This week, Jack White releases his third solo album, Boarding House Reach, which has already been branded the boldest and most controversial of his career so far. Also in the next few days, White’s best-known song, Seven Nation Army, reaches its fifteenth anniversary – it first appeared as the opening track on the fourth White Stripes album, Elephant, which came out on 1 April 2003.
Seven Nation Army is one of those tracks whose cultural significance has only mutliplied over time, its iconic guitar riff bastardized into a chant that resounds the world over at sporting events and political rallies.
But White has never been tempted to try and replicate such success: the one thing we know for...