Jack White
“Over and Over and Over”
limited edition one-sided tri-color, 200 something copies pressed, complete with custom picture sleeve that will be slightly different from the standard released version
Do you guys know how pumped I am?
For the record, I first heard this monster riff in 2005 at Jack’s house while he and Meg were recording “Get Behind Me Satan.”
I am pretty sure that the “Blue Orchid” riff pre-dates this one by a few days, but in my mind, they exist hand-in-hand. While “Blue Orchid” smashed that recording process wide open and gave Jack the inspiration to make that album as bad ass as possible, THIS riff, inarguably, is ten times stronger. I feel like Jack was originally calling it “Thermonuclear Counter-Thrust” but maybe I’m just imagining that. I can find no contemporaneous documentation of that name.
There are two takes of demo recordings of this song from 2005 (with the riff played solely on fuzz bass). There are demo recordings from 2007 with the White Stripes trying it in rehearsal leading up to the tracking of the “Icky Thump” album. Imagine the guitar profile more in line with the octave-pedaled presence of the song “Icky Thump” and that’s a good start for understanding the 2007 version. I guess the Raconteurs tried it but I never heard any evidence, same with the Dead Weather. It was apparently the main track that Jack and Jay-Z worked on together in 2009, under the title “Ray Bans” or “Behind My Ray Bans” and although I’ve never heard that working, I’m told to imagine the phrase “Behind my Ray Bans” to coincide with the last five notes of the riff.
As Jack has already said, this had been his white whale. We sincerely considered including the ’07 demo as part of the “Icky Thump X” Vault package last year. I have no recollection of Jack ever previously giving me such an impassioned plea…”I just really think we shouldn’t put this on the Vault” he said. My response was pretty matter-of-factly, “Well, it’s your label, so please don’t feel like you have to convince me.” Maybe he was trying to convince himself?
Regardless, at the end of 2017 when Jack finally had played me this version you hear now, upon the end of the song, I looked at him and said “I’ve been waiting twelve years to hear this song with lyrics.”
The final version of this song is everything I’d ever dreamed it would be. It is my favorite moment on the album, with the coda to “Humoresque” being a close second. I cannot wait to see this monster unleashed unto a sell-out crowd at Little Caesar’s Arena, a stone’s throw away from the Gold Dollar where this whole mess got started.
I’ve got an extra copy of this limited tri-color to give away here. AUTOGRAPHED by Jack White, today, explicitly for this purpose. Don’t use my give-away here as an excuse to miss going to any number of the listening parties we’re throwing at record stores worldwide though. Even though we’re giving away tri-colors at the listening parties, none of those will be autographed. Man we spoil you kids.
As for the giveaway, post a comment, can be about whatever, but maybe talk about a significant wait you’ve endured in life. Can be funny, pithy, in iambic pentameter, whatever. The “best” comment will be solely determined by me. Please chime in by noon central time on Tuesday, March 13th.
***WINNER HAS BEEN CONTACTED***
Waiting… it is a chore, isn’t it? But then it’s largely forgotten when that amazing thing that you have been waiting for happens, right? Well, I can’t seem to forget waiting on that very hot summer Sunday back in 2007 on a farm in Manchester, Tennessee… that was a rough wait, one I have used to get me through all other waits since.
I had never before had to stand for hours in the hot sun, unable to move my feet, or to sit and for much of that time with my face pressed up against the sweaty, hairy, unwashed back of the taller guy in front of me, my only relief being occasional sips of lukewarm water…But I knew then, and still know now, that every moment was worth it, because I had an excellent spot for a mind melting White Stripes show. I wouldn’t change a minute of that day.
Waiting for new album release day, I’m not talking about modern day where we are now, but a time before MP3’s, streaming and even the internet existed, where you were so excited you couldn’t sleep the night before, if you were lucky you maybe got to hear 1 or 2 songs from a new album on the radio, but that would be it, the rush to your favourite music shop and that feeling of holding your new album in your hand whatever the format, then that rush home to play it, and you’d play that album over and over and over, it was well worth the wait.
I waited an hour and 10 minutes for Xochimilco’s on Saturday night. 7 minutes after we sat down and ordered, our steak fajitas arrived and they were the best I’ve ever had. I couldn’t believe how quickly they were ready after such a long wait upstairs. Well worth it. And you know I grabbed a peppermint out of the bowl on the way out.
I remember growing up as a kid in Queens always admiring my uncles vinyl records. They were these big discs with larger then life characters and magical art. I wanted a record player so bad but unfortunately missed the cut off. My mom couldn’t afford one and the golden age of napster and Kazaa took over. Needless to say I never stopped wanting that record player. I waited another 12 years before I could get a job and save my own money to buy Abbey Road on vinyl and another year to get into college in Texas where I promptly took some of my school refund money and shamelessly bought a record player. That was 8 years ago I’ve been collecting and listening to records ever since. No regrets I finally made it!
My favorite author is Stephen R Donaldson. His most important work is The Chronicles of a Thomas Covenant. I waited 20 years between book 6 and 7. He didn’t think he was good enough writer so he did other writing (science fiction, mystery, etc) Until he was… and it was worth the wait. I waited 23 years for The Police reunion tour. The best part of that was when my adult son, who is more of a New Country fan, said it was the best concert he’s ever been too. But the biggest wait was when I waited about a year for my girlfriend to realize she did want to be with me. We had broken up and I had to Wait and pretend I just wanted to be friends. After that year we got back together. Dated long distance for a few years and then got married. Worth the wait!
My favorite author is Stephen R Donaldson. His most important work is The Chronicles of a Thomas Covenant. I waited 20 years between book 6 and 7. He didn’t think he was good enough writer so he did other writing (science fiction, mystery, etc) Until he was… and it was worth the wait. I waited 23 years for The Police reunion tour. The best part of that was when my adult son, who is more of a New Country fan, said it was the best concert he’s ever been too. But the biggest wait was when I waited about a year for my girlfriend to realize she did want to be with me. We had broken up and I had to Wait and pretend I just wanted to be friends. After that year we got back together. Dated long distance for a few years and then got married. Worth the wait!
To see The Dead Weather in April of 2010, at The Pageant in Saint Louis, my friends and I waited all day outside the venue. We had tickets but we were trying to get front and center in the GA pit. I came prepared. I bought a large gallon jug meant for water on hikes. I filled it with screwdrivers. Now, I could not figure out how to make a good screwy that size so I made about a dozen perfect little screwdrivers one at a time and dumped them into the jug. Then we hit the venue. Beautiful, sunny day, having a blast. Eventually the staff gave us wristbands to hold our place in line because, little did we know, a torrential downpour was moments from upon us. We took shelter in my companion’s Nissan and, when the storm passed, we got into to see the show. Right up front, just as planned. At this point, I was pretty hammered. As Jack did the duck walk during his guitar solo on “I Can’t Hear You,” I remember thinking, “Oh my god, he’s gonna know I’m messed up and he’s gonna be mad!!!”
The longest wait? Other than my weight that is.
Always seems to be that few seconds between passing gas and makings sure nobody smelt it. Thats a long ass wait if you ask me.
The last White Stripes show in Detroit, Masonic Temple October 2, 2005. Jack played a song I never heard before and it had the catchiest riff I’ve ever heard. I looked all over the internet in the following days, weeks, months, years, etc. No one really knew and eventually the interest just faded away. Not to me tho, it actually inspired me to learn some guitar just to play that riff. I have a copy of the show because it was played on Sirius radio for some devils night special a few weeks after the show. I know this because a few times throughout the show a voice comes on that sounds like Ron Burgundy and says “Devils night with the White Stripes on Sirius Satellite Radio”. I heard that before Icky Thump came out that there was going to be a song on it that Jack wrote and played a little bit on the GBMS tour, I was super excited and hoped that it was this unknown song, it wasn’t, it ended up being Little Cream Soda. I still to this day have no idea what it was and ask people when we wait in line for pretty much any event and TMR Cass, they don’t know it either. So still I wait, maybe someday like Over and Over and Over it will end up somewhere. Maybe you could help me out Mr. Blackwell, you have any idea what I’m talking about? I could send you the song if it would help.
I’m waiting over and over and over to win something here.