I Will Wait

Album: Babel (2012)
Charted: 12 12
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The first single from Mumford & Sons' second album Babel is a rollicking stomp that finds Marcus Mumford singing about the challenges of maintaining a relationship amidst the conflicts of life on the road. It is one of several tracks on the set inspired by the band's busy touring schedule. "We write on the road in these hectic places with lots of people around," Mumford explained to MTV News. "And I suppose we've always put in ideas that we pick up from conversations with people, and things that we read and things that we listen to and feel."
  • The rousing Bluegrass tune is lushly arrayed with horns, bright banjo, stomping drums and fiddle. It reflects the influence of the Nashville sessions the band took part in during early 2011 in a farmhouse when, as Marcus Mumford told MTV News, they "had some friends who are musicians come play with us."
  • Mumford & Sons performed this song at the 2013 Grammy Awards, where Babel won for Album Of The Year.
  • The song presented a huge challenge for the band and producer Markus Dravs to wrestle it into a shape that they were happy with. Marcus Munford recalled to the BBC:

    "I remember Markus Dravs sitting on the end of my bed in a residential studio in Paris going, 'Come on, mate, just come on!' And I was like, 'No, no, no. I can't do it again!' But we kept going and kept going and eventually got there."

Comments: 3

  • Jana Banana from Fresno, CaThis band I love. I could watch the Red Rocks video all day!
  • Sg from Gold Coast, Australia This is magic!!!!
  • Groovy Chic from Cincinnati, OhI adore this song! awesome band
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular Music

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular MusicSong Writing

Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.

Song Titles That Inspired Movies

Song Titles That Inspired MoviesSong Writing

Famous songs that lent their titles - and in some cases storylines - to movies.

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce Pavitt

Experience Nirvana with Sub Pop Founder Bruce PavittSong Writing

The man who ran Nirvana's first label gets beyond the sensationalism (drugs, Courtney) to discuss their musical and cultural triumphs in the years before Nevermind.

Van Dyke Parks

Van Dyke ParksSongwriter Interviews

U2, Carly Simon, Joanna Newsom, Brian Wilson and Fiona Apple have all gone to Van Dyke Parks to make their songs exceptional.

AC/DC

AC/DCFact or Fiction

Does Angus really drink himself silly? Did their name come from a sewing machine? See if you can spot the real stories about AC/DC.

Petula Clark

Petula ClarkSongwriter Interviews

Petula talks about her hits "Downtown" and "Don't Sleep In The Subway," and explains her Michael Jackson connection.