Danko Jones, Jack White: Raconteurs Covered His Song 'Samuel Sin'

Divisive hardcore Toronto rocker Danko Jones has a peculiar and diverse list of accolades. Populist heshers like Guns n' Roses and Nickelback have taken the man and his three-piece band on tour with them across Canada. Meanwhile, in Europe he's rock royalty, and a peer to the likes of real-deal acts Motorhead and Kyuss.

Then there's also the recently released book Too Much Trouble: A Very Oral History of Danko Jones by Pitchfork writer Stuart Berman that's making everyone re-evaluate Danko based on his connection to the hardcore, punk and indie rock scenes at the turn of the century.

Perhaps the best feather in the cap for Danko Jones might be a musical endorsement from Raconteurs/Dead Weather/White Stripes main man Jack White and his Raconteurs bandmate Brendan Benson. The Raconteurs covered Danko's song "Samuel Sin" while touring across Europe in 2006.

It's a shame Jones never got to see them and company perform it, though. He was in bed.

"I had to be in bed by 9," Jones tells Spinner, setting up the story of why he missed one of the biggest rock stars in the world playing his song.

Danko Jones, the band -- then featuring Jones on guitars and vocals, JC on bass, and Dan Cornelius on drums (who has since been replaced by Rocket From the Crypt's Atom Willard for the band's most recent album Rock and Roll is Black and Blue) -- were in Malmo, Sweden on a day off from their European tour when the Raconteurs came to town.

Unfortunately, Jones was on enforced bedrest to deal with a detached retina he had suffered from slapping himself in the face too much on stage (you read that right). The rest of the band had no problems leaving him behind to go to the Raconteurs show.

"So Dan and JC were going to this show where the Raconteurs were," he continues. "I had to be in bed. We had been talking before and we were like, 'Maybe they'd heard of us, I don't know... we're so close to Detroit. Maybe if you get backstage or something you could give them some CDs...'

The rhythm section went to show and Danko went to sleep. Until his phone started ringing non-stop.

"My phone started going off at like 10 or 11. I was half asleep, but I knew something was up. I checked my messages and it's JC freaking out because they [Raconteurs] started in on 'Samuel Sin.'

"We had absolutely no idea they knew who we were. In fact, JC said he was talking to somebody and then he stopped and he goes, 'They're doing our song!' and he immediately started calling me over and over again."

Even though Jack White seems more partial to covering old-timers like Lead Belly these days "Samuel Sin" is right in his wheelhouse. The short, spiky song from Danko Jones' 1999 My Love is Bold EP perfect White-baiting sinister-blues lines like "My mama raised a devil child/Now mama got a good reason to cry."

On top of missing all this action because he was bedridden, Danko also didn't get to meet the band.

"So what happened was after the show JC went backstage by himself," says Jones. "It was almost like this weird thing where everybody knew who he was backstage... they just let him backstage, he got to meet the band and everybody was cool.

"When they came back two years later we were staying at a house in Amsterdam and the Raconteurs came there. So I saw the show, I was there by myself after the show and I just stood there going, 'What do I do? Do I go backstage?' Just the thought of having to go through security and having to convince people that I was connected... they didn't do the song that night... so I just turned around and walked home."

The way these awkward mutual admiration societies often work out is that eventually the two parties get together to do something. That hasn't quite worked out yet.

"We reached out to Jack and we were interested in him recording our last two albums -- Never Too Loud or Below the Belt -- but he was either too busy or couldn't do it or something like that," says Jones.

Still, Jones has heard the Raconteurs cover via mp3s that have passed to him. He approves.

"I always appreciated Jack for doing that," he says. "They changed it up. Their version they changed the key, they put in a guitar solo... it was much better than our version."

Note 9/15: This has been edited slightly to add Raconteur member Brendan Benson to the story. Apparently he was a big DJ fan and was the one who actually initiated covering the song.