Fly Farm Blues

Album: It Might Get Loud Soundtrack (2009)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Jack White wrote this heavily distorted screamer for the 2009 electric guitar documentary It Might Get Loud. The White Stripes/Raconteurs guitarist penned and recorded the song in just 10 minutes, with the film crew witnessing the song's entire genesis and completion.
  • White teamed up with Alicia Keys on the 2008 song "Another Way to Die" from the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace, but "Fly Farm Blues" was his first single as a solo artist - it was released in 2009 after appearing in the It Might Get Loud documentary. White didn't release his first solo album until Blunderbuss in 2012.
  • This might be the best modern song ever written just to win an argument. It started when Jack White told It Might Get Loud director Davis Guggenheim (who also directed An Inconvenient Truth) that most songs nowadays are over-prepared and over-produced. Guggenheim disagreed, so White improvised "Fly Farm Blues" on the spot just to prove his point.

    By the way, deliberately under-producing songs is also one of the hallmarks of the punk rock movement. Garage rock, which will always be the close cousin of punk, shares this ideology. The argument goes that polishing and perfecting music, such as is done with progressive rock, may make it technically better, but at the price of sacrificing the passion and soul out of music.

    For another feat of speed-song-writing, see Leiber & Stoller's "Santa Claus Is Back in Town," written for Elvis Presley in just 15 minutes while his manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker, glowered at them for taking too long.
  • White's improvised lyrics lean into a common blues trope: girl trouble. The song finds him arguing with his lady and threatening to leave her. He came up with some rather impressive lines right on the spot:

    Stone or rock ain't movin'
    Neither is a tree
    That may be good for you, girl
    But it ain't good for me

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Francis Rossi of Status Quo

Francis Rossi of Status QuoSongwriter Interviews

Doubt led to drive for Francis, who still isn't sure why one of Status Quo's biggest hits is so beloved.

Rick Springfield

Rick SpringfieldSongwriter Interviews

Rick has a surprising dark side, a strong feminine side and, in a certain TV show, a naked backside. But he still hasn't found Jessie's Girl.

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be GiantsSongwriter Interviews

Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.

Deconstructing Doors Songs With The Author Of The Doors Examined

Deconstructing Doors Songs With The Author Of The Doors ExaminedSong Writing

Doors expert Jim Cherry, author of The Doors Examined, talks about some of their defining songs and exposes some Jim Morrison myths.

Weezer

WeezerFact or Fiction

Did Rivers Cuomo grow up on a commune? Why did they name their albums after colors? See how well you know your Weezer in this Fact or Fiction.

Second Wind Songs

Second Wind SongsSong Writing

Some songs get a second life when they find a new audience through a movie, commercial, TV show, or even the Internet.