Analysis of Popular Music

Spring 2014
Joshua Ng

An analysis of Catch Hell Blues by The White Stripes

The song starts out with a rhythmically free but metered improvisatory guitar passage, the
style of which strongly suggests Delta Blues musicians such as Son House. Both him and Jack
White use the bottleneck sliding technique, a recognizable trait of the Delta Blues. The White
Stripes is associated with genres such as alternative rock, garage rock and punk rock. The heavy
blues influence has led some to label the band as blues rock. "Catch Hell Blues," as its title
suggests, does show salient blues features such as pitch slides on chords and inflections on the
third scale degree. The guitar distortion and the low-fidelity approach to the album version of the
song suggest a garage punk style. The free approach in tempo that is characteristic of blues,
however, does not blend well with the regularized beats of the standard rock rhythms. Therefore
the improvisatory passages are placed in the two outer sections (the introduction and at the
postlude) and in the middle section of the song, resulting in an ABABA form. For the
introduction and the middle section, a simple melodic fragment harmonized with a VI - VII - V
progression leaves the passage with a half cadence that sets up the subsequent verse. The final
iteration of the fragment takes place in the end of the final section and leads to a Picardy third.

The five-part plan can be further divided into sub-sections. The first A section is formed
by an improvisatory passage (labeled Intro 1 in the attached chart) and a strictly in-tempo subsection (Intro 2) in which the guitar plays the vamp (notated in chart.) The order of the two
sub-sections is reversed in the last A section. The B section can be divided into three subsections, each having its own distinct vamp. Both the verse and the chorus contain 8 measures.
Following the chorus is a 2-measure interlude that leads back to section A.

There are no explicit blues elements in the B sections. The progression sounds like
typical rock vamps and is predominantly in A minor. The power chords might be the most salient
rock feature in this song. Regularized rock rhythm contrasts with the rubato-laden improvisatory
passages. The whole song feels stylistically coherent, thanks to the timbre of the guitar which
unites the "rock" and "blues" sections, and the homogenous harmony.

The simplicity of the lyrics and the way they are organized hark back to blues. There are
only few lines of lyrics in this whole four minutes of a song. The lyrics are based on a simple
premise - you will "catch hell" for doing certain things. In the first verse, "I'm gonna catch hell"
serves as the hook. In the second verse, the tone becomes more cautionary. The listeners are
warned "You're gonna catch hell," if they are "testing God." The placement of the lyrics is
interesting because the first complete line of lyrics comes in at the second half of the verse, and
there is no lyrics in the chorus section. Instead, the guitar takes center stage and plays a riff that
reminds one of the famous riff in "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath.

Only a small part of the entire songs melodic and rhythmic material belongs to the vocal,
which is less prominent than the guitar. The syncopated motif in "Intro 2" section is more
memorable than the vocal melodies. The focus of this song is purposefully, it seems, placed on
Jack Whites guitar techniques, whereas the vocal part is only of secondary importance.