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.
About a month and a half ago, frequent commenter Dana noted that The White Stripes seem to show up on Random Weekends in numbers higher than blind chance would suggest.
Indeed, at that point seven of their 40 songs in my music library had made the Random Weekend cut, three times as many as you’d expect. I’m not sure how today’s selection — their eighth Random Weekend appearance — affects the math, but they are definitely up there as one of the most represented acts.
My appreciation for Quentin Tarantino was recently rekindled by his splendid new film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I decided to rewatch all of his films to revisit their pleasures, see how they’ve aged, and look at them in context of his entire filmography.
I spent a rewarding couple of weeks catching up with all ten films (including a rewatching of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and I am now ready to present my definitive ranked list of Tarantino’s movies.
I’m joking when I say “definitive” because I have shuffled this list at least a dozen times before settling on the order I’m going with here. I feel rock solid about the #1 and #10 movies but the rest are a little more fluid.
The White Stripes aren’t generally known for their quieter songs, but they have recorded a few beauties.
Today’s track appears on the 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan and is a lovely song featuring Jack White on acoustic guitar and Meg White (for the first time ever) on hand-hit drums.
I found a site comparing the melody of this song to Bob Dylan’s ‘I Believe in You,’ a track from his born-again Christian album Slow Train Coming (yes, they are similar).
The White Stripes’ third album, White Blood Cells, was released in 2001 to universal acclaim and a rising tide of publicity. Music critics were going gaga over the “brother/sister” band that was actually a former married couple, who wore only black, red and white, who performed with guitar and drums but never a bass, and who made a living resurrecting the blues.
The scrutiny was wearing on Jack and Meg White during the recording of White Blood Cells, and they nodded to it with the album’s cover photo, which depicts them surrounded by shadowy figures wielding cameras and microphones.
Meet Me In Montauk 