Bored and Razed

Album: Help Us Stranger (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • The Raconteurs kick off their Help Us Stranger album with this garage rocker featuring scattergun verses by Jack White about a girl who's "California bored and razed." Though she's living with another, he's still thinking of her.
  • White explained in a video that he and guitarist Brendon Benson wrote the music for this early on in the recording process for Help Us Stranger. However, they didn't add any lyrics or vocals until they were getting down to the final track. They only did so because drummer Patrick Keeler was begging for them to finish the song before it was too late.

    White added: "I'm really glad it because what me and Brendan went out and did vocally at that moment was right off the top of our heads and it really turned into a track that could only go first on the album."
  • The song features a strong Detroit influence and even has a lyric about White's place of birth.

    Well, I'm Detroit born and raised

    White told The Sun the song "has an MC5 vibe to it." Garage rockers MC5 had a fervent live following in the Detroit area in the late '60s and early '70s.

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