When The White Stripes pop up on Random Weekends, I never know what I’m going to get. It could be a hard-rocking amp buster, or something delicate like today’s Song of the Day.
This track was a Jack White solo song that kicked around for several years before finding a home on the band’s celebrated 2003 album Elephant. It’s one of the only White Stripes tracks not to feature both Jack and Meg.
This is the second song from The White Stripes’ 2003 album Elephant to show up on Random Weekends in the last month. On that post, I noted that the song was the fourth from Elephant to come up randomly. Now we’re at five — more than a third of the album’s tracks.
‘Black Math’ is Jack White’s spin on “We don’t need no education.” It’s a fast and furious screed against doing what you’re told.
The Random iTunes Fairy has a thing for The White Stripes. Though I have only three of the band’s albums in my library, they have now shown up five times as Random Weekend selections, with four of those selections coming from the celebrated 2003 album Elephant.
None of those songs were ‘Seven Nation Army,’ the band’s most enduring classic, so I guess the Random iTunes Fairy has a thing for deep cuts, too.
Here’s a quick throwaway track from The White Stripe’s 2003 smash Elephant, the album that introduced the world to ‘Seven Nation Army,’ to the future delight of stadium-goers all over the nation.
This was the duo’s fourth studio album and the first that captured my attention. I never got into Elephant as much as the band’s next two albums but this one is certainly worthy.
I don’t love everything Jack White does — he sometimes gets a bit too loud for my taste — but I nevertheless consider myself a fan.
He so clearly loves and respects musical tradition, from the blues rock that is his greatest influence to country, bluegrass and folk. He reminds me of Elvis Costello in that way. You have to dig a guy who names both Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan as inspirations and covers Burt Bacharach.
Meet Me In Montauk 