Chords for A Brief History of The White Stripes | Meet The Band (Part 1)

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_ _ _ _ _ [D] The _ _ White [Am] Stripes were an American rock [G] duo formed in 1997 [Dm] in Detroit, Michigan.
The band consists of Jack White on guitar and vocals, among other instruments later
on in their career, and Meg White on drums, percussion, and occasional vocals. _ _
_ _ Our story starts with a senior [D] at Cass Technical High School named John Anthony [Dm] Gillis.
Jack, as he was called, was a [G] musician and a poet and would [Dm] occasionally attend open
mic nights at the Memphis Smoke to read his poetry.
[Fm] It was here that he met an [D] employee of the restaurant named [Dm] Megan White, and the two
soon became friends.
After a few years of dating, they were married in the fall of 1996 when they were both 21.
Jack took Meg's last name, becoming Jack White.
On Bastille Day in 1997, Meg decided to try out Jack's drum kit.
See, Jack was a drummer first.
And that's why I'm the one playing the drums.
Because I'm the one sitting down back here, okay?
His first real [D] musical gig had been playing drums in the Detroit [Dm] band Goober and the Peas.
I'm hitting the boom booms, make the skrilla.
He had been playing guitar now for many years though, and when Meg picked up the sticks
and started drumming, that was the [F] role Jack took.
[Dm] The band decided on the name The White Stripes due to Meg's love of peppermint and the
fact that their last name was White.
Only a few months later, on August 14, 1997, [Bb] the band played their first show at Detroit's
Gold [A] Dollar Bar.
Though Jack continued playing in [D] other bands for a while following their formation, The
White Stripes were now in existence and [Fm] they had just joined the local [Dm] music scene.
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ Early in the next year, a [Dm] local label owner, Dave Buick, offered to fund the recording
and release of the band's first single.
[A] _
[Fm] In February [E] 1998, Let's Shake Hands was released on Italy Records with a run of 1 [Ab],000
copies being pressed to [Dm] vinyl.
And in October, the band released their second single, Lafayette Blues, in the same fashion.
Something you can tell right away from these first few releases is the band's dedication
to a well-defined aesthetic.
[F] To go with the original peppermint [Dm] theme, The White Stripes maintained a simple color
palette using only red, white, and black for all of their branding [G] and everything they
wore or [Dm] played during live performances.
[E] A notable example of this commitment to [F] their own brand so early on was the refusal to [Bb] release
music with the small label Bobsled [Dm] Records.
They wanted their logo on the disc and it didn't fit The White Stripes' color scheme.
[E] Plus it's a pretty [Dm] terrible logo.
In 1999, the band were signed to the indie label Sympathy for the Record Industry.
Hey, [Em] look at that logo, [Dm] red, white, and black.
In March, the label put out the single, The Big Three Killed My Baby.
And [G] on June 15, 1999, The White Stripes' self-titled [Dm] debut album was released.
A raw and bluesy record sprinkled with covers ranging from Robert Johnson to Bob Dylan,
it was filled with intense attitude and the determination [Em] of a young band, propelled forward
[Dm] by Meg's simple drumming and Jack's frantic lead playing.
[D] A bold statement backed up by the bright red cover, [A] a cover that would eventually catch
the eye of BBC DJ [E] John Peel at a record shop [C] and lead to him playing the band's music on
[Dm] the radio in the UK.
The album was [D] received positively, but not many people outside of Detroit knew [Dm] of the
band at this point.
Without wasting any time, they returned to the studio, or should I say Jack's living
room, which is where the band's [D] second album, Distill, was recorded.
The second album we made with The White Stripes, we recorded in my living room.
So at one point during the album, we were doing a cover of Sunhouse's Death Letter,
and we're playing for about a minute and Meg stops and has this fear of God look in her
face like this.
She's completely frozen and I'm still playing and I don't understand what's going on.
And I said, what?
And he stops and says, what?
And she didn't say anything.
_ I didn't know what was going on.
I turned around and there was a 300 pound drunk man standing behind me in my living [B] room,
who had just been walking down the street and walked in to the house.
_ [Dm] On June 20th of 2000, Distill was released.
This album [D] solidified the blues-tinged [G] garage rock sound of the first, and just like it,
contained a few old blues covers.
I [Gm] got a letter this morning, hot and red and [A] red.
[E] Yeah, hot and _ [D] red.
Cause I tell you [A] love is care. _ _
Oh [Am] well, I'm back to my suitcase.
Distill [Bb] was another underground success, and the tour for the album saw the band playing
a little farther away from home, with international dates in Canada and Japan, as well as distant
domestic shows from Louisiana to Texas and California.
Slowly the White Stripes fan base was growing beyond Detroit.
[Dm] _ _ _ _ [N] In February of 2001, during a break from touring, the White Stripes headed down to a studio
in Memphis, [D] Tennessee.
Here they [F] recorded their third album, White [Dm] Blood Cells, in under four days.
[Ab] They didn't know it yet, but this album would catapult them into [Dm] stardom.
[D] In May of [N] 2001, they released the first and only single off of their second [Dm] record, Hello
Operator, a track that feels like [A] the perfect transition from Distill to White Blood Cells,
which was released two months [D] later on July 3rd, [Dm] 2001.
Four days after that, on June 7th, the White Stripes played their new record in its entirety
to a hometown crowd at their Gold Dollar, the site of their very first show.
People were [D] starting to take notice of this two-piece from Detroit, but they hadn't quite
broken through the [Dm] mainstream yet.
After a month and a half long run of shows around the [Bb] US, the band crossed the Atlantic
for their first string of dates [C] in the UK.
When we [Eb] went to England a couple months ago, [Em] we thought it was going to be a little [C] tour.
We got there and it was just, everything was [C] sold out and everyone wanted to do articles
and photos and everything.
_ Anne and me wanted to put us on the cover of the magazine, and we said no.
We heard so much [F] about England can make [Bb] you popular and they'll hate you [Eb] six months later,
so we just said no, we don't [A] even want that attention.
We just want to go [Gm] and play shows.
[Am] The second show of this UK tour was at [E] BBC's Maida Vale Studios on John Peel's radio program,
which [D] no doubt helped them get into the eye of the public.
And there's been more interest I think in [Em] tonight's entertainment than, within Radio
One, than in anything else that we've done that I can remember, and we're obviously very
pleased about that, and we hope that you're going to enjoy the rest of the program and
the contribution of tonight's live band.
Very impressed with the red trousers there, Jack.
From the studio audience now, thunderous and well-deserved applause for The White Stripes.
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_ _ _ I don't think this band is ever going to be that big, you know?
I saw like for two people to get even this attention, that's pretty amazing, a two-piece
band from Detroit to get some sort of attention like that.
So I don't think it's ever going to be [G] big like we're going to be playing arenas or anything like that.
[D] You just couldn't, you know, you can't.
We don't write songs that are going to be, you know, top 40 hits [G] or anything like this.
I think this is a perfect [Dm] point to pause the story.
This video has already gone on for a bit and there's a lot more to say, [D] so this will be
part one of a two-part video on The White [Dm] Stripes.
So will the band make it?
Will they ever play arenas?
Will they write a top 40 hit?
Tune in next week on Meet the Band to find out.
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