The White Stripes (album)

Recording and production

Johnny Walker of the Soledad Brothers played slide guitar on two songs: "Suzy Lee" and "I Fought Piranhas". Walker is credited with having taught Jack White how to play slide, a technique featured heavily on the White Stripes' first two albums. Walker explains, "[Jack] had a four track in his living room and invited me to come by and do some recording. In return, I showed him how to play slide."

The duo covered "St. James Infirmary Blues" after, according to Jack, he and Meg were introduced to the song from a Betty Boop cartoon.

Critical reception

The album received mostly positive reviews. Norene Cashen of The Metro Times said the LP "serves better to remind us that [Detroit's] local identity has more options than a membership card to the latest cliché...or a one-way ticket to the coast."

Much of the media feedback came two or three years later its initial release, after the duo's fame spread beyond Detroit. AllMusic said of the album, "Jack White's voice is a singular, evocative combination of punk, metal, blues, and backwoods while his guitar work is grand and banging with just enough lyrical touches of slide and subtle solo work... Meg White balances out the fretwork and the fretting with methodical, spare, and booming cymbal, bass drum, and snare... All D.I.Y. punk-country-blues-metal singer/songwriting duos should sound this good."

John Peel, the late, influential DJ for the BBC, first spotted the album in a record store and said, "I just liked the look of it and I looked at the titles - you develop an instinct, d'you know what I mean? And it looked like the sort of record I would like, so I took it out and I did like it, and started playing it." His endorsement was key in heightening their popularity in the UK.

Track listing

All tracks written by Jack White, except where noted .

Personnel