The Greatest Hits Thread (lyrics, blues, country, dance, bass)

[TheBig3]

Use this thread to give your opinions of an artists best work, through in some reasoning and some tidbits of knowledge and let the masses have it. Enjoy!


I drew this up because I was bored. Things never come out as well as I want them too but hopefully it sparks discussions. Feel free to create your own, or just rip mine up. I get past the obvious stuff relatively early. Have at it fellas....

1. Icky Thump
The new big hit, a song with a misplaced solo and (as Adidasss described it) Baltic organs emerged on the radio in early 2007 with the same ethos as Get Behind Me Satan with an electrified arena-ready seasoning that reminded the masses that the stripes could still throw down and reinforced fans theories that GBMS was a Cobain-mindful celebrity dodge endearing them more to White’s Rock God persona.

“Well Americans, what? Nothing better to do? Why don’t cha kick yourself out you’re an immigrant too…”

2. Seven Nation Army

The map making house hold name that made the most vicious of protesters grit their teeth in admiration. Titled after a misnomer given to the “salvation army” by a young jack white, seven nation army uses one chord, a little slide, and a five note hook to scorch the airwaves of 2004 and leave every other single that year in the dust. With an ominous bass line intro (played on the guitar) that was as foreboding as it was danceable the stripes had their first sing along played by no less than five other acts that very year. The detractors hit this one hard with arguments of simplicity, reminding everyone else that elaborate is for philosophy and art films. Long live rock and roll.

“I’m going to Wichita, far from this opera for evermore. I’m gunna work the straw and make the sweat drip out of every pore”

3. Denial Twist

The funkiest white boy jam since Beck released “where its at.” Simple piano chords and some meg white shuffle carried an entire CD designed to shake the hounds off their trail; the stripes roll out a pop song with lyrics still bleeding from the break up. Dig the break down in this one, Jack White testifies like the Godfather himself.

“so now your mans, denying the truth and its getting in the wisdom in the back of your tooth, ya need to spit it out in a telephone booth while ya call everyone that ya know”

4. Fell in Love with a Girl

Coming in the Strokes sweep up of anything sounding remotely retro, fell in love with a girl was shorter than your average song on the radio that year by a good two minutes. Coming in around just under two minutes, the stripes packed enough fuzz, fury, and incoherent lyrics to make even the old folks sing along.

“Red hair with a curl, mellow roll for the flavor and the eyes for peeping, can’t keep away from the girl, the two sides of my brain need to have a meeting”

5. Dead Leaves in the Dirty Ground

If Fell in love with a girl helped them draft off of the Strokes surge of popularity, Dead Leaves established the Stripes as their own band, dragging the high speed rush of everyone looking for New York bite down to the delta blues. The song had enough force to dreg up countless bands from Detroit that would otherwise have no shot. A persevering sound, and establishment of style and a minor preparation for the elephant that was about to come.

“soft hair and a velvet tongue, I wanna give ya what you give to me and every breath that is in your lounges is a tiny little gift to me”

[TheBig3]

6. Broken Bricks

Out of key singing, chords so stiff you can hear the bounce, and is Meg White just jingling keys at certain points? Possibly, but who cares, the stripes show up with more swing than you can shake a stick at, and when meg was potentially playing with actual sticks. Jack channels his inner Springsteen and tells a tale of blue-collar revelry and the man crushing the souls of another family.

“broke into the window panes just a rusty colored rain that drives a man insane you try to jump over water but you land in oil climb the ladder up a broken crane. Don't go to the broken bricks girl it's not a place that you want to be think of the spot your father spent his life demolition calls it Building C”

7. Rag and Bone

“This place is like a mansion, its like a mansion, look at all this stuff!” And so is this song. The stripes go grifting and come up with enough jump to remind you that bands never used to have to harvest 80’s **** synth to come up with a song people could get down to. Its hard to determine here if the stripes sound more like hobos, carnies, or used car salesmen but the slime that’s all over them in this one is very much their own, which despite all the comparisons is more than you can say for Zeppelin. Who knows, maybe its some amalgamate of all four.

“Well can't you hear we're selling rag and bone? Bring out your junk and we'll give it a home a broken trumpet or a telephone”

8. Instinct Blues

An unfinished song from an unfinished disc. Too simple and too obvious for any real fan to appreciate, and any non-fan to get. The Beauty of this one lives in its tortured bends and non-sequetir breakdowns. You can feel the grime build on you after this ones over.

“And all the chickens get it and them singing canaries get it. Whoo! Even strawberries get it I want you to get with it”

9. Death Letter

If the Stripes style wasn’t enough of a clue, Jack White ****ing loves Son House, so much so that he covers this throwback gem with notes so distant you’d think it was coming from House himself. Jack always did have the fine fingered knowledge to have those amps throw as much pain as the electric would allow and here he doesn’t let up an inch. The guitar work here might be too beautiful to describe.

“I gat a letter this mornin’ what do you rekon it read, it said the girl you love is dead”

10. Hotel Yorba

A simple country swing that will make you tap your foot while dreaming of rolling down the open roads of the Midwest. Yorba, given its prominence for allegedly once housing the Fab Four when they visited the blossoming metropolis of Detroit [sic], lets the words do all the fancy talking with Jack telling us the problems of modern life when you’re just trying to love your woman. And really, whats more country than that?

“I been thinking of a little place down by the lake they got a dirty little road leading up to the house I wonder how long it will take till we're alone sitting on the front porch of that home stomping our feet on the wooden boards never gonna worry about locking the door”

11. Jolene

Dolly Parton might have had it first, but she lacked the vicious lashes of distortion that express the torture of rolling in your bed wide awake at four in the morning with all the demons thrashing in your head, and your man whispering someone else’s name.

”he talks about you in his sleep and there is nothing I can do to keep from crying when he calls your name, Jolene”

12. Hello Operator

If the opening riff of this one doesn’t speak to you, you might lack a soul. With infections fills that mandate air guitar, and senseless stick clicking on megs behalf, its hard not to bob to this one.

“Find a canary a bird to bring my message home carry my obituary my coffin doesn’t have a phone”

13. Union Forever

Written while Jack tried learning a song in Citizen Cane, this brought the stripes into their first legal battle. But what might have been taken from the film is irrelevant, the haunting over drone that creeps in from behind will give you that “someones behind you” feeling on the neck every time.

“With wealth and fame, he's still the same I'll bet you five you're not alive If you don't know his name.”

[TheBig3]

14. Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise

Arguably the most overlooked Stripes song. It may not be the most elaborate, or the most sonically pleasing but its hard not to find the beauty in arpeggiated piano notes and lyrics like:

“you try to tell her what to do and all she does is stare at you, her stare is louder than your voice, cause truth doesn’t make a noise”

15. Catch Hell Blues

Like Instinct Blues, this one is all music and few words. While certainly more thought out, the power still comes from the non-lyrics, tons of slide, great runs, and parts that are so high on the register your dogs will be screaming.

“If you go looking for hot water, don’t be shocked when ya get burned a little bit”

16. Stop Breaking Down

For all the Stripes pretend to remain children, they have some filthy god damn lyrics. Taking this one from the king of the delta blues himself, Jack gives it the old White Stripes bounce that makes you dance in your car seat even as the song is miles away from anything dance oriented. Make the kids leave this room on this one, if you can make out the lyrics.

“The stuff I got is gonna bust your brains out Well, it'll make you lose your mind You saturday night women, you love to Ape and clown You won't do nothin' but tear a good man's reputation down - stop breakin' down!”

17. Girl You Have No Faith in Medicine

Buried deep on Elephant and overshadowed by song with bigger star power or more poignant topics, the stripes take aim at the entitled and the hypochondriacs with the nastiest riff this side of the 70’s.

“Well strip the bark right off a tree And just hand it this way Don’t even need a drink of water To make the headache go away Give me sugar pill And watch me just rattle Down the street”

18. Same Boy You’ve Always Known

Another track that I feel should have been more well received. Somewhere south of all the radio hits, Same Boy has more pain in jacks voice than is seen in most of the stripes catalogue, which takes some average level lyrics and gives them an amazing breath of fresh air.

“I hope you know a strong man who can lend you a hand lowering my casket I thought this is just today and soon you'd been returning the coldest blue ocean water cannot stop my heart and mind from burning”

19. Hand Springs

From the hot pinball rock CD, Jack tells the all to common tale of love lost at the bowling alley. In the aftermath of his loss to a smooth talking interloper with enough pinball’s skills to woo her away, Jack ponders old age and a potential loss of bowling skills. Alas, Lament my friend, lament.

“he's lookin' at her the way I did when I first met her I could see in his face white flowers and cups of coffee and love letters”

20. Ball and a Biscuit

You can’t play riffs like these with your grandma around. Coming it at over seven minutes, this one clocks in as the stripes longest song to date and what might be their filthiest. After covering enough delta blues men, Jack takes it on up to Chicago and takes a bath so he can “get clean” with his woman. If it wasn’t for euphemisms, the stripes would give Prince and 2 Live Crew a run for their money.

“You read it in the newspaper Ask your girlfriends and see if they know that my strength is ten fold girl and I'll let you see if you want to before you go”

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

Originally Posted by TheBig3KilledMyRainDog

11. Jolene

Dolly Parton might have had it first, but she lacked the vicious lashes of distortion that express the torture of rolling in your bed wide awake at four in the morning with all the demons thrashing in your head, and your man whispering someone else’s name.

My mother owned the original of this and I cringed when I heard the Stripes had covered it. I just assumed it would be a novelty cover. I was blown away when I heard it , they really make the song their own.

[Piss Me Off]

I'm glad you put Hand Springs there, i do love that song.

[TheBig3]

You know those are the songs that make me value lists like these. Casual fans wouldn't find songs like these and I think, while there are few that are worthy, this is a rare thats worth a spin.

[jackhammer]

Well thought out bite size reviews. I'm not the biggest White Stripes fan, but it was well written.

[TheBig3]

ideally I gave you enough to get interested in something you wouldn't otherwise. Which is not only what I was hoping to do, but what I'm hoping to see in the future. I'd love to find out why David Bowie is so great, but I still havn't.

it took me forever to get into Bruce Springsteen, it was a slow process that I wish was faster. Enter this thread...

[jackhammer]

Hate Pink Floyd-oo I may have to do one of them lol. Frances is a big Bowie fan. I love Bowie, but I only have about 8 of his albums , so I could'nt give a honest enough appraisal. However I have some ideas bubling away. Great thread.

[TheBig3]

You know I don't hate them really, more so that beating over the head I take from them around here. I read the Piper review and wanted to vomit.

Think of a band you're passionate about, I just did the stripes because I was bored and had some knowledge to drop. 8 albums is a lot more than 1 song. Give it a shot if you want.