Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DVIII--The White Stripes: Effect and Cause

Friday, Wednesday...whatever....

This week's tune was the last song on the last studio album this week's band recorded before disbanding.  It was a lovely way to go....

I wrote about the White Stripes in Jukebox, Vol. CXVI (seven--seven!--years ago), and for many years it was the second least viewed music post I ever wrote (not enough cool kids reading emaycee's blog!).  God only knows why it was so low for such a killer band, but over the past couple of years its page views have leapt up to respectable (for a half-assed blog written by an amateur musicologist).  Nothing much to add as the band remains happily defunct, though I would like to note that the White Stripes were nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility (2023) and were not inducted.  To which I can only say:  What.  The.  Fuck?

"Effect and Cause" was not released as a single (should have been!), though not from a lack of trying as the band released four singles from the rather surprisingly named Icky Thump.  The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, making it the highest charting in America of their career.  However, it debuted at number one in Great Britain (so many cool kids in the U.K. need to be reading emaycee's blog!).

Fun Fact: The album got its title from an exclamation of surprise in Lancashire (a county in northern England where Jack White's second wife is from, who is said to have used the exclamation):  ecky thump.  The band claims to have changed it to icky to make it more appealing to Americans, but there were also copyright concerns as it gained fame from being used in a British TV comedy, The Goodies.

"Effect and Cause" is a testament to how much Jack and Meg White could do with so little.  Featuring nothing more than a metallic acoustic guitar and some snappy drums, Jack gives an inspired vocal performance that is the embodiment of an all-knowing smart ass.  The lyrics are comprised of clever turns of phrase and plays on cliches that stream forth like a rollicking preacher's sermon, as the protagonist commiserates over a lost lover.  Every time I hear this song it calls to mind classic rock from the seventies, and I'm sure that if it had been released in that decade it would have been a staple on every AOR FM station in America.  Alas, it wasn't, and it's left to me to educate pop music fans on its wonder--which, come to think of it, isn't a bad calling at all....

Lyric Sheet:  "Well I ain't saying I'm innocent, in fact the reverse/But if you're headed to the grave, you don't blame the hearse/You're like a little girl yellin' at her brother 'cause you lost his ball..."

Enjoy: 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee