Happy Friday the 13th. I read an interesting article
this morning by Andrew Romano over at the Daily Beast and he asks the question,
Is Jack White the Last True Rock Star? His answer? Maybe. Mr. Romano gets right
to it with his spot on analysis of Jack White, his music and his well-crafted
persona.
Full disclosure, I’m a Jack White fan. Not so much a White
Stripes fan, but a big Jack White fan. He plays rock and roll. Throwback rock
and roll. Garage band rock and roll. I think he’s a rock star. And he’s kind of
an asshole about it. And that’s partly why he’s a rock star. Show me a rock
star who’s not a little assholey and I’ll show you a pretender.
He’s also a rock star because he’s a guitar god and he has a
cool story. Apparently, as a teenager in Detroit (gotta be Detroit, right?) he
worked in an upholstery shop with a guy named Brian Muldoon. Along with showing
young Jack how to stretch fabric over an old couch, Brian also turned him on to
punk music. They then started a band called The Upholsterers and eventually cut
a record. The rest is whacky musical history.
White’s musical progression has been steady as he moved from
his early days in the Detroit punk scene to his recent collaborations with
legends like Jeff Beck, Alicia Keys, Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger. It was his
earliest collaboration, however, that got the ball rolling. Jack White married
musician Meg White in 1997 and eventually formed the garage rock band The White
Stripes (Meg was a rocker). The White Stripes, as we all know, became
impossibly popular and continued to perform all the way until 2011, even though
they got divorced and had crazy rock star lives.
But Jack was not just a one-trick pony and he continued to
explore music outside of the Stripes. In 2006 he founded the Raconteurs with
Brendon Benson, Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler. Based in Nashville they were
immediately labeled a Supergroup and the band became an instant legend to music
aficionados around the globe. The band released two critically acclaimed
albums, BROKEN BOY SOLDIERS in 2006 and CONSOLERS OF THE LONELY in 2008, and
toured heavily during those years. Along with their originals, fans loved
hearing the wide range of loopy covers the band did including such diverse
songs as Sonny and Cher’s 1966 hit Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).
The Raconteurs, while never achieving huge mainstream popularity, are
still considered one of the best-kept secrets in modern rock. If you’re an
unapologetic fan of Mr. White and aren’t familiar with this particular episode
of his amazing career, get your eyeballs over to the Youtubes and check out the
Raconteurs.
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The Raconteurs Hand Signed Autographed Electric Guitar |
