The White Stripes - Jolene Under Blackpool Lights (XL)
UK release date: 15 November 2004
After Elephant was seemingly milked dry for potential singles, it's at last time for some new material from Jack and Meg White. Well, kind of. Jolene is the White's cover version of the Dolly Parton classic taken from their forthcoming live DVD.
Jolene has long been a live favourite and bootleg copies of this version have been hanging round for a while. But this is the definitive version - perfectly recorded to capture all the exhilaration of a live Stripes gig, Jack White slows the song down and wrings every drop of emotion to turn it from a uptempo country and western number into a tortured blues ballad.
As cover versions go it's certainly up there with their extraordinary deconstruction of I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself, and is backed with a typically blistering live version of Black Math. Sounds like that DVD could be filling a fair few Christmas stockings this year...
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