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The White Stripes' Greatest Flicks!

2:28 PM GMT 04/02/2011

You will probably remember the first time you heard the White Stripes. For me, it was a colleague playing me Jumble Jumble off Y2K's just-released De Stijl album (no, I wasn't there at the beginning - am I forgiven?). The gnarly, sludgy psycho-riff and unconstrained yelpvox of Jack White III shocked me out of the late-'90s and into a new century. Retro-savvy, yes - but old and smelly, no; was this how pop music would roll in the 2000s? I hoped so.

For the next eleven years The White Stripes brought megawatt thrills to gig-goers and record fans alike. Their releases were water-cooler rock happenings and their shows were always seat-of-the-pants affairs. Sometimes White seemed to revel in lacunae of indulgent self-sabotage only to snatch a late winner with a feat of astonishing axemanship. Notably, their set at 2005's Glastonbury Festival was like watching some visceral tragic-comedy unfold, as three versions of Passive Manipulation (the rickety Meg song on their most problematic album: Get Behind Me Satan) were assayed before a blistering Seven Nation Army saved their bacon. Sometimes you felt for Meg: obliged to keep a beat behind this will o' the wisp.

Adventurous musicianship allied with elaborate mythmaking and extravagant showmanship: The White Stripes were an all-new phenomenon, and a grenade duct-taped in the maw of seen-it-all bores. Their albums became increasingly mind-boggling exercises in rulebook-shredding, even as the blues remained their bedrock. Stripes highlights are too manifold to list in full, but I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

Danny Eccleston

-----------------------------

1. Seven Nation Army

Award-winning video treatment, by Alex Courtes and Martin Fougerol, of the Elephant album's signature track. The nu-Led Zep, proto-metal riff - inspired by Bruckner's 5th Symphony - proved the highwater-mark of the duo's commercial phase. People stopped criticising Meg's drumming after this.

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2. Death Letter (live, from Under Blackpool Lights)

Son House blues epic eviscerated in 2004's astonishing live DVD. White underlines his reputation as the 21st Century Jeff Beck.

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3. Icky Thump

Bonkers rock mini-symphony, Tijuana-style. Unsettling cameo by Meg as one-eyed hooker. All the joie de vivre and instinctive experimentalism that encapsulates The White Stripes at their best.

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4. You're Pretty Good Lookin' (For A Girl)

Indulge me, as I over-represent my favourite WS album De Stijl (see details of epiphany, above). Here, Jack adds early-Kinks swing to his garage-blues-dominated palette, plus appealingly weird lyrics: "...but your back is so broken")

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5. Black Jack Davy

Impromptu town square shakedown from last year's Under Great White Northern Lights DVD. All the spontaneity, and encyclopaedic folk music knowledge/empathy, we'd come to know and love.

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6. Fell In Love With A Girl/Little Room

The song that introduced them to a mainstream audience, performed with amphetamine intensity on the Letterman show. "You're gonna need a bigger room" suddenly sounded like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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7. Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground

White somehow plays guitar and twirls cane simultaneously, live on VH1, with great trashy groove from Meg. The silent movie cad look was hot that year.

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8. Love Sick

Modelling Edward Scissorhands hair, Jack delivers live cover version of Bob Dylan's Time Out Of Mind classic. So sceptical of womankind and obsessed with faithlessness and betrayal in general, it could easily be a White original.

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9. Blue Orchid

Get Behind Me Satan's "route one" moment, brilliantly bashed out for From The Basement, Nigel Godrich's short-lived "vodcast" series.

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10. Jumble Jumble

See 4.

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 2:28 PM GMT 04/02/2011

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White Stripes

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  • yeah, a pretty boy with no talent will always get all the attention.

    Posted by Nim Portekoy. at 7:15 PM GMT 05/02/2011 Report Abuse

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  • OMG!!! JUST AMAZING!!! SOME OF THEIR BEST WORK EVAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! HOLD ON TIGHT HERE IT COMES IN YOUR FACE BLAST IT LOUD FREAKIN FANTASTIC JAMS!!!!!!!! ;-) heather

    Posted by Southernbelle at 7:13 PM GMT 07/02/2011 Report Abuse

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  • OMG!!! JUST AMAZING!!! SOME OF THEIR BEST WORK EVAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! HOLD ON TIGHT HERE IT COMES IN YOUR FACE BLAST IT LOUD FREAKIN FANTASTIC JAMS!!!!!!!! ;-) heather

    Posted by Southernbelle at 7:14 PM GMT 07/02/2011 Report Abuse

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  • OMG!!! JUST AMAZING!!! SOME OF THEIR BEST WORK EVAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! HOLD ON TIGHT HERE IT COMES IN YOUR FACE BLAST IT LOUD FREAKIN FANTASTIC JAMS!!!!!!!! ;-) heather

    Posted by Southernbelle at 7:15 PM GMT 07/02/2011 Report Abuse

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  • OMG!!! JUST AMAZING!!! SOME OF THEIR BEST WORK EVAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! HOLD ON TIGHT HERE IT COMES IN YOUR FACE BLAST IT LOUD FREAKIN FANTASTIC JAMS!!!!!!!! ;-) heather

    Posted by Southernbelle at 7:16 PM GMT 07/02/2011 Report Abuse

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  • RE: Nim Portekoy.
    Sorry, but I'm not sure what you mean with pretty boy... We're talking about Jack White, right? Not exactly what I'd call pretty. I think he's got plenty of talent, though. Doesn't mean one has to like all he does with it... That's a matter of taste. And I also think he wastes a lot of his brilliant gift in too much noise, volume and attitude. Makes him come across as more of a poser than as the seriously talented and firmly rooted musician he actually is. But hey, he makes good money, so he won't be deterred by the complaints of some lonesome music lovers...

    Posted by Niels Delvaux at 7:17 PM GMT 07/02/2011 Report Abuse

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  • wheres hello operator

    Posted by Anonymous at 11:26 PM GMT 28/02/2011 Report Abuse

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  • my baby is almost 6 mothns and i get the question with the surprise face, you know? like WOW, are you still breastfeeding? and then, some of them go why don't you quit? its easier you know? you can go out and have drinks .gosh that just makes my nerves go nuts! I mean, its like what the hell no? . what i hate the most is when people look at you REALLY WEIRD while breastfeeding on a restaurant or any public place, cause omg, you are showing your breasts to your baby? . people are just sick and morbid, and does not understand that what we do, is the best for our kids and the most natural thing on the planet.

    Posted by Elvesjoy at 11:27 AM GMT 18/09/2012 Report Abuse

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  • my baby is almost 6 mothns and i get the question with the surprise face, you know? like WOW, are you still breastfeeding? and then, some of them go why don't you quit? its easier you know? you can go out and have drinks .gosh that just makes my nerves go nuts! I mean, its like what the hell no? . what i hate the most is when people look at you REALLY WEIRD while breastfeeding on a restaurant or any public place, cause omg, you are showing your breasts to your baby? . people are just sick and morbid, and does not understand that what we do, is the best for our kids and the most natural thing on the planet.

    Posted by Elvesjoy at 11:27 AM GMT 18/09/2012 Report Abuse

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  • Hi Dylan,Yes that's a good idea. I get distracted smtmoiees by the day to day stuff, and it's only when something hits you in the face like seeing the card shop with all the Christmas stuff in it that it sets off a trigger. I had to put the development of this plugin on hold due to not having the right people to develop it for me, but now that I have a new dev and it's in my focus again, I'll get it done. I already have some existing general purpose templates, then it will be Halloween next, then more Christmas templates, Valentines day and Mothers and Fathers days.Have I missed anything? -Frank

    Posted by Rahul at 4:03 AM GMT 21/09/2012 Report Abuse

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  • Hi Dylan,Yes that's a good idea. I get distracted smtmoiees by the day to day stuff, and it's only when something hits you in the face like seeing the card shop with all the Christmas stuff in it that it sets off a trigger. I had to put the development of this plugin on hold due to not having the right people to develop it for me, but now that I have a new dev and it's in my focus again, I'll get it done. I already have some existing general purpose templates, then it will be Halloween next, then more Christmas templates, Valentines day and Mothers and Fathers days.Have I missed anything? -Frank

    Posted by Rahul at 4:04 AM GMT 21/09/2012 Report Abuse

    Reply to this post

  • Hi Dylan,Yes that's a good idea. I get distracted smtmoiees by the day to day stuff, and it's only when something hits you in the face like seeing the card shop with all the Christmas stuff in it that it sets off a trigger. I had to put the development of this plugin on hold due to not having the right people to develop it for me, but now that I have a new dev and it's in my focus again, I'll get it done. I already have some existing general purpose templates, then it will be Halloween next, then more Christmas templates, Valentines day and Mothers and Fathers days.Have I missed anything? -Frank

    Posted by Rahul at 4:04 AM GMT 21/09/2012 Report Abuse

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