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***
I waited 9 months for my daughter to arrive. Well worth the wait
III
That tri-color looks divine!
And thanks for the listening parties, hearing the album early was a treat!
I’ve had to wait over 6 months and endure 5 surgeries in my right hand recently, being stuck in a splint, unable to move my hand at all for months was quite a long wait.
I’m from a place unknown to most. A place with 2 seasons. The air is pure and the water fresh. Once a year this place was perfect, no mosquitos, no flys, the lake was calm and surprisingly warm. We would spend 11 months enduring the cold, snow and bugs just to get a day in the sun.
Say yeah to da UP eh…
as music fans the hardest wait is at a live gig – a few beers – the band come on – you’re at the front of a crowded venue – the peanut bladder kicks in – but the music is TOO good…. you’ll lose you’re spot…. waiting for the right time to make a break for it to optimise the maximum amount of songs!!!! lol
A Haiku:
Sitting and Waiting
Boarding House Reach is coming
I would like to win
Not a day goes by when Ii don’t think about that chance evening I ran into Val Scrimpton at Sal’s Shuck Shack.
I remember ordering the harbor platter, and about 2 bites into my shrimp scampi…I caught her eye from about 3 tables across the floor.
She looked away bashfully, but I could tell that she knew what she was doing. My heart skipped a few beats as she looked back at me and our eyes connected. That brief stare seemed like an eternity.
Before I could sink my teeth into the side order of succulent lobster tails, she had sauntered up to my table with 2 large strawberry lemonade cocktails, and asked if I was alone. I wanted to play it cool, so I said I was waiting for someone, but told her thatshe was welcome to plant that perfect rump roast down beside me.
Next thing you know, the barkeep is yelling “last call” and we’re the only 2 souls left in the joint. “Where to?”, Val asked.
Before I could catch a breath (and finish up my cajun potato crawfish poppers that she ordered me), we were walking along the beach with our shoes off, talking about our dreams and aspirations.
I was in the middle of describing the splendor of monarch butterfly migrations in the autumn when she grabbed my face and engulfed me in her slightly chapped lips.
I’ll spare the details of the rest of the night, but waking up beside her on the sand as the sun came up was truly a majestic and life-changing moment. Just as I thought that this experience couldn’t get any better, I noticed that she had bought breakfast for us. Sal’s famous eggs benedict with a side of chilean sea bass…my favorite. Val, though, had vanished.
Here’s to hoping that one day i’ll see her again. I still go to Sal’s every night, hoping to see her face. After 3 years of this, you’d think I would take a hint, but I just can’t. Sal’s famous apple salmon custard pie is to die for…
I’ve had the time of my life, and I owe it all to you.
I stubbed my toe once, that wasn’t too cool :(
As a child immigrant brought over to the US at the age of 3, I’ve been waiting and waiting for a path to citizenship to clear for me. 18 years later and my father owns a fruitful landscaping business and a shiny new mortgage for me to take over one day! I’m currently working on my associate’s degree at community college and hoping to pursue civil engineering in order to support my parents in their older age. Easily the longest wait I may ever endure. Still waiting!
- The Sisyphean Dreamer