Jack White is popular music’s most powerful riffsman of the past two decades, with a gift for writing, co-writing, arranging and producing songs that sink their hooks in, thanks to potent guitar parts that churn or roar even when he’s on the drum seat in his latest band, The Dead Weather. That quality won him the #13 spot in Gibson.com’s Top 50 Guitarists of All Time list.
This Saturday, July 9, White celebrates his 36th birthday, and to mark the occasion, here’s a list of 10 essential recorded White performances that map out the terrain of his remarkable artistry:
10. “Seven Nation Army”
This number is proof of White’s riff-making magic and his way with sonics. The tune from 2003’s Elephant by The White Stripes rocks like a pachyderm thanks to the climbing and descending chord sequence that underpins it, plus a unique octave hopping tone created by White’s use of the DigiTech Whammy pedal. Of course, White’s signature braying rock vocal also makes “Seven Nation Army” unforgettable.
9. “Icky Thump”
The title track from The White Stripes’ 2007 album is a play on a phrase that means, essentially, “Oh God,” as in “good grief,” from the Northern England dialect. What makes the song stick is its snaggled stumbling riff and White’s guitar interjections. He solos with his Whammy pedal again, making his strings whine like a jet engine beginning to fail. The song was a huge success and was the first track the Stripes put in the American Top 40.
8. “Wayfaring Stranger”
Although White’s mostly known for his electric guitar wizardry, this tune from the soundtrack for Cold Mountain, a Civil War film in which White plays a lost-soul soldier, gets to the heart of his love of roots music and shows how it extends beyond the country blues of his more publicly heralded idols like Son House. The song is a traditional British ballad that made it to the Appalachians with the region’s early English settlers. White plays his Gibson F-4 mandolin on this track and with fiddle accompaniment, turns back the clock by a century-and-a-half. Although it is absent on this track, White’s other acoustic instrument of choice is his Gibson Hummingbird guitar, which appears elsewhere on the Cold Mountain soundtrack.
7. “Fell in Love with a Girl”
Going back to 2001’s White Blood Cells, this White Stripes track is straight-out-of-the-garage Detroit rock. The grinding chords are direct descendents of the MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges, with a little bit of pop sugar added via White’s “ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah” chorus tag.
6. “Blue Orchid”
White’s on the Whammy pedal again as well as a vintage Electro-Harmonix Polyphonic Octave Generator for this tune, which is the most direct Led Zeppelin tribute The White Stripes ever cut. It’s not just the grind of White’s axe that recalls Pagey’s more brittle tone settings but his voice as well, which emulates Plant’s wailing range.
5. “I’m Finding it Harder to be a Gentleman”
Perhaps one of the most complex love songs in The White Stripes’ cannon, this number appears on White Blood Cells and puzzles through disconnection and mixed perceptions among couples. The riff, which swells and ebbs like a tide, is perfect for White’s uncertain storyline as well as his singing, which is one of the least mannered of his studio vocal performances.
4. “Catch Hell Blues”
White’s country blues influence rides shotgun on this tune from Icky Thump, quivering and sliding in the tune’s intro and leaping off to more experimental ground from there. For a rich taste of White’s slide playing, this is the place to start since his articulation is better than on renditions of the oft-circulated White Stripes’ performances of “Death Letter” and many of the group’s other slide-based tunes. And with only a handful of lyrics, his playing truly comes to the fore.
3. “Steady, As She Goes”
This debut single from the Raconteurs’ first album, 2006’s Broken Boy Soldiers, kicks in with a chiming single note riff and then reels into cawing chords that give way to a flood of guitar. It’s a good example of what White can do when teamed with other formidable musicians.
2. “Hustle and Cuss”
Ultimately, The Dead Weather may prove to be the best proof of White’s potent production abilities since his sonic exploration, arranging talents and nose for riffs seems to blend most seamlessly in this band. The irony, of course, is that White plays drums in The Dead Weather. But he does so extraordinarily well, and this song from the group’s 2010 album, Sea of Cowards, flat-out rocks like an avalanche.
1. “The Big Three Killed My Baby”
A rare protest song in The White Stripes catalog, this 1999 single was included in reissues of the band’s debut album. White’s guitar speaks with locomotive force as he spins a yarn inspired by a series of brutal strikes against the “Big Three” automakers in his native Detroit in the 1950s.
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Having announced President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron were headed to Dayton, Ohio, for an NCAA tournament play-in game, Carney felt he had to add, “As you probably know, Dayton is the home of the Wright Brothers, the Dayton Peace Accords, and Guided By Voices, the greatest rock ’n’ roll band of the modern era, in my humble opinion.”
“Let’s Build a Home” as part of the Vault series by his record label, Third Man Records. The two tracks were originally recorded for the duo’s 1999 self-titled debut, but those versions weren’t used.