Dec 14

Jack White

JACK WHITE

 
Jack White  (born John Anthony Gillis; July 9, 1975) is an American musician, record producer, and occasional actor.  White founded The White Stripes with fellow Detroit native — and then wife — Meg White in 1997.  Their 2001 breakthrough album, White Blood Cells, brought them international fame with the hit single and accompanying music video, "Fell in Love with a Girl".  This recognition provided White opportunities to collaborate with famous artists, including Loretta Lynn and Bob Dylan.  In 2006, White founded The Raconteurs with Brendan Benson, and in 2009 founded The Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart of The Kills.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
There have been so many great guitarists that I have enjoyed hearing over the years, for many different reasons: The old-fashioned blasts of Chuck Berry and Keith Richards, the unexpected dexterity and ear of Bob Dylan and Glen Campbell, the pounding virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman, the nearly unsung anonymity of Tommy Tedesco and Jerry Cole, the steady precision of George Harrison and Tom Petty, the sheer power of Jimmy Page and Tony Iommi, the blues-based thunder of Jack White and Eddie Van Halen, lesser known greats like Nikki Sudden and Chris Spedding, and so many more.
 
(August 2011)
 
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Guitarist Aubrey Nehring is also the vocalist for the Invisible Eyes; he reminds me of Jack White on some of the tracks on the first White Stripes album, The White Stripes such as "The Big Three Killed My Baby" and their cover of "St. James Infirmary Blues". 
 
(December 2012)
 
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The 2008 documentary, It Might Get Loud shows rock guitarist legends from three generations discussing their music and their careers and their influences:  Jimmy Page (the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2), and Jack White (the White Stripes, the Raconteurs).  Needless to say, they all three made the Rolling Stone list of 100 Greatest Guitarists also:  #3, #38 and #70, respectively. 

 

At one point, Jimmy Page starts flipping through a pile of 45's and pulls out "Rumble" by Link Wray and His Ray Men.  To see a rock legend grooving along with that song, to see that big beaming smile on his face, to hear him discussing how the song developed, to see Page actually doing "air guitar" to "Rumble":  that really is something special.  The clip from It Might Get Loud is well worth a viewing:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLEUSn8y9TI . 

 

(February 2013)

 

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I had thought that "Funnel of Love" appears on Wanda Jackson's 2011 comeback album, The Party Ain't Over that was produced by Jack White of the White Stripes and the Raconteurs, but that ain't true either. 
 
(June 2013/2)
 
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Patti Smith Group's previous album, Radio Ethiopia was influenced by the fiery 1960's Detroit band MC5; and Patti Smith later met the band's guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith.  They married in 1980, and the couple raised two children.  The joke at the time was that she married him only because she wouldn't have to change her name.  Their son, Jackson Smith married White Stripes drummer Meg White in 2009; interestingly, Meg didn't have to change her name either when she had previously married the band's guitarist Jack White. 

 

(February 2014)

 

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The second album by the Dirtbombs, Ultraglide in Black came out in 2001 when the Garage Rock Revival was on the rise, led in part by Detroit's own the White Stripes.  The Dirtbombs were the opening act for the White Stripes in this period, with bandleader Jack White acknowledging his influence by the Gories.   

 

(December 2014)

 

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Ray Brandes describes the band's approach to the recording sessions:  "Since the Crawdaddys’ legendary obsession with authenticity also applied to the equipment used to play and record the songs on the album, every sound needed to be justified by a musical recording of the era; and this of course meant no instruments manufactured after 1965, and no round-wound bass strings, nylon picks or synthetic drum heads."  Jack White basically felt the same way. so the White Stripes similarly used vintage equipment in many of their recordings. 

 

(January 2015/2)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021