We can call this song here Little Cream Soda ’cos I say the words ‘little cream soda’ in the lyrics.’ Meg was worried that there wasn’t going to be a ‘little’ song on this album, but I said, ‘It’s OK. “But now we have to do it because we worry if we don’t there’s something superstitious about it. We didn’t even realise that until about the fourth or fifth album. A great example would be that every White Stripes album has a song that starts with the word ‘little’. I let things be what they want to be within the constricted parameters of The White Stripes. Staying within the realm of songwriting, how do you formulate lyrics? And the hypocrisy, on top of that, of trying to distract people from the war by trying to get them to build a wall between Mexico and America. And then it became the Mexican border, which brings in the whole issue of Americans using Mexicans to clean their houses and wash their clothes yet wanting to kick them out of the country at the same time. Then it became this guy who goes over the border to see a prostitute because he’s afraid to do it in front of people he knows. “The first thing that kept popping up in my head was people who go to a strip club or go to see a prostitute, and that’s always a question of who’s using who. Icky Thump is a song about a set of characters and the question of who is using who in a particular situation. “There’s this quote from Bob Dylan where he pointed out that you can be heavily involved or interested in a topic without necessarily being political. There’s also a political dimension to this album, with the title track addressing the illegal immigration issue in the States… Rock ’n’ roll is not really known for its great examples of human decency.” “It’s hard to get a perspective on this when you’re surrounded by people in the music business and when you’re on tour all the time. “There are all these fundamental questions: why do you bother getting up in the morning? How much should you care about other people? How considerate should you be? How much should you just look out for your own self? These characters are trying to find some kind of purpose for what they do on a daily basis and realising that, since they’re not going to be here for long, it’s time to buck up. Rock ’n’ roll is not really known for its great examples of human decency It’s hard to get a perspective on this when you’re surrounded by people in the music business and when you’re on tour all the time. Maybe I should think about some of this stuff.’ You know, one of those moments when they’re taking a deep breath and saying, ‘Hey, I don’t have much time on this earth. “In a lot of these songs the characters are at a turning point in their lives. That particular song seems to deal with the concept of death too? (Image credit: ason Merritt/FilmMagic for Superfly Presents) I don’t want to be egotistical and say, 'No, do as I say!' So I have the least amount of people possible around so that I don’t have to do that.” If someone says, 'Let’s record the snare drum like this,' I’ll be like, 'Well, actually…' I’m trying to be polite. “I’m a very polite person when it comes to other people’s ideas. I don’t like having to be polite when I have an idea. Every album we’ve done in the past was just Meg, me and a studio engineer, so there was less chance of things getting messed up. “That was always the initial worry: you get a lot of people involved on a project and you’ve gotta fight your idea through everyone. But we’ve done a few albums now and I think we have enough experience behind us to know what we want, as far as other people are concerned. With The White Stripes, we were always scared of big studios and how we’d end up sounding too polished or having to fight through modernity to sound real. “Yeah, I guess we’ve just worked out the kinks. This is also the first White Stripes album you’ve done in a modern recording studio…
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