Jack White is undoubtedly one of the biggest fans of vinyl in the world, so it is understandable that his love of the format would extend to his own releases. Now, one of the people closest to White has revealed just how rare and exclusive some of his records are.
Ben Blackwell is known to many as being one of the drummers of US rock band The Dirtbombs, as well as being an employee at Jack White’s Third Man Records label. However, to fans of White, Blackwell is best-known as being the “official archivist” of The White Stripes, with his knowledge of the band and their releases unmatchable by almost everyone.
Writing for Discogs, Blackwell recently released an article in which he outlined some of the rarest pieces of vinyl that Jack White has ever been involved in, undoubtedly making vinyl-lovers the world over salivate at the uniqueness of these releases.
Just how rare are some of these releases, you ask? Well, some range from being so rare that only a handful of copies have been found, while others can only be acquired if you manage to track down the former members of The White Stripes themselves.
These releases include The Upholsterers’ Your Furniture Was Always Dead… I Was Just Afraid To Tell You, a near-mythical release which was hidden away in furniture made by Jack White’s bandmate Brian Muldoon. To date, only two copies of this single have been found. Likewise, the 100 copies of Jack White’s ‘Freedom At 21′ make the list, with all of them having been distributed by helium balloon back in 2012. Understandably, fans like to pay a pretty penny for these awesome pieces of vinyl.
However, it is two never-commercially-released singles from The White Stripes’ mid-’00s period that are considered to be almost impossible to obtain by fans. Copies of ‘The Denial Twist’ single exist, but can only be obtained by Jack White giving you a copy, while the only copies of the ‘Icky Thump’ picture disc are all in Meg White’s possession.
A noted recluse, Meg White reportedly doesn’t give these out very often. According to Blackwell, “rumors abound that there are hundreds of these in Meg’s basement, but that could be difficult to prove.”
With Jack White having released his new record, Boarding House Reach, last week, we could be on the cusp of him kicking off another series of highly-collectible singles. While we wait and see if we’ll be keeping a close eye on eBay, check out Ben Blackwell’s full list here.
Check out Jack White talking with Ben Blackwell:
The rarest Jack White records:
The Dead Weather – ‘Hang You From The Heavens’ (150 copies)
The Dead Weather – ‘Lose The Right Instrumental’ (Unknown quantity)
Jack White – ‘Freedom At 21’ (1000 copies, released via helium balloon)
Jack White – ‘Over And Over And Over’ (200 copies)
The Upholsterers – ‘Makers Of High Grade Suites’ (133 copies)
The Upholsterers – ‘Your Furniture Was Always Dead… I Was Just Afraid To Tell You’ (100 copies, 2 found)
The White Stripes – ‘The Denial Twist’ (Unknown quantity)
The White Stripes – ‘Icky Thump’ (Unknown quantity)
The White Stripes – ‘Lafayette Blues’/’Sugar Never Tasted So Good’ (15 copies)
The White Stripes – ‘Rag And Bone’ (38 copies)
