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Post by maddogfagin on Oct 16, 2011 10:19:29 GMT
From musictravellerstwo.blogspot.comDespite live performances which were well received, many music critics were un-impressed with Tull's A Passion Play. Ian Anderson's disagreed with the criticism but knew that a different approach was needed for the next album. Warchild was recorded at Morgan Studios in London during the spring of 1974 and was named after a Roy Harper song called Little Lady in which the term was used. The album was eventually released in October of that year, reaching number 2 on the US charts and number 14 in Britain. Many fans have been critical of the album through the years but songs from the album such as Skating Away, Back Door Angels and Sealion have been included in many set lists since they were originally recorded.
Tours in Japan and Australia initially presented the new material during the fall and winter of 1974. This seemed appropriate since a picture of Melbourne, Australia was used to produce the Warchild album cover. The year ended with a brief tour of Europe. During these tours, a small segment of unrecorded material was played as part of a medley which later became the song Minstrel in the Gallery. Apparently encouraged that Warchild was not meeting the same scathing rebuke as the prior album, Ian Anderson decided to rent a house in Montreux, Switzerland to enjoy the 1974 Christmas holiday and write his next album, Minstrel in the Gallery. A tour of Europe during April of 1975 consisted of 15 shows and had set lists which were still dominated by Warchild and older album material. The tour was briefly interrupted when Ian Anderson suffered a sprained ankle during a performance in Germany. Once on the mend, the band was back on the road to complete the tour. The Minstrel album was recorded during the next few months in Monte Carlo, Monaco before starting a summer tour. Six more shows in Europe and then on to the United States.Roy Harper "Little Lady" I once held a lantern of love in my hands She was all I could see Kicking the brown leaves of childhoold around us We danced the deep sea That welled from the spring of the boy that I was Held in her flame Feeling her learning Watching her burning To see the first man I became Little lady Who made me Was it you Or is it that old unforgiveness That I can't forget I was her warchild and she was my wildcat We lived in a dream Broke up for summer unfolding the secret And woke up downstream Facing the current that said that we couldn't Go on Tearing the seed out With sharp tongues And no doubt Before it was born Little lady, etc Sometimes I cry in the flood of my guts Laughing in sadness Bursting with rage in the wounds of revenge Bleeding forgiveness It isn't you love or anything new I just tasted It's myself standing Standing watching me, Getting hung up Spaced and wasted Little lady, etcFrom the film Made
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Post by maddogfagin on Oct 19, 2011 17:48:26 GMT
Saw this on one of the auction house sites recently. A Warchild shop display.
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Post by maddogfagin on Oct 19, 2011 18:25:33 GMT
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Post by nonrabbit on Oct 20, 2011 9:14:18 GMT
lovely jubbly * thanks for posting * more slang
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Post by hawkmoth on Oct 21, 2011 19:45:08 GMT
Great pic of John Evans there
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Post by allen184 on Oct 23, 2011 10:48:27 GMT
Hello to one and all, Does anyone know how Ian got on stage at the Rainbow shows? His entrance was surely worthy of the SAS.An unforgettable experience for me.I did once ask Ian but he could not recall.He did however remember Pans People.Another unforgettable experience for a young man as I then was.
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Post by aqualung on Oct 31, 2011 16:23:15 GMT
nice walk down memory lane. As I recall, wasn't the band trying to make a Warchild movie as well? Filmed a lot of shows and other things. There's always been hope that the footage might show up one of these days...
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hipflaskandy
Journeyman
OK - this was a while back!
Posts: 223
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Post by hipflaskandy on Jan 25, 2012 13:20:22 GMT
Listening to the remastered CD of Warchild this lunchtime... (last night's left-over pizza warmed up - mmmm! Why do certain foods taste better the next day? Leftover curry, for example)... But I digress....
My question is - can anyone enlighten me as to ALL the personalities in the pic on the back cover? Band members, obviously, yes. And Terry Ellis and Shona get mentions elsewhere for their 'part'. But can anyone furnish names (from left to right?) for all of the other folks present? In eager anticipation.... Ta!
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Post by maddogfagin on Jan 25, 2012 14:12:06 GMT
Listening to the remastered CD of Warchild this lunchtime... (last night's left-over pizza warmed up - mmmm! Why do certain foods taste better the next day? Leftover curry, for example)... But I digress.... My question is - can anyone enlighten me as to ALL the personalities in the pic on the back cover? Band members, obviously, yes. And Terry Ellis and Shona get mentions elsewhere for their 'part'. But can anyone furnish names (from left to right?) for all of the other folks present? In eager anticipation.... Ta! Another person who likes microwaved day old curry Re. War Child. From wikipedia The back cover of the album contains images of people, including the five members of the band, friends, wives, girlfriends, Chrysalis Records staff, and manager Terry Ellis, all related to the song titles. Anderson's personal touring assistant (and future wife) Shona Learoyd appears as a ringmaster, while Terry Ellis appears as a leopard skin-clad, umbrella-waving aggressive businessman.
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Post by maddogfagin on Jan 25, 2012 14:26:22 GMT
The L.A. Times, December 22, 1974
Ian Anderson, the esoteric mastermind behind rock’s ever-popular Jethro Tull, has never made it easy for his fans. Rock music has become very stylized, he grumbles. It’s too easy to make the kind of music an audience can unconsciously appreciate while they’re stoned or while they’re driving or eating or whatever. That’s using music as a tactical weapon to sell records. People should have to work, they should make an effort to enjoy music.
Visiting Los Angeles to supervise the marketing and promotion of War Child, Jethro Tull’s eighth album, Anderson, 26, is spending this warm afternoon sipping beer and shopping for motorcycles via a frostily air-conditioned limousine. True to his philosophy, the lush back-seat stereo is conspicuously silent. When I listen to a piece of music, I always give it my full attention. The only musical trickery I use when I play or write are those which try to entice the audience into wanting to make that effort. I admit to doing that. I even admit to making a lot of music that people could not have possibly enjoyed.
As opposed to walking out on stage and saying, ‘Hey! It’s great to be back in Tulsa!’ I get very worried if the people immediately freak out. Any one of a dozen groups can cause instant pandemonium. When that happens to us, I ruthlessly try to destroy that moment for the audience. Anderson spends a quiet moment staring out his window. I don’t want to be enjoyed on a ‘rock star’ level. It’s too easy. That’s why you find scuba divers and rabbits walking on stage during Tull concerts. That’s why some Tull albums have no individual songs. Those things are meant to disturb people. They’re meant to break up that predictable rock ‘n’ roll flow.
These are busy days for Jethro Tull. Having just completed a string of SRO concerts in the Far East, the band are spending the rest of this year visiting Europe’s largest halls and arenas. Some time in January, the world-wide jaunt will make its way to America for an extensive coast-to-coast tour. Ironically, this sudden burst of full-speed activity comes just one year after Tull manager Terry Ellis announced the group’s retirement. Ian had been hurt by the unanimously negative response to their Passion Play album, so the statement read, and in the future he would be devoting all his energies to writing, producing, directing and starring in a film called ‘War Child’. Today, all that remains is the album of the same name. Although Anderson insists the film will eventually see production, he now concedes that the well-publicized ‘retirement’ announcement was a bit of a hasty overstatement.
The astoundingly negative criticism we received definitely affected us, the composer icily explains. I’d be less than human if my blood didn’t boil when I read that some punk kid journalist – barely out of his nappies, no doubt – has written that our music is bad and unimaginative. That’s terribly destructive criticism . . . and certainly unjustified. It hurt all of us a great deal.
The ‘retirement’, though, was really just a pause we wanted to take. In six years, we had made seven albums and toured America alone something like 19 times. We had to switch off the motor. But we knew that nobody – managers, agents and record company people – would take us seriously if we didn’t put it in drastic terms. We were talking about doing a movie at the time, so it seemed like a good idea to use that as the excuse. At least we weren’t going to sit and vegetate or live in vast country estates with servants and carriages or whatever it is that people imagine English rock stars do. In the end, the period we actually stopped for was something ridiculous, like two days. After all the running around we’ve done, the band deserves a weekend off.
Jethro Tull, then a quartet featuring Anderson on flute, guitar and vocals, Mick Abrahms on guitar, Glenn Cornick on bass and Clive Bunker on drums, began in December of 1967 at the bottom level of the English club scene. Initially gathering attention through Anderson’s flamboyant, flute-twirling stage presence, Tull worked its way up to a residency at London’s prestigious Marquee club. By mid-’68, the group had been signed to Terry Ellis and Chris Wright’s Chrysalis Productions (now Chrysalis records) and was hard at work on its debut album, This Was.
I don’t think anybody had any real expectations from the band in those days, Anderson recalls. If anything, we figured we might become popular for a year or so, then we’d go back to playing the clubs. It’s a source of constant amazement for me to wake up in the morning and realize I’m in some exotic part of the world, in an expensive hotel and doing OK. It’s nice not to have any expectations. Even today, I live one hour at a time. If I had to worry about maintaining our current popularity, I would be very uncomfortable. I don’t worry about gold records or selling out the Forum three nights in a row. I just think about making records that appeal to me. So far there’s been a lucky coincidence that the songs I write are the songs people are listening to. I guess that just shows they have very good taste.
A mushy blend of jazz and blues, This Was sold surprisingly well for a first album. As a result, the band was brought over to America to open the show for a major Led Zeppelin tour. We lost a lot of money the first two times we toured in this country, Anderson remembers.
In the crucial year between Jethro Tull’s debut album and the enormously successful Stand Up, road-weary guitarist and co-composer Mick Abrahams suddenly left the band. It was during that difficult period that Anderson assumed complete musical control of Jethro Tull. I took over simply because I was the only other writer in the band. All of a sudden, it was down to me to arrange, compose and record all the material. Today it’s much more of a group (current line-up: Anderson, Martin Barre on guitars, John Evan on keyboards, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond on bass and Barriemore Barlow on drums). Even though I’m the only survivor from the original group, we all get paid the same money. I don’t like it too much when people think I’m Jethro Tull. I worry that the rest of the guys will start feeling that they’re some sort of back-up band. That’s just not the case anymore.
Stand Up, written and rehearsed almost entirely on their first American tour, was completed within a few weeks. An overwhelming artist, commercial and critical triumph, the album quickly divorced Jethro Tull from its image of being a not-quite serious blues band. The group began to taste mass acceptance. According to Anderson, the heady effects of stardom subsequently made their mark on Benefit.
The music on that album was a bit more sophisticated, but it was too much like what a rock group is supposed to be. We had reached the dangerous realization that we were a name group. We played it too safe with Benefit. We were concerned again about consolidating what success we had achieved, rather than being unafraid to move on. Aqualung, our next record, was a half-hearted attempt to move on. We mainly concentrated at what we were best at doing. There was no musical trail-blazing on Aqualung. I don’t dislike it. The technical sound and production were dismal, but it does have some good songs. We really ought to go in and record that album again.
Early in ’72, word began to leak out that the next Tull album would contain Ian Anderson’s opus, a lengthy acoustic piece called ‘Thick As A Brick’. By the time the LP was actually released, the song – and ambitious and cryptic musical collage – had consumed the entire album.
When we came to do the next album, we started recording separate songs again. We’d finished three sides of a double album before we realized the excitement of working that way wasn’t there anymore. So we scrapped it all and I expanded one little bit of the (aborted) album into Passion Play. I really enjoyed working that way. I’m very sad that it’s proven necessary to work in conventional song lengths again with War Child.
How so?
My attitude has always been that we’re a live concert group. Basically, the band sells records as souvenirs. The last couple of years, half our concerts have been taken up with a complete piece like Thick As A Brick or Passion Play. If we’d done another album like that we would have been in the absurd situation of performing it in its entirety and then having an hour left to play . . . what? There would be no room to do justice to any of the other extended pieces. It’s very painful to have to hack my work up into condensations. So we came back to working on a loose concept, but with individual songs in such a way that they would stand on their own. A year or two from now, we will be able to play parts of War Child and they’re going to sound whole in themselves. It’s important that our concerts are the best we can make them.
I love the idea that we’re back doing a lot of road work. I tremendously enjoy being on the road. Air-conditioned motorcars, nice airplanes and a Bloody Mary every morning. After all, the only place I can write is in a Holiday Inn. That’s a fact.
The limousine swishes up to a dusty motorcycle dealership alongside the Ontario Motor Speedway. Ian Anderson takes a loud gulp of beer. I don’t even know why I’m looking for a motorcycle, he laughs. I don’t foresee having the time to ride it for quite a while. I think we’re scheduled for a couple of days off in early 1977. Tull will be at the Inglewood Forum Feb 2, 3 and 8.
Cameron Crowe
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hipflaskandy
Journeyman
OK - this was a while back!
Posts: 223
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Post by hipflaskandy on Jan 25, 2012 22:32:53 GMT
Yup, thanks MDF - I did read the wiki thing before I posted - hence knowing which was Shona & T Ellis - that's why I was asking who the others were - the rest of the description is too vague. Any clues to the actual names... I trust in your detection skills and research... Game on.... Hugs, HFA
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Post by steelmonkey on Jan 25, 2012 23:19:20 GMT
There's a really good You Tube video out there in electron land that proves that Ian is the Queen...some sort of slow motion face feature recognition gadget that slowly evolves the face from the queen on the back of War Child to a pictue of Ian with full beard and pipe in mouth. I'll try find it......
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Post by steelmonkey on Jan 26, 2012 2:30:13 GMT
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Post by maddogfagin on Jan 26, 2012 8:54:05 GMT
Yup, thanks MDF - I did read the wiki thing before I posted - hence knowing which was Shona & T Ellis - that's why I was asking who the others were - the rest of the description is too vague. Any clues to the actual names... I trust in your detection skills and research... Game on.... Hugs, HFA Just a wild hunch - could the four young ladies on the left side of the picture be the group Fanny?
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Post by nonrabbit on Jan 26, 2012 9:35:28 GMT
Take it they were probably "bit" actors recruited from the nearest agency. I always recognised Lord Clive "Polly" Parritt as a bit actor from TV shows and plays in the 60's. Trust me I will investigate and leave no stone unturned. It's in my In Tray on my desk next to the signed picture of Ian with the hearts i41.images obliterated by tinypic/2z657xz.jpg[/IMG] and my china teacup - always full. i43.images obliterated by tinypic/294j4no.jpg[/IMG] "Mr Maddog thats that nice Mr Cornick on the phone - shall I put him straight through?" "Anyone seen Bunkerfan? "Yes he's been caught up in the Darkroom again adjusting his lens - wants to be left alone till Friday!" "Oh Bernie - you outrageous American person you - you are awfully funny"!!
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hipflaskandy
Journeyman
OK - this was a while back!
Posts: 223
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Post by hipflaskandy on Jan 26, 2012 9:46:50 GMT
you tube 'transformation' theory was very interesting - thanks for posting it. Ian's sleeve nots of 2002 mention the back cover artwork featuring 'assorted wives and girlfriends, Chrysalis Records staff as well as band members' If you say Fanny could be the four 'ladies'- that takes too many out of the equation Ian alludes to - surely?
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Post by nonrabbit on Jan 26, 2012 9:50:09 GMT
Maybe it was friends etc just asked to be there at the time for the shoot?
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Post by maddogfagin on Jan 26, 2012 10:07:04 GMT
you tube 'transformation' theory was very interesting - thanks for posting it. Ian's sleeve nots of 2002 mention the back cover artwork featuring 'assorted wives and girlfriends, Chrysalis Records staff as well as band members' If you say Fanny could be the four 'ladies'- that takes too many out of the equation Ian alludes to - surely? You may well be correct. It was just a wild guess on my part. I'll amend my "hunch" to the young ladies in the Chrysalis typing pool. Btw, this is/was the Chrysalis Building in Bramley Road, London.
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Post by maddogfagin on Jun 1, 2012 18:44:42 GMT
Jethro Tull: Naked Came the Codpiece
Mongo Genheimer, Creem, 1/76
TANGIER--In the Asian rain forests, charred infant flesh is scattered about the branches of a sapling like grotesque Christmas bulbs on a lethal celebratory icon.
“When you did WarChild, was it a reaction to the monolithic sort of thing you’d already done?”
“The reason we did that,” Ian Anderson reports, “was because we’d just done a full-length synopsis for a movie, and I spent a lot of time doing preproduction work for that and most of the stuff on WarChild was already recorded with a symphony orchestra.”
A symphony orchestra, indeed! Bloodied homosexuals parade victorious down a newly-liberated Christopher Street. Mexican customs uncovers the peyote. And somewhere in Idaho, an oft-abused potato accidentally falls into a vat of yogurt, the local brand. And that was all of six years ago!
“How do you feel about going to parties after late concerts?”
“What parties?”
“You don’t go to any?”
“No, I don’t. Some of the guys in the band do, though.”
Beyond Route 9--out past the Barker place, you know?--the furrowed face of an Appalachian farmer screws itself into knots as the hands belonging to the body that owns the face disembowel the family cat, Herman, in preparation for a late-night communal snack--passed off as chicken--following the Super Bowl telecast.
“Didn’t you ever think that what you were doing was funny?”
“Oh, yeah, but I don’t think as many people shared in my joke. The humor is not dispersed as part of the music. I think it’s basically a private sort of humor, whether you employ it to review the rock ‘thing’ in your way or whether I employ it in my way.”
Switch blades may flash on E Street, but codpieces collide in the rollicking world of sold-out concerts that make up the Tull Tour of 75, Twisted conceptions, reconfigurations of cosmic mung, whirl around the trooper-lit stage of phone booths, dancers and electric umbilical cords.
“Well, rock ’n’ roll is a business--you’re a product.”
“But I think what rock music is first and foremost is music in its most elemental form.”
Riots a go go, sweaty platform boots steeped in lion dung. A joining together of mute tortured imbeciles forms long lines, rupturing crusty ventricles sending scumbugger’s blood slushing into dripping bedpans, under covers of balled, tattered wool. Over and over and over again until streams of piss-strafed flamingos, their nausea blooming mountains of turd-bed death camps, escape to trailer park lawns.
“‘Bungle in the Jungle’ is a song with that kind of feel to it. That’s one of the ones that you can dance along to. It takes its place beside what you call formula disco music. But I think that’s sort of cute in a way.”
The streets of the Haight teem with the refuse of a thousand years--or so it might seem--of hippiedom. A white punk is out to score. He sniffles and begs. A black man stops him dead in his tracks because a white man is in a bad mood because an Italian man was in a bad mood earlier that day--something about too much credit out on the streets. Behind the laundromat on Castro Street, more black men celebrate degeneration with Sterno. Aquarius Records blasts the Jefferson Starship’s latest hot wax, something called “Miracles.”
“What kind of music do you like?,” counters Ian. “You criticize my music and my lyrics as being pretentious. Well, let’s put that beside what your tastes in music are...”
(Has Ian Anderson ever supped on Sterno?)
“Springsteen, Kraftwerk, Eno...Lou Reed...there was a time when I was a Jethro Tull fan. I bought the first album when it came out. Even Thick as a Brick...I like jazz a lot...”
“Do you? I never much understood jazz.”
“There are jazz elements in your music.”
“Well, I’ve heard that said before. I’ve never understood what jazz is or what people mean by jazz. Jazz to me is what I was saying earlier about music as celebration. But in terms of self-indulgence, pretentiousness...I mean, to me, jazz falls into these traps all too easily. John Coltrane--how do I know this man isn’t just masturbating for all to see?”
She dropped her pants. Beside her a Chinese watched intensely. Something was in his hand. Fleshy yet hard. A curly mound revealed itself beneath the opaqueness of what passed for her underwear. Elmer’s Glue in spastic random explosions splotched onto the ceiling of the bungalow. White women were new to Chiang.
“Do you remember the gorilla who came on and took pictures of them? Well, what was that all about? Why did he come out and take pictures of the audience? That’s the same as me gaping at the audience. Who’s on display, then? Simple as that. But let’s not make out that it’s some formula that’s been adapted. It’s merely a very necessary return to something that doesn’t have a lot to do with the music, but it goes on anyway. Of course, I’m aware of that and I don’t particularly like it, but I have to accept it. Like I don’t personally smoke marijuana, but 50% of the audience are stoned. How do I live with that?”
A drivel-driven loon crouched moaning low in the foliage by the side of the Arapaho footpath. His navel heaved as his breath peristalted in quick short pants of mortification. Squatting behind a tumbleweed, he peered trembling at yonder clearing, where tomcats ten feet high with oysters for eyeballs danced whooping in a circle, stopping their ritualistic cakewalk at arbitrary intervals to inhale deeply from the ends of charred, furiously smoking bones. Eyeless in gaza...
“Why does it bother you that your audience gets drunk or high?”
“It bothers me because I think that their understanding and appreciation of the music must be quite different from mine.”
“So what?”
“Yeah, but isn’t it a fact that the drug is going to alter it markedly from the allowable personality differences of everyone sitting in a room not stoned? My only involvement with drugs has been the aftereffect of painkillers and being in marijuana smoke filled rooms. The ability to think straight is altered.”
He began to screech. White light bolts of pain shot upwards through his body and out to crackle and pop his synapses like so much corn. His rusty eyes looked down through tears of blood to see, unmistakably, a pincer with turquoise and jade rings ripping one end of his prostate out and plugging it into a wall socket.
“The sensation of being on drugs--is it merely different, or do you delude yourself into picking up on a note and thinking, ‘Wow, E flat!’”
“But Ian, it may enhance an illusion. It enhances the event!”
“Well then, it’s actually to my advantage that as much of my audience as possible is stoned.”
“Yeah. You could go out and play $h1t. Marijuana makes you less discriminating about things.”
“So we’ll have to make sure that the audience are not stoned for the support group but they’ll pass out joints for us...fantastic. Now I understand the secret of my future success. A whole new drug-induced future looms before me. And to think I was going to take up shooting.”
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Post by mondello1 on Jul 7, 2013 23:45:39 GMT
I've listened to War Child about a million times, and still cannot make out what is said at the end of track 3 (Ladies) - "Harry Gassig"? Today I ripped the track and played this section backwards, forwards, louder, slower - nothing.... Any ideas about this? Danke
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Post by steelmonkey on Jul 8, 2013 0:19:52 GMT
Good question...good mystery...I hear something like 'Sorry casting'. Let's find out !
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Post by elberto on Apr 28, 2014 17:06:31 GMT
Any chance to see a Warchild Collector's edition cd+dvd 5.1 like AQUALUNG, THICK AS A BRICK, BENEFIT and the more recent A PASSION PLAY?
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Post by elmsliegirl on May 11, 2014 14:03:58 GMT
Love these lyrics written by Roy Harper and the look on the girls face as she hears them. I can see why I/A held him in high esteem. He often talked about him but the most memorable thing that I/A told me was that Roy swam naked in the swimming baths where as an Elmslie Girl in Blackpool I took swimming lessons. So impressive. I wonder if it was true. I am here to post some photos of I/A as a tiny tot and to give some info on 5 more of my ancient I/A letters being auctioned at Bonhams next month. In one letter I/A coincidently mentions Roy Harper in reference to the song Ian tells me that he has just written and recorded 'Love Story'.
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Post by nonrabbit on May 11, 2014 19:37:53 GMT
Love these lyrics written by Roy Harper and the look on the girls face as she hears them. I can see why I/A held him in high esteem. He often talked about him but the most memorable thing that I/A told me was that Roy swam naked in the swimming baths where as an Elmslie Girl in Blackpool I took swimming lessons. So impressive. I wonder if it was true. I am here to post some photos of I/A as a tiny tot and to give some info on 5 more of my ancient I/A letters being auctioned at Bonhams next month. In one letter I/A coincidently mentions Roy Harper in reference to the song Ian tells me that he has just written and recorded 'Love Story'. Wow ( I hate using that word but it seems only the right one when you can't see my expression) thanks for this Elmsleigirl and can't wait to see the pictures. The only picture of Ian as a child I've ever seen is the one taken on holiday in Blackpool or Lytham (he looked too young to have actually moved there)where he's wearing full school uniform while making sandcastles on the beach. We covered that picture and explored it a bit on this thread; www.jethrotull.proboards.com/post/14982/threadThanks again Elmsliegirl
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Post by maddogfagin on Oct 14, 2014 13:33:47 GMT
ultimateclassicrock.com/jethro-tull-war-child/40 Years Ago: Jethro Tull Respond to Critics and Strip Off the Excessby Ryan Reed October 14, 2014 8:40 AMJethro Tull‘s seventh album, 1974′s ‘War Child,’ was born during a particularly awkward transitional period. The year before, frontman Ian Anderson and company released ‘A Passion Play,’ a darkly ambitious prog-rock concept album focused on the afterlife, but despite the music’s unbridled creativity, critics lambasted its punishing density and cluttered story. Hurt by the abusive reviews, the band went so far as to announce their “retirement,” with Anderson focusing his energies on writing and directing a film project. “The astoundingly negative criticism we received definitely affected us,” Anderson told Los Angeles Times in 1974. ”I’d be less than human if my blood didn’t boil when I read that some punk kid journalist — barely out of his nappies, no doubt — has written that our music is bad and unimaginative. That’s terribly destructive criticism … and certainly unjustified. It hurt all of us a great deal. The ‘retirement’, though, was really just a pause we wanted to take. In six years, we had made seven albums and toured America alone something like 19 times. We had to switch off the motor. But we knew that nobody — managers, agents and record company people — would take us seriously if we didn’t put it in drastic terms.” The screenplay to the film Anderson was working on was loosely based on the ‘Passion Play’ concept, focusing on the afterlife journey of a young girl who died during a car accident. “At face value, the songs are whimsical, lighter in subject matter and, above all, short!” Anderson writes in the liner notes to the 2002 reissue of the ‘War Child’ album, which collects 10 disparate songs intended to form the foundation of a traditional soundtrack. “Strange, then, that the two albums are strongly linked, in that the ‘Passion Play’ subject was rewritten as a potential movie synopsis and I thought, ‘Let’s make the album first and the movie afterwards.’” Anderson developed the production quite a bit, even recruiting ‘Monty Python”s John Cleese to assist as a humor consultant – but the project fell through due to creative and logistic complications. “Hollywood production required American stars, total production control and a bankable director,” he writes. “I required a quick think and an exit.” The seeds of the LP date back to Tull’s aborted “Chateau D’Isaster” sessions from late 1972 and early 1973, during which time three tracks – the bouncy staple ‘Bungle in the Jungle,’ the acoustic gem ‘Only Solitaire’ and the triumphant singalong ‘Skating Away on the Thin Ice’ – were originally recorded and then shelved. Other tracks were composed by Anderson during the second half of the infamous ‘Passion Play’ jaunt. “We’re all animals, competing, aggressive, out to win at the expense of others,” Anderson told Circus magazine that year. “And we have our codes, our rules and laws that we’ve invented which are convenient within the context that we operate. At this point in history, the rules are one way. They change throughout the ages. But if aggression and competition is what everybody wants to do then I’ll go along with it. The overall theme of ‘War Child’ is that all of us have a very aggressive instinct which is something we’re occasionally able to use for the betterment of ourselves. At other times, aggression at its worst is used as a very destructive element. When it’s not at its worst it remains merely comical. I don’t think that aggression is such an evil thing.” Despite its heavy lyrical themes, ‘War Child’ finds Anderson and his seasoned bandmates – drummer Barrie Barlow, guitarist Martin Barre, bassist Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, keyboardist John Evan and orchestral arranger David Palmer – in an overall quirkier and lighter mood. Throughout, they ease off the musical gas pedal, offering fewer capital-R rock moments and adding stronger emphasis on pop song structures. Ironically, that stripped-back focus earned another round of hostile reviews – even from critics who whined about the excess of ‘A Passion Play.’ But its accessibility paid off on the Billboard chart, with the album reaching No. 2. One of the album’s most radio-tailored tracks, ‘Bungle in the Jungle,’ was thought by fans to be a reference to the iconic ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ heavyweight boxing bout between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. But Anderson set the record straight in a backward-glancing interview with SongFacts. “Since ‘Bungle in the Jungle’ had been released in the year 1974 on the ‘War Child’ album, ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ may have been taken from that, because that took place on the 30th of October in 1974,” he said. “Maybe they were alluding to what was a well played song, even on AM radio.” There’s an appealing messiness to ‘War Child’ – from the diversity of the instrumentation (loads of accordion and sax) to the sprawl of its lyrical content (the critic bitch-slap of ‘Only Solitaire’). But, perhaps as a result of that messiness, the album isn’t as cohesive as its immediate predecessors or the following year’s ‘Minstrel in the Gallery.’ After their recent prog-rock explosions, Anderson had rewired the band’s sound, downplaying instrumental virtuosity in favor of concise whimsicality. But the band sounds altogether bored at times, particularly during the sluggish opening one-two punch of the title track and ‘Town and Country.’ Still, ‘War Child’ eventually warms up after that initial lull, spawning a handful of classic Tull tunes. ‘Ladies’ is one of Anderson’s most distinct acoustic moments, utilizing perky hand claps and Hammond’s warm stand-up bass; ‘Back Door Angels’ is the album’s rock centerpiece, allowing Evan a much-needed showcase for his colorful organ and synth; and ‘Skating Away’ ranks among the most essential Tull pieces, opening as a straightforward folk track before layering in an arsenal of instruments (electric guitar, bass, brushed drums, xylophone and accordion) into a headphone-spanning patchwork. The 2002 reissue is the essential version for fans, compiling five bonus rarities cut from the final track list – including the instrumental classical-jazz mind-melter ‘Quartet.’ Many of these leftovers feature lush string arrangements by soon-to-be-official band member Palmer, whose importance was acknowledged by Anderson in the liner notes: “I dedicate this remaster to David Palmer for the many years of orchestral arranging excellence which he brought to the band.” Overall, it’s best to consider ‘War Child’ in its historical context. After a grueling six years of constant envelope-pushing, Anderson and crew had rightfully earned the chance to refine and reign back. ’War Child’ isn’t one of the great Jethro Tull works, but it’s still an important step in their constant evolution, paving the way for 1975′s ‘Minstrel,’ an album that better balanced their technical dexterity and melodic focus.
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Aqualung1989
Journeyman
I'd give up my halo for a horn, and the horn for the hat I once had
Posts: 106
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Post by Aqualung1989 on Oct 14, 2014 20:32:14 GMT
Love the John Evans pic somewhere up this thread. Here's my pseudo-review of the album: boredwithoutmusic.blogspot.com.es/2014/08/jethro-tull-vi-back-to-normally.htmlIt's funny, I do like it, quite a lot, but I never listen to it as a whole and it has never properly hooked me. Actually, now that I think about it, of all the 70s Tull albums, I only like TOTRNR (and maybe Benefit, depending on my mood) less than Warchild, Which isn't saying that much because I'm in love with 70s Tull.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2014 22:27:05 GMT
Quick take;
I absolutely love the WarChild album. I wouldn't change a thing. Yes, Bungle in the Jungle has grown on me over the years. With the bonus tracks this is an absolute classic. This is an album I would not want to be without. Burned to the soul of this Tull fan forever. Glory Row is a favourite.
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Post by Equus on Oct 15, 2014 7:34:48 GMT
Quick take; I absolutely love the WarChild album. I wouldn't change a thing. Yes, Bungle in the Jungle has grown on me over the years. With the bonus tracks this is an absolute classic. This is an album I would not want to be without. Burned to the soul of this Tull fan forever. Glory Row is a favourite. Love the album too, TooTull... Soon we will have the 40th Anniversary Theatre Edition!
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Post by steelmonkey on Oct 15, 2014 16:07:34 GMT
Yes, War Child very near the heart of Tull. Can't wiat for truly bonus laden theater edition.
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Aqualung1989
Journeyman
I'd give up my halo for a horn, and the horn for the hat I once had
Posts: 106
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Post by Aqualung1989 on Oct 15, 2014 16:17:06 GMT
It's true that the bonus tracks are amazing. Warchild Waltz would surprise any casual Tull fan who doesn't really know what Ian and the guys were capable of at the time, and then there's stuff like Sealion II (wonderfully freaky), Quartet (weird and yet cool), Rainbow Blues (bonus track? really?), etc...
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