Jack White is back with his first new album in almost four years, and stopped by Saturday Night Live to perform a couple of songs from the record. Social media was quick to critique with the guitar virtuoso’s work.
The 42-year-old White released Boarding House Reach last month. It is his first new studio album since 2014’s Lazaretto and includes the songs “Connected by Love,” “Respect Commander,” “Over And Over And Over,” “Ice Station Zebra” and “Corporation.”
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“Over And Over And Over” was the first song White performed during the episode. Fans noticed that host John Mulaney introduced White just like Patrick Stewart did for Salt-n-Pepa, which Mulaney referenced in his monologue.
HE DID THE SALT AND PEPPER THING BUT WITH JACK WHITE
โ the ghost of annabelle (died bc mulaney) (@weekendupdated) April 15, 2018
Jack White and his 4 Black women background singers, and bad ass lady drummer get all my love on tonight’s @nbcsnl. They’re killin this shit ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ
โ THEakasha (@_THEakasha) April 15, 2018
How many bands has Jack White been in since the dissolution of The White Stripes? It feels like at least 17. He should have just gone solo to begin with. #SNL
โ Tom Brazelton (@tombrazelton) April 15, 2018
Some fans spent the whole time comparing him to characters from Tim Burton movies.
Jack White is if Sweeney Todd stopped being a barber and got really really confident in his musical abilities.
โ manoli ๐ (@vozos) April 15, 2018
Every time I see Jack White I think of Edward Scissorhands #SNL
โ Denise Fricano (@DeniseFricano) April 15, 2018
Iโm as much of a Jack White fan as the next person, but is anyone else getting an ELP-with-gospel-choir vibe off this performance?
โ Brian Steinberg (@bristei) April 15, 2018
Others were not quite impressed.
Sorry, but Jack White was only good in The White Stripes. And now he looks like Grima Wormtongue. #JackWhite #TheWhiteStripes #SNL
โ Aleksandr Cyplakov (@acyplakov) April 15, 2018
In a recent interview with Jimmy Fallon, White said the album closer “Humoresque” was inspired by Al Capone.
“I saw this auction that said ‘handwritten sheet music by Al Capone in Alcatraz,’” White told Fallon. “I thought, ‘What could that possibly be?’ It said ‘Humoresque’ written on it, and I was like, ‘Did he write a song in Alcatraz?’ And the description said, ‘He was in a band in Alcatraz. He convinced the warden to buy the music equipment. The band was called the Rock Islanders, and Machine Gun Kelly was the drummer in the band.’”
White bought the sheet music and recorded it in New York with the help of drummer Louis Cato and keyboardist Neil Evans. An office worker overheard them, and recognized the music as Czech composer Antonรญn Dvoลรกk’s “Humoresques.”
“We found out through research some that other lyricist wrote [the lyrics] in the Thirties,” White said. “So apparently Al Capone remembered it in prison and wrote it out by hand for his band to play. It’s a beautiful song for a murderer.”
White also recently wrote a children’s book, called We’re Going to Be Friends, based on the White Stripes song of the same name.
Photo credit: Rosalind O’Connor/NBC
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