Song Analysis

Jolene was originally written in 1974, and performed by Dolly

Parton. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014, and
celebrated its 41st anniversary on February 2, 2015. The inspiration
for the song came from a sultry bank teller that Partons husband had
a flirtatious affair with. The name Jolene is completely irrelevant to the
story itself. Dolly met a young fan at a signing with beautiful auburn
hair and stunning green eyes. When she said her name was Jolene
Dolly decided that she would name a song after her. Dolly insists the
song is not as heavy hearted as it seems to be, but the music industry
clearly begs to differ. (Vitale) There are many covers of Jolene, but
none as haunting as The White Stripes live version on the Under
Blackpool Lights DVD.

The White Stripes have reserved some of their best talent to

reinvent Jolene for a new audience. They take the context of a song
that was written during a time that extra marital affairs were common,
and confrontations often went unspoken. Women had a certain image
to uphold in the community as well as in the home. The White Stripes
strip the song down to its roots, and let the emotions run wild. Jack
White has stated in an interview with NPR, "I thought to take the
character and change the context and make this red-headed woman
my girlfriend, and that she's cheating on me with one of my friends.

Then, that would be what I could really get emotionally attached to."
(Vitale) He definitely had no problem attaching himself to the emotion
behind the song. This is no light confrontation when it comes to getting
the characters man back. His vocals have the character down on their
knees begging for this Jolenes retreat. The behavior that would have
been socially acceptable in the 1970s is quite different than that of an
audience in the 2000s. There is willingness towards vulnerability that
is often respected and admired. Jack leans right into this notion when
he begins mildly pleading. However, as the song continues the pleas
become fierce, and the sanity of the character is thrown to the wind.
Jack relies on screeching and howling to evoke emotion in the
audience. The last line in the song is perhaps the most telling of them
all. He says, Please dont take him even though you can, in one faint
pitiful last ditch effort to persuade Jolene to leave. It is almost as if this
is the end of life for the character, there is no fight left inside.

The song begins with Jack coming in solo on the guitar giving an
electric spin to the classic Jolene riff. It has been noted before that
Meg White has little technical ability on the drums, but for Jolene her
lack of technicality is what keeps the song true to the original. During
the verses she maintains only light crashing of the symbol, while Jack
carries the melody on the guitar and with vocals. The second and
fourth chorus is where Meg shows that where she lacks technicality she

draws on raw power. She carries Jack through the chorus as if she is
the strong heartbeat of the character. The percussion exists purely to
showcase and compliment Whites vocals and guitar. In the beginning,
the guitar maintains this soft ghostly feel until the second chorus.
Where the melody takes on a sort of conversation. Low notes with a
growling tone carry the song through the verses. When the chorus hits,
the guitar becomes heavy and pronounced. Jack uses a lot of
distortion to portray the agony that this person must be feeling at the
potential loss of love to this seductress. The venue and acoustics give
the song a classic underground feel. There is this hollow open sound
further allowing the music to feel empty and incomplete. The musical
arrangements The White Stripes have applied to Jolene establish
their ethos as quintessential garage rock band musicians. The song is
gritty and unpolished which lends to the depth of the character
speaking to Jolene. They are broken pleading for their love, and
perhaps even their life.

Jolene begins with Jack coming in soft and pleading on the

chorus. As the audience you immediately hear the distress in his voice.
White keeps the original lyrics and musicality pretty much intact, but
slays the vocals allowing him to focus on expressing the character
purely through the tone of the song. Parton takes a mournful approach
to the character. Creating the image of a woman that is holding it all

together. She is politely asking for Jolene to step back and reconsider
her actions. Jack creates a character that is wrought with agony and
devastation. Jack has no shame in sending the character almost to the
point of psychotic breaks with the tone of the lyrics. The lyrical
variation works well with the context of the song, and still does justice
to Partons original. Rolling stone has said, A lesser band would
collapse under the weight of a classic, but White's past-exorcising
vocal is one of his best. (Joyce)

Design Analysis
When thinking about design for this particular song I wanted to
convey the heartbreak and anguish the character of the song is
experiencing. I also wanted to pay tribute to the original version, in the
same way that Jack does. I decided that I would use typography in
order to set the mood of the image. With the guidance of the CRAP
design system I was able to analyze the layout of my document to
ensure effectiveness in achieving my rhetorical goals for this design.

I began my analysis by listening to Dolly Partons version of

Jolene, and then listening to The White Stripes version several times.
I wanted to spot differences as well as similarities in the two songs. I

wrote down a list of feelings for each track to compare and contrast. I
knew that I would need to find a font that incorporated aspects from
the original by Dolly Parton, but make sure that the elements that The
White Stripes brought to the song were the main feature.

I decided to create the feel of a hand written letter to Jolene to

display the soft musical elements from the original kept intact in the
cover by the White Stripes. I wanted to use a classic cursive type for
the background. By using a font that has a handwritten quality the
authenticity of the text is portrayed. Cursive type is elegant and soft
which holds true to the original subtlety that The White Stripes kept in
the verses of the cover. I used Volstead because it was one of the
more readable fonts when enlarged. In the background you can see the
repetition of the lyrics, Im begging of you please dont take my man
and Please dont take him even though you can. In order to give the
design the handwritten components of a letter I opted for a centered
alignment. If I kept the margins aligned left or right the text looked too
organized. The letter needed to feel like it was sprawled onto the page
with minimal effort or thought.

To contrast Volstead, the handwritten cursive font, I looked for

fonts that represented anguish, horror, and heartache. Jack spends
most of the song howling in agony. I looked for a font specifically for

the lyric Jolene that represented the pain that Jack emitted through
his vocals. I opted for a font called, No Fear. Which is quite funny
considering it looks like despair. It is a bold font with sharp edges.
When used on the lyric Jolene you dont get the feeling that she is a
warm and inviting woman. No Fear makes the name look cold and
hardened. The last line in The White Stripes cover is, please dont
take him even though you can. Jack sounds as if hes saying this with
his last breathe of life, and there is no more fight left to convince Jolene
to back away. I got the idea for this font from the first episode of BBCs
Sherlock. A woman is murdered and she scratches Rache onto the
floor. I wanted to find a font similar to that used in Sherlock in order
to show those last moments of despair. I needed a font that
represented one last final attempt to send a plea to Jolene. I chose DK
Poison Ivy, a thin scratchy font in all capital letters. There was a nice
contrast from the bold screeching letters used for Jolene to his last
pleading line and I chose fonts to directly represent that disconnect.
The thin lettering suggests the end of the fight and being able to
persuade Jolene.

I chose to draw attention to specific lyrics in the center of the

page. I wanted to immediately draw attention to the despair that is
present in The White Stripes version of Jolene. Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
Jolene is the most iconic line in the song, and one of the main parts

that Jack has chosen to make his own. He provides raw power and
emotion when howling this line. I wanted to showcase his contrasting
tone throughout the song directly through the font. I paired two intense
lyrics with one another to show their contrast in tone. The decisions
that Jack makes with tone have everything to do with the cover being
as successful as it is. He wasnt afraid to take the song to the depths of
despair, and I chose to show that by making that despair the focal
point of the piece.

Sources

Joyce, Colin. "Jack White's 15 Best Cover Songs." Rollingstone. 21 May

2014. Web. 7 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/jack-whites-15-bestcover-songs-20140521>.
McCollum, Brian. "Native Detroiter Jack White Finds True North in
Nashville." The Tennessean. 28 July 2014. Web. 7 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2014/07/28/n
ative-detroiter-jack-white-finds-true-north-in-nashville/13258303/>.
Vitale, Tom. "Dolly Parton's 'Jolene' Still Haunts Singers." NPR Music. 9
Oct. 2008. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.npr.org/2008/10/09/95520570/dolly-partons-jolene-stillhaunts-singers>.