The White Stripes busted out of the Detroit underground and into the spotlight with their third album of bluesy garage rock. Husband and wife duo Jack and Meg White smash through sixteen songs about fame, fear, love, and betrayal with straightforward vigor that injects raw power into the blues. It was recorded in less than four days in Memphis, Tennessee after a week of rehearsals. Jack White wanted a rushed lo-fi feel to the record: "It was cool because a lot of things had been sitting around for a long time, stuff I had written on piano that had been just sitting around not doing anything. And it was good to put them all together at once, put them all in the same box and see what happened."
Originally released on the independent Sympathy for the Record Industry label, 'White Blood Cells' sold so well that it was rereleased on Universal subsidiary V2 Records a year later. Ironically, the album deals with the trappings of fame. Jack muses: "When does music become a business and why do we have to be suckered into it? Why do we have to buy a cell phone, you know what I mean? A lot of that stuff upsets me. It gets annoying. The name, 'White Blood Cells', for the album, is this idea of bacteria coming at us, or just foreign things coming at us, or media, or attention on the band. It just seems to us that there are so many bands from the same time or before we started that were playing and are still playing that didn’t get this kind of attention that we’re getting. Is the attention good or bad? When you open the CD, it’s a picture of us with these cameras. Wondering if it’s good or bad."
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'Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground' kicks things off with vigor.
"Dead leaves and the dirty ground
When I know you're not around
Shiny tops and soda pops
When I hear your lips make a sound
Thirty notes in the mailbox
Will tell you that I'm coming home
And I think I'm gonna stick around
For a while so you're not alone"
The sweet country stomp of 'Hotel Yorba' was inspired by "a really disgusting hotel."
"It might sound silly
for me to think childish thoughts like these
but i'm so tired of acting tough
and i'm gonna do what i please
lets get married
in a big cathedral by a priest
cause if i'm the man that you love the most
you could say i do at least"
The lego stop action video for 'Fell In Love With A Girl' was directed by Michel Gondry.
"Fell in love with a girl
Fell in love once and almost completely
She's in love with the world
But sometimes these feelings can be so misleading
She turns and says are you alright?
I said I must be fine, 'cause my heart's still beating
She says, come and kiss me by the riverside
Bobby says it's fine, he don't consider it cheating now."
The graceful acoustic ditty 'We're Going To Be Friends' hints of primary school romance.
"Walk with me, Susie Lee
Through the park and by the tree
We will rest upon the ground
And look at all the bugs we found
Safely walk to school without a sound"
'White Blood Cells'
full album:
All songs written and composed by Jack White.
No. Title Length
1. "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" 3:04
2. "Hotel Yorba" 2:10
3. "I'm Finding It Harder to Be a Gentleman" 2:54
4. "Fell in Love with a Girl" 1:50
5. "Expecting" 2:03
6. "Little Room" 0:50
7. "The Union Forever" 3:26
8. "The Same Boy You've Always Known" 3:09
9. "We're Going to Be Friends" 2:22
10. "Offend in Every Way" 3:06
11. "I Think I Smell a Rat" 2:04
12. "Aluminum" 2:19
13. "I Can't Wait" 3:38
14. "Now Mary" 1:47
15. "I Can Learn" 3:31
16. "This Protector" 2:12
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