Jack White, Poet

When Jack White recently criticized his hometown of Detroit, MI, some responded with their own criticisms of the White Stripe. Never to do things the normal way, Jack decided to kiss and make up by writing a poem for his stomping grounds. No word yet from Detroit if she accepted the apology. MP3s and entire poem after the jump.

Yahoo Music picks top 25 Guitar Riffs

View the whole list HERE, and download the top 3 below. One that strikes me as strange is The Beatles’ I Feel Fine. It is a great guitar part, but does it qualify as one of the greatest “riffs” ever? I’m afraid I don’t feel fine about that.  Their justification:

All said, I’d take “She Said, She Said” or “And Your Bird Can Sing,” but we’ll stick with the tunes that the band and their record company pushed on the public as hit singles. This one with its use of (gasp) feedback (were people conservative and corny back then or what?) and its string mangling complexity make you wonder why they bothered. I guess they wanted a challenge. This could’ve been a hit even without the difficult riff.

Top 3 riffs:

3. Purple Haze-Jimi Hendrix

2. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction-The Rolling Stones

1. Smoke on the Water-Deep Purple

[NOTE: I think a number of White Stripes songs could've easily made this list, but none did.  My top contender: Blue Orchid.]

MP

Guest Post: Night Ripper

Believe it or not, we are not the only ones who write about music. In fact, after doing a bit of research, it turns out that there are dozens (if not HUNDREDS) of blogs dedicated to music on the internets. And so, long live the guest post:

I once went on a date with a beautiful girl who was in my High School class. I was super excited because we were gonna hang out at her house and in my hormonally-enriched state this could only mean “business time”. We ended up watching “In the Light of the Moon” with her parents. The flaying of corpses, surprisingly, is not the best aphrodisiac.

The other day I stumbled upon the following track from my favorite band, The White Stripes: “Jack the Ripper.” It is a live recording that starts off with one of my favorite Stripes’ song “Astro” and segues into “Jack the Ripper” by English musician Screaming Lord Sutch . It was released as a 7″ single in the UK and Germany in 1963 and was immediately banned by the BBC.

If you are interested in a little more history, albeit fudged, on The Ripper, I suggest the great graphic novel “From Hell” by Alan Moore or if you want to see the best movie adaptation that combines the talents of Rollergirl, Willy Wonka, Rubeus Hagrid, and Bilbo Baggins, check out the movie version of From Hell that came out in ‘01. To wrap up my inaguaral post with a little more of the macabre, here is another live track from another infamous Jack: “Red Death at 6:14.”

RS