The White Stripes
Greatest Hits
scum stats: too crazy to even parse here...or anywhere
So the day is finally upon us where the White Stripes Greatest Hits is unleashed on the entire world...at least in digital form.
For all you die-hards here, the inside scoop is that the demand for the vinyl was so much more than we had initially anticipated that we could not press up copies fast enough to supply anywhere outside of the United States. Hence the delayed release date for the rest of the world.
Even then, we had to enlist the help of an additional SEVEN different pressing plants to be able to tackle this quantity. The etchings in the run-out grooves of the album, with all sorts of recuts and retests and Roman numerals as prefixes and suffixes are just a DOOZY and I'm pretty confident that no one will ever properly decipher it all...if only because *I* haven't even been able to keep track of it all. I am hard-pressed to name any other new release in the past THIRTY years that would have been on the machines across eight different manufacturers.
And in some weird way, I can think of no better metaphor to encapsulate the feeling of a White Stripes Greatest Hits record. Does anyone outside a couple dozen people in Detroit TRULY understand how weird, how outsider, how unpromising of a band this was considered upon their debut back in 1997? For something so unique, so beautiful, so true to actually cut through and emerge and succeed in the mainstream...from my experience, this almost NEVER happens.
Yet here we are, coordinating with the fine folks at Sony/Columbia and their gargantuan worldwide reach and influence and truly hitting new heights of saturation for the band. And as we're just at the start of that relationship, I'm excited to tease that we've got MUCH more coming.
All of this reminds me of something Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney once said about the White Stripes. I'm paraphrasing, but it was along the lines of "The White Stripes are like the Simpsons. It's SO good you feel like it SHOULD be an underground, unknown, cult-like thing. The fact that it actually became wildly popular across the globe is just that fortunate twist of the cosmos."
The idea of a two-piece band from Southwest Detroit still being talked about over twenty years later, arguably more important than they've ever been, nearly ten years after they've ceased to create new work, who had no struggle bouncing from shows at bowling alleys to hockey arenas on the same day, with a band member who literally built his own state-of-the-art pressing plant three blocks away from the collapsing walls of the first club they ever played. All together it's a journey that is both shouting to those a million miles away and whispering someone right next to you. Dispatching records to the farthest reaches of the planet and hand-delivering one to your neighbor. Writing lyrics that feel quintessentially universal and at the same time as if they were specific to you and your life and thoughts that no one else would ever know.
The duality of being both gargantuan large and intimately small at the same time. After all these years...that's what the White Stripes mean to me.
If you've made it this far...great. Post a comment about what the White Stripes mean to you and the best one will get some beautiful gem from my closet or floor or wherever the gems happen to have fallen on that beautiful day.
PS. got stuck at home today with car troubles so I don't have an actual copy of the Greatest Hits for my photo here. So I made my own. Winner can get this jacket maybe with one of the million test presses tossed inside
PPS. I believe the title of the album is, officially "The White Stripes Greatest Hits" as there was initially a concern that having two different titles "My Sister Thanks You And I Thank You" for standard and "Aside From That And Besides This" for the Vault would make it ineligible for chart placement. But a bunch of new chart rules changes made all of that a moot point anyway.
theyre so important to me i named my downtown seattle bar after a tune called screwdriver
PS I am so happy to have so much White Stripes in my life this week. I needed it! ??❤️
For me The White Stripes are the ultimate form of complexity in simplicity. With only two people and what some would describe as a “skeleton of instruments” they were able to create some of the most iconic and powerful pieces of music in history. It goes to show you that you don’t need a lot to accomplish a lot. That even with simple tools, incredible art can be made in the hands of musical mad geniuses.
Jack is two months and a couple days older than me. We both grew up in catholic families, Jack was an alterboy, and I was an altergirl. We both lost our fathers. Music is my mistress, I am a slave to it and The White Stripes have been such a huge influence in my musical journey. The covers alone have opened my eyes to so many genres of music that I have made me feel so…I dunno, understood? Comfortable? Familiar? Like listening to David Bowie or the Velvet Underground for the first time, just right. When I discovered The White Stripes it was like everything I ever wanted in music had finally come to fruition…perfection all wrapped up in a candy cane wrapper. My love for the band has never faltered in 20 years. I miss Meg. I miss Jack and damn this f-ing pandemic! I cannot wait to see live shows again, to see Jack perform again. He’s legend status. The 10 yr reunion show was epic…I felt so lucky to be there and be around so many great people, definitely one of my favorite days. Ok, I may have had a half a margarita too many, but I speak from the heart Ben. Pick me.
I remember skipping school with a friend so I could stand in line at Ticketmaster to buy tickets to see The White Stripes at The Ryman. I had 4th row center tickets. Unfortunately, Jack would be involved in a car accident that resulted in hand surgery and the band cancelled the show and a few other dates. Luckily, Jack recovered from everything fine and it didn’t affect his playing. At the time there was a rumor that they were suppose to record that show, but instead recorded another live show that ended up being the live concert film ‘Under Blackpool Lights’. I don’t know if this is true, but part of the attraction of the band at the time was unsubstantiated lore. Luckily, I would later have the chance to see them live. I saw them at Bonnaroo in 2007. I also saw their album release show for Icky Thump at Cannery Ballroom in Nashville. If I remember correctly, it was originally scheduled for Mercy Lounge, but they moved the show to Cannery to allow more people. The venue capacity is only 1,000 people. That show was absolutely INSANE.
One of the first records I ever bought was a red vinyl copy of White Blood Cells. I remember when Elephant came out and I opened the double red and white LP. My friends and I would talk about possible secret messages hidden in the photos of the album covers. It was a lot of fun getting caught up in the mysterious lore of the band.
The White Stripes were one of the biggest bands for me in my formative years, and those records hold a special place in my heart. As I was growing up and evolving the band was also evolving with each record. I felt like I was growing up with them. I feel very lucky that I was able to not only experience them live, but experience being a fan as the band took off. It really felt like being a part of something cool. I’ll forever be grateful for those memories and experiences.
I have very fond memories of playing Tony Hawks Pro-Skater, turning the volume all the way down, and just listening to White Blood Cells on repeat. I’m sorry I never got the chance to see them live.
Man. I’m always late to the party…
I’m going to date myself here, but “We’re Going to Be Friends” is the first song I genuinely remember hearing (shouts to my Mom for that). I vaguely remember asking her on that to play me the whole album, then proceeded to listen to every subsequent album on release day with her. While I never got to see The White Stripes live, I was able to catch Jack at Bonnaroo 2014 – a set for which I camped out three hours by the main stage. It’s still my favorite concert to date, and the vinyl version now sits proudly atop my record shelf. All of that I owe to The White Stripes – so I thank YOU.
Empty Bottle. Chicago. January 2000. Fake ID. Photo booth. Rock n roll. Lots of happy humans. 20 years later and “we are going to be friends” is the first book my son read to his kindergarten class. Moments like these last forever and there’s that common bond amongst all the chaos of the times. My son and I thank you. ?
There is a special moment in everyone’s life – where you hear something and everything changes. It’s like hearing for the first time…..I think we can all agree that those two from Detroit have given us all those moments. We can’t forget Blackwell and Swank – and probably countless others that help to make it all happen!