Breifly, On The Caterwauling Over How Meg White Bangs On a Drum
Meg White performing in 2007. Photo by I, Beninho, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons
As interweb spats go, arguing over Meg White and her drumming is a welcome relief to bank runs, geopolitics, and whatever the hell it is that politician said about that thing in that way. It is a lesson in music being subjective. Or is it objective? Whatever.
Taking a page from Inigo here: “Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”
Over at National Review, Dan McLaughlin proffered that The White Stripes song Seven Nation Army of Elephant of sporting events everywhere fame “has a strong case to be considered the best song of this century thus far,” which he himself admitted was a bold statement. Being a professional writer, he went on to extrapolate his point in detail, but what got this rolling online was when a pundit of some note referencing the article took a hard swipe at not only the song, but directly at drummer Meg White as “terrible” and “no band is better for having shitty percussion.”
No, I’m not naming that person. No, I’m not linking to it.
While the interwebs took multiple angles in dragging or supporting the hot take about Meg White and her ability or lack thereof, there is something of an unsolvable debate at the heart of this that gets to the magic and mystery of music in general. Very philosophy minded individuals can have long discussions over whether music is subjective or objective, and just about everyone understands that no two people can agree on anything, so let us start with a baseline of folks disagree. For example, I disagree with the premise Seven Nation Army is the best song of this century when it wasn’t even the best song on that album. But, I get the argument that Seven Nation Army has crossed over to the general population when a stadium full of people sing the main riff at every, and I mean EVERY, sporting event or gathering of any size these days. Valid arguments, valid opinions. Subjective. Or Objective. Or whatever.
However, when you move to Meg White and what the song would, is, or could be, now you are talking another matter altogether. Seven Nation Army as it exists forever in the great American songbook, or Spotify, or whatever replaces streaming later, is only what it is because of how it was made, recorded, and performed on that recording. Maybe Meg White isn’t Hal Blaine to some folks who want to get uppity about percussion, but she was the drummer on Seven Nation Army. It was her foot hitting the kick pedal for that Jack White nearly-brown-note down-tuned riff. It was Meg White playing drums on the whole track, that album, and all the other White Stripes songs. Taking her out, and it isn’t what it was, or is, or has become. Without Meg White, it ceases to be, and becomes something else.
Seven Nation Army works because it is a stripped-down, guttural roar of a song, with a feeling to it everyone can get a hold of. Which is why it is a sports chant by the masses for the ages now. Arguing what was needed was more “technical drumming” not only misses the point but shows a real lack of understanding why Seven Nation Army has connected to so many in the first place.
Technical prowess with an instrument is all well and good, but it isn’t everything. Jack White defended her by saying “her femininity and extreme minimalism are too much to take for some metalheads and reverse-contrarian hipsters…She can do what those with ‘technical prowess’ can’t. She inspires people to bash on pots and pans. For that, they repay her with gossip and judgement. In the end she’s laughing all the way to the Prada handbag store. She wins every time.”
Simple is a good thing. Tom Petty has kept generations singing along with three chords and a chorus. The KISS principle works every time you try it. The old adage for preachers to use “three points and a poem and/or joke” still works.
“No one plays drums like that!” the derisive criticism from the Twitter dot com crowd who mostly do not have drumming credits on hit records explains.
“It’s nice to hear drummers like Meg White – one of my favorite f*cking drummers of all time. Like, nobody f*cking plays the drums like that” Dave Grohl explained while listing off some of his favorite timekeepers.
Yes, no one plays drums like Meg White. That’s the point.
See there, we all found agreement. Subjectively. Or is it objectively. Whatever.
Lou Reed once said he spent the rest of his career trying to find someone who could drum like Moe Tucker and nobody could do it. And if you listen to that one late album where they have someone else drumming for a set, you see what he means. There’s still some magic that adheres to those songs without John Cale and even without Lou Reed, but when those primitive voodoo drums are gone, they deflate.
And, let’s be honest, it’s the same with Jack White’s work after the White Stripes. There are some really good songs- he’s a great songwriter after all- but there’s not one that wouldn’t sound a little better with her thumping drums- which a friend of mine once compared to beating on jail cell bars.Report
Anyway, this is the whole thing people don’t get about rock’n’roll. There were a LOT of music aficionados who HATED T. Rex too because it was stripped down “dumb” rock’n’roll music. God forbid. Everything was supposed to be moving towards prog. But the kids got it. Complaints like this are like riding a rollercoaster and griping “Sure, it was thrilling, but it didn’t provoke a lot of thoughts…”Report
The head of the American Federation of Musicians famously defended a deal with the Department of Labor that would prevent British invasion bands like the Beatles from playing in the United States by arguing that Beatles songs are so simple that American teenage girls should be satisfied by American bands doing decent workmanlike covers of them. This argument was not persuasive. This type of argument carried over to rock itself by the rockists who wanted rock to become art music you listen to alone rather than music you dance and sing to.Report
Thanks, that’s a great anecdote!Report
Here is an LGM thread about it.
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/04/this-day-in-labor-history-april-2-1964Report
Kim Deal had a great interview where she explained how so very many bassists screw up a song. Jump ahead to 1:13.
So many “real” bass players want to push the song and they can’t just pedal through it.
Same for Meg White’s drumming. It’s not particularly “elaborate”. I’ve heard it described as “primitive”.
BUT EVERY DRUMMER DOESN’T NEED TO BE JOHN BONHAM. Jeez!Report
Well, as it turns out, Bonham was really good at conveying primitivism, and understood its musical value. See “When the Levee Breaks”.
But I do see your point. I’m on board with the Jack White quote: “she wins every time”.Report
I want to say Merle Haggard but I can’t be sure brooked no fooling around from his bass players. They were to remain part of the rhythm section and attempt no tomfoolery.Report
I am a pretty serious skeptic of the ‘back to basics, simpler is better’ ethos that took over in the grunge era and still haunts rock music. It made sense as a reaction to the shallowness of a lot of the mainstream rock from the 80s but the long term result has been a total rut for the genre that’s only broken down somewhat with the downfall of the gatekeepers. As such Meg White (or the White Stripes for that matter) don’t really register for me. As far as I’m concerned they’re just another post grunge radio band, though I do appreciate that Jack White believes that his guitar should actually be audible in his songs.
That aside, there is something to be said for delivering a certain, distinctive sound that works for what the artist is trying to deliver. Most of us can grill a streak, but not like a chef at a Michelin star restaurant can. Something can also be tough to orchestrate without necessarily being complex. Whether she falls into that category is a determination I would leave to others.Report
Yes, simple as an aesthetic guideline is maybe another fad. And “as simple as possible, but no simpler” is important in art as well as science (the person quoted is Einstein). I like big, hairy complex things. As a programmer, I work on them every day have have done so for several decades. But one cannot let the complexity become the point – which it did in the prog movement – any more than letting simplicity become the point.
For me, art is about connecting to the listener/viewer/reader and engaging them, drawing them in, ,involving them. Seven Nations Army succeeds on that score, and succeeds wildly. That includes the drummer. So does Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, which has a moment that never fails to make my hair stand on end. I don’t think Mahler could have done that with fewer notes. I don’t know how to do what he did at all.
Technique is only meaningful when it serves the art. Otherwise it is but sounding brass, a tinkling cymbal.Report
Simplicity wins awards, when done by those who glory in complexity. (A song written overnight, sent overseas to be recorded, and on the music director’s desk by sunup).
There is art, and then there is schneaky art, the kind that stabs you in the back five years later, after you’ve listened to it a hundred times without recognizing the art staring you right in the face.
I find I like the latter better, but I’ve always liked stories that are more complex than well-rounded.Report
I generally agree. I like complexity but I like it used towards an end greater than complexity itself.Report
Well, garage rock has been a subgenre since the Sonics and the Wailers and the other 60s bands from the other side of the pond were playing blues chords and beating on drums. Or, at least, it was recognized as a subgenre once Lenny Kaye put out his Nuggets comps. I mean, you could say the same thing about the Cramps who were going back to basics in the late 70s. Or the Flat Duo Jets in the early 80- a band I can *absolutely* guarantee Jack White was fond of from listening to his band.
Anyway, it seems to be a genre that comes back around every decade or so, probably because it always works. I can say from my old DJing days that putting on the B52s or the Cramps always gets a certain crowd dancing.Report
Fair points. And look, if your project is to go out and make the best doggone garage rock you can make within the conventions of that genre and you succeed doing it then who the hell am I to judge? There are certainly metal bands I like that could be accused of something like that and the fact that none of it is ever going to be on FM radio isn’t really relevant to the analysis.
What I am saying though is that the White Stripes blew up 10 years into everyone living and dying by Kurt Cobain’s ‘kids songs’ approach to writing rock songs. To some degree I think it still is the dominant ethos in alt rock and mainstream hard rock, though it may be finally fading. My reaction to the White Stripes is colored by their moment in time, which to me is closer to doing what everyone else was doing, and to some degree still is doing, than leading us down any new and exciting paths.Report
I would like to introduce y’all to Rick Beato and his wonderful breakdown of Seven Nations Army. Rick talks about how the drumming is perfect for the song – along with a lot of other stuff.
I don’t tend to engage with “greatest ever” debates, though. Particularly when it comes to music.Report
Before the National Review and our current political moment, there was the Onion: https://www.theonion.com/meg-white-drum-solo-maintains-steady-beat-for-23-minute-1819588623
I don’t think it is wrong to state that Meg White is not the best or most proficient drummer in the history of Rock. Describing her drumming as being a bit like the music equivalent of outsider art is also probably not uncalled for. I’m guessing that the National Review writer had a lot more dripping sexist condescension in his article.Report
The National Review article wasn’t critical of her, just praised the song. The criticism was from someone else that per google appears to write at another publication.Report
The guy who wrote the tweet attacking Meg White has since apologized and agreed with his critics that he shouldn’t have said the thing that he said.
And, personally, I don’t think that Seven Nation Army is the best song of the century so far. It’s not even the best White Stripes song of the century so far.
The best White Stripes song this century is Icky Thump.
But even that song, as good as it is, isn’t as good as The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights.Report
I am sorry to put it this way but what a little b*tch.Report
I dunno. Can she keep a beat and show up for practice? If so then she’s doing better than most people who try to play the drums. That said, my idea of “good drum player” is Neal Peart so literally the entire rest of the planet is “just OK”…Report
I’m not really a White Stripes fan but I’ve of course heard “Seven Nation Army” and “Icky Thump” and “Fell In Love With A Girl” a few other songs. I only WISH I had a metronomic pocket like Meg does.Report