(Credits: Far Out / The White Stripes / Third Man Records)
Fri 3 October 2025 16:30, UK
‘Seven Nation Army’ feels like a song that everyone is born knowing, as though Jack White’s thumping guitar lick and the command of Meg White’s drumming pulsate in our brains from the womb, following us into adolescence and adulthood, where we are inexplicably compelled to belt out every word and chord the second we hear that unmistakable riff.
“I love that most people who are chanting it have no idea where it came from,” Jack White once said. “That’s folk music.”
As The White Stripes, Jack and Meg White were the second coming of garage rock out of Detroit, Michigan, following the tradition of Iggy Pop and The Stooges and the MC5. The pair emerged like two ghostly figures dressed in red and white, blaring an unforgiving rendition of rock ‘n’ roll that revolutionised contemporary music.
Coming up in the early 2000s’ garage era, The White Stripes were immediately different from their peers. Their knowledge of rhythm and blues was unrivalled and essential to their new age approach. They were mysterious, often wielding upward glares and mischievous smiles at cameras, and intentionally fooling the public into thinking that they were siblings and not a married couple. And last, there were two people making a shocking amount of noise. How did they manage it? Well, credit Jack’s mad scientist-like genius with a guitar pedal, or Meg’s steady, reliable rhythm, as she hits the drums and cymbals with a personal vendetta. It simply does not get any cooler than The White Stripes.
Together, they conceived ‘Seven Nation Army’ while on tour in Australia when, during a soundcheck in Melbourne, Jack was messing with his guitar and, with a slip of his hand, played the now-legendary riff. They first recorded what would become their anthem in 2002, but the song didn’t find its home until a year later, on their fourth studio album, 2003’s Elephant.
Recorded at Toe Rag Studios in London, known for housing pre-1960 analogue equipment, ‘Seven Nation Army’ remains a standout for its minimalism. Jack’s penchant for experimentation amplified the simple riff into a whirlwind of sound using a DigiTech Whammy pedal, and Meg’s straightforward drumming is the dream accompaniment to Jack’s chaos.
But what does a “seven nation army” really mean?
The lyrics are purposefully vague, as Jack spits a tale of his fight against an unspoken demon, real or imaginary. To combat The White Stripes’ sudden fame, Jack concocted a story of a man who enters his town, only to find out that all of his friends have been gossiping about him.
In conversation with NME, Jack says: “He feels so bad he has to leave town, but you get so lonely you come back. The song’s about gossip. It’s about me, Meg and the people we’re dating.”
Even with Jack’s explanation, the song’s title still feels perhaps most bizarre. But its origin is anything but: it is simply a mispronunciation. When Jack was a child, he couldn’t say “Salvation Army”, only “Seven Nation Army”. The phrase lingered in the back of Jack’s mind over the years and was used as a mere placeholder title when the music was first composed, before he had written any lyrics. It eventually merged with the lyrics’ story, becoming one of the greatest accidents.
‘Seven Nation Army’ has become its own living, breathing being, screamed in virtually every sports stadium and pub known to man. Like its music video, it reverberates in threes, kaleidoscopic visions of the Whites in red, white and black jumping out at you, leaving your mind to persistently echo the thump of Meg’s drums. Best of all, the song remains a beacon of authenticity, a reminder that some of the greatest songs rock ‘n’ roll has blessed us with began on a whim.
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