Detroit's global sports anthem: The White Stripes' 'Seven Nation Army'

Brian McCollum | Detroit Free Press

In a World Cup teeming with upsets, shocks and all manner of drama, there's been at least one reliable constant these past two weeks: “Seven Nation Army.”

As the introductory music for every match at this summer’s international soccer tournament, the 2003 White Stripes song is getting its biggest airing yet, the culmination of a long, grassroots rise that has made it the most prolific anthem in sports. At the World Cup, the Detroit duo’s track is blasted inside stadiums as teams take the field, often drowned out on TV as tens of thousands chant along to the music.

If you don’t know it by name, you almost surely know “Seven Nation Army” when you hear it — especially the instantly memorable hook that has been adapted by sports fans into a galvanizing wordless chant. Jack White’s seven-note riff, created off the cuff during a concert sound check 16 years ago, has become truly transcendent, played and sung at events across the globe.

It’s an organic, culture-spanning phenomenon accelerated by 21st-Century globalism and technology: “Seven Nation Army” was first embraced by groups of European soccer supporters, whose enthusiastic chanting caught the attention of college football fans stateside. Soon it was a staple at U.S. stadiums and arenas for games of all kinds — often as a mass singalong not traditionally seen in American sports — while growing overseas into the most ubiquitous sound in world soccer.

You could probably spend days on YouTube watching all the fan-created sports clips that use the White Stripes song as an adrenaline-activating soundtrack.

And now, as it pumps up crowds in Russian stadiums and makes its way into the ears of 3 billion-plus World Cup viewers, “Seven Nation Army” has cemented its towering legacy. In Russia, according to one fan on the ground, the song has been pervasive beyond the games — constantly played in bars, restaurants and other gathering spots in the tournament’s host cities.

The White Stripes split up in 2011, and when it comes to "Seven Nation Army," Jack White is just “proud that I was a conduit and antenna at one moment in time for other people to help express themselves,” as he told the Free Press in 2016. The song still closes his own live shows.

“What thrills me the most is that people are chanting a melody, which separates it from chants like ‘Thank God I’m a Country Boy’ and ‘We Will Rock You’ and many of the most popular songs where large groups tend to clap or sing words and not just notes,” White said. “I especially love that most people have no idea what song the melody they are chanting came from.”

White and his team jumped on this summer’s World Cup opportunity with FIFA — with extra motivation thanks to the Detroit-born musician’s Polish heritage.

“Jack agreed to this as the sport side of this folk song originated with football — (Belgium’s) Club Brugge and then (Italy’s) A.S. Roma — and then grew and was adopted by all sports and beyond,” said Ian Montone, White’s longtime manager. “We thought it was fitting to make this happen for this World Cup, and more so with Poland qualifying. It’s a true folk song and we want to let people define its meaning however they want, be that through sport, community, themes of perseverance or you name it.”

Jack and Meg White knew they had lightning in a bottle when they recorded “Seven Nation Army” for “Elephant,” the Detroit rock duo’s fourth album. But it’s unlikely anyone in that studio imagined quite what lay ahead.

Ben Blackwell, Jack White's nephew and head of Third Man Records’ vinyl operation, got an early glimpse of the song’s collective power when the White Stripes played Belgium’s Pukkelpop festival in August 2004. The duo had finished their main set and were heading back out to play their "Seven Nation Army" encore — and the crowd was already in full voice.

“Backstage, one of us pointed out: ‘They’re chanting a riff! They’re not singing lyrics — they’re just chanting the melody,’ ” said Blackwell. “When’s the last time you heard that? I don’t know that I’ve heard anyone chant ‘Smoke on the Water’ or ‘Iron Man.’ But here you’ve got 40,000 Belgians chanting in a cornfield.”

Closer to home, the song has been gustily chanted at University of Michigan football games in a stadium packed with 100,000-plus. The Lions, Tigers and Pistons have made it part of their in-game music arsenals. It has been a go-to selection for area marching bands, from middle school on up.

And Detroit may get another big taste of “Seven Nation Army” next week: The CBS-TV reality show “The Amazing Race” has been planning to round up hundreds of local musicians for a massive group performance of the song. (The shoot was originally planned for Belle Isle on Tuesday, but a permit was denied and the crew is seeking a new site.)

An unmistakable riff

On the White Stripes’ recorded track, the hook comes in two forms: a dark phrase during the song’s verses — sounding like a bass, but created by White with a vintage guitar and effects pedal — and squalls of slide guitar that detonate in between.



It would be tough to argue that it isn’t the most recognizable rock riff of this century — and indeed right up there with the likes of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Walk This Way” among the best-known of all time.

The guitar? A 1950 Kay Hollowbody from the St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop in southwest Detroit — a gift from White’s brother for his help moving a fridge.

“What stands out is that dramatic bass line,” said Stan Fracker, the Detroit Tigers’ director of in-game entertainment. “It sounds simple, but if it were simple it would have been created many times over. Jack White struck upon something that resonated quickly with people.”

For a time, that riff was the handpicked walk-up music for Tigers shortstop Jose Iglesias, and it still makes frequent appearances over the speakers at Comerica Park.

“We’ll use it in key moments, whenever we know we need a boost from the crowd,” said Fracker. “There’s a lot of songs at ballparks and stadiums across the country. This one works because of the response from the crowd — it’s an opportunity for them to lend their voices to the song. That’s what sets it apart. You hear that bass line and you know what you’re supposed to do.”

Break it down musically, and it’s easy to hear why those two bars of music resonate with fans in the sports battleground. The feel is muscular, almost martial, while sneaking in a bit of bouncy brightness with the rhythmic triplet that leads the melody’s descending notes. It’s an ominous call-to-arms that just happens to be a catchy earworm.

The song’s adaptability into a chant also benefits from White’s decision not to include a chorus. Instead, the riff stands alone and unmistakable as the track’s main theme.

“Part of the exercise and challenge for me as a songwriter with ‘Seven Nation Army’ was to try to not put a chorus in the song,” White said. “I wanted to see how powerful I could make the track without resorting to (that).”

As with the rest of the soccer world, “Seven Nation Army” is a fixture with crowds at U.S. national team matches, led by the American Outlaws supporters group. The chant is often spontaneous, erupting amid the euphoria after goals, said Justin Brunken, who co-founded the group in 2007.

“It’s simple, it’s catchy and it’s very epic — and those are the three keys to these things,” said Brunken. “Especially with national-team stuff, where you’re in different cities with new fans, you need something that everybody knows, and those are the songs that catch on.”

A high point with 'Elephant'

“Seven Nation Army” was born during a crucial period in the White Stripes’ career. Having cut their teeth in the snug bars of Detroit’s Cass Corridor, Jack and Meg White were at last breaking big with the 2001 album “White Blood Cells.”

“They weren’t huge rock stars at that point, but the writing was on the wall,” said Blackwell. “What (musicians) create in that moment is oftentimes their high point. And a lot of people would say that about the White Stripes — that ‘Elephant’ is the best thing they did.”

Jack White concocted the now-famous riff during a sound check ahead of a January 2002 concert at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne, Australia. In his notes, White dubbed it “Bond Theme,” figuring he might stow it away if a soundtrack ever came calling.

“I played the riff over and over in front of Meg White and our friend Ben Swank,” White told the Free Press. “I seemed to be the only person who thought it was interesting at the time, but it grew on my musician friends eventually.”

Swank’s initial dismissiveness — he asked White if the riff was a variation on Bob Seger’s “2+2=?” — has become part of White Stripes lore.

“It takes that Midwestern, no-big-deal attitude to say that,” Blackwell said with a laugh.

Three months later, with the song fleshed out and lyrics added, “Seven Nation Army” was cut in a London studio as part of the “Elephant” sessions.

But with “White Blood Cells” still riding high, the White Stripes sat on the album, and nearly a year passed before the world got to hear the record’s potent opening track.

“I remember a conversation with Meg during that interim,” Blackwell said. “She had this kind of tone in her voice, a foregone conclusion that ‘Seven Nation Army’ was a big, big deal.”

The album was finally released in spring 2003, with lead single “Seven Nation Army” ultimately spending three weeks atop Billboard’s alternative-songs chart and going Top 10 across Europe.

Beginnings of a sports anthem

It may be impossible to precisely track the grassroots rise of “Seven Nation Army” as a universal sports anthem. But there’s a generally accepted history at this point, pieced together in various accounts through the years — most notably a 2012 Deadspin piece by sportswriter Alan Siegel — and endorsed by folks in White’s camp.

Most trace the origins to a bar in Milan, Italy, seven months after the song’s release, as fans of Belgian soccer’s Club Brugge gathered before their team’s match against powerhouse A.C. Milan. “Seven Nation Army” happened to play on the bar’s jukebox; the Belgian fans picked up the melody and carried the chant into the stadium — where their team pulled off an upset victory.

“Seven Nation Army” became a staple for Brugge supporters, and three years later, they were chanting loud and proud while hosting Italy’s A.S. Roma. The song caught the ears of that club’s supporters, who adopted it as their own.

That summer, the chant was Italy’s inescapable fan theme as the national team played and ultimately won the 2006 World Cup. Its destiny in Europe was set.

“Seven Nation Army,” meantime, had been making some headway on this side of the Atlantic. In fall 2003, the song was featured as bumper music during Major League Baseball’s playoffs, and months later, was cranking out of the sound system at an international rugby event in Los Angeles.

In late 2006 — with the Italians’ embrace of the tune as inspiration — it was showing up across the U.S. sports landscape: Penn State football was a notable early adopter, and fans there embraced it as their rally song of choice. By decade’s end, “Seven Nation Army” was fully entrenched in American sports.

“The legs that it’s shown means there’s some kind of zeitgeist-collective-unconscious that it has tapped into, more powerful than you can ascribe words to,” said Blackwell.

In 2016, White reflected on the song with the Free Press, where “Seven Nation Army” ranked No. 6 in Detroit’s 100 Greatest Songs, based on voting by local music professionals and fans.

“As a songwriter, it is one of the things I am most proud of being a part of,” White said. “Modern folk music around the world happens when groups of people gather together in larger numbers, not in small homes and villages like (they) used to in the past.”

And he’s happy to concede that the song is now well out of his hands and in the safekeeping of the world at large.

“The less people know where it came from, the more it is ingrained in the tradition of folk music,” he said. “And the more it feels anonymous to the public, the more I’m fulfilled as a songwriter.”

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.