“Lyric Problems” is a new, reoccurring segment on this blog in which I point out a serious problem in a set of well known lyrics.
Today I’m talking about Van Halen’s “Jump,” a 1983 hit by Van Halen.
Following the first chorus of the song, David Lee Roth sings the following lines:
Aaa-ohh Hey you! Who said that?
Baby how you been?
Did you see that? In the middle of the song, Roth suddenly breaks into at least two separate personalities that briefly converse with each other.
The first says, “Aaa-ohh Hey you!”
The second asks, “Who said that?”
Then presumably the first answers with “Baby how you been?”
In listening to the song, it sounds as if Roth is surprised by the lyric he has just sung, as if it emerged whole and complete from some mysterious part of his psyche.
It’s weird. It’s dumb. I always feel stupid singing along to it.
If you watch the video, you’ll see David Lee Roth sing these lines around the 1:25 mark. It’s clear that he doesn’t exactly know how to handle them either.
