SONGWRITERS SERIES

Here's a look at the best of White's many sides, from the innocent to the incendiary.

Clips require RealPlayer.

Selected clips include commentary by Robert Hilburn.

1. 2002. White can play words as nimbly as he can guitar strings, but his forte is injecting innocence into a hard-rock format. Here, he's longing for a relationship as free of subplots as a true schoolyard friendship.

2. 2003. This tune is an alt-rock classic — a feverish tale of paranoia built around a menacing rock beat as infectious as Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" riff in the Cadillac TV commercial.

3. 2002. In this lilting, country-tinged song, White daydreams about better times and places. The backdrop this time is a run-down hotel. "Well, it's 1, 2, 3, 4/ Take the elevator/ At the Hotel Yorba/ I'll be glad to see you later/ All they got inside is vacancy."

4. 2003. Think of this sweet, tuneful song as the adult version of "We're Going to Be Friends." Again, there's a remarkable sweetness as someone wants so badly to be part of a girl's world that he'll do anything to win her mother's approval.

5. 2003. The Stripes have included vintage blues gems by Robert Johnson, Blind Willie McTell and Son House, but this slice of teasing sexual bravado ranks right with them, with its taunting vocal and guitar lines that scream like a siren.