Music Discussion #5 - The White Stripes / Jack White

[Buzzkill]

On the heels of Jack White's recent solo album Blunderbuss, I've been reflecting on how much I love this man and his work. I've been a massive White Stripes fan since I first heard White Blood Cells, and they easily make my top 10 favorite bands of all time.

While some people may find the stripped down sound and spastic drumming off putting, I've always found it to be the key to tying all of their eccentricities together. The White Stripes, to me, have always represented taking very basic , rustic elements and combing them into something much greater than their individual parts. Their ability to create such huge, full sound with such sparse instrumentation has always drawn me to them.

Drums, Piano, Voice:



This is a philosophy that is represented both lyrically and stylistically throughout their albums. From Jack's obsession with simple but strong colors (red, white, black), to the power of the number 3 (drums, guitar, vocals; plus all of his references to the number throughout his songs). It's also a philosophy that appears lyrically in almost every album; countless White Stripes songs are about finding a beat up, fixer upper of a home and turning it into something domesticated and livable.



To me they are in many ways a "perfect band". Immediately distinguishable sound, lyrical and stylistic cohesion from album to album, enigmatic and extremely eccentric lead man, and a consistency from album to album that other bands "could only dream of". I don't think there is a single White Stripes song that I don't like. Not to mention they have that once in a generation hit that became an instant American classic the moment it hit the airwaves; a song that is still loved and chanted throughout the world (Seven Nation Army). They are, to me, the quintessential American rock band of the last decade, and JW is the rock star of our generation.

Could probably write an essay on this, so I am going to end it there for now and leave it to you fine folks to continue the discussion

I encourage you all to read this fucking great piece on Jack from NYT Magazine. It cemented everything I love about that maniac. Even if you only have a passing interest in JW, anybody into literary journalism will dig it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/ma...pagewanted=all

Here are some of my favorites from the Third Man.

The White Stripes - You Don't Know What Love Is

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The White Stripes - Hotel Yorba

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The White Stripes - Ball and a Biscuit (Live)

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The White Stripes - Girl You Have No Faith In Medicine

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The Raconteurs - Carolina Drama

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The Raconteurs - Rich Kids Blues

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The Dead Weather - Old Mary

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Jack White - Weep Themselves to Sleep

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[El Fangel]

Seven Nation Army is etched into my brain.

[Buzzkill]

[Requiem]

Fuckin love The White Stripes/Jack White

When he gets really folky in some of their older stuff, I don't care for it.

Love Blunderbuss though, took me like 2.5 listens until it clicked and I loved it.

Still, this is one of the best things ever

[Buzzkill]

ALREADY POSTED THAT REQUIEM GLAD YOU TOOK THE TIME TO READ MY THREAD :EYEROLL:

[Requiem]

Saw a bunch of spoiler tags and only clicked a couple of them

[Requiem]

Don't know why my sig posted, didn't click the button.

[Buzzkill]

And yeah, same for me w/ Blunderbuss. Liked it enough the first listen, but now I really love it.

Jack White - Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy

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Been blasting this while driving around in the beautiful spring weather. Gets me "jazzed" every time!

[Requiem]

love it

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by Buzzkill And yeah, same for me w/ Blunderbuss. Liked it enough the first listen, but now I really love it. Jack White - Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy SPOILER: show Been blasting this while driving around in the beautiful spring weather. Gets me "jazzed" every time!

Love that song. Album is one of his most impressive lyrical endeavors to date, IMO.

[Buzzkill]

Yep, agreed. Some really clever and personal stuff in there. Lots of it is seemingly directed at Meg who abruptly quit a few years back.

"So I get into the game but always keep it the same
And I’ll be using your name
But they’ll be yelling at me
Poor boy, poor boy
But I’ll be happy for you because you’ve got nothing to do
And I’ll be singing the blues
Walking around singing poor boy,
Poor boy

/

And you’ll be watching me girl
Taking over the world let the stripes unfurl
Getting rich singing poor boy,
Poor boy
And I’ll be coming to play I do it every day
And the title will stay
Hip eponymous poor boy, Poor boy"

Basically seems like he's saying "OK, you can ditch this if you want but I'm keeping your name and I'm gonna keep moving forward doing what I wanna do."

Almost contemptuous in a way

[Requiem]

There is no way only two people on this forum like The White Stripes/Jack White

[El Fangel]

I said I like them. Jesus.

[Corporate CockSnogger]

Pretty big fan of them. Two songs already mentioned 'Ball and Biscuit' and 'Girl, You Have no Faith in Medicine' are probably my favourites by them, maybe, there's a lot of great songs to choose from.

Also sang "Javier Mascherano" to the tune of Seven Nation Army pretty much every time I watched football and/or was drunk for like a 2 year span.

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by Fallen Angel I said I like them. Jesus.

You mentioned their most known song. Not talking shit, but I doubt you've listened to much of their library.

[Kane Knight]

Mad overrated but still capable of some solid tunes.

For example:

Originally Posted by Fallen Angel Seven Nation Army is etched into my brain.

Also, their cover of Walking With the Ghost is much better than the original.

[CSL]

favourite White Stripes related anything

[Hornicane]

Love the White Stripes. I really like a lot of the less conventional stuff that they do, a few of the songs off of White Blood Cells come to mind off the top of my head.

[Requiem]

love 'in the cold, cold, night'

[Requiem]

[Requiem]

[GD]

Elephant is one of my most beloved albums of all time.

[Asmo]

Besides The White Stripes, i enjoyed his collaboration with Alicia Keys. That resulted in the epic "Another Way To Die".

[GD]

Loved the James Bond theme.

[FakeLaser]

I respect The White Stripes but I never really got into them. Like... I can hear their music and be like alright this is good, but I never find myself wanting to listen to it.

[Kapoutman]

I have a couple of their songs but never actively tried to get the rest of their albums. I like the music when I hear it, so I don't really know why. Guess I should give listening to a whole album a try.

[Buzzkill]

Definitely a band where "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts"

[El Fangel]

Was out yesterday and heard Seven Nation Army on the radio, immediately thought of this thread.

[Buzzkill]

One of my fav videos and songs:

The White Stripes - The Denial Twist

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[El Fangel]

I found it pretty awesome that it was followed by In Bloom by Nirvana

[Requiem]

Got finals this week but I'll work on posting mine in the next few days.

[stultiloquy]

I like the White Stripes as a band, but when it comes to their catalog of music I find that it's hit-or-miss for me.
For example....for every 'Offend In Every Way' - which I love, there's a 'Passive Manipulation', which I find terribly grating, cringe inducing, and completely unlistenable.

[Tazz Dan]

Saw the White Stripes live a few years back. Jack White is a fucking musical genius, and to this day is the best concert I've ever been too. Small town hall with 500 people there. It was just the perfect environment for them.