Conquest is a weird one. A flamenco style song played with fuzzily distorted guitars, trumpets and a gutsy matador mentality.

But did you know that the song was released in 1952 by an artist called Patti Page. That’s right, Jack and Meg are tipping their weird matador hats to a bygone era in this song.

Hell, it works for them too. It’s an overblown effort, sadly probably not destined to break any singles sales records. How much that matters to The White Stripes is another matter, but you can easily appreciate the humor and (mock?) bravado in their delivery.

This carries on into the video for Conquest, where Jack White’s macho matador suddenly has an attack of conscience as he’s about to put a bull to death. Kudos to the bull for stealing the show with some hammy acting.

Looking back, is Conquest the type of song you’ll put on your stereo? Not on its own. While I can appreciate what they’ve done with the track, it’s probably suited best as an album track on Icky Thump.

If you want to hear a mashup of The White Stripes versus Patti Page’s original version of Conquest, click here.