What could make the White Stripes’ histrionic kitsch-fest "Conquest" even more over-the-top — perhaps a video starring Jack White as a macho toreador? Ah, but they already went there. Well, what if they remade the song in a foreign language, making sure to enunciate every syllable as furiously as they could? Yep, they thought of that too. Behold "Conquista," the "Conquest"-en-Español self-cover they let out this morning:
The mechanics of this thing boggle the mind. "Conquest" was already a cover of a novelty-ish tune that Patti Page made famous in the early 1950s; that makes this some kind of third-degree experiment in camp. Jack’s got a passable Spanish pronunciation, though — dude really relishes rolling those r’s. And if anything, I’ve gotta say that the song’s absurdly melodramatic tone almost works better in this new tongue.
"Conquista" also put me in mind of Beck’s "Burro" — a trippy Spanish-language mariachi version of his own track "Jack-Ass," released as a B-side in 1997, and rediscovered by me this week thanks to the awesome new Odelay deluxe reissue. (The only link I could find for "Burro" comes with a user-created montage of fairly disturbing Luis Buñuel clips; watch at your own risk!) And people like the Beatles and Johnny Cash used to release unintentionally hilarious German versions of their own hits all the time. All in all, I gotta say not enough alt-rock artists re-record their own tunes in other languages these days. But are there any other good examples I’m missing?
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Bravo White Stripes, Bravo!
Wow– Jack & Meg, kinda goofy…hmmm.
I heard this song – not this rendition – for the first time last year: its the ‘entrance song’ for Cleveland Indians reliever Rafael Betancourt. The guys who play the music at now-Progressive Field (that hurt to type) play the beegeezus out of it.
Awesome, Jack kinda looks like Sweeney Todd this time, but he kinda looks like Sweeney Todd the rest of the time too.
“Toro-cam” should be employed more often in music videos. There are several singers I wouldn’t mind watching get skewered.
The White Stripes are one of the few semi-new bands that I genuinely like. They really have the spirit of Led Zep. I love that they are an over-the-top-band; those are the best ones, think Queen. Keep it up!
Jack White writes brilliant and awesome songs himself, but even his choices of songs to cover are stunning. “Conquest” is one of my favorites, and the bullfight video is just priceless. In part it’s a tribute to the drama and pageantry of the bullfight as a part of Mexican culture; and in part it raises a question about the feelings of the noble bull, and whether we might be better off loving animals than killing them. So it’s a paradox, and a thought-provoking one at that.
On another tangent, I have to say that Jack White is the singularly most beautiful human being I think I have ever seen. And the Conquest video has some nice close-up face shots that show why. And the toreador/matador garb is the ultimate in sexy machismo.
in