Broken Bricks

Great punk rock sound with that twangy, strangled cat vocal. old days before detroit was a graveyard. "felt your boyfriends fist..."

I think Blackjack Davey had it.

I know a couple places like that around where I live. It would make sense for a musician, especially one like Jack, to pay tribute to a place like that.

Also, he's going back to the color scheme again. Bricks are most often Red and cemented with White.

From a recent FILTER Mag article Jack White wrote, he says: "It was a popular pastime for kids growing up in Detroit; scouring through abandoned buildings looking for whatever you could find. I was a born garbage-picker."

I think this song reflects that "scouring through abandoned buildings" pastime; he sees it as a Detroit thing, which would also fit with some of the other lyrics about Detroit from the Stripes' debut album, like "The Big 3 Killed My Baby." (The later "Rag and Bone" is more about the "garbage-picking" aspect he mentions.)

Well, if you read more into the White Stripes, you find that they aren't like most bands. They write songs that mean something to them,not so much to how they could get more people to listen .: like most modern musicans:no disrespect:. So, I'm saying I have no clue, but it is a good toe tapper. But the only person that probably would know best, could and only be the White Stripes.

oo i love this song.
I think it's just about a place 'the broken bricks' that used to be nice and where people could go and hang out that over the years became run down and polluted.

i heard the broken is this old place somewhere by where jack grew up in detroit and its just like the song describes, a place where kids went and did stuff just to do stuff

Obviously a run down or demolition area where the kids hang out at.

It's about the state of Detroit after the race riots, as it was was never restored. I think the building site Jack describes is like a metaphor for growing up in a city that is a shadow of its former self.

somewhat insane, you're an idiot.

acci dent don't say stuff like that he's welcome to his opinion and who could possibly know what the intention behind this song was anyway, he's probably right.

What does it say to me? Could it be the proverbial 'Closet'? Where secrets are kept, where sins are kept under lock and key never to be revealed.

'Broken Bricks' are a clear indication of this, bricks are made to build things with, here, a life, 'the building blocks of life' is a common phrase. Broken bricks symbolise weaknesses in the structure, parts not to be seen IMHO.

There seems also to be a political message here, 'jump over water but you land in oil'... if the place is full of oil, it seems that the Stripes seem to think oil is a controvertial topic and it almost undoubtedly is.