Jack White names the greatest “female singer-songwriter of the 20th century”
When the rock world heard The White Stripes, everything returned to square one. While the massive sounds of post-grunge were still blaring over the radio in the late 1990s, Jack White bashing away at his instruments alongside his “sister” Meg was supposed to bring rock back to its stone age, seeing what could be done through the power of just two people. Although Jack may have had a massive love of blues, a sensitive soul was buried beneath all of that fuzz and distortion.
Throughout the first handful of White Stripes releases, most of the slower material is kept to a minimum. Once the band started to test the boundaries of their sound on their sophomore release, De Stijl, fans heard a calmer side to Jack, breaking out the acoustic guitar for songs like ‘Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise’.
Although Jack would cite artists like Elvis Presley as one of his main influences throughout his career, the stripped-down side of The Stripes was indebted to the world of country music. As evidenced by the band’s cover of Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’, Jack White related to the honesty of the golden age of country, when artists like Willie Nelson and Parton had written dark tales of the South.
Of all the great country singers in the world, though, White gravitated most to Loretta Lynn. Although Parton had captured the spirit of the young Southern woman throughout most of her songs, Lynn wasn’t afraid to be a bit rough around the edges whenever she wrote one of her classics.
Despite her pride in being from the working class on songs like ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’, tracks like ‘Fist City’ were much more biting for their time. Unlike the typical cheating songs of heartache, Lynn paints a picture of a woman she will leave black and blue if she ever catches her playing around with her man.
When talking about his biggest influences, White would later say that Lynn was one of his greatest idols, telling CBS News, “I fell in love immediately, somehow. I think that Loretta Lynn is the greatest female singer/songwriter of the 20th century”. While the influence of Lynn might not be as evident on the band’s heavier material, Jack’s solo moments have kept that human frailty that comes from every Lynn composition.
Throughout a song like ‘You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket’, White approaches the song much like Lynn would, containing a massive amount of conviction while sounding like he’s falling apart emotionally as he sings it. Although Jack would eventually dedicate The White Stripes’ third outing, White Blood Cells, to Lynn, that wouldn’t be the last time he paid tribute to the country legend.
In between working with Meg, Jack ended up working alongside Lynn numerous times, even creating a whole album with her on Van Lear Rose. Even though Jack White might be the face of nasty blues and rock and roll, watching him play on songs like ‘Portland, Oregon’ shows him right at home with some twang on his electric guitar.
