Wheaton Aston with The White Stripes
“Sittin’ drunk on a wagon to Mexico”.
I jumped aboard The White Stripes bandwagon with their 2007 album “Icky Thump” with nothing more than a hunch after listening to next to zero of their music since their formation 8 years earlier. I didn’t watch a single Youtube video and wouldn’t know a White Stripes song if it came up to me and offered me a room in the “Hotel Yorba”. I needed new music as my new job ensured I’d be adding even more miles to the 6 figure yearly tally I’d clock up as a matter of course. More hotels too, one an old farmhouse in the furthest reaches of North Yorkshire where I was often the only guest in the evening, and treated as though I was in my own home. So I bought every album currently available (The White Stripes, De Stijl, White Blood Cells, Elephant and Get Behind Me Satan) with a number costing as little as £1.99, and I’d hazard a guess all these years later that I got all 6 CD’s via the witchcraft of the internet for about £15.00.
It cost me £15.00 to listen to “Jimmy the Exploder”, “Apple Blossom”, “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” and “Black Math” for the first time among so many more songs I’d very quickly take to my heart too. £15! So naturally a new obsession had been born and every video of their live performances (1999–2007) were tracked down and boy oh boy were Meg White and Jack White blooming incredible live! It’s just the two of them making that thunderous sonic boom of a sound! My goodness.
I’ve linked just one of their live performances at the bottom of this article and what an incredible noise from just a 4 minute rock n roll song! I adore the music of The White Stripes and there will be no tittle tattle or gossip on their “history” or conspiratorial tales woven. Jack White wields a mighty axe and Meg White is rightly acclaimed as one of the greatest drummers of all time.
Here are the lyrics to “Icky Thump” from the album of the same name that became The White Stripes final ever album in the same year I first fell in love with them, and a pictorial stroll along the Shropshire Union Canal in beautiful Wheaton Aston.
I hope you enjoy.
“Ah, icky thump, who’da thunk?
Sittin’ drunk on a wagon to Mexico
Ah well, what a chump
Well, my head got a bump
When I hit it on the radio
Redhead señorita looking dead
Came and said, “Need a bed?” in Español
I said, “Gimme a drink of water
I’m gonna sing around the collar
And I don’t need a microphone”
“Icky thump with a lump in my throat
Grabbed my coat and I was freaking, I was ready to go
And I swear besides the hair she had one white eye
One blank stare, looking up, lying there
On the stand near her hand was a candy cane, black rum, sugar cane
Dry ice and something strange
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la”
“White Americans, what? Nothing better to do
Why don’t you kick yourself out? You’re an immigrant too
Who’s usin’ who? What should we do?
Well, you can’t be a pimp and a prostitute too
Icky thump, handcuffed to a bunk
Robbed blind, looked around, and there was nobody else
Left alone, I hit myself with a stone
Went home and learned how to clean up after myself”
The White Stripes "Icky Thump" LIVE
Thanks for reading!