The White Stripes Complete Lyrics

Jack White author Hanif Abdurraqib editor Caroline Randall Williams editor Ben Blackwell editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Third Man Books

Published:21st Dec '23

£39.99

Available for immediate dispatch.

The White Stripes Complete Lyrics cover

Third Man Records will be prioritizing The White Stripes in 2023 in celebration of the 20th anniversary of their mega-hit record ELEPHANT. White will be performing live and doing interviews. Third Man's media team will be pushing the book along with the ELEPHANT promotion.

The White Stripes Complete Lyrics is a deluxe new 300+ page hardbound book documenting all of Jack White’s original words written for the 6x Grammy Award-winning duo he and Meg White formed in 1997 through the release of their final album in 2007. The first-time-ever lyric collection also features never-before-seen and rare rough drafts, alternate lyrics, and photographs, alongside exclusive essays by Hanif Abdurraqib, Ben Blackwell, and Caroline Randall Williams.


Here’s some facts you may or may not know about the White Stripes:

  • They are quite possibly the youngest band to have opened for both the Rolling Stones and the Pretty Things.
  • They have won six Grammy Awards.
  • They have appeared on the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, the Daily Show with John Stewart, The Late Show with David Letterman, Charlie Rose, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Detroit PBS Backstage Pass.
  • They have released two films, both of which feature the words “under” and “lights” in the title.
  • They are almost certainly the only band to have ever played shows with Loretta Lynn, the Stooges, Porter Wagoner, Whirlwind Heat and Sleater-Kinney.
  • All six of their albums have at least one song with the word “little” in the title. They have performed in Iqaluit, Canada; Talinn, Estonia and Toledo, Ohio.
  • Jack and Meg White appeared in Jim Jarmusch's film Coffee and Cigarettes. 
  • Several songs by the White Stripes are featured in the first season of the television series Peaky Blinders.
  • The Academy Award-winning movie, The Social Network featured "Ball and Biscuit" in the opening scene.
  • The band also appeared as themselves in The Simpsons episode "Jazzy and the Pussycats."
  • The song "Apple Blossom" was featured in the Quentin Tarantino film The Hateful Eight.
  • Wayne McGregor used music by the White Stripes for his production Chroma, a piece he created for The Royal Ballet in London, England.

“There are ghosts everywhere in the lyrics, obsession with colors, obsession with exits. Evil and optimism wrestle with each other, longing and a hunger for loneliness tussle in the same bed. Cynicism and desire, rage and tenderness. All of these things seamlessly stitch together and come alive on the page in such tight windows, you barely even notice. “ — Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest


“Pilgrims go to the relics to touch some certain, earthly piece of what they believe has delivered them, or will deliver them, from the troubles of this world. That’s what this book is — these pages a pilgrimage. Come touch the bones of a thing that gives you life.” — Caroline Randall Williams, Lucy Negro, Redux


“We cannot wait to read the essays in this book written by music writer Hanif Abdurraqib; Ben Blackwell, the band’s historian; and Caroline Randall Williams, who has Detroit roots and is the delightful author of Lucy Negro Redux." — Alyson Turner, Source Booksellers


“An anthology of lyrics from one of Detroit’s signature bands.” — The Detroit Free Press

ISBN: 9798986614526

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

315 pages