Another peek into the deranged imagination of Jack White. Not that deranged, really, it’s actually quite appealing. In this video we see many interesting things, like Meg having red hair. I’ve been saying it for a long time, but here it goes again; Jack, when you find the time, please make a movie. He’s been playing around with the idea of acting, taking a few small roles in big films, and of course, has a music video backlog that a shows a vision as distinctive as any real film director. Various directors of varying fame have made videos for The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and other Jack White projects, and each has their own touch, but in the end, they’re all unmistakably Jack, full of his peculiar tastes and obsessions. It’s only a matter of time, I think, before he goes off and does his own movie. Whether it would be a masterpiece or disaster I can’t say, but either way it should be fascinating.
This new year I didn’t do a best of or a top ten, you may have noticed. I tried to, but I couldn’t come up with a full ten albums I really loved. There were a lot of hit or miss things I was partially fond of, but not very many solid efforts I could hold up as future classics. If I had done the list, though, one thing’s for sure; Jack White’s Blunderbuss would have come out on top. I might be biased. I always give top score to everything Jack White does. But even if last year had been more fruitful and there’d been more contenders, I’d still vote for Blunderbuss as the best. It’s one of the few records I got all excited about initially, and it lived up to expectations, finding a regular place on my playlist. I don’t know what I expected a Jack White solo album to sound like, but this sounds exactly right. It’s everything Jack; rootsy, eccentric, soulful, hard-rocking. On a mighty great album, this is definitely my favorite song. Because I absolutely must love anything with the word ‘noivous’ in it. Only Jack could be in the middle of a rip-roaring blues song and suddenly go all Three Stooges on us. Also, he says he’s Bo Diddley. If you say so, Jack.
White Stripes action for you today, in sad ballad mode. Kind of an overlooked gem, I think. It’s easy to forget the ballads in between all those loud, thumping rockers, but take a minute to appreciate this. I really adore Jack White’s singing, so take a minute to appreciate that too. Sometimes Jack gets labeled as being more of an ideas man, most likely because he likes to talk a lot – quite eloquently – about his inspirations, and what concepts he’s working on, and his beliefs on music and art and style. And it’s true, he is definitely a man with ideas to burn. But when in comes to actually performing, nobody is more passionate. Jack’s playing is impassioned, his singing is impassioned, he’s just passionate about everything he does. That’s one of the things that make him special. The way how, although his image is very carefully executed and everything is so thoughtfully designed that you’d think it was all style and no substance, in fact every single thing about the Jack White empire is based on passion. It’s all so personal, and it’s obvious that it’s not about selling an image – he’s just trying to share the things he cares about.
Classic White Stripes appreciation post. I’m overflowing with White Stripes appreciation. Even when it’s not technically their very best song. So what, it’s better than most people’s songs and I find it humorous. I guess Jack and Meg don’t have the image of being laugh machines, but there’s something very wry and witty about them. Sometimes it seems like they’re secretly laughing at how seriously people take them. With the dress code and the graphics and Jack’s big serious pronouncements, you kind of expect them to always be in Grand Artistic Statement mode. But they’re just making noise for the fun of it, being playful together. It’s just joyful and silly and there’s no grand statement coming. That’s the magic of the White Stripes rapport, which is unmatched by anything they (meaning Jack) have done without one another. I wonder if they miss playing together. Not being rock stars and touring and going on photoshoots, but just banging out some songs, one-on-one.
This is a very artistic video, and it demonstrates why I think Jack White is a significant artist. As you can spot, it’s filled with a lot of Jack’s favorite fetishes. Hats, knives, weird taxidermy, film noir and red haired femmes fatales. All things we’ve come to recognize as figures in Jack White’s personal innervision. And now their part of ours. Which is exactly why Jack White is a profound artist. He’s done one of the main things artists are supposed to do; he’s taken the objects of private fixation and transmused them into a recognizable signature style, to the point where they’ve entered into our own fixations. The intensely personal becomes the universal, and back into the personal again, with cherished, sacramental images passed down from artist to viewer who becomes artist and passes them on again to the next. When it’s not done with talented enough hands it falls into mere imitation or plagiarism. But in the right ones it becomes a profound act of sharing. This why I believe that what occurs between the artist/musician and the audience is not an economic transaction of buying and consuming product, but an active relationship. It is also, I think, a relationship which though it feels one-sided, benefits both sides greatly. While the artist obviously gains economically, he or she also sacrifices in terms of losing the private aspect of themselves both literally and metaphorically. They give a way a part of themselves, through which we gain emotional fulfillment, possibly some kind of absolution. Again I have to bring up John Lennon, who was right to paint himself (though half-jokingly) as Christ figure, and which he indeed did become in an all-too flesh and blood manner. The idea that pop culture has surpassed religion in providing spiritual solace to the masses may sound presumptuous, but it gains elevation when I replace ‘pop culture’ with ‘art’. Thus, our exemplary Jack White has, in music and in visual media, gathered his collection of esoteric interests and brought them into the broader culture as art, wherein they have affected the minds and habits of impressionable fans, some of whom now go about sporting hats because they have seen Jack do so. That, I believe, is our modern contemporary holy communion.
More Dead Weather records soon please Jack. I’m a little sad I didn’t get to see Jack White play his gig at ACL (he was overlapping Neil Young.) The last time I saw The Dead Weather was in 2010. I did see Alison do her thing with the Kills a couple of times since then, and that tides me over. Neither is it that I didn’t like Jack’s solo album. I just want another Dead Weather. The thing about being a Jack-for-all-seasons and starting great new projects all the time is that the old projects get neglected and don’t have the chance to fully develop. The White Stripes stuck it out a good long time, produced a handsome body of work, and enjoyed a full career arc from gritty and ambitious amateurs to well-oiled hit machine to eventual retirement. I don’t see any of the other projects getting such a long run. The Raconteurs are all but forgotten, and The Dead Weather’s been put on the back burner. It would be nice to see Jack give something his full attention for a steady period and see what develops. I suppose it’s hard to do that when you’re forming supergroups with people who have their own projects to go tend to. So maybe start a new band with people who aren’t already in other bands? Or really give it a good go with the solo career thing. Isn’t there some wise saying about too many pots on the stove, or did I just make that up?
Based on a real place in The White Stripes’ hometown of Detroit. Hotel Yorba still stands, but whether or not it’s open for business or just a husk, I don’t know. It was open enough for The White Stripes to film a video there in 2001. In the video, Jack is shown marrying a wispy redhead while Meg is dragged along by a rope, doubtless representing their bandly bond. Of course I don’t know whether it’s supposed to represent their relationship or if they just thought it’d be funny, but it’s tempting to find it prescient, in terms of future developments. Did Meg ever feel roped into being the third wheel while Jack was gallivanting about with wispy redhead Karen Elson? I realize it’s pointless to speculate about the relationship dynamics of people you don’t know, and who don’t like to talk about such things in public. Jack and Meg naively tried to avoid such speculation by pretending to be siblings, but that just made it worse, bringing down a hail of marrying-your-sister jokes. Or perhaps they just did that to be funny. Either way. There’s definitely a shroud of mystery about The Stripes, especially the elusive Meg. But I’m sure she’s not the one who set out to be a rock star. She was just carried along by Jack’s velocity. Maybe that’s what the rope symbolizes.
No matter how sophisticated an artists gets, sometimes they never get too old for just making noise for the sake of it. I’m talking about Jack White here. Sure he’s got lots of big ideas about purity and fidelity and integrity. He’s definitely gotten more sophisticated over time. He’s gotten more thoughtful. He’s tried his hand at a lot of things. But sometimes he just wants to make a lot of loud noise. The Raconteurs, his neglected middle child of a band, can get a bit uncharacteristically mellow and melodic. For which I presume Brendan Benson’s influence is to blame. That’s not a bad thing at all – it’s a different direction, a pleasurable one at that. Jack White is a great collaborator because he allows others to shine but never lets his own vision fade into the background. That’s to say that, beside the mellow moments, The Raconteurs frequently got LOUD. Especially on their second outing. Jack’s a great one for shredding and screaming, and that was a big part of the early White Stripes albums. Shredding and screaming might not be your favorite part of those or any albums, but it’s hard to deny the sheer velocity of his energy. It sweeps you away.
Will it be any surprise when I say I’m delighted with Jack White’s new solo album? I’ve already mentioned many times that Jack is my modern day hero and can do no wrong. So of course I have nothing but kind words for Blunderbuss. It’s very much Jack’s big divorce record, with a lot of songs about love, but not so much love songs. And not without his usual eccentricity, for which we love him. Just watch him chat with Jools Holland and play Cab Calloway in the clip. Isn’t he so charming and adorable? I personally find it heartwarming that he’s covering a song he heard in Betty Boop cartoon. My kind of guy.
Watching this old White Stripes footage I realize that, wow, Jack White has really grown up on us. The White Stripes were a bolt out of the blue in 2000. Just a couple of crazy-looking upstarts from Detroit who singlehandedly reinvigorated the whole idea of rock’n'roll, (if I may be so bold). Since then Jack’s become the decade’s musical MVP, running a little empire built on those Stripesy ideals of authenticity, craftsmanship, and eccentricity. In the end, wearing only red and white clothing was too strict, but in everything else he’s kept his idiosyncratic credibility. He’s matured greatly as an artist, to judge from his world-weary recent solo debut. Meg meanwhile, has with typical levelheadedness decided fame and fashion weren’t for her, remarried, and settled down someplace where there’s no paparazzi. And I realize that it’s been a privilege to watch this trajectory unfold in real time. As opposed to reading about it thirty years after the fact, as usually happens. I’ve missed out on a lot of important people coming and going. But I’ve kept my eye on Jack White from the word go, and I’ll keep watching whatever he moves on to in the future, and I’ll be able to say, when he’s ensconced in every hall of fame, that this was an artist I’ve followed and been shaped by, seen, heard and met in his prime.
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