“Everybody Wants Some!!” is the second song on Women and Children First.
Van Halen at their most primal. Alex pounds out a tribal beat, DLR whoops and wails, and Eddie rubs out animalistic noises on his guitar strings before raining down massive chord chunks. As Eddie said of the song’s massive sound, “I just turn it up. Everything is on 10.”
The opening guitar effect on this song was the same as in Atomic Punk, but instead of Eddie rubbing against all the strings, he rubbed just the low E.
The drum/vocal interlude was completely ad-libbed. Dave came into the studio on the day of recording with the vocals unprepared, so he just winged it. At 3:34, Roth accidentally comes in early and tries to say “I like…” but is cut off by Eddie striking a guitar chord. Dave has stated the actual lyrics were not sung perfectly in favor of the more mumbled words to add more feel to the song.
The song was a staple on all of the tours with Roth following its release. Often, the band would stop in the middle of the song and Roth would chat with the crowd for several minutes before finishing the song. In later years, with their later lead singers, Van Halen would use the opening drum beat from this song as an introduction into “Panama.”
David Lee Roth: “All the best parts of our music are just made up on the spot. The reason there’s so much pressure that makes us produce so well is we wait until the last minute. And you get to the studio and you’re waiting for the tape to run and while I’m standing there I better think of some words to sing. And that’s usually when it comes out best. And this song is full of that fast, impromptu, off the wall lyrics. And that’s definitely an attitude of everybody wants some, I want some too. That’s gotta be rock and roll.” –Rock Stars Magazine, 1980
If you’ve ever wondered what a video for this song might look like, check out the video below from the 1985 movie “Better Off Dead,” a CBS release starring John Cusack. It’s a claymation sequence in which a guitar-playing hamburger sings this song. A nod is given to Eddie in the animation, as the hamburger’s guitar sports a red, black, and white stripe design made famous by him. “Everybody Wants Some!!” is also featured in the 2009 comedy/horror film Zombieland.
“Everybody Wants Some” – Better Off Dead hamburger claymation scene:
David Lee Roth’s hand-written lyrics:
