Top 50 White Stripes Songs: Numbers 40-36

Hi, I've been on holiday for the last week and a bit, getting back into this now.

40. You're Pretty Good Looking (For A Girl) - De Stijl

What I enjoy about the opener to the Stripes' second album, De Stijl, is that lovely transition from the 1st into the 2nd part. The change in instrumentation appears to be seamless and is certainly satisfying.

It's a suitable album opener and show opener in my opinion, and was often overlooked in the White Stripes catalogue.

39. The Big Three Killed My Baby - The White Stripes

The only single from the Stripes' self-titled debut, The Big Three is also one of the only politicaly charged songs written by White. It details an attack on the Big Three auto companies in the USA - GM, Ford and Chrysler. The high point of this song for me comes as the second verse feels like it's finally ending after building so much tension, with Jack screaming "Now I found out my baby is DEAD." A truly great moment from the early White Stripes.

38. There's No Home For You Here - Elephant

The third track from Elephant is a song that I often compare to I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman. It's a song that is simultaneously in its place and out of place, and took a while to warm too. However in time, I appreciate its place in the album - otherwise there would a gaping hole between Black Math and I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself. The bridge of this song where Jack holds a single note is one of the high points of the song, as well as the first chorus.

37. Cannon - The White Stripes

A song that I simply didn't appreciate until I heard it live. Seeing Jack White, he used it as a segue between Catfish Blues and Fell In Love With A Girl made me fully realise the potential of the song and the nastiness of the riff. I've never looked back.

36.  Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine - Elephant

I can't resist a bit of twelve-bar, and No Faith executes it expertly. With its fantastic speed and sound, the thrashiness of the tune takes control. Even those with broken spines and arthiritic necks can't resist to headbang to this one. Once you reach the end of the song, you realise that you don't get what it means - and you don't want to!

See you next week.

Top 50 White Stripes Songs: Numbers 45-41

Hello, picking up from last week's numbers 46-50.

45.  Passive Manipulation - Get Behind Me Satan

Short and sweet. A seemingly throwaway track at first, just to get Meg some singing time, but after a while you warm to the sentiment of the song - Meg declaring for women to learn the difference between a father and a lover. It's an enjoyable break in the album Get Behind Me Satan between two relatively abstract songs by The White Stripes' standards - Instinct Blues and Take, Take, Take. Thankfully it doesn't continue that way for more than 30 seconds.

44. This Protector - White Blood Cells

                                    

One of the songs I truly feel is about Jack's love for Meg. The closer to White Blood Cells is  sentimental piano centric song that has a great flow to it. It may not be a romantic love, but just a deep and underlying connection between the two. Although Jack likes to deny that the songs he write are about him - White Blood Cells does seem to be an album of love between himself and Meg. This Protector has the feeling of a sorrowful goodbye, ending the album in a whimper, instead of the bang it opened with in Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.

43. St. James Infirmary Blues - The White Stripes

                                 

One of early favourite tracks from the White Stripes, this quirky cover is a nice take on a classic. In itself, the tune has a vintage White Stripes instrumental chorus, and is catchy as hell. It sums up the first Stripes album in the way that all the tracks seemingly do - it's a quirky and heavy instrumental with Jack's simultaneously dark and light lyrics. There's a word in Italian for that...

42. I Think I Smell A Rat - White Blood Cells

                                  

'Walkin down the street carrying a baseball bat...oh I think I smell a rat!'. This remains one of my favourite lyrics from the White Stripes, purely because of the nostalgia brings to me. The phrase 'I Think I Smell A Rat' could reference a lot, but I most closely associate it with the mafia, and their bane - rats! Snitches! Blabbermouths! Carrying a baseball bat while just walking down the street gives an ominous tone, but Jack delivers it in a care-free way, reminding me of the badassery of the song.

41. Lets Shake Hands - Single

                                  

The very first White Stripes single was also featured on the Japanese version of their self-titled debut. It's a hell of an introduction too - shaking hands with the listener, and seemingly immediatly making friends with them. This was their go-to opener pre-White Blood Cells, and you can see why. Lets Shake Hands is a burst of energy from beginning to end, and should always be recognised as a truly great White Stripes number - despite it not being included on their albums. 

See you next week.

A biased commentary of Prime Minister's Questions for 6/1/2016

Here detailing my thoughts on PMQs for the 6th of January - albeit a few days late.

Karen Lumley kicks us off then with a jab at Corbyn not allowing Pat Mcfadden in the shadow cabinet supposedly for his comments on terrorist attacks.

Corbyn starts by questioning the PM on how well lessons of the floods of 2014 were learned, and Cameron bats this away well initially, citing that more money is available because of the strong economy they're running. In response Corbyn gets his teeth into Cameron looking at the cancelled flood defences in Leeds and he retorts by showing that in fact spending has gone up on flood defences. Over the next few questions, Cameron decides it's time to give the same answer three times, essentially repeating his answer to the Leeds issue on Cumbria and a warning from a professor. In the end it all comes back to Corbyn's dodgy economic policy and leadership.

Nadim Zahawi changes gear, inviting the PM to celebrate the 400th aniversary of the death of Shakespeare. Cameron pulls a few too many Shakespeare puns out of his arse, taking the piss out of Labour's reshuffle for the third time on the session.

Thankfully Angus Robertson is here to take control again - asking Cameron a question of why the Scottish doctors won't be striking next week (Today at the time of writing). Cameron responds pushing his ever ambiguous 7-day NHS plans. What I find interesting is that the amount of money going into the NHS from the tories is seemingly ever increasing. May last year saw Cameron pledge £8 Billion, then it was 10, now today I've heard 19.

The term Northern Powerhouse always makes me cringe. I'd like to see where Cameron considers 'The North'. Everywhere above Whitney perhaps?

Anna Turley with the classic strong Labour backbencher question - referencing the cuts despite money being 'no object'. In the past there have always been a few questions like this from backbench Labour MPs. Questions that are a bit faceceous but have an air of righteousness. I don't think I'm ever going to forget that Cameron has increased overall flood defence spending to 2.2 Billion ish. He's used that to bat away almost every funding question so far - effectively too.

Caroline Lucas steps up to ask the PMs commitment to greenhouse gas emission targets, and he cited some quite promising statistics. One being that 'the number of solar panels installed' is 98%. I'm not quite sure what that means. Can a number be 98%.

Ben Howlett sets up the PM with a figure of £313,000 going to the Foxhill Housing Zone. Of course, Cameron brings it back to people only building houses if a strong economy exists. He does it well, shifting the subject to favour him.

In the end, Cameron was impressive - I suppose the leader of the opposition always has it harder, but Cameron was hardly trouble here, even with some truly tough questions.

Top 50 White Stripes Songs: Numbers 50-46

Hello, I'm writing this purely out of my own accord - not as a critique or whatever, you're free to agree or disagree. Why 50? I'm not sure myself, just seems like a rounded number.Why The White Stripes? Well again, I'm not sure. A good band with a decent sized discography is good enough for me - also they write some killer riffs. And never forget Meg on the drums!

50. I Fought Piranhas - The White Stripes

The closing track of their first, self-titled album, I Fought Piranhas, has always intrigued me. I see it as the Ball and Biscuit of its time, The record itself is filled with songs in a similar vein, thrashy garage blues, but I can't think of a more appropriate closer to the album. The presursor to the second chorus has long been my favourite moment in the song, and the lyrics express an interesting ambiguous statement - as far as I'm concerned it's about a person who will fight to the death to hold things together. Fun track.

49. Hypnotise - Elephant

Hypnotise always felt like it was trying a little too hard for me. I enjoy the thrashyness of it, and it's short and sweet, gets in - says what it has to say - and gets out. That's where the success of the song lies. Much like Passive Manipulation, it doesn't drag itself out. 

48. I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman - White Blood Cells

When I was first getting into The White Stripes, I felt very little for this song, if anything at all. Thrown in between Hotel Yorba and Fell In Love With A Girl, I'm Finding It Harder struggled to make itself stand out. But after a little, I appreciated the vintage White Stripes instumental chorus with the dual piano and guitar since then the song became one of my favourites and now I look forward to it every time I listen to White Blood Cells. The song's peak comes for me on the build up to the small solo, breaking into the chorus yet again.

47. Broken Bricks - The White Stripes

A description of the appearance of Detroit finds this list at No, 47. One of my favourite things about this song is its position on the album. It follows my favourite from the album - Astro, and is seemingly a 'Part 2' to the two-chord, three lyric, garage rock tune. The bells catch you off guiard at first, but I've learned to embrace them and the second phrase of the instrument gives me the high point of the song. A great garage rock tune.

46. Suzy Lee - The White Stripes

                               

One of my earliest favourite White Stripes songs, Suzy Lee. Here, Jack White introduced a character who'd be referenced again through his time with the Stripes, who appears to be a young love - and in my opinion, at a Primary school age, I see it somewhere around 8. It tells a lovely story of two young people falling in love - but even Jack questions it. The song still holds sentimental value with me, and the slide guitar never gets old. It fits well on a record that's really all over the place, and what made me come back to this song was seeing Suzy Lee mentioned in We're Going To Be Friends. It was a nice touch from Jack.

Oh well, see you next week.

To Be Asleep

I've always liked to see death as the end of a long train journey. To leave this world with a sense of anticipation, catharsis and relieving the tension of one's legs has become something of a desire for me. A friend of mine lost their grandfather a week or two back, and it shocked me. It made death far more immediate than it already was, and I was deeply sorry for her. Equally so, it got me thinking about what death actually means. The meaning of death, if you will. If we figure out that, then we'll be closer to figuring out the meaning of life.

The answer to the common riddle 'What question can you never answer yes to?' is 'Are you asleep?'. In fact, if two people were put in the same conditions with the same people observing - they can't tell the difference between a dead person and one who's simply asleep. Death is to be asleep. Forever. This is the best, most rational, explanation we can find and we'll likely never figure something out that's better. Yet it appears to be so much more. When confronted with death, people often lose themselves - who they really are. They encounter a crisis of character - are they this person or that - all because of death. Yet what is death and what is its character?

An executioner is the best possible human rendition of death in history. They are trained to be indifferent and refrain from empathy. Death is similar - undiscriminatory, indifferent to who or what they're killing, yet like the executioner, death is not evil. Death is pure, death is good and death is loving. There is no greater catharsis in death. Catharsis is the kindest thing a grieving person can be given, and in the long run, when all life and death is over, that will be what matters, as far as we need to be concerned.