For My Sunday Song #143, we have “Poundcake” off Van Halen’s 1991 album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (or F.U.C.K. for short). The song was the first single off the album and went straight to #1 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. The song was also the first song on the album which was one hell of a way to open an album.
The song comes firing at you with a freaking power drill. That is right. The song opens with a power drill being played through Eddie’s guitar. Playing it near or against the strings allows the guitar pickups to actually “pick up” the sound. It was totally cool as there seems there is nothing Eddie can not do with a guitar. It was so popular, that Eddie painted up a drill in the Frankenstrat motif to use in the video and tour.
That wasn’t the only cool thing about the song. The rest of the guitar sounds were great as well. Eddie beefed things up playing a 12 string throughout for the rhythm guitar as well as his normal guitar for the solo. And let me tell you that solo was something else too. Eddie pulls out all the tracks accompanied by the heart pounding drums of his brother Alex. It is one of those songs I liked more for the music than the actual lyrical content of the song.
Lyrically, the song is about being real. Most people are fake and pretend to be something they are not. It is sexier if you are just who you are, no pretentiousness or b.s. of any kind. If you can find a woman (or a man) that is who they say they are, then get a hold of that and wrap it up nice and tight. Poundcakes are simple, there isn’t anything to hide. What you see is what you get so I guess that is why they chose that as its title.
Or is Poundcake, the woman’s posterior? Let me get some of that poundcake, seems about right for me. Who knows, but I do know I like this song. For me, this was just a fun, rocking tune and what every good rock song should be. A little adventurous and a little wild.
Give the song a listen and let me know what you think. Have a Happy Sunday!!
“Poundcake”
Yeah, she’s gotta have a soul,
Or it won’t feel right,
We’re just playin, clean and simple
Wrapped up, nice and tight
In a home-grown, and down home,
That makes a woman
Cookin’ up that old time long lost recipe, for me
It’s gettin’ hard to find
Guess it ain’t hip enough now
You take an average guy
Who can’t identify
And there’s a short supply
Of the fine, fine stuff,
Lemme get on, lemme get on, lemme get on some of that
Shake it up, pick it out nice,
Lemme get on, lemme get on, lemme get on outta there,
I still love my baby’s Poundcake
Home grown, and down home,
Yeah, that’s the woman,
Still cookin up an old time, long lost recipe
Lemme get on some of that,
Uh ha, uh ha, ho
Uh ha, uh ha, ho, yeah
I want some of that
Uh ha, uh ha, ho
Gimme some of that, uh ha, uh ha, ha…Ow!
Oh, got some real fine, poundcake..
I’ve been out there,
Tried a little bit of everything
Its all sex without love
I felt the real thing is poundcake
Home grown, and down home,
Yeah, that’s the woman,
Still cookin with that old time, long lost recipe, yeah, whew!
She’s down home and down home,
Oh, that’s my woman,
Gimme some of that,
Uh ha, uh ha, ho
Uh ha, uh ha, ho,
Lemme hold that
Uh ha, uh ha, ho
Uh, uh ha, uh ha ho, yeah
Home grown, and down home, whew!
C’mon, babe,
Gimme some of that
Gimme some of that
Home grown, way down home, yeah!
Uh ha, uh ha, ho, yeah
Gimme some of that, whew!
C’mon babe!
2 Loud 2 Old Music 
Yasss. Top tune and Hagar is fantastic on this.
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Love it. Distinctly remember my brother driving into town to buy this one sunny weekend (he’s older and could drive us about I was still too young). I got a 12″ which came in a box set with a metal VH logo pin and a sticker. Many a teenagers scratch plates were distressed messing about with the Drill Song technique. I remember reading an interview with Sammy when he described what the song was about. It’s about Ass.
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Great memory. I hope you still have that 12″. That would be cool to have.
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I do. I surely do. There’s quite the pile of Metallica records now. That was the first
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The opener on that 91 tour! Great tune. Liked that they put it out as a single and broke that typical 3-4 minute cycle at the time of singles…
Great writeup!
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Thanks. I missed that tour…hell I somehow missed all the tours. Never saw them.
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Well never say never with those brothers…go if u have a chance. If they come to your area that is.
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If they do, I will. But don’t have my hopes up.
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NIce pick today and nice picture of that single, which I still need!
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Yes, yes you do.
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I went a little nuts on Discogs this morning and ordered a bunch of singles and Japanese imports. This was not one of them 😦
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Awesome! I would love to do that one day. My wife keeps bringing up my Paris spree so I have to back off for a little while (I did tell her I ordered the Lep Box Set though). I will have to wait a few months before I get to crazy again.
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I need to go back and read your Paris post, I’m behind on a couple. My mom got back from Paris on Thursday and she said you can still smell the smoke at Notre Dame.
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We never got that close to smell it. We loved that city a lot!! I hope she had a good time.
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She did! An amazing time, sounds like! And beautiful pictures of the city too.
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I’m starting to think this is a pretty decent tune… warming to Van Hagar! At least thawing.
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That’s a start. They all weren’t bad. They really had some good tracks mixed in with all the not so great tracks.
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It’s a very different Van Halen experience, that’s for sure. I think there was a spark with Roth that they just don’t have without him.
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