It's Been Done Before, A Seven Nation Army...

January 8, 2012 11:47 AM

Seven Nation Army (original) - The Glitch MOB Remix of the song is used in the G.I. Joe 2 Trailer, which inspired me to dig up some of the better versions of the song. Nostalgia 77 - Acoustic Cover - 8 Bit - Piano - Pamplemoose - Ben l'Oncle Son - Brazilian Mefi - And of course a Ukulele - Previously on the Blue
posted by MechEng (36 comments total)

The Adam Freeland remix is the best.

I used to play the hell out of it when I was DJing. Guaranteed to fill the dance floor.
posted by empath at 11:56 AM on January 8 [2 favorites]

♡
posted by Tom-B at 11:58 AM on January 8

The Dynamics
posted by criticalbill at 12:15 PM on January 8

That Alice Russell version is amazing.
posted by voltairemodern at 12:23 PM on January 8

Generally speaking, I like the White Stripes, but they're not my favorite. But this song... I just find it amazing. I distinctly remember the very first time that I heard it. Within no more than five seconds, I was thinking "Oh, I love this song! I haven't heard it in so long! Who does this again?"

I spent the next several minutes in a strange mixture of growing confusion and growing awe. And it was a long time after that - and several listens - before I was fully convinced that it wasn't a cover of some stupendous but long-forgotten song.

I once saw some mefite refer to this song as "primeval". That pretty much sums up this song for me.
posted by Flunkie at 12:26 PM on January 8 [7 favorites]

Pamplemoose = Pomplamoose
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 12:35 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

So on the one hand, Seven Nation Army is a genuinely great song and that riff will be with us for, like, centuries. Two hundred years from now, our miserable post-apocalyptic descendants will hum it to themselves as they labor as slaves, working to harvest radioactive slime mold from the food mines, and it will ever so slightly soothe their bleak and hopeless lives.

But on the other hand, in this cover the Flaming Lips own the song so thoroughly that really, Jack White should be paying Wayne Coyne royalties.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:37 PM on January 8 [7 favorites]

I have always loved this song to pieces, but why the fuck has no one told me about Alice Russell before?
posted by maudlin at 12:41 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

dude, umbu's macapá version is awesome, me & the posse are addicted to it, congrats and ♡ again
posted by Tom-B at 12:41 PM on January 8

I have shit taste in music and even I know this song kicks ass.
posted by Justinian at 12:44 PM on January 8

I like the flow of the Glitch Mob version, and listened to it happily, but the dynamic is off. It doesn't EXPLODE into the chorus like the original, and felt flat to me. When everything is the same intensity then nothing matters.
posted by komara at 12:44 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

Oh wow, Alice Russell.

You must listen
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:47 PM on January 8 [2 favorites]

But on the other hand, in this cover the Flaming Lips own the song so thoroughly that really, Jack White should be paying Wayne Coyne royalties. yt

How about the Lips and the Stripes playing the song together in a battle for the soul of mankind. Needless to say, Wayne Coyne ends up covered in blood.
posted by no regrets, coyote at 1:05 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

Previously

Although I personally think that at almost 3 years later Metafilter needs another Seven Nation Army thread.

After I saw that trailer in theaters using The Glitch Mob version I meant to go find it. Thanks!
posted by Defenestrator at 1:11 PM on January 8

What if this song had been written 80 years ago in New Orleans by an Australian.

This.
posted by lrobertjones at 1:52 PM on January 8

What if this song had been written 80 years ago in New Orleans by an Australian.

This.

From the link

The uploader has not made this video available in your country.
^{Sorry about that.}

Okay...
posted by delmoi at 1:58 PM on January 8

That G. I. Joe trailer was the first time I'd heard anything like that. I was pretty stunned by it, and want more, but I'm at that point where you become aware of an entirely different genre and have no idea where to get started.

I think this is a key component to getting old.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:18 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

*listens to the glitch mob version*
*dances around the room*
*follows the links for an mp3 of that*
*listens to the origina;*
*shrugs*
*listens to a couple other versions*
*shrugs*

Maybe you just gotta have room-filling bass to appreciate the awesomeness of the Glitch Mob version? I dunno. Maybe I'm just predisposed to like this one because I'm much more interested in the Mob than the Stripes, and they really brought their usual brand of apocalyptic beat-chopping to this. They take that sweet bass riff, state it big, and just wallow in it.

Maybe I just like tunes that make me want to dance like a broken sex-bot.
posted by egypturnash at 2:21 PM on January 8 [2 favorites]

I don't get much out of this song, no matter who's covering it. I don't hate it, but meh.

And Ghidorah, I feel that way about dubstep. Every once in a while I hear something amazing, and no idea who performed it and it's most definitely not Skrillex or anyone else I've found yet.
posted by Foosnark at 2:22 PM on January 8

Aww shit. Sorry, looks like "my" ABC has become a bit of a dick about people uploading their content on youtube (as i am struggling to find a non official version) and set the videos to Australia only; now that is the way to get Australian music heard internationally. Imagine the original, but on banjo, with an old timey horn section. I wish tuba replaced the bass guitar as the default bass instrument in all rock/pop music.
You can try an audio-only version at this sketchy looking site, I managed to get it to stream there.

On the song, there is something about that bass line (I have always assumed it is a bass?), a handful of notes, nothing particularly complex, but jeez it has probably played in my head at least once a day for the last 8 years.
posted by lrobertjones at 2:23 PM on January 8

lrobertjones, it's not bass. The White Stripes didn't have a bass player, and supposedly the sound (on the first single of the new album) was supposed to be a trick or something. It's just guitar, run through a number of pedals.

Doesn't make it any less awesome though. Or change the fact that it was the first song I learned to play on bass.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:01 PM on January 8

Pshh, I won't be impressed until I see the techno remix of this GI Joe opening.
posted by Chekhovian at 3:02 PM on January 8

Have I been listening to it all wrong or something? This song is about RAGE. The kind under pressure and barely contained. I like the suggestion of "primeval" above. I listen to this song when something has flipped the cage latch on my lizard brain and it is now bouncing off the walls of my skull like Boggle. This song channels my 1,000-sun fire and hypnotizes the reptile underneath it into submission, so that I might pass as a human instead of the shaking body host to a rabid beast.

The covers are pretty, and technically very good. But if I were in my seven-nation army mood, I might actually rip their heads off instead of being soothed.

I want a cover that approximates the suppressed rage of the Jack White version.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:27 PM on January 8 [4 favorites]

I like this cover by Effcee, in a fanvid featuring a variety of killer robots. Who doesn't like killer robots?
posted by asperity at 3:45 PM on January 8

Don't forget Stephen Colbert pitching a commercial to Jack White for the song.
posted by getawaysticks at 3:55 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

Here is one of my favorite versions, audioslave, when I saw it Tom Morello went off even more. For several minutes. Yes, that's possible. It was glorious. The crowd singing the bridge is pretty great. Vocals are distorted on this clip. It is also outdoors audio. They did an amazing job of it live.
posted by infinite intimation at 5:43 PM on January 8

I want a cover that approximates the suppressed rage of the Jack White version.
you might like the link above this comment. That is like Chris Cornell's natural vocal tonal quality.
posted by infinite intimation at 5:46 PM on January 8

Ben l'Oncle Soul is as horrible in English as he is in French.
posted by grounded at 5:50 PM on January 8

College football anyone?
posted by holdkris99 at 5:52 PM on January 8

Here is Jack White talking about the song with the Edge and Jimmy Page. Watching all three working the riff is interesting.
posted by jadepearl at 5:55 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

Sorry, looks like "my" ABC has become a bit of a dick about people uploading their content on youtube (as i am struggling to find a non official version)

Someone did a belly dancing routine to this C.W. Stoneking version that you can actually listen to in America. The cover is absolutely brilliant, something out of one of the back alleys Tom Waits often stumbles through.
posted by Spatch at 7:12 PM on January 8

7 Nation is the best karaoke song ever, even for those of you who are not usually into karaoke.
posted by squalor at 9:08 PM on January 8

Don't forget Stephen Colbert pitching a commercial to Jack White for the song.

That yogurt thing had me laughing my ass off.
posted by delmoi at 12:37 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

"Yum Cruise Lines? I'm not getting it." Whole house had to come see what was so funny.

This is excellent, all of it. I can now have a full playlist of this Platonic Ideal of the rock song for my commutes. Thank you all.
posted by Meatbomb at 6:22 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

How could you omit this one?
posted by jonmc at 6:27 AM on January 9

I've been rocking out to the Nostalgia 7 version for a few years. Spent HOURS looking for a decent MP3 version so it was only a click away on my phone.
posted by Mick at 8:13 AM on January 9