Catching up with Meg White (White Stripes)

One of the most overrated bands since G&R! Sheeeeesh!

Bumping as she’s been mysteriously on my mind.

Not much a fan of their music (though their first record was decent) as I find it twee and artificial, but as characters and people the Whites just fascinate and always have. As a duo and as separate individuals (she more-so than he), Meg & Jack project a strange, liminal mystique; neither entirely urban nor rural, neither contemporary nor retro, neither contrived nor sincere. They come across as people in an alternate timeline, or locked together in a limbo. Even their origin seems storybook - sometime in the 90s, sullen teenaged waitress in a backstreet diner meets highschool rocker kid who fixes furniture and also plays a mean guitar lick, then they form a cult band and become hipster icons of the New Millennium?

Their personal private relationship is intriguing to me, too. Meg seemed to be the power centre of the band and of the marriage, but not the way most straight women hold their partners in check or by the balls. Meg is kind and sympathetic to Jack but keeps his ego in check, it appears, refusing to blow smoke or let him get carried away in whimsy and self-interested bloviating. She has a silent gravitas and knowing that seems to drive Jack insane and repel him in the same measure it attracts and delights him, while she seems amused by him and comfortable in his presence (where everyone else seems to make her excruciatingly uncomfortable).

Watching them together is like an infuriating yet wonderful puzzle to solve. One wonders how they ever came up with any eminently listenable music, at all, given their penchant for sitting around silently smoking and occasionally snarking at each other. It’s even more difficult to imagine them as physical intimates; theoughout a four-year marriage and a longer courtship, there is no footage or picture of them sharing more than a hug or a peck on the cheek (perhaps to do with their brother-sister gimmick).

Sometimes I also ponder whether they’ll end up back together, again. Jack never gave back Meg’s surname (he is John Anthony Gillis, by birth); half of his solo material speaks of intractable tough femmes who won’t take him back, and,; he constantly namechecks Meg - and how much he misses her - in press. Plus his marriage to his doting and less mulish second wife fell to pieces in short order, and didn’t seem to trouble him by comparison to the breakup of his relationship with Meg.

On Meg’s end, of course no-one really knows what she’s doing or what she thinks and wants, only that she crept back to Detroit and stayed there in obscurity, despite being to go anywhere and do anything with her credibility (even musically). Both of their collapsed marriages lasted the exact same number of years, coincidentally. I’m not much of a romantic usually, nor do I care about famous people, but even I think there’s some unfinished business there on both sides.

And they fit perfectly together on screen and on stage. It’s some sort of 5D magic and chemistry. Who else could these people realistically shack up with for life?

I loved 7 nation army. Post Jack she found herself a Jackson. They split too.

Well it’s not like she can get work as a drummer.

She’s shit.

R4 there’s a difference between being a player with musicality and being a technical musician, just as there is between being a storyteller and being a technical writer, or being an artist and being an artisan by trade.

Not all technical players have intangible feel and understanding for music at an essential primal level, and not all instinctual players have professional chops or any classical ability. Meg falls into the latter camp.

She can play what she wants and needs to express in a musically-satisfying way. That makes her a musician enough.

[quote]She can play what she wants and needs to express in a musically-satisfying way.

No she doesn't. Her drumming was a gimmick and the only industry people who say otherwise are up Jack's ass.

Elephant still holds up, it's an amazing record.

Little Acorns

[italic]Well, you can't be a pimp and a prostitute too

Their mystique is undeniable. They are two incredibly intense individuals who fortunately, for our sake, crossed paths. Their union and the creativity that came from it was kismet.

R9 that cover photo for ICKY THUMP is my favourite of any they did. It’s such a natural, human, effortlessly cool picture. Jack looks completely smitten by Meg in it.

I think the hipster gimmickry carried them off a bit too far on some records, and detracted from their charming stripped-back blues. It did stand them out, however, and gave them a fascinating glamour.

R9 that cover photo for ICKY THUMP is my favourite of any they did. It’s such a natural, human, effortlessly cool picture. Jack looks completely smitten by Meg in it.

I think the hipster gimmickry carried them off a bit too far on some records, and detracted from their charming stripped-back blues. It did stand them out, however, and gave them a fascinating glamour.

Meg is naturally cool; Jack tries too hard.

Sorry, [R13]: They always gave me such a pain........They're in the TOO COOL Hall of Fame, like Michael Stipe and Courtney Love and numerous others....

Has anyone ever thought Stipe was cool? He’s like a weird and slightly-creepy professor of performing Arts.

Always daydreamed how a Meg solo record would sound.

Yeah, I know it’s never gonna happen, neg bitches. I just wonder sometimes, is all. It would be nothing like anything else ever heard, that’s for sure.

I hate white stripes music with a passion.

I love the White Stripes with a passion.

I tired. God knows I tried. But very little they worked for me. I think the limitations of the

I did like his work for Loretta Lynn, although it was rather prideful.

Jack's ass through their first years was better than his music.

Meg? Please. He always carried her.

Music for rejects of society

I’ll take it, R20.

It just amazes me that The White Stripes were a successful functional band of just two, who put out such great albums, yet they were two divorcées with seemingly low emotional intellect. How on Earth do you make that work? Was the power of combined autism just pulling all the weight?

Does Meg have any solo credits for songwriting on TWS records? Given the trajectory of the Whites’ personal relationship I assume a few cuts on the self-titled and on DE STIJL and WHITE BLOOD CELLS might be hers (at least in part), but on looking it up online the only one I can be sure she has credit on is ‘Hotel Yorba’. As for later albums, ‘In the Cold, Cold Night’ on ELEPHANT sounds like a ballad only a woman could pen.

Always suspected some of Jack’s solo releases - mostly, the bitchier white-man blues stomps about ‘woman done me wrong’ - were backhanded references to Meg. That one he wrote for Beyoncé, ‘Don’t Hurt Yourself’, gives me that impression.

Why did Meg & Jack divorce after just five years? Were they simply too young? They spit before they had any success with the band, so it wasn’t the pressure of fame.

The White Stripes Announce Greatest Hits, Share Live Video:

R25😱😱😱

Are my parents getting back together????!