Jack White picks his favourite songs to perform live
Hailing from the oppressive urban landscape of Detroit, The White Stripes captured the city’s spirit in coarse, simplistic rock compositions that resonated worldwide over the late 1990s and 2000s. Comprised of drummer Meg and her former husband Jack White, the US garage rock revival act was pivotal in rejuvenating rock for a new generation.
The duo split up in 2011 amid marital issues, but their catalogue remains just as prominent today, with ‘Seven Nation Army’ serving as a war cry at sporting fixtures across the globe. Jack White now graces the stage and studio as a solo act. Speaking to Vulture in 2022, he noted the encouraging age range he sees among his audiences.
“The crowds I play in front of for whatever project are probably going to start getting older, but it still feels so great that it’s so varied,” he said. “I see 10-year-olds, teenagers, 20-somethings, and people in their 50s, 60s, whatever. I think it’s really a testament to modern pop culture that it’s a lot easier to have a varied audience. Things changed with the internet when people could start liking all different kinds of music and not just be defined by one click.”
During the conversation, White was asked to reflect on his impressive back catalogue, including his work with Meg in The White Stripes. “Oh my God. Oh, man. I can’t, I’m so sorry,” he protested when asked to name his “best song”.
He added: “I can’t answer that question. I think it’s too dangerous for me to answer that question. I’ll be held to that forever. People will ask me that for the rest of my life. I just don’t think of these songs in that way, you know?”
With this dead end reached, the interviewer branched out to less absolute grounds, asking the star what songs he likes to perform live. “There’s two songs that come to mind. When performing live, I love to play ‘Lazaretto’,” White began. “It possesses a quality where I can stay alive in it, in the guitar part, and it has different modes that can bring out powerful notions. Even in the moments where I play it just like it was recorded, it still feels brand new to me every time.”
“The cool thing was the ‘Lazaretto’ guitar solo was done live when we recorded the song,” he added regarding the 2014 solo hit. “That was nice because it doesn’t always happen. But in that moment, something special came out in the room, and the solo was done in the very first take. That’s always a nice memory to think back on.”
White also picked out ‘Ball and Biscuit’, the eighth track from The White Stripes’ 2003 album Elephant, as an on-stage favourite. “I’d also say ‘Ball and Biscuit’. It’s a blues song, so it doesn’t have the same structure. It’s completely different every time I play it,” he explained. “It’s 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.”
Listen to Jack White’s ‘Lazaretto’ and The White Stripes’ ‘Ball and Biscuit’ below.
