What are ya waitin' for? Oh! Yeah!
Right now
Right now Hey! It's your tomorrow
Right now Come on, it's everything
Right now Catch that magic moment
And do it right, right now Right now
Oh, right now!
It's what's happening
Right here and now
Right now, it's right now
Oh!
Tell me, what are ya waitin' for?
Turn this thing around
Video Text
I have placed the vidoe's text prior to the actual video because many of the lines will conjure images of your own and I wanted readers to let the lines speak to their concerns. The band did lighten the mood with lines that refered to themselves but most of the text is socially conscious and more relevant today than it was when the song was first released. Each line begins with the words Right now...
Right now…
…Ed is playing the piano.
…People are having unprotected sex.
…Opportunity is passing you by.
…Justice is being perverted in a court of law.
…Blacks and whites don't eat together very much.
…You could be outside.
…The light from a star in M-5 is heading toward earth, right now, light
that left M-5 a thousand years ago is getting to your house.
…God is killing moms and dogs because he has to.
…Guilt is turning someone inside out.
…VanHalen is planning a world tour.
…There's a bomb factory hard at work.
…You are sitting to close.
…Somebody's got the wrong idea
…Oil companies and old men are in control.
…It's business as usual in the woods.
…Nothing is more expensive than regret.
…People who can't breathe are bumming.
…Is just a space between ice ages.
…Youth is king.
…Maybe we should pay attention to the lyrics.
…Is a good time to repent.
…The truth is being obscured.
…Science is building a better tomato.
…Pigs are becoming lunch.
…Someone is working too hard for minimum wage.
…A convenience store is open.
…Mike is thinking about a solo project.
…Your parents miss you.
…Oysters are being robbed of their sole possession.
…No one is safe from loneliness.
…It is cold where someone you love is.
…It's nicer in Cabo.
…A mad man is wandering the streets of the town you live in.
…A tired man with a wounded heart is sitting in a coach seat on a east-bound
transatlantic flight looking out the window wondering how to say "dog", "howl"
and "moon" in French in case it comes up.
…She is going on with her life.
…Time is having its way with you.
…Forces are aligning against you.
…Someone is walking onto a nude beach for the first time.
…Ed's got his hands full.
…You wish you had a larger tv.
…Write NOW!
…Our government is doing things we think only other countries do.
…You aren't doing what you most wish you were.
…Is harder than it looks.
…Your memory is getting longer while your life is getting shorter.
…Dogs have it good.
…Is not the fault of the Japanese.
…There is no cure.
…People are doing it for money.
…A bowl of soup would be nice.
…Keeps happening.
…We must be going.