Seven Nation Army (single)

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Seven Nation Army is a song by The White Stripes. It can be heard on their fourth album, Elephant. It was released as a single in April 2003.

The song is arguably their most famous song, and is well-known for its catchy riff, which is NOT played with a bass guitar, but instead with Jack's guitar ran through an octave pedal.

Contents

Track Listing

CD

CD (Radio Promo)

  • 1. "Seven Nation Army" - 3:52

7"

7" (Promo)

Band Quotes

  • Jack White : "I wrote that riff in a soundcheck in Australia at a show that we played down there. I was working on this phrase that I used to say when I was a kid. I used to call the Salvation Army 'Seven Nation Army' because I thought that's what the name was. So I was working around that and it just became a song about gossip. When I wrote that, I thought if I ever got asked to write the next James Bond theme, that would be the riff for it."
  • Meg White :"Jack basically wrote (Seven Nation Army) around the idea of this guy who comes into town and all his friends are gossiping about him. It gets so bad, he wants to leave town and then he decides not to."
  • Jack White : "That's not a bass at the start but my guitar with an octave pedal. The song's about gossip. It's about me, Meg and the people we're dating. The world constantly tries to dissect people, chew them up and spit them out. We get that all the time, people wanting our songs for commercials, wanting to know what the inside of Meg's bathroom looks like."
  • Jack White : "It felt strong when we mixed the album down. It felt like it should be the first track on the album. It just felt like an opening, explosive thing. I thought it would be interesting to release that at first."

Facts

  • The riff of Seven Nation Army has been used by tifosi of Italian national football teams to celebrate the victory in Germany 2006 World Cup: "Cam-pio-ni del mon-do ! Cam-pio-ni del mon-do!".
  • In March 2005, Q magazine placed "Seven Nation Army" at number 8 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

Covers

  • Audioslave, Ryan Adams, Metallica, and A Perfect Circle have all performed this song live.
  • The Flaming Lips recorded a version of Seven Nation Army, dubbed "Harry Potter's and George W. Bush's Severed Head Army Mix". The lyrics to this version were evidently inspired by the Butthole Surfers song, "Moving To Florida".
  • The track was sampled by the rapper, Apathy for his 12" single entitled It Takes A Seven Nation Army To Hold Us Back.

Lyrics


I'm gonna fight 'em off
a seven nation army couldn't hold me back
they're gonna rip it off
taking their time right behind my back
and I'm talking to myself at night
because I can't forget
back and forth through my mind
behind a cigarette
and the message coming from my eyes
says leave it alone

don't want to hear about it
every single one's got a story to tell
everyone knows about it
from the queen of england to the hounds of hell
and if I catch it coming back my way
I'm gonna serve it to you
and that ain't what you want to hear
but that's what I'll do
and the feeling coming from my bones
says find a home

I'm going to wichita
far from this opera for evermore
I'm gonna work the straw
make the sweat drip out of every pore
and I'm bleeding, and I'm bleeding, and I'm bleeding
right before the lord
all the words are gonna bleed from me
and I will think no more
and the stains coming from my blood
tell me go back home

Video

The music video for the song, directed by Alex and Martin, consists of one seemingly continuous shot through a tunnel of mirrored black, white and red triangles, each containing a picture of either Jack or Meg playing. During the video, when the song reaches a rockish point, lights flash. Images of walking skeleton soldiers (a reference to Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts) also appear regularly. An elephant (to coincide for their album) appears once near the end. Despite the signature red Airline guitar depicted in the video, the song is almost exclusively played by a Kay Hollowbody guitar.

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