The Hardest Button to Button
From Stripespedia
The Hardest Button to Button is a song by The White Stripes. It can be heard on their fourth album, Elephant. It was released as a single in 2003.
Contents |
Track Listing
CD
- 1. "The Hardest Button to Button"
- 2. "St. Ides of March"
- 3. "The Hardest Button to Button" (music video)
7"
- 1. "The Hardest Button to Button"
- 2. "St. Ides of March"
Band Quotes
- Jack White : "There's a button at the top of my navy peacoat and it's the hardest button to button. I thought that was a great metaphor for the odd man out in the family. It also comes from sayings of my father, like 'My Uncle Harold had a 10 button vest but he could only fasten eight.' "
Facts
- According to Jack White, this song is "about a child (named "Baby") trying to figure out where his place is in a sort of dysfunctional family."
- Like "Seven Nation Army", Jack runs his guitar (Airliner) through a Digitech whammy pedal set an octave lower, resulting a low, deep sound which many mistake for a bass guitar.
Covers
- Black Rebel Motorcycle have covered this live.
- The Kleptones sampled this song in their album 24 Hours.
Lyrics
We started living in an old house My ma gave birth and we were checking it out It was a baby boy, so we bought him a toy It was a ray gun and it was 1981 We named him "Baby", he had a toothache He started crying, it sounded like an earthquake It didn't last long because I stopped it I grabbed a rag doll and stuck some little pins in it Now we're a family and we're alright now We got money and a little place to fight now We don't know you and we don't owe you But if you see us around I got something else to show you Now it's easy when you don't know better You think it's sleazy? Then put it in a short letter We keep warm but there's just something wrong when you Just feel like you're the hardest little button to button I had opinions that didn't matter I had a brain that felt like pancake batter I got a backyard with nothing in it Except a stick, a dog, and a box with something in it the hardest button to button...the hardest button to button... the hardest button to button...the hardest button to button... uh oh the hardest button to button...the hardest button to button... uh oh...the hardest button to button... the hardest button to button... the hardest button to button... the hardest button to button... the hardest button to button.. uh oh
Video
The music video for the song, directed by famous music video director Michel Gondry (who has also directed videos for Bjork, The Chemical Brothers, and pioneered the "bullet time" technique most famously used in The Matrix), was one of the White Stripes' most famous videos. It uses a technique called "stop motion animation" - for example, in the video, Meg would do one drum beat, the camera would stop, another drum kit would be placed next to the original, and Meg would get on to that kit, and make another drum beat, and so on. The video shows Meg and Jack playing around a city, with the amplifiers and the drum kits multiplying every step.
Michel Gondry also directed the videos for "Fell In Love With a Girl" and "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" from White Blood Cells. He would later go on to direct "The Denial Twist" two years later for the White Stripes from their fifth album, Get Behind Me Satan.
Indie rock musician Beck (who is also a close friend of the band - Jack would later play bass on one of the songs on Beck's album Guero) makes a cameo in the video.
