Smokey Robinson
A late-career Smokey Robinson seduction song built almost entirely on anticipation rather than consummation. The singer catalogs…
desire and anticipation physical fixation seduction as performance
Madonna
A dancefloor anthem built on the friction between infatuation and impatience, where the singer clocks every second spent waiting…
romantic impatience obsession versus self-respect time as torment
Buzzcocks
A jittery catalogue of mundane waiting -- supermarket queues, phone calls, cigarettes -- becomes a comic study in erotic…
impatience and waiting sexual frustration consumer banality
Television
The opening track of Marquee Moon works as a manifesto of pure appetite and willful blindness, its narrator declaring immediate…
desire and impatience willful ignorance denial of consequence
Bill Callahan
A meditative address built around inherited wisdom about growth and endurance, using the sycamore tree as its central emblem.…
inheritance and fatherhood growth versus impatience resilience
Roxy Music
A propulsive opener that treats urgency and excitement as both a romantic obsession and a commentary on modern life's manic…
urgency and impatience modern anxiety and overstimulation obsessive romantic longing
Gregory Porter
Gregory Porter turns a supersonic flight home into a meditation on gravity, both literal and emotional. The song tracks a…
longing for home love as gravitational force cosmic scale vs. human intimacy
Kanye West Tribute Band
Built on a chopped Daft Punk hook, this track fuses a nightclub come-on with a victory lap of self-mythologizing. Kanye…
ambition and self-mythology desire and impatience status and luxury as armor
The Doors
This is a live rehearsal-tape performance of the Van Morrison/Them garage-rock standard, stretched by Jim Morrison into a loose,…
adolescent sexual awakening performance and improvisation desire and impatience
Betty Davis
A stripped-down, funk-driven come-on that turns a single domestic gesture into a sustained act of seduction and command. Betty…
sexual agency and command impatience and desire withholding/isolation from outside intrusion
Nat King Cole
A bolero of pure romantic pleading, built almost entirely on two commands: come closer, kiss me. Nat King Cole recorded this in…
romantic longing impatience and desire vulnerability in love
Van Halen
A straightforward party-rock come-on built around a single repeated plea, this track trades narrative complexity for swagger and…
seduction and impatience male bravado nightlife and escape from work
Prince
A slow-burn seduction track built almost entirely around anticipation, in which the narrator promises total sexual surrender to…
erotic surrender impatience and urgency fantasy fulfillment
The Who
A weary elder addresses a younger, self-absorbed complainer, insisting that their personal frustrations don't amount to a real…
patience versus impatience generational irritation perspective on suffering
Ramones
A blunt manifesto-as-anthem in which the Ramones demand radio play for rock 'n' roll, framing corporate gatekeeping as an enemy…
media gatekeeping artistic frustration working-class impatience
A buoyant early-80s dance-pop confection that turns a childhood wishing-star rhyme into an adult love song, celebrating…
infatuation luck and fate celestial imagery
Feist
A quiet post-argument confession, where the singer catalogs her own selfishness and impatience only after the other person has…
regret emotional avoidance impulsiveness
The Jam
A young, defiant voice pushes back against everyone who ever underestimated him, staking a claim to self-knowledge and…
class resentment and defiance self-education vs institutional judgment youthful independence
Mott the Hoople
A chaotic, near-apocalyptic rocker built almost entirely on a single interrogative refrain, this song uses repetition and…
disillusionment defiance instability/transformation