Frequently Asked Questions Does what it says on the tin really... 1. Is it Jack White or John S. O'Leary who does the vocals with Dick Valentine on 'Danger! High Voltage'? 2. Is it true that 'Danger! High Voltage' was written as a response to the Bali bombing? 3. But 'Gay Bar' is about the Iraq war, isn't it? 4. Is that Tyler Spencer appearing in The White Stripes' 'My Doorbell' video? 5. When I saw the band live, Tyler Spencer played an acoustic version of a song that went something along the lines of 'Pretty girls in their underwear... is there a greater joy... I don't care.' What is it and is it an Electric Six song? (Asked by both myself (heard in Newcastle, UK) and Carl Duke (heard in the Bling Pig, Ann Arbor) 6. Who was 'Sean Perkins'? 7. Why does 'Devil Nights' sound good backwards? 8. Have they won any awards? 9. Are the paintings on the wall of the 'Danger! High Voltage' video representative of the band? 10. What are the relevant UK charting positions for the releases? 11. Is 'My Name Is Nobody' a 'Wildbunch' track? 12. What is a 'troubador' / 'troubadour'? Is it Jack White or John S. O'Leary who does the vocals with Dick Valentine on 'Danger! High Voltage'? The official story is that John S. O'Leary won a competition to appear on the track but the truth is that it is Jack White on vocals and John S. O'Leary was his pseudonym for checking into hotels. Back to top Is it true that 'Danger! High Voltage' was written as a response to the Bali bombing? Though the track was released shortly after the bombing, it has nothing to do with it. It had been written two years previously and 'fire in the disco' had nothing to do with it. Back to top But 'Gay Bar' is about the Iraq war, isn't it? Again, no. 'Gay Bar' was first recorded back in 1996 (and possibly written in 1995) and had nothing to do with any wars. The band was advised to alter the lyrics of the song as not to offend anyone during the start of the war in 2003. That is why on TV the words 'nuclear war' aren't heard and on the radio edit Tyler Spencer sings 'Let's do an edit... do a radio edit'. This was the first of the censorship, the second being the pixelating out of the various items in the video on some TV channels that actually made them look worse. So the moral of the story is: you can show shooting, death and war on TV but mention 'nuclear war' or show a pepper grinder in a music video and you will be censored. Back to top Is that Tyler Spencer appearing in The White Stripes' 'My Doorbell' video? It is not Tyler Spencer in the video. (Though see stills on the right) Back to top When I saw the band live, Tyler Spencer played an acoustic version of a song that went something along the lines of 'Pretty girls in their underwear... is there a greater joy... I don't care.' What is it and is it an Electric Six song? (Asked by both myself (heard in Newcastle, UK) and Carl Duke (heard in the Bling Pig, Ann Arbor) It is not an Electric Six song. It's called 'Underwear' and is by 'The Magnetic Fields'. The lyrics are as follows... A pretty girl in her underwear; A pretty girl in her underwear; If there's anything better in this world; who cares La mort, c'est la mort; mais l'amour, c'est l'amour; La mort, c'est seulement la mort; mais l'amour, c'est l'amour A pretty boy in his underwear; A pretty boy in his underwear; If there's a better reason to jump for joy; who cares.... [Thanks to Martin Landau for this] Back to top Who was 'Sean Perkins'? Thanks to Francis Shiers for this excellent piece of research If you look on the insert in your Fire album you will see it credits the song as being written by Joe Frezza, Steve Nawara, Anthony Selph and Tyler Spencer. But if you look at the Wildbunch, Danger (High Voltage) vinyl It says S. Perkins was involved in writing it! This would be Sean Perkins of the band previous to that of The Wildbunch, which Joe, Steve and Anthony were in! So what does this mean? Does this mean that in fact Danger! High Voltage wasn't written by Electric Six? But by a band previous to the Six containing a few members? Well this earlier band worked on material as a group rather than Valentine on his own as it is now. This song which was to become High Voltage was performed at shows around 1992 and was recorded on a 4-track demo CD in 1994, (which I would kill to hear). This song though currently was only similar musically but was different lyrically. In fact it was Sean who came up with the songs underlying chord progression. Of course though Tyler wasn't around, they hadn't even met him when this song was written, so how come he's credited? As I said the song was musically the same but lyrically different. Tyler came up with the new lyrics for High Voltage. But then how come Sean is only credited on the old single and not on the album? Well, when Sean was credited on the single he thought the band was being ridiculous and that his part in the writing of the song was too minor to be credited, therefore when Fire came out simple enough Sean's name was pulled from the credits. Beyond this indirect involvement however, Sean played no part in WB/E6. Back to top Why does 'Devil Nights' sound good backwards? I don't know. Whilst finding out the lyrics reversed at the beginning I listened to it backwards and it's surprisingly good... if not a bit strange! Back to top Have they won any awards? Yes! In Summer '05 'Gay Bar' was voted the 29th best video of all time in a Channel 4 pole. Dick Valentine was also on the program to talk about the making of the video - not a pleasant experience apparently - and also to give his views on the winner, 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson. The 'Gay Bar' video has won two awards, with Kerrang and Q, I think. Back to top Are the paintings on the wall of the 'Danger! High Voltage' video representative of the band? Yes - the directors did say this at some point. I've tried to match them up... Disco Joe Frezza Anthony Selph Other possible people: Jim Diamond? Unknown Back to top What are the relevant UK charting positions for the releases? Danger! High Voltage - #2 Gay Bar - #5 Fire - #7 Dance Commander - #40 Radio Ga Ga - #21 Senor Smoke - #105 Back to top Is 'My Name Is Nobody' a 'Wildbunch' track? No. This is a track from the soundtrack to the movie 'The Wild Bunch' and not by 'Electric Six'. Back to top What is a 'troubador' / 'troubadour'? It is a composer and performer of songs in particular styles during the Middle Ages in Europe. Back to top