"Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" is a single by the White Stripes from their album White Blood Cells. It was released in August 2002. The song features a very raw guitar tone produced by an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi.
In 2006, a cover of the song appeared on Chris Thile's album How to Grow a Woman from the Ground. Jack White originally planned for this song to be much softer and done with an acoustic guitar.
The video for this song, directed by Michel Gondry, depicts Jack White coming back to his and Meg White's trashed house and surveying the destruction. While he goes from room to room, video of the party that led to the destruction, and of his and Meg's relationship before he left, is projected and occasionally super-imposed over the scene.
