Monday, May 18, 2015

The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan 1995 (Sort Of)


RSD 2015

The day this was announced as a Record Store Day exclusive, plenty of people noticed.  Fans of The White Stripes, fans of vinyl, haters of Jack White, a lot of people.  Why would this many people have so many mixed feeling about The White Stripes 5th studio album?  Maybe because it featured a much stronger presence from Meg White and much less soaring of the guitar riffs from Jack.  Perhaps it was because it was a lot more commercial than Elephant that was released 2 years prior.  Just as easily it could be simply because of the now eccentric status of Jack White.  Frankly, I think has a lot more to do with the fact that it's the only White Stripes album never released on vinyl originally.  -Wait, what!?

If you recall the random post from March 3, 2015

Indeed, Get Behind Me Satan had no commercial vinyl release simply because Jack White is for lack of a better word, a bit eccentric.  In this case that's a very good thing.  If it wasn't for Jack being Jack, we would never have gotten such genius as Lazaretto, The Raconteurs, or my personal favorite, The Dead Weather.  (Come on, The Kills + Jack White = Some Serious Shit²)  As usual with Jack, he's got a flair for perfection and exotic methods.  If you've ever seen him live you probably know that he's immensely talented.  He plays multiple instruments, he can sing, he can manipulate sounds with both production tools and  pure mastery of the instrument.  On this album, he plays the mandolin if you can fathom that.  That said, The Stripes had every intention of releasing this on vinyl, but knowing how superior the medium was, Jack wanted to re-record the whole album in a specific studio specifically for vinyl as opposed to CD or even worse, electronic quality.  Unfortunately for him, by the time The Stripes got around to recording it, in Brazil of all places, the studio was basically shut down and therefore the decision was made to just go with it and not have a commercial vinyl release.

Seeing as though the album has sold quite well, and won the Grammy for Best Alternative album in 2006 from the CD/Tape/mp3 sales, it isn't like vinyl would have broke them.  The album was release for promotional purposes on vinyl limited to 600 copies, however to own one of these meant that you either were someone of great importance in the music scene, or saved the life of someone high up in the music scene.  For the 10 year anivarsary of this, one of their best selling albums, it was (re)released for Record Store Day as a limited edition release for the masses.  Of course, following Whites last major Third Man Records release, Lazaretto, he went a bit over the top with the production value of this vinyl.
Front













Yep, that's the whole thing.  2 records, 1 red, 1 white.  Sealed in a gatefold cover with a lenticular cover.  (That's a hologram for you non witch folk).  And it's damn incredible.  The pictures don't do it justice.  It sounds just as awesome as it did originally taking me back to my high school days when I first heard it. 

Blue Orchid

So obviously, the lead track, Blue Orchid is the winner on this album.  I'm sure the intro to Blue Orchid is what turned a lot of people into Stripes fans that year too..  You would do well to remember that there were some other epic tracks on there like The Denial Twist, (Great video BTW), Take, Take, Take, Ugly as I Seem, and of course, The Nurse.

The Denial Twist

If you couldn't get your hands on this particular vinyl release version, it's no big deal.  It will be released later on this year as a standard release, probably without breaking the bank.  Consider also joining Jack Whites Third Man Records Vault.  It's a subscription based "crate" of sorts where 4 times a year you get a metric fuck ton of ultra rare and supremely cool Jack White and Jack White related swag.  

Next week, more RSD 2015 stuff.  If you paid attention to a recent random post you already got the obviously obvious hint. 

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