Ball and Biscuit
The White Stripes, 2003. Solo by Jack White.
Seven minutes of Big Muff blues.
Jack White plays every guitar part here, with Meg White's heavy, sparse drumming as the only accompaniment. The track is essentially a chain of solos, each erupting out of White's half-spoken vocal. The tone comes from a Big Muff fuzz and a DigiTech Whammy, which he used to leap an octave above for piercing, shrieking high notes. His Airline guitar adds a raw edge. The playing escalates with each break. Listen for the octave jumps from the Whammy pedal; they create a sudden, screaming leap that turns a slow blues into something wild.
Ball and Biscuit by The White Stripes is ranked #80 in our consensus of 79 guitar-solo lists. The solo is played by Jack White and the song was released in 2003. It appears on 7 lists, placing as high as #3 (Far Out Magazine).
The story of Ball and Biscuit
Ball and Biscuit is the eighth track on Elephant, the White Stripes' fourth album, and at 7:18 it is the longest studio recording the duo ever made. It is a straight twelve-bar blues in E minor at a slow 74 beats per minute, with the classic pattern of repeated opening lines. Jack White credited the inspiration partly to Willie Dixon's The Seventh Son, and wrote the rather loose lyric shortly before recording, describing the moment as if a devil had seized him and he could hear nothing but guitars.
The narrator boasts of being a seventh son while pursuing an uninterested woman, a nod to White's own family, since he is the seventh of ten children. White has said the song pokes fun at the way swagger gets treated as social currency. The title has an obvious innuendo, but it actually comes from the studio: an STC 4021 microphone, nicknamed the ball and biscuit for its shape, that was used during the Elephant sessions.
The album was cut in April and May 2002 at Liam Watson's Toe Rag Studios in Hackney, London, a room stocked only with equipment made before 1963 and centred on an eight-track tape machine, with no computers involved. Released in April 2003 on V2 and XL, Elephant made the band international stars, yet Ball and Biscuit was never issued as a standalone single. A promotional release followed only in October 2020, ahead of the band's Greatest Hits collection.
The solo
Jack White plays every guitar part, with Meg White's sparse, heavy drumming as the only accompaniment. Rolling Stone, which ranked it No. 35 among the 100 greatest guitar solos, describes the track as essentially one long solo or a chain of solos, each erupting out of White's half-spoken vocal. The tone comes from an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff fuzz, and on Elephant White also used a DigiTech Whammy WH-4 pitch shifter, which he said let him leap an octave above everyone else and which produces the piercing, shrieking high notes in the breaks. His main guitars for the album were a 1964 Airline Res-O-Glass and a 1950s Kay hollowbody, played through a Fender Twin Reverb or Silvertone amp and captured on Toe Rag's vintage eight-track. The playing escalates in intensity with each break.
Legacy
Ball and Biscuit is widely seen as the White Stripes' high-water mark. In a 2012 Rolling Stone readers' poll it was voted Jack White's best recording by a landslide, and in 2026 the magazine placed it at No. 35 on its 100 Greatest Guitar Solos. Kitty Empire of The Guardian called it astonishing, and The Washington Post suggested it might be the band's definitive statement. Bob Dylan admired it enough to perform it with White in Detroit in 2004, and it later appeared in the opening of The Social Network.
Top 10 facts about Ball and Biscuit
At 7:18, Ball and Biscuit is the longest studio track the White Stripes released.
WikipediaThe title refers to the STC 4021 microphone, nicknamed the ball and biscuit, used at Toe Rag during the sessions.
SongfactsJack White is the seventh of ten children, which feeds the song's seventh-son boast.
WikipediaThe song is a twelve-bar blues in E minor at about 74 beats per minute.
WikipediaToe Rag Studios used only gear made before 1963, including a battered eight-track tape recorder, and no computers.
Happy MagRolling Stone ranked the track No. 35 on its 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time, highlighting its Big Muff fuzz.
Rolling StoneBob Dylan performed the song live with Jack White in Detroit on March 17, 2004; the recording was issued as a Third Man 7-inch in 2023.
WikipediaThe song was never released as a standalone single, getting only a promotional release in October 2020.
WikipediaIt was used in the opening of David Fincher's The Social Network and in a Captain Morgan advertisement.
WikipediaOn Saturday Night Live in October 2020 White performed a reworked version that folded in lyrics from a Blind Willie Johnson song about the 1918 flu pandemic.
Songfacts
Live versions
- Under Blackpool Lights (Empress Ballroom, Blackpool) (2004) The band's first official concert film, shot on Super 8 by Dick Carruthers in January 2004.
- With Bob Dylan, Detroit (2004) Dylan sang it with White joining on March 17, 2004; released on 7-inch by Third Man in 2023.
- Under Great White Northern Lights (2010) Recorded on the 2007 Canadian tour; a 3:08 version quoting two Robert Johnson songs.
- Saturday Night Live (2020) Jack White solo medley reworking the song with Blind Willie Johnson pandemic lyrics.
Notable covers
- Bob Dylan (2004) Performed it in concert in Detroit with Jack White sitting in.
In our lists
- Deep Cuts — #39
- The Greatest Solo of Every Year — #60
- Genre Champions — #27
- The Modern Canon: Best Since 1990 — #16
- The 25 Greatest Blues Rock Guitar Solos — #18
- The 25 Greatest Indie Rock Guitar Solos — #5
- The 25 Greatest Rock Guitar Solos — #1
- The 2000s — #2
- Best of the 21st Century — #9
- Whammy, Fuzz & Feedback — #6
- Epic-Length Solos — #18
- Critics' Picks — #19
Sources
- Far Out Magazine: The 10 best guitar solos of the 21st century — #3
- Guitar World: The greatest guitar solos of the 21st century... so far — #9
- The Metal Circus (Spain), reproducing Q magazine: Los 20 mejores solos de guitarra — #20
- Rolling Stone: The 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time — #35
- uDiscover Music: The Best Guitar Solos Of All Time: 108 Amazing Moments — #38
- NME: 50 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time — #46
- Guitar Tricks: 200 Best Guitar Solos of All Time — #61
- Guitar Player: 50 Badass Blues Guitar Solos You Must Hear
- RAG Music: ギターソロがかっこいい洋楽の名曲まとめ
- Megarock.se: Rockens bästa gitarrsolon genom tiderna
- Wikipedia: Ball and Biscuit
- Wikipedia: Under Blackpool Lights
- Wikipedia: Under Great White Northern Lights
- Songfacts: Ball and Biscuit
- Rolling Stone: 100 Greatest Guitar Solos, The White Stripes, Ball and Biscuit
- Happy Mag: Engineering the Sound, The White Stripes' Elephant
Who played the guitar solo on Ball and Biscuit?
Jack White played the solo on The White Stripes's Ball and Biscuit (2003).
What guitar was used on the Ball and Biscuit solo?
An airline, with DigiTech Whammy, Big Muff, according to widely reported accounts.
Where does Ball and Biscuit rank among the greatest guitar solos?
#80 in the GreatestSolos consensus of 79 published lists; it appears on 7 of them.
What does Ball and Biscuit mean?
Despite the innuendo, it is the nickname of the STC 4021 microphone used at Toe Rag Studios during the Elephant sessions.
What album is Ball and Biscuit on?
It is track eight on the White Stripes' 2003 album Elephant.
What pedals did Jack White use on Ball and Biscuit?
Rolling Stone points to a Big Muff fuzz; on Elephant White also used a DigiTech Whammy for his high, shrieking leads.
Who is the seventh son in Ball and Biscuit?
The narrator claims the title, echoing Willie Dixon's The Seventh Son and Jack White being the seventh of ten children.
How long is Ball and Biscuit?
The studio version runs 7:18, the longest White Stripes studio recording.