A Farewell to The White Stripes

Just under a week ago, the world received some very sad news regarding a beloved band. "The White Stripes would like to announce that today, February 2nd, 2011, their band has officially ended and will make no further new recordings or perform live," a post on their website read. "It is for a myriad of reasons, but mostly to preserve what is beautiful and special about the band and have it stay that way."

As far as I remember, and I must say some may find this humorous, but it was in the 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite where I first heard a song by The White Stripes. It was their acoustic song "We're Going to Be Friends," which played during the opening credits. While I still consider that one of my favorite White Stripes songs, I have grown to realize they are much more than a tune you hear behind the credits of an independent film. One of the things that stands out to me concerning this band is the fact that they were able to make such great music utilizing only a drummer and guitarist/vocalist. The fact that the band employed no bassist actually led the band into a bit of controversy, if you will. On a local radio station I had heard that a fan went as far as recording his own bass tracks onto several White Stripes songs and proceeded to post them online. Guitarist/Vocalist Jack White allegedly listened to and liked the "improved" songs, but still had them removed from the web.

The simple recording style that The White Stripes employ is something that stands out to me, especially as a recording guitarist myself. On the cover of their album Elephant, the statement "No computers were used during the writing, recording, mixing or mastering of this record." I had heard that the band used an analog (as opposed to digital, being what most if not all modern bands use to record) recorder that was in such bad shape that it needed to be duct taped in order to remain functional. It was this album that produced arguably their most popular song "Seven Nation Army." Oh, and like I said before the band uses no bass, so the intro to that song utilizes an analog octave foot pedal (guitarist know what I mean), in which the guitar signal frequency is lowered so that it sounds like a bass. This was an ingenious band who prided themselves on simplicity.

I think the only way to truly say goodbye to The White Stripes is to listen to their albums a little bit closer, and get a little more familiar with this great band. If you are not a fan or have not had the opportunity to give the band a listen, you should, I know you will not regret it. With that, I'd like to close with some words from Meg and Jack White themselves:

“The White Stripes do not belong to Meg and Jack anymore. The White Stripes belong 

to you now and you can do with it whatever you want. The beauty of art and music is 

that it can last forever if people want it to. Thank you for sharing this experience. Your 

involvement will never be lost on us and we are truly grateful.”

Sources: http://www.whitestripes.com/

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