Superlatives
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
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Did he see all of the blue hair?
Oh, thatsfunny, White offered.
I didnt notice, but thats great to hear.
(You heard it straight from him, fellas.
Make the blue brighter!)
Actually, the better word isrebirth.
(White says he prefers to stay in the danger zone, which … of course he does.)
We discussed this ethos, as well as record-label lessons and guitar solos, in the newest Superlatives column.
Best song
Oh my God.
I cant, Im so sorry.
I cant answer that question.
I think its too dangerous for me to answer that question.
Ill be held to that forever.
People will ask me that for the rest of my life.
I just dont think of these songs in that way, you know?
Thats almost like Id have to be a different kind of person.
I dont even know if I would like somebody who can quickly answer that question.
Its a little bit too patting-on-the-back kind of a thing.
My songs are works in progress, if Im lucky.
Those are the ones that seem like a little bit of a disappointment.
Then theyve got some life to them that they can live for a long time.
Theres definitely some goodness in there.
But I always feel from the sidelines like,Oh, thats too bad.
You cant play around with that or people get their hearts broken because youre messing with a good thing.
Its like changing the National Anthem too much.
It can upset people.
Most prophetic song
Icky Thump.
It talks about immigration and the idea that were all immigrants in America, in one way or another.
I had this idea about having the great wall of Mexico in the music video.
That ended up being a thing Donald Trump campaigned on and still preaches about.
Song thats the most widely interpreted
Its Seven Nation Army, no doubt about it.
Thats got a whole life of its own.
The funniest thing is YouTube is full of unauthorized samples of it.
From major artists and dance-music artists Im not talking about people in their bedroom or whatever.
I dont care about that.
But its been remixed and sampled in various forms without permission.
And then theres, of course, all of the marching bands playing it.
Theres people learning the riffs when they first start playing guitar and all those great stories I hear.
So thats definitely connected with the most different types of people.
Lyrically, theres a song I wrote called Carolina Drama that Ive heard a lot of interesting versions about.
The song is a story, and it doesnt have full closure to the different aspects of it.
People have different theories about who the characters are and what the ending means.
People come up to me at shows and ask me, Who was this character?
So people are always saying, Well, who is the milkman?
Why does he know the answer to the story?
Thats a question I get often.
And Ill never tell.
Tenderest song
Were Going to Be Friends seems to connect with people.
Theres achildrens bookthats been produced from the song.
It gives a lot of people a tender moment about their own childhoods or their own children.
Guitar solo thats the most cathartic to perform
Theres two songs that come to mind.
When performing live, I love to play Lazaretto.
The cool thing was the Lazaretto guitar solo was done live when we recorded the song.
That was nice because it doesnt always happen.
Thats always a nice memory to think back on.
Id also say Ball and Biscuit.
Its a blues song, so it doesnt have the same structure.
Its completely different every time I play it.
Its very loose it can go really quiet and really subtle and really explosive.
Both those songs have a lot of life in them in a live setting.
We went in, wrote and recorded together, in this brand-new band.
It was a dangerous thing to do, but it was also brand-new territory for me.
It was great for my learning over the years.
It was a great lesson.
Staying in the danger zone is a lot more cathartic and a lot more inspiring than playing it safe.
I mean, that album was a dangerous thing to do.
I was lucky that it actually worked and people accepted it.
It made me think,Oh, great!
Were a strange band.
We couldve gone back to playing in bars soon enough.
I bet we couldve probably felt disappointment, like weve failed or something.
So we had to evaluate all that stuff.
We were put into a different arena in pop culture.
Instantly, I had created a new moment.
You should have stayed in the White Stripes and done only that.
Or maybe be in a different band.
And I ended up being in another band, the Dead Weather, a couple of years later.
I started over again.
Then I went solo.
Im always starting from scratch.
And wow, Im here again.
There was a big agedifference.
I had already gone through that with Loretta Lynn and it worked to great effects.
What was different about this one was that Wanda doesnt write songs, really, or didnt anymore.
So we were picking her cover songs.
It was almost like you were playing with somebodys legacy, in a way.
Its a lot of responsibility because she was one of the first women to sing rock and roll.
I took that responsibility pretty heavily, and it weighed on me.
I mean, she dated Elvis Presley.
Just that topic alone we could talk for weeks about.
Thats a pretty funny story, where mechanics actually influenced your career at times.
Its relevant to me right now!
Theres no room on the presses.
Favorite album you produced for someone else
Van Lear Rosefor Loretta Lynn.
It was such a beautiful moment.
She was open-minded and hadnt done a record of original songs in a long period of time.
I wish I could have run away with them.
It was an amazing plethora of songs.
The whole thing was just a dream.
I couldnt believe they were letting me do it.
And then she won the Grammy for Best Country Album.
How cool to help her achieve that.
It would be almost like an art project and then people would quickly be upset.
Youve taken their favorite thing out of their hands.
Thats not a diss or anything this is what life has become.
Or their most reliable thing in their hands.
Lets put it that way.
So I thought, for sure, this would be two weeks tops and wed be back to whatever.
But still to this day, its been years now, and its just universal positivity from people.
The only negative stuff Ive heard is from people who havent experienced it yet.
It was like before phones, but it was along the lines of, Do you have this record?
Yeah, Ive got that record.
I saw those guys are coming to town next week.
Im going to go check them out.
Those conversations were happening, and how great to hear that were actually still inspiring that.
Or how they dont understand good music.
But they absolutely do.
When art and business collide, I take a stab at sit there and make it make sense.
Its not easy, but its a great perspective to have.
Its also great because I never planned on having a record label.
I dont know how the hell this happened.
I baby-stepped into this thing!
It wasnt something that I thought was ever going to happen and be profitable.
Im shocked that the doors are still open and the machine is running.
Its doing so many things that are completely out of my hands at this point.
Theres such a big family of people at Third Man Records.
Were developing film in the back from our photo studio now.
Im glad that Third Man was able to inspire a lot of people.
Just trying to turn people on to that sort of thing.
But then lines were starting to form around the block for these vinyl drops.
Im glad that blossomed over the years into a bigger movement and a bigger cause.
Now pop stars are turning their fans onto this idea of record ownership, collecting, and trading.
This even goes back to the White Stripes in 2003, withElephant.
We only gave the record out on vinyl to journalists to review.
It was the perfect moment.
We had everybodys attention for a second.
It was so great to have been able to pull that trick at that moment to keep vinyl alive.
And I think it did.
God, we tried so hard with Third Man to think of anything we could do.
TheUltra LPforLazarettowas a great accomplishment for us.
Weve pushed the boundaries so many times; Im not sure whats left.
But you got me, youre going to have me thinking now.
The good thing is to keep figuring out ways to inspire people and not feel like its too gimmicky.
Thats the tricky and narrow corridor you have to work in.
Thats connecting with a whole new generation.
Im so thankful to him.
He called me the day before the scene was supposed to film; it was very quick.
I hope not, though.
But we did a lot of improvisation.
It was great they let me do that, because I didnt know what I was doing.
So they let me improvise and we got to some really, really funny places.
Id love to see the outtakes of that movie.
Ive never seen all the outtake scenes of other jokes and paths we went down, because it gotweird.
