Steady, As She Goes

"Steady, As She Goes" is the first song ever written by band members Jack White and Brendan Benson. White and Benson lived three blocks apart from each other in Detroit, and White would often stop by Benson's house for brief visits. One day, Benson showed White a slow reggae demo of what would become "Steady, As She Goes". Benson had played all the instruments on the demo, but only had one verse, "Find yourself a girl and settle down..." White took that idea and started writing. White said to Uncut in 2006, "It’s asking a question, which is, 'Is doing that – getting married and settling down – starting a new life or is it giving up?'" Speaking again to Uncut in 2006, he added, "I think the big notion in my head was we’re all getting older now and enough of goofing around. All our friends are musicians, so it was like, 'How much of this world can we stay a part of and how much do we reject?'" ==Critical response==

Entertainment Weekly said the track is "less weird than what we're used to from the ghostly singer." Rolling Stone called "Steady, As She Goes" the second best song of 2006, just behind "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. The bass in the song, especially in the intro, has drawn comparisons to the song "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" by Joe Jackson. In 2007, "Steady, As She Goes" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. ==Music video==

There are two music videos for "Steady, As She Goes". The first music video was directed by Jim Jarmusch, and focuses on the band performing the song. It premiered on MTV Two on March 10, 2006, and was also available for streaming on the band's website. In the second music video, directed by The Malloys, the Raconteurs teamed up with Paul Reubens. In this video, each band member plays an imaginary speed-racing hero in an old-fashioned soapbox race, following the heroes on their cut-throat chase for first place. Reubens plays an unscrupulous pit boss, stooping to low levels to ensure a win for his racer, Jack Lawrence. Lawrence and Reubens (wearing standard melodrama-villain handlebar moustaches) cheat many times throughout the race, to make sure that Lawrence wins. Patrick falls off a cliff, Brendan crashes, and Reubens shoots White ("the Copper Kid") with a blow gun. Lawrence wins. The latter video premiered exclusively on Yahoo! Music on June 19, 2006. ==Track listings==

7-inch single: A and B :A. "Steady, As She Goes" – 3:38 (3:35 on B) :B. "Store Bought Bones" – 2:27 (2:25 on B) 7-inch single: C :A. "Steady, As She Goes" (acoustic) – 4:11 :B. "Call It a Day" – 3:34 US and UK CD single • "Steady, As She Goes" – 3:35 • "The Bane Rendition" – 4:20 Australian CD single • "Steady, As She Goes" – 3:37 • "The Bane Rendition" – 4:19 • "Steady, As She Goes" (acoustic) – 4:10 ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==