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From the The Rolling Stones – All the Songs book: The lyrics Mick Jagger wrote for this song are somewhat enigmatic, and inevitably recall the Dylan of Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. The narrator is Waiting for someone to come out of somewhere, and then evokes escalation fears. This waiting, this thing much feared, could refer to death, which can strike at any moment and whose existence human beings try to banish from their thoughts. The musical atmosphere of “I Am Waiting” is comparable to that of “Lady Jane,” due mainly to Brian Jones’s use of the dulcimer. It also hints at an imminent plunge into psychedelic rock,
“I Am Waiting” is without a doubt one of the Rolling Stones’ underestimated gems—of the kind that pepper the discographies of great artists. After a superb intro with half-folk, half-Baroque sonorities, played by Keith Richards on his Hummingbird acoustic, Brian Jones comes in on the dulcimer, contributing a unique character all his own, a character that is, moreover, far removed from the usual color of this instrument. Bill Wyman would rightly claim that “It was Brian’s musical abilities that make those recordings sound so much better than they might otherwise have done.” And this is certainly true. But his bandmates were not exactly idle: Bill plays (with pick) a very good, highly melodic bass line with a perfectly rounded, precise tone, almost certainly on his Vox Wyman bass (see Ready, Steady Go!), Charlie Watts provides a sober accompaniment to the verses, playing his toms gently, before letting go on his Ludwig kit during the choruses, Jack Nitzsche is apparently on tambourine (which gets slightly out of time between 0:55 and 1:00), and Mick Jagger gives a nuanced delivery of the words, thereby accentuating the mystery in which they are shrouded. He also, apparently, harmonizes with his own voice by means of overdub. “I Am Waiting” is one of the triumphs of the album. It featured in the Wes Anderson movie Rushmore, which came out in 1998, enabling it to be discovered by a new audience.
