NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM

BEHIND THE CLASSICS

EARLY IN THE CAREER OF BLUES-ROCK duo the White Stripes, Jack and Meg White had pointedly misled the press about the nature of their relationship to one another. They claimed to be siblings, until court papers were produced in 2001 proving that the two were in fact a recently divorced couple. (The former Jack Gillis had taken Meg’s last name when they wed.) The idea had been to force journalists and audiences alike to focus on the duo’s music instead of its by-then defunct romance—but the gambit had the opposite effect. Now the press and public wanted more than ever to examine the inner workings of the White Stripes’ personal lives.

These issues were weighing heavy on singer, guitarist and principal songwriter Jack White’s head during soundcheck before a gig at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 29, 2002. White was tooling around with his 1950s-style Kay Hollow Body guitar when he hit upon a simple but compelling seven-note riff. To keep it fresh in his memory, White gave the nascent song the fi rst working title that popped into his head: “Seven Nation Army,” which he remembered as his own childhood mishearing of “Salvation Army.” “I thought

if I ever got asked to write the next James Bond theme, that would be the riff for it,” White said recently. (He did later compose the theme for the Bond movie Quantum of Solace, “Another Way to Die.”)

When White set his mind toward writing a lyric, he dropped any notions about British secret agents and instead focused on the possible implications of his working title. The “Seven Nation Army” became a symbol for the outside forces pressuring the band members to share every piece of themselves with the world. “The song’s about gossip,” White said at the time. “It’s about me, Meg and the people we’re dating. The world constantly tries to dissect people, chew them up and spit them out. We get that all the time—people wanting our songs for commercials, wanting to know what the inside of Meg’s bathroom looks like.”

The White Stripes recorded “Seven Nation Army,” along with the rest of its Elephant album, at Toe Rag Studios in London, a fully analog facility that suited White’s less-is-more recording philosophy. White’s rumbling opening riff sounds like a bass guitar, but is in fact his semi-acoustic six-string running through a DigiTech Whammy

pedal set down an octave. A total of eight analog tracks were employed for the song: one for White’s lead vocal; four for two guitar lines running through two amps apiece; one for a harmony vocal and lead guitar solo; one for Meg White’s bass drum; and one more for the rest of her kit. Jack White and engineer Liam Watson (who owned the studio) mixed the tracks using a 1982 Calrec M series model board once owned by the BBC. The results were laid down on a Studer A-80 quarter-inch two-track machine.

When the album was complete, White had no question that “Seven Nation Army” should be the fi rst single. “It just felt like an opening, explosive thing,” he said. The record label was skeptical, but eventually relented. White’s instincts were soon validated: “Army” became a breakthrough hit for the duo, won a Grammy for Best Rock Song and has been covered by acts as diverse as Metallica, Kelly Clarkson, Audioslave, Jamie Cullum, the Flaming Lips and the Oak Ridge Boys. “It feels good,” White has said of the song’s success. “I’m happy that something connects with other people. That’s what we’re trying to do: connect with other people.”

–Chris Neal

“Seven Nation Army”THE WHITE STRIPES

Meg White, Jack White

WRITTEN BY: JACK WHITE

RECORDED AT: TOE RAG STUDIOS,

LONDON, APRIL 2002

PRODUCED BY: JACK WHITE

VOCALS: JACK WHITE

GUITAR: JACK WHITE

DRUMS: MEG WHITE

FROM THE ALBUM: ELEPHANT (2003)

BEHIND THE CLASSICS

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