Songfacts®:

• This bluesy White Stripes song finds Jack White trying to reconcile his feelings for Suzy Lee, wondering if it's love that he's feeling. Who is this person? "I've used the name 'Suzy Lee' as a character in many songs even if I didn't say it out loud," he explained to Publisher's Weekly. "I don't know what she looks like or who she is... I think she might be a shape-shifter."
• Suzy Lee later appeared in the 2001 White Stripes song "We're Going To Be Friends":
  
  Walk with me, Suzy Lee
  Through the park and by the tree
  
  That song is very innocent and set in childhood. It's played on acoustic guitar so it the music is congruent with the lyric; the song "Suzy Lee" has a lyric that could also be set in a schoolyard from the perspective of a young boy reconciling his first crush, but the blues backdrop makes it sound more adult. Jack White will often pair whimsical lyrics with dirty guitar, creating an intriguing contrast.
• "Suzy Lee" is part of the first White Stripes album, simply titled The White Stripes. The group is the duo of Meg and Jack White. Jack taught Meg how to play drums (he was a drummer in a previous band), so she became their percussionist, with Jack doing the singing, songwriting, production, and playing all the other instruments. They were a couple, married when the band formed in 1997 but separated when the album was released. Somehow, this dynamic worked, although it wasn't easy for Meg to put down her drum parts as she was learning the instrument. Jim Diamond, who engineered the album when they recorded it at his studio, Ghetto Recorders, said in the book Detroit Rock City: "We had to do a lot of takes because she wasn't a drummer. He taught her how to play the drums, but he didn't play any of the drums - he let her. We had to do take after take after take.
  
  Meg got a lot better but retained a distinctive, unkempt style that served the band well as they became big stars a few years later.
• This is one of the few White Stripes songs with an outside musician. Johnny Walker of the Ohio band Soledad Brothers played slide guitar.