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.
The simplicity of the White Stripes. A drummer and a guitarist. Young, fresh, and full of creative energy. A seven nation army couldn’t hold them down. Thanks Jack and Meg. Rock on!
The white stripes were the band in my headphones in high school that made me feel like the coolest person in the world. They made everyday mundane completely awesome when played. 20 years later I still listen to them everyday, my 6 year old son absolutely loves them! He even has an imaginary friend named “Jack White”, if he had any other name I would be terrified. I drove my family to another state last year to take my son to his first concert, the Raconteurs. They will forever be a part of my family’s history!!
Final take…‘Twas years before family, when I was a shy nerd. Not a friend would come calling, not many a kind word. My turntable was set by the chimney with care,to spin the black circle that soon would be there. The neighbors all resting asleep in their beds, should I play the Roots, St. Vincent or Led? My dog on his blanket and I in my chair, decided that Jack and Meg should be there! Away to the milk crate I flew half obsessed, to drop the needle on this fresh Third Man press. As I thumbed through the crate to find the one that connects, I spotted the elephant so tall and erect. To hear Jack and Meg create a safe space with all their inspiring songs. I step forth by virtue of an inspiring third man and know I’m not alone. I hear the beats as the needle does drop, a snap, and a crackle, a tick and a pop. As the lyrics flowed with an offbeat tempo, I though of all the words that I know. Seven Nation, Cold Cold Night, the Hardest Button to Button? They all seem so right. But the one that stood out on this night so merry, as I sat there in need of something contrary. Instead of plain ol milk and cookie shit, this old dude needs a ball and a biscuit!
fourth take. ? But the one that stood out on this night so merry, as I sat there in need of something contrary. Instead of plain ol milk and cookie shit, this old dude needs a ball and a biscuit.
Grew up jamming to the White Stripes on the radio in the car with my dad when I was in kindergarten, but now that I’m grown up working at a record store selling their records it’s all sort’ve come full circle and it means that much more to me now listening to the White Stripes with my son. Jack White is the real life Willy Wonka of vinyl, and having gotten into The White Stripes all those years ago, I sort’ve just now feel I’m in the know of them. Feel like it took me over 20 years to fully realize the whole image. My dad (recently) couldn’t believe it when I told him Jack and Meg weren’t brother and sister.
third try.? To hear Jack and Meg create a safe space, with all their inspiring songs. I step forth by virtue of a inspiring third man, and know I’m mot alone. now I can hear the beats as the drop, a snap and a crackle, a tick and a pop. As the lyrics flowed with a offbeat tempo, I thought of all words that would flow. Seven Nation, cold cold night, hardest button to button? They all seem right. But the one that stood out, on this night so merry wan
Second take… ‘Twas years before family, when I was a shy nerd. Not a friend would come calling, not many a kind word. My turntable was set by the chimney with care, to spin the black circle that soon would be there. The neighbors all resting asleep in their beds. should I play the Roots, St. Vincent, or Led? My dog on his blanket, and I in my chair, decided that Jack and Meg should be there! Away to the milk crate I flew half obsessed, to drop the needle on this fresh Third Man press. As I thumbed through the crate to find the one that connects, I saw an elephant so tall and erect. To hear Jack and Meg create a safe spaceforth
‘‘twas years before family, when I was a shy nerd.
Thanks to The White Stripes for opening my ears, eyes, and heart to music. I have never heard any music better written or played. My favorite thing to do is listen to the many albums that give me so much. Friday nights are “White Concert Series at Home” now, always the turntable has a great Third Man album and we crank up the volume! It doesn’t matter what the mood my hubby and I put our faves from Jack and Meg ( and many other Third Man artists), light the candles, and have quality time no matter what the rest of the world is doing. THANK YOU
The manic energy of Jack funnelled into his guitar like lightning shooting into a bottle. The soft warm infectious smile of Meg as she is bouncing along to the beat behind her kit. The mix of musical influences from blues to rock to punk to country (hell they even managed to work in the bag pipes!). The candy coloured cool simplicity of having a peppermint candy influence the style of the band’s look. Then there is as “The Grinch” would say “all that noise, noise, noise!” but from just two people you ask with a befuddled look on your face – Is that even possible? In a time when music can feel like flat, dull, boring, over produced, computer enhanced blah there is the breath of fresh air that is The White Stripes that makes you tap your toes, sing aloud, and feel alive. What’s not to love? I was late to their party but now that I’m here I’m never leaving. Having their music always be there whenever I need it which these days is quite a bit. Watching as my daughter, now in the midst of her teenage years, pick up my love of music then declare The White Stripes her favourite band and use her love of them and their music to fuel her own artistic endeavours….well they have given me so much more than I can ever repay. I never saw them play live, as I was too busy raising that now teenage daughter, but now we both dream that maybe, just maybe, one day they will play live again and we can enjoy that show together. We are so lucky that their art and music found us and we found them. Ben, hate to break it to you, it’s only going to get bigger and crazier….I don’t know if anyone else has said it but I have said it many times and will again….The White Stripes….will be a first year selection to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame….no doubt in my mind. Enjoy the ride!…..Ooopps…Sorry Ben….I forgot about the last part of your post…..The Big Three are still Killing Your Baby. Everyone stay safe out.