(Credits: David James Swanson)
Sometimes, musical genius manifests itself through simplicity. The Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ was just three chords, while The Doors’ ‘Break On Through (To the Other Side)’ was just two.
But ultimately, those songs were wrapped up in arrangements that hid the easy genius of the song, whereas Jack White’s riff on ‘Seven Nation Army’ was unashamed in the celebration of its simplicity.
It is one of the most recognisable riffs in history, yet exists solely on the E-string, where White plays nothing more than an E, G, D, C, and B on repeat. It is the model for any budding musician who thinks that obstacles of technicality and innovation stand in their way to greatness, proving to them that a simple idea executed well and with intent will beat anything else alongside it.
While you can bend notes into infinite space and cripple your fingers by playing solos that relentlessly cascade through scales, if it’s not injected into a song that has a clear and coherent identity, then the pursuit is relatively worthless.
On ‘Seven Nation Army’, White surrounds the riff with a vocal melody that fits and makes way for his ‘sister’ Meg White to inject a rousing kick drum beat. Ultimately, all of these elements combined drench the song in vibrancy and turn the otherwise monochromatic riff into something endlessly colourful.
And while tracks like ‘Ball And Biscuit’ show that White has the capability to descend into virtuosic madness, he abstains on this song to prove that genius exists somewhat in musical humility, a trait he’s learned from one of his undeniable idols, who showed him how to crystallise musical ideas into something coherent.
When White was asked who from history he would love to collaborate with, he didn’t flinch, answering, “Captain Beefheart, Don Van Vliet, for sure,” adding, “He’s an incredible genius; he’s sort of like the white Howlin’ Wolf. He was avant-garde in an unpretentious way, in my opinion.”
He continued, elaborating on this point about musical simplicity, explaining, “A lot of that music can become pretentious, but his music is not. It’s a very narrow zone to get into, and he was just brilliant at that. I sometimes feel bad for him that he had to go through the ’80s and record in that time period. I don’t like those tones. I like the tones of the ’70s records. I wish we could get those tones right now with him because he’s such a genius, and he’s still alive. Even if he could sit in a room and tell other people what to do, because he was a producer too. They didn’t write that on the records, but he produced his music.”
This admission will come as unsurprising to die-hard White Stripes fans, given the fact that before their rise to rock royalty, the band released a Captain Beefheart covers EP named Party of Special Thingsto Do, which contained three raw Captain Beefheart covers, including Bluejeans‘ opening track, from which it gets its title and proves as sonic evidence to all music fans, that The White Stripes’ success was firmly rooted in Captain Beefheart’s influence.
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