Lyrics for Death Letter as interpreted by DuckFetus

Death Letter Lyrics
Got a letter this morning
What do you reckon it read?
It said the gal you love is dead

I got a letter this morning
What do you reckon it read?

Said, hurry hurry
Because the gal you love is dead

Well I packed up my suitcase
Took off down the road
When I got there
She was laying on the cooling board
Packed up my suitcase
And I took off down the road
When I got there
She was laying on the cooling board

It looked like ten thousand people
Standing around the burying ground
I didn't know I loved her
Until they began to let her down
Looked like ten thousand people
Standing around the burying ground
Didn't know I loved her
Until they began to let her down

You know it's so hard to love
Someone that don't love you
Won't get satisfaction
Don't care what you do
So hard to love
Someone that don't love you
Don't look like satisfaction
Don't care what you do

Well I got up this morning
The break of day
Just hugging the pillows
Where she used to lay
Got up this morning
Would you believe the break of day
Just huggin' the pillows
Where my baby used to lay.

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  • 29 Comments
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ExplodingGirlCURE
05-30-2002

Rated 0 
I love this song! The video isn't bad either

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WhiteHives8
07-03-2002

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theres a video for this song?

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Punk_emokitty01
08-14-2002

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yes there is i love it!!!

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teKi
09-09-2002

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i love blues.. the white stripes are pretty good at covering it.

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kenf62
03-13-2003

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Ya gotta hear the original "Death Letter Blues" by the great Son House. Extremely cool.

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Horsey_Rose
05-02-2003

Rated 0 
Haven't heard it, but reading the lyrics just makes me want to cry my eyes out man!

"You know it's so hard to love
Someone that don't love you "

Too tru

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sirpizza00
05-04-2003

Rated 0 
at the end he says- "you know its so hard to love somone that don't love you"
this makes me think that shes not really dead just dead to him because of course she couldn't love him if she was dead. so, i think the narrative at the beginning is just a simile.

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weezey2006
05-09-2004

Rated 0 
yeah i love the guitar work on this song, its amazing, i wish i had the talent that jack white has

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Team SpriteSWF
05-14-2004

Rated 0 
This is actually a cover of an old blues song, much like many, many others...
That's what sets them apart. Everyone's complaining about their girlfriend in rock nowdays, and they're playing delta blues.
Rock on, Jack and Meg!

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tsb2rxn
09-23-2004

Rated 0 
I love this song for the sole reason that it helped me discover Son House.

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GuitarJeezus
10-15-2004

Rated 0 
I heard they leave out a few verses of this song, but I think they do a fantastic job of it, especially the live versions. This song holds a special place in my heart for some personal reasons. :D

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thehivesfan
02-26-2005

Rated 0 
where can i see the video?

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WeezDay
04-02-2005

Rated 0 
the live versions are the best, because he expands on the guitar solo, and they also throw in their own version of "Grinnin' in your Face", which is another Son House song, and apparantly Jack's favorite song of all-time

and there is no video, Hotel Yorba was their first

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whistlersmammy
04-15-2005

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I heard them place this live once a little club, Majestics in Detroit right before the white stripes released white blood cells. It was really rocking. I think Son House would have liked it.

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tommyjazz
06-23-2005

Rated 0 
i'd say that this song is mostly about not understanding until it's too late, backed up by the line "I didn't know I loved her
Until they began to let her down". This could even be recounting a dream, the way the death, and the journey to see her and the funeral all pass by so fast, and then the final verse actually says that she used to be in the same bed as him, indicating that she may have left him or something previously, but he had a dream she'd died and woke up at the "break of day", probably in quite a state and realised that although they may have left each other, he now realises that he does still love her deep down but it's too late.

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bkat004
01-30-2006

Rated 0 
"You know it's so hard to love
Someone that don't love you "

What a dam fine lyric!

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bkat004
01-30-2006

Rated 0 
By the way, this would make the sexiest stripper song. Especially the faster tempo, hair-waving guitar solo! Any strippers out there?!

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Lucky7
03-30-2006

Rated 0 
I really like this song... it rings true. I think it's probably about the shock when a loved one dies - not particularly sophisticated I know but it seems that way.

-Line by Line-

Got a letter this morning
What do you reckon it read?
It said "the gal you love is dead"
[The letter didn't actually say that but the language has been simplified]

I got a letter this morning
What do you reckon it read?
[Not only is this a musical device but it could also symbolise a 'double-take' effect as the singer reads the letter]

Said, hurry hurry
[Pronoun is missing ('it') another example of simplified language]

Because the gal you love is dead

Well I packed up my suitcase
[Moving on, would you pack a suitcas to go to a morgue usually? - no]

Took off down the road
[Simplified language, the 'I' is missing]

When I got there
She was laying on the cooling board
[A hard image, and it is not dwelled on much which shows a one-off shock]

Packed up my suitcase
And I took off down the road
When I got there
She was laying on the cooling board
[another double-take when he sees her?]

It looked like ten thousand people
[Psychological exaggeration, the guy is in a trance having delusions]

Standing around the burying ground
I didn't know I loved her
[Regrets - thinking of things he should have done before the girl died]

Until they began to let her down
[Another moment of shock - he is shocked into emotion]

Looked like ten thousand people
Standing around the burying ground
Didn't know I loved her
Until they began to let her down
[Voila, another double-take as the coffin is being let down - a highly emotional moment]

You know it's so hard to love
Someone that don't love you
[A popular lyric - However, he doesn't know she didn't love him, but she doesn't now - she's dead. I think this means that it's difficult thinking about past experiences and missed oppurtunities]

Won't get satisfaction
[Simplified language - how can you regain oppurtunities now lost?]

Don't care what you do
So hard to love
Someone that don't love you
Don't look like satisfaction
Don't care what you do

Well I got up this morning
[Eh? what? he was packing his bags a minute ago. He is confused]

The break of day
[Simplified language, also a symbol of new beginnings]

Just hugging the pillows
Where she used to lay
[Irrational behaviour, something all of us can identify with an emotion everyone feels at some point (hugging pillows)]

Got up this morning
Would you believe the break of day
Just huggin' the pillows
Where my baby used to lay.

-------------------------------------------------

The use of simplified language emphasises the shock. The simple structures, sometimes missing words show the vocalist's inability to form sentences possibly because of shock (according to my reading).

IMHO this is about shock an regret after a loved one dies.

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ylf21
04-13-2006

Rated 0 
this is a prison song...thats why the song is sung in that chain gang style holla (the son house version) and relates to his wife leaving him, however son was married five times so he prob got over it

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ObsessiveFreak
04-18-2006

Rated 0 
I just came to the realization that in the original Son House version, there's the line

"I didn't feel so bad 'til the good old sun went down
I didn't have a soul to throw my arms around"

Jack White stuck it right in Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground instead!

This might have been obvious to everyone, but not to me.

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rosetta.stoned
07-13-2006

Rated 0 
has anyone seen the blackpool lights live version of this? fucking incredible! i have the whole concert on dvd and i get goosebumps everytime i watch that song. i dont mean to be a pretentious hardcore idiot, but i like the live version WAY better than the recording, because it's longer and heavier and louder. not to say the recording is bad, i still love it.

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PrichardDJams
03-06-2007

Rated 0 
agreed

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bhart
06-07-2007

Rated 0 
While this song could have some completely literal meaning about someone dying, I think this song is about a couple who broke up and then their feelings for each other changed. Maybe when they used to be together everyone (their friends, family, etc. = ten thousand people) could see how much he really loved her, but he didn’t know he did. (In the beginning of the song – they tell him that she the gal he loves. He doesn’t say he loves her until the second half.) Their friends, etc. watched the relationship fall apart (the burial ground.). It wasn’t until after she left him (died) that he realized he did truly love her and he misses her very much. He wants to express his feelings to her, but she is already gone. His friends are trying to tell him that it’s over now and her feelings about him have changed. She won’t ever again love him back. So he is very frustrated.

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myfriends
06-17-2007

Rated 0 
great 12 bar blues
one of the white stripes best?
i think so

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minisculexdisease
11-09-2007

Rated 0 
this is kind of a stretch, but wasn't the recording of de stijl around the time meg and jack were getting divorced? maybe jack put it in there to just say to himself and maybe anyone who figured it out that he still loves meg, even though they're kind of "dead" to each other, because their divorced? a big stretch, i know

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