Bob DylanI’ve been a fan of The White Stripes for some years now and about half a year ago started listening to Bob Dylan. I couldn’t help noticing that Bob Dylan, both as a musician and as a person, had a huge influence on Jack White, so I did some research (don’t expect anything too professional) and came across some interesting facts.
First there’s the Dylan-covers. The White Stripes’ debut album (The White Stripes) contains the song One More Cup of Coffee, which was written by Dylan in 1976 and is to be found on his album Desire. Horehound, the debut album of White’s newest group The Dead Weather also features a Dylan-cover: New Pony, which was on Street Legal in 1978.
So there are two covers to be found on Jack White-albums, but he also did some live performances of Dylan songs. There’s Outlaw Blues, which features in the Under Blackpool Lights concert (see video fragment here). Also Isis and Love Sick have been covered during live shows. You can probably find amateur recordings of these songs on YouTube, so check it out if you want to.
In interviews with Jack White or the White Stripes Bob Dylan is often mentioned as an inspiration, both to Jack and Meg. Jack was once caught saying he had 3 fathers: his biological father, God and Bob Dylan.
Then there’s the White Stripes album sleeves. It always struck me as strange when I read the texts Jack wrote in it. I never really understood them until I began listening to Bob Dylan. In the sleeves of Dylan’s first albums there are to be found similar “liner notes” (he dropped the habit after John Wesley Harding as far as I know). There are some differences in the style of writing though. Dylan uses more characters in his texts and writes strange surreal stories about them, while White writes down more abstract ideas, but I guess they’re both “écriture automatique” or in English “automatic writing” (check it out on Wiki if you don’t exactly know what it is). Though probably Dylan and White weren’t completely unconscious what they were writing (I once tried some of this automatic writing too, even before I was listening to Dylan or The White Stripes, and believe me, you’ll be surprised about what you read sometimes, give it a try!).
But I think this respect is mutual. In 2007 Jack White was allowed up on stage with Bob Dylan himself in Nashville, during one of the legends “Never Ending Tour”-concerts. He got Dylan to play his first ever live performance of Meet Me in the Morning which is to be found on Dylan’s most acclaimed 70s album Blood on the Tracks. You can listen to the recording of this performance here. Two nights after that Jack White appeared as a guest on stage again and played two songs with Dylan: Outlaw Blues and One More Cup of Coffee. A video recording of this performance can be found here.
Also in his Theme Time Radio Hour, Bob Dylan sometimes shows his respect for White. In the episodes ‘Countdown’ and ‘Doctors’ he played one of the White Stripes’ songs. This means Dylan really must like their music, seen he only plays music he likes in his radio show. Jack White even appeared as a guest in the ‘Classic Rock’ episode. Meg White was also mentioned as a female drummer in the episode ‘Musical Instruments’.
When Dylan found the ‘lost’ Hank Williams songs he contacted a couple of artists to write music to some of the songs. Apparently they released one tribute album already in 2001 called Timeless (A Tribute To Hank Williams), but in 2007 Jack White was asked by Dylan to write music for one of Williams’ songs. I didn’t find any more information about this project, so if anyone has an update on this put it in a comment or something.
This is it… If you have any remarks or you know more about it (which most of you probably do) feel free to leave a comment!
First there’s the Dylan-covers. The White Stripes’ debut album (The White Stripes) contains the song One More Cup of Coffee, which was written by Dylan in 1976 and is to be found on his album Desire. Horehound, the debut album of White’s newest group The Dead Weather also features a Dylan-cover: New Pony, which was on Street Legal in 1978.
So there are two covers to be found on Jack White-albums, but he also did some live performances of Dylan songs. There’s Outlaw Blues, which features in the Under Blackpool Lights concert (see video fragment here). Also Isis and Love Sick have been covered during live shows. You can probably find amateur recordings of these songs on YouTube, so check it out if you want to.
In interviews with Jack White or the White Stripes Bob Dylan is often mentioned as an inspiration, both to Jack and Meg. Jack was once caught saying he had 3 fathers: his biological father, God and Bob Dylan.
Then there’s the White Stripes album sleeves. It always struck me as strange when I read the texts Jack wrote in it. I never really understood them until I began listening to Bob Dylan. In the sleeves of Dylan’s first albums there are to be found similar “liner notes” (he dropped the habit after John Wesley Harding as far as I know). There are some differences in the style of writing though. Dylan uses more characters in his texts and writes strange surreal stories about them, while White writes down more abstract ideas, but I guess they’re both “écriture automatique” or in English “automatic writing” (check it out on Wiki if you don’t exactly know what it is). Though probably Dylan and White weren’t completely unconscious what they were writing (I once tried some of this automatic writing too, even before I was listening to Dylan or The White Stripes, and believe me, you’ll be surprised about what you read sometimes, give it a try!).
But I think this respect is mutual. In 2007 Jack White was allowed up on stage with Bob Dylan himself in Nashville, during one of the legends “Never Ending Tour”-concerts. He got Dylan to play his first ever live performance of Meet Me in the Morning which is to be found on Dylan’s most acclaimed 70s album Blood on the Tracks. You can listen to the recording of this performance here. Two nights after that Jack White appeared as a guest on stage again and played two songs with Dylan: Outlaw Blues and One More Cup of Coffee. A video recording of this performance can be found here.
Also in his Theme Time Radio Hour, Bob Dylan sometimes shows his respect for White. In the episodes ‘Countdown’ and ‘Doctors’ he played one of the White Stripes’ songs. This means Dylan really must like their music, seen he only plays music he likes in his radio show. Jack White even appeared as a guest in the ‘Classic Rock’ episode. Meg White was also mentioned as a female drummer in the episode ‘Musical Instruments’.
When Dylan found the ‘lost’ Hank Williams songs he contacted a couple of artists to write music to some of the songs. Apparently they released one tribute album already in 2001 called Timeless (A Tribute To Hank Williams), but in 2007 Jack White was asked by Dylan to write music for one of Williams’ songs. I didn’t find any more information about this project, so if anyone has an update on this put it in a comment or something.
This is it… If you have any remarks or you know more about it (which most of you probably do) feel free to leave a comment!
