White Stripes “Elephant XX” 2023. Third Man Records, Vault package no. 55, the 20th anniversary reissue of their smash Elephant released on April 1st, 2003. The Vault pressing is a 2-LP colored vinyl release (one red, one white) that also includes a Jack White 7″ single, a DVD and a gorgeous 28 page booklet of show posters, photographs and other assorted ’03 memorabilia. Up til now, we only have had Elephant  on CD (because, of course, 2003).

Elephant is the band’s fourth LP and far and away their most successful as well as critically acclaimed. It’s included on many best-of-ever lists and won both the Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Song (“Seven Nation Army”) at the Grammy’s. It went to #6 in the US and to #1 in the UK. It’s totally digital/computer-free; the White Stripes recorded it with all pre-60’s gear onto an eight-track tape machine. For the most part it’s hard to tell but I can feel that old-school tech straining its edges on “There’s No Home for You Here” about which Jack White said they recorded “to see how far we could go with an eight track recorder, and I think how far we went is too far.” (I love it, though, it sounds like super-early Beatles or Stones).

They released four singles from Elephant. The first was the mega-power-hit “Seven Nation Army” which only went to #76 on the main US chart but hit #1 on the alternative charts in both the US and the UK. The track now an ubiquitous sports arena fav which is a bit of a head-scratcher to me, more for the genre it comes from than the song itself which is simple, rhythmic and primal aka perfect for sports. According to Wiki, “This phenomenon has its roots in a UEFA Champions League football match in Italy in October 2003, during which fans of Belgium’s Club Brugge KV began singing the riff in a game against Italy’s A.C. Milan. They continued the chant after Club Brugge KV striker Andrés Mendoza scored a goal. Club Brugge KV won the game, and the song subsequently became the team’s “unofficial sports anthem.” The second single was the cover of Burt Bacharach’s “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself” (first recorded in ’62 by Chuck Jackson and then, also in ’62, by Tommy Hunt, finally made popular by Dusty Springfield in ’64). The Stripes version went to #25 on the US indie chart. The third single from Elephant was “The Hardest Button to Button” (#8 US alternative, #23 regular UK chart, #1 UK indie) and the final single was the aforementioned “There’s No Home for You Here.” I love all the singles and my other top picks from Elephant include the hard bluesy rocker “Ball and Biscuit” (fun fact: a friend of ours named her catering company Ball and Biscuit a couple of years after this LP’s release and her business is still going strong), “The Air Near My Fingers,” and “Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine,” a track that “was originally written for the band’s previous album, White Blood Cells, but Meg had disliked the song and it was removed. After debating it, the song was rerecorded and included in Elephant, but only after a line from the song was removed after it was deemed too harsh.” (wiki) Elephant does treat us to future-Jack White’s tendency towards bat-shit crazy, though, especially on the intro to the song “Little Acorns” (the rest of the song is pretty great though).