Three Dollar Hat

Album: Dodge And Burn (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • One of Jack White's few lead vocal turns on a Dead Weather song, "Three Dollar Hat" finds him and Alison Mosshart trading lines at the mic. They tell the tale of Jackie Lee, who vows wild revenge after his hat is stolen.
  • When Entertainment Weekly spoke to Mosshart about the Dodge And Burn album, she explained how the Dead Weather music isn't meticulously crafted. "As per usual with the Dead Weather, it was written and recorded at the same time. There's not a lot of thought put into the writing of the music," she said. "It's really just a human, organic explosion. Everyone starts playing at the same time and we start writing lyrics at the same time - just making stuff up and singing."
  • Here are some fun hat facts from The Encyclopedia of Trivia:

    Probably the first real hat was the broad-brimmed petasos of the ancient Greeks. It was worn only for traveling, as a protection against the weather. A chin strap held the petasos on or allowed it to hang down the back when not needed.

    The wearing of hats was made compulsory on Sundays and holidays in early seventeenth century Britain, in order to preserve the livelihood of the country's 8,000 hat makers.

    Abraham Lincoln kept his important documents inside his hat.

    Tipping the hat comes from the military salute, which in turn comes from men in armor lifting the visor to show their faces.

    A ten-gallon hat actually holds a little less than one gallon.

    London black cabs are designed to be tall enough for a gentleman to sit in without the need to remove his top hat.
  • The Dead Weather did most of their damage in 2009 and 2010 when they released their first two albums and toured behind them. But the band members all had other stuff going on and were soon drawn away - Mosshart refocused her efforts with The Kills and Jack White (the drummer in The Dead Weather) started recording as a solo artist. They didn't release another album until Dodge And Burn in 2015 and didn't follow it up with a tour.

Comments: 1

  • Linda M Bowyer from Arlington VaMississippi John Hurt, "Stagolee". This is the original story/song with a few minor changes. It is not word for word. No credit given either sadly.
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