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***
SXSW 2012
For the past couple day’s I’ve been chasing a yellow truck around Austin hoping to get the opportunity to purchase a Jack White Tri-Color. This year at SXSW I was luck enough to win a Platinum Badge for the festival and also learned that it basically means you have access to almost everything and are guaranteed absolutely nothing. After spending most of the last couple days running after the RRS I decided to devote my whole day to trying to get into the Jack White Official SXSW Showcase at The Stage on Sixth. My cousin and I show up just before 8am to a nearly empty Sixth St. only accompanied by the smells of last night and the loading and unloading of beer kegs up and down the street. Within an hour a soon to be great friend, Will James, shows up to be number III in line. We now wait for hours and hours as the street starts to fill with people, bands, and equipment. It’s a few a hours until anyone else shows up y get in line. We are feeling pretty great about this! Doors opening is just an hour or so away and there are multiple lines, tons of people, and also a guest list line that seems endless. The elusive RRS that I have been chasing all week pulls up right beside me and begins to form yet another line at its window. The RRS opens up and starts selling a JW Tri (I believe it was Freedom at 21) right beside us but far enough away that we would have to leave the line for the show. I’m not moving. No way. Yeah I want it. But I want this more. As we watch people walk by smiling and holding their new limited vinyl I watch the doors to the venue open and a stream of people start pouring in from the Guest List line. There are so many people that even though I’m first in line for the badge holders I’m starting to have doubts about getting in. Finally it happens and they let us in! I’m so excited! I hit the merch table as quick as possible to find there are no Tris being sold in the venue just from the RRS. Disappointed but sill stoked I’ve made it into the show I turn around to see David Fricke standing there. I refrain from running up to the front rails to take a moment and talk to him about our mutual excitement of seeing Jack. I still manage to make my way up to the front for an incredible 2 set performance by JW with the Peacocks and Buzzards and many amazing supporting acts. It was an absolutely incredible night capped off with a dance performance by Bill Murray on the bar as the night came to an end. SXSW 2012 was an amazing mess and probably the last time we will ever see TMR do something OFFICIAL at SXSW. I still to this day do not regret skipping out on the Tri and I have never acquired one since. I can say that I had one of my favorite concerts experiences of all time from start to finish that day.
One time I waited outside the American Embassy for 27 hours to get assistance in a visa. I got the visa and ended teaching English in Vietnam for 3 years, for a free room. I got a part time job to make many to survive. My students would bring me their leftovers because they knew how poor I was and struggling with diabetes. It was awesome. I definitely ate a few rats while I was there.
Here, have some angsty trash I wrote in high school.
You judge others based on their ability to fix your mistakes. You toss aside those with pure intentions, and yearn for those who will only hurt you. You demand payment when the job is not yet done, and make no effort to see the job is done right. You toss yourself into the flames, and blame your support for your burns. You claim that an eye for an eye is unfair, because another man’s eye does not bother your vision. Your right to ownership is far more inalienable than another man’s right to happiness, and more effective than society’s right to fairness. Entitlement is your middle name. When your friend has something you want, you take it without looking back, and blame him for standing in your way. And when it comes time for your life to be over, the entire world shall cease all productivity, and go dark, for it now has no reason to continue. Things will never be the same, as things will never be.
Over and over and over exploding like a motherfuckin supernova! Am I with you? are you with me? Forever and ever till the end BABY!!! LOL
At the age of 15 I took the train to my nearest record store and waited on my own for 3 hours on RSD, when I reached the front the ltd edition of ‘Hand Springs’ had sold out, the one record that was top of my list. Although I did manage to pick up Karen Elsons ‘Milk and Honey’.
When I was 14 (back in 1994), I wanted an electric guitar. My dad thought it was a bad idea (“no good ever came out of music” or whatever), but my mom must have persuaded him, because at Christmas that year I actually got a guitar! It was one of those cheap Stratocaster copies. I was unbelievably happy at first, but soon realized I couldn’t tune it. My dad thought I just didn’t know how to and he eventually got me thinking the same. The guitar was left in my room – a constant reminder of how I had failed and how my dad had wasted his money.
Last year, at 37 years of age, I finally went and bought myself a brand new electric guitar and started to learn how to play. I’m slowly getting better and I love exploring all the weird sounds I can make with it. You could say I’m finally making my teenage dream come true, 23 years later!
One of the first songs I learned how to play was Effect and Cause.
By the way, that guitar I got at 14 – I eventually figured out it had a crooked neck and was actually impossible to tune properly. There was nothing wrong with me after all. :)
Back in 2012 I drove over 3 hours to try and get a copy of the Jack White liquid filled record. The closest shop that had copies was RamaLama in Toledo, OH, but when I got there I was told that they hadn’t received their copies yet. I reluctantly bought something else, but made the long drive home rather dejected. When I got home I checked eBay for copies, and sure enough, RamaLama’s eBay page had copies for sale….for around $2000. I’ve never felt so betrayed. I had mentioned to the shop owner how far I traveled, but he lied to my face. I never got a copy of the liquid filled record, and I’ve been waiting almost 6 years for the universe to make things right. Maybe now’s the time.
“The waiting is the hardest part.” Petty nailed that. My hard waits have almost all been regarding my kid. If he was a car, he would have been a lemon with all the health issues he had from birth through age 12. The hardest wait was when he was just 6 months old. He was having neurosurgery to address a subdural hematoma (bleeding on the brain). They said expect a 4 hour surgery and then another 2 hours post surgery before you can see him. Those 6 hours were tough but the 6 became 8 and those last 2 hours were awful. Imaginations only take you down darkened road while waiting in ICU. When we got to see our son I understood the extra two hours. He had all four limbs tied the corners of the crib, head wrapped in gauze with blood filled tubing running out of his head. The worst is he looked like a ghost. The anesthetic can make some people blood have a temporary blue tinge and with his baby skin, he looked a light see through-y shade of blue. Couldn’t hold him yet to be able to whisper in his ear “everything little thing gonna be alright” but could at least see him and let him know I was there. That extra 2 hour wait was the hardest of my life. Other long waits, another 4 years for his first word. 12 years to leave special education classes behind. There was the flat lining incident but there’s not much waiting involved there, just long seconds that seem like eternity. 24 years later, still waiting for him to move out but I don’t mind if I have to wait a bit longer.
The longest wait for me was waiting to visit Third Man Records in person. It had always been a dream of mine. It finally happened this year and I even got to take the tour and got a chance to meet you as well. It was a great experience to see some of the aspects of how it all works and the people that make it happen.
So long, I’ve been looking too hard, I’ve been waiting too long
Sometimes I don’t know what I will find, I only know it’s a matter of time
When you love someone, when you love someone
It feels so right, so warm and true, I need to know if you feel it too
Maybe I’m wrong, won’t you tell me if I’m coming on too strong?
This heart of mine has been hurt before, this time I want to be sure
I’ve been waiting…
Now, I know it’s right, from the moment I wake up till deep in the night
There’s nowhere on earth that I’d rather be than holding you tenderly
I’ve been waiting, waiting for you, ooh
Ooh, I’ve been waiting
(Waiting) I’ve been waiting
(I’ve been waiting, I’ve been waiting) won’t you come into my life?
Aah-aah-aah