The Jack White song that came to him in a dream
Inspiration can strike an artist when they least expect it, as Jack White is living proof of. His most famous creation, ‘Seven Nation Army,’ was written in a matter of minutes during soundcheck with The White Stripes. Meanwhile, White’s hit solo song ‘Blunderbuss’ came to him in a dream.
‘Blunderbuss’ is the title track from his debut solo album, which was released to critical acclaim in 2012. After being in The White Stripes, he needed to get his solo career off on the right track after years in the wilderness. The duo cancelled their tour dates in 2007 because Meg White suffered from anxiety, and they never returned to the stage. Their split wasn’t official until 2011, and shortly afterwards, White launched himself as a solo artist.
One evening, during the writing process, White shot out of bed in the middle of the night and instantly started to recite the bizarre dream, which later became ‘Blunderbuss’. In the track’s first verse, he recounts, “I had my dream, I held your hand on that broad avenue, We crossed the road and never spoke, To another as we flew.”
Throughout the song, White conversationally details his memory of this dream. Writing the lyrics for ‘Blunderbuss’ is likely one of the most straightforward tasks of White’s career because he solely describes the arresting imagery that had come to him in his dream. Speaking to NME about ‘Blunderbuss, White explained: “I always loved that word. That song was also something that I woke myself up in the middle of the night to write it down because those characters were in a dream and that melody was too. It was a new rule I made for myself, if anything comes up in a dream, get up and write it down.”
Meanwhile, in a conversation with Los Angeles-based radio station KROQ, White elaborated upon the dream which led to ‘Blunderbuss’. He revealed to the broadcaster: “‘Blunderbuss’ was actually a melody and a story that I dreamed about this hotel, an old hotel in Detroit, and I couldn’t figure out the time period of this hotel… It was about 5 o’clock in the morning. I actually got out of bed. It was not fun at the time but I was glad I did it.”
Surprisingly, musicians writing songs in their dreams is far more common than one would imagine. Most famously, John Lennon wrote ‘Dream #9’ whilst in a dreamy haze, and similarly to White, he simply scribed his memory of the thoughts that unconsciously came to him in his sleep. Furthermore, The Strokes singer Julian Casablancas envisaged the band’s track, ‘Ask Me Anything,’ from First Impressions Of The Earth while he was also in a dreamy state.
Listen below to ‘Blunderbuss’.
