Who is Jack White and what is he famous for ?

 

Chapter 1 – Jack White 

Jack White, born John Anthony Gillis on July 9th 1975 in Detroit, is a famous  American musician best known for being the guitarist, vocalist and pianist of The White Stripes. Jack is also a member of other famous bands such as The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather and recently he released his first solo album. Jack is the youngest of ten children. Jack began to play drums at the age of six and never really had any interest in playing guitar until he was a teenager and began a upholstery apprenticeship with a man called Brian Muldoon. Muldoon introduced Jack to punk music and they started a two-piece band together called The Upholsterers. Muldoon was a drummer so Jack had to play guitar. They recorded one album together and later Jack joined a local Detroit band Goober and the peas and played with them for a while as drummer. Jack has always been a fan of blues music and talks about Son House and Blind Willie McTell as his favorite musicians.

 

 

Chapter 2 - The White Stripes 

Jack married Meg White in 1996 and Meg started to play drums in 1997, when Jack heard Meg playing drums along with his guitar playing something opened up for him, "When she started to play drums with me, just on a lark, it felt liberating and refreshing. There was something in it that opened me up." (Jack White) Along with his wife Jack formed The White Stripes in 1997, a raw two-piece rock/blues band consisting of Jack on vocals, guitar and piano and Meg on drums. The band started out as a part of the Detroit underground scene playing in local bars. Their first concert was in 1997 at The Gold Dollar in Detroit and in 1998 the released their first single Let’s Shake Hands. In the summer of 1999 The White Stripes released their debut album, The White Stripes and a year later their second album De Stijl. The band’s popularity really grew in 2001 when their third album White Blood Cells came out containing some of the bands most popular song, such as Fell In Love With A Girl and Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground. Elephant their fourth studio album came out in 2003 and reached a double platinum certification in Britain and a platinum certification in USA. Being the bands big break the album reached 390^th place on The Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, along with ranking Jack number 17 on the 100 Greatest Guitarist’s of All Time list. Elephant contains the band’s most popular single Seven Nation Army along with other great songs such as Black Math, Ball and Biscuit and The Hardest Button to Button. Get Behind Me Satan their 5^th album was released in the summer of 2005. This is probably the band’s most important album showing that the band had more tricks up their sleeves than just playing raw blues. The album is much more mellow than the first three albums. The songs are more piano and acoustic guitar driven showing a whole other side of the band. The album received a Grammy award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2006. The bands last album Icky Thump came out in 2007 and was ranked number one in the UK Albums Chart and number two on the Billboard 200 list. With Icky Thump the band went back to their old raw blues sound. In February 2011 the band announced their break up.

 

 

Chapter 3 - The Raconteurs and the Dead Weather 

Sometime in 2005 Jack sat down with his friend Brendan Benson and wrote a song (Steady As She Goes) that inspired them to form a band. They teamed up with their old friends, drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence and formed The Raconteurs. The band wrote and recorded few songs in 2005 when they had time due to the members being in other successful bands, White touring with The White Stripes and Lawrence and Keeler touring with The Greenhorns. The Raconteurs released their debut album Broken Boy Soldiers in 2006 and got a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album. The bands sound is often described as a mix between blues, rock and country. Their second studio album Consolers of the Lonely came out in March 2008 and got a Grammy nomination for Best Rock album like their debut album. The album also debuted at #7 on the Billboard chart selling 42.000 copies the first week. When The Raconteurs were playing a show in Memphis, Tennessee in 2008 Jack got a bad cold and lost his voice. The band asked Alison Mosshart, the lead singer of the UK/USA band The Kills to help them out on some songs. After the show White asked Alison if she were interested in recording a song with him and The Raconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence. White, Mosshart and Lawrence teamed up with Dean Fertita, front man of The Waxwings and The Dead Weather was born. With Mosshart on vocals, Lawrence on bass and Fertita on guitar and keyboards Jack wanted to do something different and found his love for drums again. The Dead Weather has a much more darker sound than The Raconteurs and is more similar to The White Stripes. Horehound the bands debut album was released in 2009. It was ranked no six on the U.S. Billboard 200 list and no 14 on the UK Albums chart. A year later their 2^nd album Sea of Cowards came out and ranked no 5 on the Billboard 200. The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs are currently on hold, and all the members have returned to other projects, although The Raconteurs performed a few shows in 2011.

 

 

Chapter 4 – Blunderbuss and other works 

Jack recently released his debut solo album Blunderbuss. The album was released on April 23 and was ranked no 1 on the Billboard 200 list with first week sales of nearly 140.000 copies. Jack wrote some songs late in 2011 that later developed in songs found on Blunderbuss. Blunderbuss is also the first album that Jack wrote all of the songs in one session. White said that Blunderbuss is an album that he couldn’t release until now. All of the songs are written from scratch, expressing only his feelings and no one and nothing came near to the songwriting. On the Blunderbuss tour Jack has two bands touring with him, an all male band and an all female band. Jack then decides what band will perform with him couple hours before each show, this way every show gets different and more exciting as well. In 2004 White produced an album called Van Lear Rose with the famous American country singer Loretta Lynn. Jack produced the album, recorded it, played guitar on it and toured with Loretta. The album peaked at number two on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart. Jack also produced and recorded an album with Wanda Jackson in 2011, The Party Ain’t Over.

 

Chepter 5 - Interview

I interviewed my best friend Óskar Björn about his view on Jack White. Óskar began to listed to Jack White because of me and began listening to The White Stripes at the age of 14 at the same time I stated to listen to them.  Óskar said that Jack White is probably one of the best musicians, if not the best, of the 21^st century and I couldn’t agree more. When I asked him why he said that Jack is one of the few and rare musicians that can take on any project and do something that people will like and make it good. He always brings something new and fresh to his music and his emotions shine through his music. When I asked him what band he liked the most he said that The Dead Weather was his favorite, he likes the dark and mysterious blues sound that they bring. He is also a huge fan of his new album. But though he likes The Dead Weather the most he said that The White Stripes is probably Jack Whites most important band, because with The White Stripes Jack opened a path for other musicians to do things that no other could imagine to do.

 

Chapter 6 - Conclusion 

 

What we’ve found out is that Jack White is a hard working brilliant musician with a great career and has associated in a lot of bands and other projects. But Jack is not only a great musician, he is also a very clever producer and has produced albums for many famous musicians such as Loretta Lynn and Wanda Jackson. Jack is musician that always tries to bring something new and fresh to his work. He’s a artist that is true to himself, he doesn’t try to copy anyone or anything else he’s completely original. He’s most famous for his work in The White Stripes along with other bands such as The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs and recently released his first solo album Blunderbuss with great success. 

 

Chapter 7 - Vocabulary

 

Complacency: A feeling of calm satisfaction with your own abilities or situation that prevents you from trying harder.

Associate: To connest someone in your mind with someone or something else.

Occasion: A particular time, especially when something happens or has happened.

Collaborate: To work with someone elce for a special purpose.

Superintendent: A person who is in charge of work done in particular department, office, etc, or who is responsible for keeping a building or place in good condition.

Predecessor: Someone who had a job or a postition before someone else, or something which comes before another thing in time or in series.

Relevant: Conneccted with what is happening or being discussed. 

Officiate: To be in charge of or to lead a ceremony or other public event

Consecutive: Describes events, numbers, etc. That follow one after another without an interruption.

Anxiety: An uncomfortable feeling of nervousness or worry about something that is happening or might happen in the future.