White Stripes: The Drummer is Present
Meg White, attention, and what it does for us
For reasons that are probably better discussed offline, I have pretty much ignored the White Stripes. Even though I’m a committed music nerd, they’ve never made it past being a curiosity to me. I know a couple songs. I’ve “seen” Jack White on TV (after the White Stripes), and I’ve seen a couple of their (groundbreaking) videos. I’m generally aware of the story.
On my mental record shelf, they’re in the same zone as The Strokes and the Black Keys: I get the idea (the schtick?), appreciate it, I nod along when they come on the hifi, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen1.
I admit I didn’t really understand what they were doing in the early 2000’s; I was too focused on the presentation and not enough on the intent. I was, and still am, what I’ve been since adolescence: a music snob, for lack of a better term2
Snobs miss the best stuff because they think they’re too cool. I certainly missed a lot of great stuff because of my biases.
As part of a creative project, I’ve been listening to the White Stripes and it’s been a revelation. The sound of the recordings is way better than I remembered (thanks to some good headphones). The songs are good enough. But the band is all performance, all mood and emotion and, on record, you can almost feel them in the room.
Jack White is one of those musician/artists that is impossible to disregard: his playing, his sound, his voice, his look. He’s driven by a vision. He’s ambitious to make something great and to entertain you while doing it, too. He is in on the cosmic joke: I don’t think he takes himself too seriously, despite what it might look like.
The recorded White Stripes is how most of us know them, but watching the live videos on Youtube, it’s clear I was missing perhaps the most important thing.
It’s Meg White.
She makes it all work. Without her, he’s on the edge of being just a weird retro blues-nerd with a cool old guitar. She’s got a drumming style, an urgency and feel that all musicians should try to understand. It’s distinctive, yes. Less is mostly more, the thump, the drive. It’s reckless at times, but in a good way. She holds the song together, the “pocket”. If it’s possible for drummers to have a voice, she’s got it.
However, there’s a third member of that band. It’s the chemistry there on the stage, the “it” factor for the duo. And, I think Meg White’s attention makes it happen. Her focus, her mood, whatever wavelength she’s on. It’s what makes them go from “interesting” to great. It’s there in the performance, but the performance starts with her full commitment.
Check out the first 3 minutes of this show.
You can see her go through what I would describe as a startup routine. She appears to cycle through the whole series of emotions early in the song as she’s warming up to the work in the room. She slips into a new gear and right around 1:25, she’s “in”. The song hits the break around 1:30 and from across the room, the two musicians lock eyes, find each other, are on the same plane.
Around 1:42 she’s telling Jack White something. It’s going out, over the drums, across the room via her eyes, her stance, her demeanor. Is it anger? repulsion? Boredom? Whatever it is, she’s giving him her full attention and you can hear how it changes the performance. It goes from being a marketing obligation (“We have to make a video”) to a real thing, a moment. Art.
The drummer is present.3 The band is complete now.
It sounds a little “woo woo” to say it, but there’s a different energy there, a shift in vibes. Her attention is a gift.
Look at 2:33. She’s pushing him forward with the cymbal, forcing him to pick up the pace, even though he’s singing “get behind me”.
Then, around 2:40 they are completely in synch, eyes locked, having fun now, and you can hear Jack White loosen up.
They’re playing for each other and the thing in the middle, their shared attention, even for a couple seconds, is leading to something great for all of us.
I’m not musician that plays in a band, but I have to assume this sort of experience has a name (i.e. “the pocket”? chemistry?) and is talked about openly as a thing that turns an average show into a great show.
It’s really powerful to see what happens when two people are trying to do something together and both are fully focused, not distracted, not thinking about one thing while doing another.
How can we know, over the course of a busy day, when it’s time to “lock in” and really focus on the person across the table from us? Can we make a conscious effort to bring our best, our fully committed attention, to the thing in front of us and lift an otherwise ordinary discussion to something wonderful?
Strangely, I LOVE the Hives, another group from the early 2000’s, blending retro-ish visuals, a bit of punk energy, and a desire to, let’s say, put on a show. Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself.
It's hard to let go of the patterns that I built as a 13 yo music obsessive.
One could argue that the quality of Meg White’s “being present” might also be described as the quality of Meg White’s “listening.” Great musicians play well, but they listen to their band mates even better. Charlie Haden is another example of a musician who was revered for the quality of his listening. He played with countless jazz legends including Keith Jarret and Ornette Coleman. When you hear Charlie play, you can actually hear him listening and holding it all together. Bottom line….you can’t “listen” if you are not “present.”
Meg is an absolute force. Jack has spoken often about how Meg led the pace and energy and made him and the music what it became. Minimalist. Deep. Bad ass.