Jack White III Solo Album Blunderbuss

[Stl_ben]

So who was waiting to here the album on release day then was forced to hear TMR play it all day yesterday.. Hopefully no one but that was a funny scenario I was thinking about. That is all.

[Vytis33]

Did anybody have success with the digital download from URP? It didn't work for me.

Mine downloaded fine and currently playing on my iPad.

[bh1644]

I already downloaded this and pre-ordered the CD and vinyl... but when I saw the CD on the shelf at my local shop yesterday I couldn't resist, had to see the liner notes NOW!

for those interested here's what the CD looks like:

[Kali Durga]

Well, shit. Now I have to buy the cd, too, just because the insert has more photos than the record does and the disc itself is so cool looking.

I love the series of little Third Man figures throughout both the cd and the lp inserts.

Thanks for the photos.

[12stars]

n/a

[bh1644]

You guys are welcome... Kinda had a feeling if y'all saw how cool the CD is it might help sell a few more...

[Kali Durga]

I keep coming back to look at those pictures and I'm sitting here more pissed off than usual that both of the record stores near where I work closed within the last year. Have to wait til tonight to pick it up. Hate waiting. Always waiting for things having to do with Jack...

[gdm]

My copy arrived this morning. Listening party at my house tonight!! I am glad I held off listening to it. Can't wait!!

[Kali Durga]

One of the best reviews I've seen yet-- http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain ... 635.column

'bout time somebody looked beyond the obvious--

...Celebrity watchers may be tempted to infer that the lyrics are all about White’s divorce from Karen Elson, but then how to explain that Elson is all over the album as a backing vocalist?

This is less about personal confession than pulse-pounding story-telling. “Blunderbuss” is laced with American-Gothic imagery, splashes of “Pulp Fiction” gore and Old Testament drama. Samson and Delilah are mentioned in a swaggering cover of Little Willie John’s “I’m Shakin’,” and they symbolize a relationship in which the mental toll is measured in pints of blood and tears. Talk about twisted: On this album, "love" is measured by severed body parts (“Missing Pieces”), knifings (“Love Interruption”) and torture (“Freedom of 21”).

There’s poetry in the mayhem, too. The title track, about a tryst in an opulent hotel, brims with sharply written images of decadence as the narrator makes off with another man’s wife. It’s all too much, and White's narrator finally figures it out; as the album winds down, he slams on the brakes before he loses his mind or his life.

It makes for an entertaining rollercoaster of a listen. One pictures a musician and songwriter not brooding over a failed relationship, but having a ball making an album full of tall tales and uninhibited music.

[Jettkoral]

Could someone please explain Jack's comment about how some modern day artists are selling authenticity through blues music. Just HOW are they doing that?

he kind of explains it in It Might Get Loud about how blues came out of the depression years, racism, and slavery of black people. You might think "wow, Jack (or anybody) is deep for being able to pull off blues music, but they don't have the struggle behind it like years of the aforementioned hardships.

To put it another way, if I started releasing and selling lots of copies of songs about menstrual cramps (there are so many hit titles I could rattle off), people might think me, despite being a male, must be authentic about menstrual cramps. No matter how much people might say it, I've got no idea what they are like

Trust me. They authentically suck.

yes... they are like someone reaching up inside of you and yanking out your intestines slowly over a series of hours... that having been said i will just say that bringing honor and crediting the old blues folks in a way that pays them is something that i have found to be a compassionate art form if one knows what one is doing and makes a cover that also displays artistry as opposed to a fine copy which may as well be fronted by an unknown craftsman for the sake of reproducing it unremarkably

case in point would be the many many songs that i have heard from Black Keys which are indiscriminately generic from other contemporary blues artists such as gary clark

try as i might i have not been able to discredit an artform just because there are lesser people attempting it... of course im not trying too hard but that having been said let me point out that the blues was as much about poverty and not being able to do much more than nail a string to the wall to learn or enjoy some front porch family time which is nothing in the measure of racism in and of itself but rather more to how a dominant culture of banking as a process of taking over land spilled into the personal lives and economic spoils of their dirty little war on American Freedoms ... even civil liberties if you will

racism did force the bluesmen to hit the road and look for work as well as resort to a life of crime from time to time but the loose women and the speakeasy and the hard times was a plenty for any guy who wanted to sing about it ... but what we really have to take note of is the times and the economy because Jazz was and is mixed with the blues often even though the art and the style and the participants clearly indicate that these fellas could afford better instruments and better drugs more like what them doctors offices are handing out during war times etc. etc... its all about the locations of where and how folks lived along with economy and culture when it comes to these original forms and their makers just as we see with Scott Joplin whose mama was from kentucky and his daddy was from texas ... authenticity is related to all this

Bluegrass is another example of how a musical form is getting co-opted by other cultures and people who aint from the hills but the way we look at that is that them whites and blacks was sittin on they porch together not worried about the shotgun in the corner just a pickin and grinnin until the bank man and the coal man came and tore old dixie down ... thats when you had to start worryin about who your daughter was sneakin off with and if'in they was gonna be able to work and pay to raise that baby ... here is the straight dope on the east coast blues made by the Melungeon people http://www.whatisamelungeon.webs.com/

the history and the origins of a people goes far beyond their race when it comes to fully respecting the culture and ambitions of its individuals such as we see when they are really only welcomed to work in certain regions and amongst particular economies such as we saw in the south with the declining agricultural society which has been replaced with migrancy and the prison culture that finds a reason why you must be guilty and then introduces you to their economy ... which is actually one of the other most unique things about the american economy besides the blues given that we are the worlds largest manufacturers of prisoners and prison culture ... slavery... yeah

Prisons and churches are by far and large the real home of the blues and the honky tonk that preached on sunday mornin after doin a whole lot of research on sinnin in the previous nights before with that tiny little pay check that lead you to drink out of somebodys dirty little shine still that would eventually be a the site of a shoot out when johnny law came to town for a piece of the cut such as we saw with George Washington and his mercenaries in the Whiskey Rebellion when it came time to tax the poor

so ultimately race is no greater a factor in the truth of playin the blues in all its variations so much as the formats used to instrument and market the sound goin on

No

I like how the......and the.....

[love_islander]

Got my shipping confirmation from TMR this morning. I look forward to playing this in 2 month's time...

[jrfhoutx]

got Blunderbussed today when I checked the mail... awesome packaging on this LP, debating on whether I'll completely remove the shrink wrap on this one and check out the inside of the gatefold... very amused to read through the lyrics and see how far off many of the guesses (including my own) were for the 16S lyrics...

couldn't even wait to wash it before spinning it...

[Kali Durga]

Got my shipping confirmation from TMR this morning. I look forward to playing this in 2 month's time...

Awwww, that's sad

awesome packaging on this LP, debating on whether I'll completely remove the shrink wrap on this one and check out the inside of the gatefold... very amused to read through the lyrics and see how far off many of the guesses (including my own) were for the 16S lyrics...

The gatefold is actually the least cool part of the packaging, which is ever so slightly a shame since it's so much real estate. It's the same photo repeated on both sides-- Couple of WWII army guys looking at a white peacock displaying in an enclosure (which is the image that I think is on Carla's drumhead). I've heard, though, that leaving shrinkwrap on album sleeves can eventually end up making the record warp. Dunno how true that is, though.

[Jettkoral]

What inserts were in your albums? I got lyric shert, download card, and black sleeve

[gdm]

I really like the peacock pictures. At a quick glance they look like fireworks. Very cool! Finally get to listen to this. The record on and looking at the lyric sheet with my daughter....perfect.