"The Big Three Killed My Baby" was released in March 1999 as a 7" single and is the third track on re-releases of ''

The White Stripes The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums wit ...

'', the eponymous debut of the

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

-based American garage rock band

. A live recording of the song is featured on '' Under Blackpool Lights''; the band's first official DVD release. The single is backed with "Red Bowling Ball Ruth". " The Big Three" refers to the three major automakers in the 1950s and 1960s:

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

, Chrysler and General Motors, all of which have their headquarters in Detroit. The song is an attack on these companies, relating to the engineering technique of

planned obsolescence In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is a policy of planning or designing a good (economics), product with an artificially limited Product lifetime, useful life o ...

, and a short-sighted lack of innovation.

Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...

has stated in interviews that he does not believe music to be a viable medium for political messages and didn't write another political song until the 2007 release of "

Icky Thump ''Icky Thump'' is the sixth and final studio album by American rock duo The White Stripes, released through Warner Bros. and Third Man Records in June 2007, with XL Recordings handling the United Kingdom release. Its first release came on June ...

" (which criticizes American immigration policy). The song mentions "Tucker's blood", a reference to

Preston Tucker Preston Thomas Tucker (21 September 1903 – 26 December 1956) was an American automobile entrepreneur. He is most remembered for his Tucker 48 sedan, initially nicknamed the "Tucker Torpedo", an automobile which introduced many features ...

's ill-fated

Tucker 48 The Tucker 48, commonly referred to as the Tucker Torpedo, was an automobile conceived by Preston Tucker while in Ypsilanti, Michigan and briefly produced in Chicago, Illinois in 1948. Only 51 cars were made including their prototype before the c ...

. More recently, The White Stripes have performed the song live with alternate lyrics referring to the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

: ''" Bush's hands are turning red... and I found out your baby is dead."'' The photo that the band is standing in front of on the single's cover has a note on it, which reads "Insert your money here", a reference to the costs of maintaining automobiles which are intentionally engineered to become prematurely obsolete.

Track listing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Three Killed My Baby, The 1999 singles The White Stripes songs XL Recordings singles Third Man Records singles 1999 songs Songs written by Jack White Protest songs Songs about Detroit Wikipedia requested audio of songs