Thursday Throwback: “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You’re Told)” by The White Stripes
With the continued sale of pre-RB3 content, I’ve once again gone back in time to a popular band in the franchise. This week it’s The White Stripes time to be featured in a Throwback Thursday.
The White Stripes is an American rock duo formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The band (can you call it a band with only 2 people?) consisted of Jack White, songwriter, singer, guitarist and keyboardist and Meg White, drummer and occasional singer. While the band officially dissolved in 2011, in the fifteen years of being active, they produced 26 singles and over six albums, with their last three albums each winning the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. The band is known for their unique fashion and design which featured an exclusive use of a simple color scheme of red, white, and black.
My featured song by them is one of their late singles, released in 2007, You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You’re Told). Coming from their final album Icky Thump, the song didn’t light up the charts like previous singles, but it developed a following by fans of the band. The White Stripes have had two packs and an on disc song for Rock Band, and their hits Seven Nation Army and Fell in Love with a Girl were included with this song when released on the platform. (Remember, the packs are reduced at the moment, so pick up a bargain today!)
As for the song in Rock Band, 2-tier guitar and 2-tier bass have similar charts, mainly because bass is charted as rhythmic guitar, hence the similarities. Both mostly have chords for the first half of the song, but there are some quick changing notes a third of the way through, and the guitar has a solo towards the end. 0-tier drums is quite easy, which has similarities to Seven Nation Army. There are some fills to keep things interesting however. 3-tier vocals is probably a highlight, which has some quick, catchy lyrics, and a big tambourine section too.
Got any ideas for any artists we haven’t featured yet? Or different songs by artists we have featured? Any ideas would be great!
After getting your RockBandAide fix, head on over to my fansite, The Tribute Pages which features loads of tributes of video games, TV shows and movies!
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…gotta love The White Stripes.
Great song. One of the greatest bands of all time.
Meg White is terribly underrated as a musician.
CloudWolf Reply:
September 30th, 2012 at 4:24 am
The White Stripes is one of my favorite bands, but Meg White is basically a human metronome. Even Jack White has acknowledged that much.
Pele Reply:
September 30th, 2012 at 12:29 pm
1) I believe Jack White usually describes the way she drums as being “caveman”-like. The rhythms she sticks to are very simple, steady, and powerful. Unfortunately, 90% of people who listen to rock music assume that “talented” musicians who play fast, complicated rhythms are the only valid performers, and that drummers who play dead-simple and unembellished beats suck.
The way Meg White drums is absolutely the perfect counterpoint to the way Jack plays guitar, which is half the reason why all of those White Stripes albums are so good. The Raconteurs, for example, are nowhere near as interesting a band as the White Stripes because of this–not only is the songwriting not as solid, but the dynamics between instruments are much more typical of every other modern rock band. Without that symbiotic drum-guitar relationship, what you hear isn’t as powerful.
2) I really doubt Jack’s ever called her “a human metronome”.
3) Besides, Jack White is kind of an asshole–there’s plenty of evidence of him treating Meg awfully in the ‘Under Great White Northern Lights’ documentary. I don’t put a ton of stock into what he thinks of Meg when assessing her ability as a musician.