Leave Meg White Alone (Updated)
Jack White responded in poem form to a now deleted tweet by former political reporter Lachlan Markay in which he called Meg White “a terrible drummer”.
To be born in another time,
any era but our own would’ve been fine.
100 years from now,
1000 years from now,
some other distant, different, time.
one without demons, cowards and vampires out for blood,
one with the positive inspiration to foster what is good.
an empty field where no tall red poppies are cut down,
where we could lay all day, every day, on the warm and subtle ground,
and know just what to say and what to play to conjure our own sounds.
and be one with the others all around us,
and even still the ones who came before,
and help ourselves to all their love,
and pass it on again once more.
to have bliss upon bliss upon bliss,
to be without fear, negativity or pain,
and to get up every morning, and be happy to do it all again.
III
A so called “more talented” drummer couldn’t do justice to this, couldn’t even play this the way it’s meant to be played. The playful quality to the feel and the timing, the interplay of their timing, there is a magic here that can not be replicated with refined technique, it is a question of authenticity and connection and style. You know, art?
It all reminds me of the guitar nerds who hate on Kurt Cobain but couldn’t put together a memorable chord progression and melody to save their lives. I guess Kurt said it best that self appointed judges judge more than they’ve sold.
God knows they judged Maureen Tucker, or Moe as Velvet Underground fans know her. In posterity, Far Out magazine has called her “the unsung hero behind the band”, and Modern Drummer magazine has said that “her playing style was hugely responsible for the Velvets’ singular personality, as important as Reed’s deadpan vocals.”
Tucker’s style of playing was unconventional, minimalist, and widely criticized before being adopted wholesale into the refined considerations of the avant garde. A modern critic (who closed down comments on his blog after being eaten alive by VU fans) sums up these insightful witticisms: “She isn’t very good but then, no one in the band is.” This same critic, in a fit of hilarious irony, goes on to write of the title “I’m Waiting for the Man” that:
“Many people use this title to this day. This is madness, of course; “the man” is the authorities—the ones who are going to kill your buzz, not the one who is going to get it going.”
This absurdly silly, all too totally serious quote reminded me of the lyrics to the Tool song “Hooker with a Penis”:
Well now, I've got some “A” advice for you, little buddy
Before you point your finger, you should know that I'm the man
and if I'm the man then you're the man and he's the man as well
So you can point that fuckin' finger up your ass
Maureen Tucker played standing up, not seated (for easier access to the bass drum because she did not use a foot pedal). She played a simplified kit consisting of toms, a snare, and an upturned bass drum. She played with both mallets and drumsticks, sometimes holding both a mallet and a stick at the same time. She rarely used cymbals, and has said that since the purpose of a drummer is to keep time, cymbals are unnecessary and only serve to drown out other instruments and draw attention to the drummer.
Band members started thinking, We’re stars—look at all these chicks! You know, trying to draw attention to themselves… seriously, it became all about seven drums and all these cymbals, and two bass drums, which in my opinion is not only unnecessary, but horrifying.
— Moe Tucker
Like Meg, Tucker sang on a limited number Velvet Underground songs: on the lovely haunting “After Hours”, along with “The Murder Mystery”, both from 1969’s The Velvet Underground, as well as “I’m Sticking with You”, a song recorded in 1969 and available on bootlegs but officially unreleased until the 1985 compilation VU. Tucker also sometimes played the bass guitar during live shows; Meg played guitar at the last White Stripes performance on Conan— they didn’t use a bass.
Interestingly, her guitar playing is also reminiscent of the Velvet Underground.
If you search the internet, you will find many, many articles that claim Maureen Tucker left the music industry to raise a family. And it’s true that Tucker moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1971, where she lived with her husband and children. The whole truth is darker: while living in Phoenix, she briefly played drums in the short-lived band Paris 1942 and then, amid a lack of commercial success, awash in harsh comments from critics, and facing difficulties at home, Maureen Tucker divorced her husband in the early 1980s and relocated to Douglas, Georgia, where instead of making music, the alternative rock legend went to work at a Wal-Mart distribution center. She quit in 1989 when the band Half Japanese asked her to play on their European tour.
Meg has followed a somewhat similar trajectory, so far without the triumphant return to music that Moe engineered, although of course, the White Stripes were legends in their own time, unlike the Velvet Underground. And also unlike VU, “Seven Nation Army” alone assures that Meg will never need to work another day in her life.
Back in 2007, in a short statement from the band to Rolling Stone, the White Stripes announced: "The White Stripes… are canceling their forthcoming tour due to health issues. Meg White is suffering from acute anxiety and is unable to travel at this time. We hate to let people down and are very sorry." They also cut themselves the Austin City Limits festival the day before over "medical reasons."
Meg has barely been seen or heard from since. From May 2009 to July 2013, she was married to guitarist Jackson Smith (son of punk legends Patti Smith and Fred "Sonic" Smith, the guitarist from the MC5).
In 2010, Jack White told MTV that he’d “like to” reunite. "I don't think her anxiety exists anymore," he said, "but I don't know." Jack also said Meg was present at rehearsals for The Dead Weather. Rolling Stone contributing editor Jonah Weiner asked him in 2014 if he’s still in contact with his ex-wife and bandmate during interviews for a Rolling Stone cover story, and White said, “I don’t think anyone talks to Meg. She’s always been a hermit. When we lived in Detroit, I’d have to drive over to her house if I wanted to talk to her, so now it’s almost never.” She was spotted at 2013 at a Queens of the Stone Age show.
A few years later, Ben Blackwell (co-founder and minority owner at Third Man Records and official archivist of The White Stripes) said in a Third Man Records Vault chat that Meg was backstage at a Jack White show at the Warsaw in Brooklyn March 2018.
This pic of Meg is the most recent one available on the internet; reportedly taken from the Instagram of the daughter of a music producer Meg was dating (a social media rumor only; evidence of any Instagram post that the image originated from is elusive).
Jack White also told Rolling Stone that he “would often look at her onstage and say, ‘I can’t believe she’s up here.’ I don’t think she understood how important she was to the band, and to me and to music. She was the antithesis of a modern drummer. So childlike and incredible and inspiring. All the not-talking didn’t matter, because onstage? Nothing I do will top that.”
And to prove it, here is Meg at her most understated, and brilliant.