The White Stripes Are Dead; Long Live The White Stripes

But...but...a seven-nation army couldn't hold 'em back! He said so!

I just learned yesterday that the White Stripes have broken up. It's broken me up a bit to hear that. And not just because they were one of my favorite bands of the past decade.

It's cause, well, they've been around for a decade!

I remember first seeing their video for "Hotel Yorba" on MTV2 (yes kiddies, there was a time when MTV2 played videos. All the time. It was a different era. Pre-9/11). I found it charming. Didn't think anything would come of them though. I'd just graduated High School.

Then I remember seeing their novelty-legos-themed video for "Fell In Love With a Girl," and being surprised to hear it on the radio. (Back when I listened to the radio).

I remember hiding from a hurricane at a member's house, playing Caribbean dominoes, and "Seven-Nation Army" was playing on the TV; and I wondered, "What on earth are the White Stripes doing on satellite TV...in Puerto Rico?!"

I remember speculating with bandmates as to whether or not they were brother/sister, married, divorced, hermaphrodites, etc. (Turns out they were amicably divorced).

I remember hearing "My Doorbell" while working construction in Rexburg; and driving around lost in Idaho Falls with a friend, listening to "White Blood Cells," discussing the philosophic merits of "Little Room."

I remember getting back from Mexico, with my now-shifted views on immigration, just in time to hear Jack White belt out "White-Americans, what, nothing better to do/Why don't you kick yourself out, you're an immigrant too" on "Icky Thump." I'd just graduated college.

Just a few months ago, now with a Masters, I was catching up with that old friend from Idaho (for enough time had passed for us to be old friends in need of catching up--), watching the documentary It Might Get Loud, wherein Jack White jams with Jimmy Page and The Edge.

I somehow came to own most their albums, even pre-popular stuff like "De Stijl." Without me realizing, they'd become the background soundtrack of my entire college career.

I'd just come to assume that Jack White would make music til the day he died.

And he will, in all probability.

Just not with Meg.

Cause now they've broken up. Officially. Huh.

See, here's the thing: when I read that break-up announcement, my first thought was, "Already?! But, but--they can't break up, they're not even that old! They've only been popular since, like...2001....oh, my...ten years ago....this year...wow."

It has in fact been a solid decade since I first heard the White Stripes. The Beatles lasted shorter.

Is this what growing old feels like?