Wanda Jackson + Jack White Cover Dylan's 'Thunder on the Mountain' -- Video Premiere

Posted on Jan 18th 2011 11:00AM by Dan Reilly
Comments

Jo McCaughey

The Queen of Rockabillycovering possibly the greatest singer-songwriter ever alongside one of today's most prolific artists, is a pretty easy sell. That said, Wanda Jackson and Jack White's new version of Bob Dylan's 'Thunder on the Mountain' is even better than it sounds on paper. As Jackson tells Spinner, the decision to cover this track was easy -- it was Dylan's idea.

"Jack wanted me to do a Bob song," Jackson tells Spinner. "They're longstanding friends and Bob suggested 'Thunder on the Mountain.'"

Jackson and White took a few liberties with Dylan's version, with the singer changing the lyrics of the second verse to pay tribute to her old friend Jerry Lee Lewis. "In Bob's version, he sings 'thinking about Alicia Keys,'" she says. "'Jerry Lee' fit right in there."

The video for the song features the Third Man House Band, which features White on lead guitar and will serve as Jackson's backing group on tour. While the nondescript setting for the clip looks as if it could be either a banquet hall or meeting space, Jackson reveals it was actually somewhere much more special: "It was filmed in a record plant in Nashville where they were pressing the vinyl copies of my record."

On top of all the work White did producing the album and contributing some phenomenal guitar lines, the 73-year-old Jackson credits him for giving the video its raucous feel. "We did take after take after take, all afternoon, so they got all the angles that they wanted, and he was in rare form," she says. "Every time that we taped it, he had the energy, jumping around like that and playing the guitar."

'The Party Ain't Over' will be out Jan. 25 via Nonesuch Records and White's Third Man Records.

Download Wanda Jackson Songs | Buy Wanda Jackson Albums