As the title of this song, the word cannon takes on several different meanings. At first it’s a gun, mounted on a tank. Then Jack White takes lyrics from the Son House version of “John the Revelator,” a classic, traditional call and response gospel song and cannon takes on further meanings.

Cannon as in priest, cannon as in the contrapuntal composition technique present in call and response songs, and finally canon (a homophone) as in the body of cultural artifacts that have shaped civilization. Son House is definitely in Jack’s cannon, and John the Revelator himself is most definitely in both of their respective canons as storytellers.