Some trivia facts about 'Seven Nation Army'

Coinciding with the release of the first White Stripes Greatest Hits album, the Detroit duo consisting of Jack White (composer, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and his ex-wife Meg White (drums and vocals) have shared a new video for ‘Let's Shake Hands’, the first song ever recorded by the White Stripes. This fantastic duo who revitalized the garage rock sound in the early 2000s, released many hits but there was one whose repercussion even today does not stop increasing, 'Seven Nation Army'. Released in March 2003, here are some trivia facts about the song!

1. It was a guitar riff written at the sound check before a show at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, while the White Stripes were on the Australian leg of their tour in January 2002 which led into future song ‘Seven Nation Army’.

2. Jack White’s first idea was to save the riff in case he ever got asked to write the theme for a Jame Bond film. He abandoned the idea after self convincing of the few chances he had of that to happen. By the way, 5 years later he would write and perform ‘Another Way to Die’ with Alicia Keys as the theme for the 2008 Bond film ‘Quantum of Solace’.

3. The White Stripes were a duo with no bass guitar, so the riff of ‘Seven Nation Army’ is actually a guitar with an octave effect to sound like a bass guitar.

4. The riff of the ‘Seven Nation Army’ consists of seven notes that are repeated in the same order throughout the song.

5. According to Jack White, neither the labels in America or in the UK wanted to put this out as the first single. They eventually relented and it became their biggest hit.

6. The song is the opening track of their fourth studio album, Elephant, where no computers were used. ‘Seven Nation Army’, along with the rest of the album, was recorded on analogue equipment, using only pre-1960 studio equipment. 

7. ‘Seven Nation Army’ is a diatribe against fame. The song's lyrics were inspired by the growing attention received by the White Stripes and the negatives that came with it. According to Jack White: "The song's about gossip. It's about me, Meg and the people we're dating."

8. The title of the song comes from what Jack White thought the Salvation Army was called when he was a child. He didn’t have lyrics for the song until later on so he just used to refer to the song as ‘Seven Nation Army’ in a way for him to remember the song he was talking about. Afterwards, he obviously decided to maintain the title giving it a new meaning.

9. There are many media (NME, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Consequence of Sound, etc…) who over the years have included ‘Seven Nation Army’ among the best songs of the decade

Find out more about White Stripes and their Greatest Hits album by visiting the official website.