I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself
From Stripespedia
Contents |
Releases
- Elephant (2003)
- I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself (2003)
- Fell in Love with a Girl (2002) (7" single and UK CD single)
- Under Great White Northern Lights (2010)
Other Appearances
Credits
Performers
- Jack White: electric guitar, lead vocals
- Meg White: drums
Production
- First recorded by Tommy Hunt; made famous by Dusty Springfield.
- Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
- Produced and mixed by Jack White and Liam Watson.
- Recorded at Maida Vale Studios in London, England, for BBC Radio-1's "The Evening Session".
Meaning
Band Quotes
- Meg White: "I decided to do to do that one. Like, maybe two years ago, I listened to the Dusty Springfield version of it, and I could just kind of hear us doing that song in my head. It was a really emotional song that I just felt very close to, so we started doing it at that point, and we were doing it live for a couple of years."
- Jack White: "That was Meg's baby. Definitely Dusty's version. I think one of the best recordings we've made. I like me singing on this. It's mellowed. When the first album was done, I got a lot of people saying 'Robert Plant!' That just hurt my feelings. The one member of Led Zeppelin I didn't really care about!"
- Jack White: "I really love [Burt Bacharach]. I love his songwriting. With this particular song, Meg was fond of it and wanted us to do it, and we started to do it live. I love it because I started recognizing that it was really a blues song in its purest form, when you strip down the Bacharach production. The essence of the song was blues, so I really adapted to that."
- Jack White: "No, we haven't heard from Burt Bacharach and Hal David. I am not sure they know about that yet. Possibly when the album comes out, we will get a note or something. Meg wanted to do that one. It was one of her favorites of Bacharach. We were coming off the back of the Dusty Springfield version. We started to play it live and started to make it our own. I like the idea of keeping someone's songs alive for the next generation if we can."
- Jack White: "I love the Tin Pan Alley songwriters, the ones that were given a job to write a hit song for a play or a musical. It was such an intricate thing, where they're given a task and they have to figure it out and make it happen. I wish I had that talent, but I don't know if I really do."
Trivia
Lyrics
I just don't know what to do with myself. I don't know what to do with myself. Planning everything for two, doing everything with you, and now that we're through, I just don't know what to do. I just don't know what to do with myself. I don't know what to do with myself. Movies only make me sad, and parties make me feel as bad 'cause I'm not with you. I just don't know what to do. Like a summer rose needs the sun and rain, I need your sweet love to beat love away.
Music Video
For whatever reason, the music video for "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" is a black-and-white video of Kate Moss seductively pole-dancing to the song. It was directed by Sofia Coppola.
