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Post by JTull 007 on Jan 5, 2021 2:14:13 GMT
One of the nice things about vinyl records... QUAD is GOD
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Post by maddogfagin on Feb 13, 2021 7:48:21 GMT
The top 20 albums of 1971, from Carole King’s Tapestry to The Doors’ LA WomanAs Carole King's Tapestry turns 50, Graeme Ross remembers David Hepworth's case for 1971 being the greatest year for rock music. He counts down 20 of the year's best albums that could very well prove that claim 19. Jethro Tull – Aqualung A prog-rock landmark entirely composed by Ian Anderson, confirming that Jethro Tull was very much the flute-playing front man’s band. Several tracks such as “Hymn 43” reflected Anderson’s distaste for organised religion, while the epic title-track prophetically addressed homelessness, and “Locomotive Breath” is a riff-tastic marvel. link
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Post by JTull 007 on Feb 13, 2021 13:28:26 GMT
The top 20 albums of 1971, from Carole King’s Tapestry to The Doors’ LA WomanAs Carole King's Tapestry turns 50, Graeme Ross remembers David Hepworth's case for 1971 being the greatest year for rock music. He counts down 20 of the year's best albums that could very well prove that claim 19. Jethro Tull – Aqualung A prog-rock landmark entirely composed by Ian Anderson, confirming that Jethro Tull was very much the flute-playing front man’s band. Several tracks such as “Hymn 43” reflected Anderson’s distaste for organised religion, while the epic title-track prophetically addressed homelessness, and “Locomotive Breath” is a riff-tastic marvel. link Most of the music I heard in 1971 was on AM Radio stations which slowly educated my awareness of TULL. Eventually AM became FM and the world began to change dramatically !!! Without TULL life would be DULL...
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Post by orion12 on Feb 13, 2021 13:41:27 GMT
Without TULL life would be DULL... Without TULL life would be DULL... With TULL life is COOL With TULL life is FULL Without TULL life would be NULL...
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rainbowblue
Journeyman
How can you blame me for the things that I do.
Posts: 193
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Post by rainbowblue on Feb 14, 2021 3:02:12 GMT
The top 20 albums of 1971, from Carole King’s Tapestry to The Doors’ LA WomanAs Carole King's Tapestry turns 50, Graeme Ross remembers David Hepworth's case for 1971 being the greatest year for rock music. He counts down 20 of the year's best albums that could very well prove that claim 19. Jethro Tull – Aqualung A prog-rock landmark entirely composed by Ian Anderson, confirming that Jethro Tull was very much the flute-playing front man’s band. Several tracks such as “Hymn 43” reflected Anderson’s distaste for organised religion, while the epic title-track prophetically addressed homelessness, and “Locomotive Breath” is a riff-tastic marvel. link Most of the music I heard in 1971 was on AM Radio stations which slowly educated my awareness of TULL. Eventually AM became FM and the world began to change dramatically !!! Without TULL life would be DULL... Music, for me started in earnest in 1968 listening to Boston`s #1 radio station WRKO. As they became more top 40, I switched to WMEX, which played more Doors, Cream Etc., a harder rock. In `71, they played five Tull songs regularly, including Aqualung, Cross-Eyed Mary, Mother Goose, Hymn 43 and Locomotive Breath. But a year earlier, they introduced me to Jethro Tull with a weekend full of "Battle Of The Bands". It was an hour battle with 15 minutes of songs from each band and voting in the last half hour with alternating songs. The first match was Tull vs. Deep Purple. I wasn`t familiar with Jethro Tull but I knew every song they played I liked. Tull lost by one vote but the musical seed was planted. It is like a Redwood tree now. WMEX eventually went soft rock and I turned my attention to FM. I`ll never forget them for introducing me to Benefit, Stand Up and Aqualung.
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Post by JTull 007 on Feb 17, 2021 1:40:17 GMT
JETHRO TULL- AQUALUNG 50TH ANNIVERSARY- IAN ANDERSON 3-8-21 LINKIn his first letter to the Christians at the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul wrote in Chapter 13, verse 11, “When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.” If that had been me in March 1971, I would have added this postscript: ”And started listening to Jethro Tull‘s new Aqualung album. Every day.”
Jethro Tull’s leader since their second album, Ian Anderson, joins me here In the Studio for the story behind “Cross-Eyed Mary”, ”Mother Goose”, ”Locomotive Breath”,”My God”, “Wond’ring Aloud”, ”Hymn #43“, and the iconic title song “Aqualung” the week of March 8 for the essential album’s golden anniversary. –Redbeard
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Post by maddogfagin on Feb 21, 2021 7:47:55 GMT
www.gazzettadiparma.it/spettacoli/musica/2021/02/20/news/jethro_tull_cinquant_anni_di_aqualung-5246480/(Translated by google) Jethro Tull, fifty years of Aqualungby Michele Ceparano - February 20, 2021, 10:42 It has a respectable place in the history of rock. “Aqualung”, fourth studio work of that myth called Jethro Tull will turn fifty in March. Without losing a shred of his poetry, albeit at times rough and merciless. Defined as a concept even if the historic leader of the British band Ian Anderson, who then embarked on a successful solo career, has never agreed on this interpretation, "Aqualung" remains one of the best records of a fervent year for rock, declined above all to the progressive. In fact, in that year other milestones also saw the light. Just a few titles, to clarify: "Tarkus" and "Pictures at an exhibition" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, "Nursery Cryme" by Genesis, "Pawn hearts" by Van der Graaf Generator, but also "IV", fourth album by Led Zeppelin. In Italy, on the other hand, to mention only two records, in that year Le Orme released “Collage” and Lucio Battisti “Amore e non amore”. In short, 1971 is a golden year for music. Returning to “Aqualung”, this album for Jethro Tull, after three excellent works influenced by blues, represents the rock turning point. This can be seen from the guitar notes that open the title track. “Aqualung”, a song that oscillates between hardness and sweetness, immediately a punch in the listener's stomach. It is in fact the story of a perverted bum, a character who will also return in "Crossed-eyed Mary", another brilliant song from an album that contains several pearls. The latter, on the other hand, is the story of a London prostitute that Jethro Tull ingeniously defines as “the Robin Hood of Highgate”. Also linked to the song “Aqualung” is the cover, which has also become legendary. It is a painting by the artist Burton Silverman depicting a tramp, also resembling Anderson. But the idea goes back to an image taken by Anderson's ex-wife, Jennie Franks, during her report on homelessness in London. It was she who gave the group's frontman the inspiration to write this masterpiece. Starting from the title that evokes an underwater respirator which, in turn, recalled the rattle of the homeless photographed. The Scottish musician signed the song together with his ex-wife. The album, as mentioned, contains other pearls such as the two "religious" songs "My God" and "Hymn 43", a hard attack on "religio", in its Latin sense, and on the "bloody church of England". Between cryptic and magnificent lyrics and highly inspired music, the album also includes other impressive songs, such as "Mother Goose" or "Wond'ring aloud". Finally, "Locomotive breath" has a dizzying rhythm and will become one of the most appreciated songs by Jethro Tull fans, especially in their live performances.
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Post by bunkerfan on Mar 7, 2021 11:19:29 GMT
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Aqualung on March 19th 2021, we're running an art contest. Share your illustrations and art creations of the cover for a chance to win an Aqualung LP signed by Ian Anderson. To enter, follow Jethro Tull on Twitter and post your art submission on Twitter using #Aqualung50thArtContest. Competition ends on 14th March. T&Cs Apply (JethroTull@em.rhino.com)
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Post by ash on Mar 7, 2021 14:46:22 GMT
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Aqualung on March 19th 2021, we're running an art contest. Share your illustrations and art creations of the cover for a chance to win an Aqualung LP signed by Ian Anderson. To enter, follow Jethro Tull on Twitter and post your art submission on Twitter using #Aqualung50thArtContest. Competition ends on 14th March. T&Cs Apply (JethroTull@em.rhino.com) Here is my effort posted on Twitter ..Fingers crossed link
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 7, 2021 18:08:08 GMT
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Aqualung on March 19th 2021, we're running an art contest. Share your illustrations and art creations of the cover for a chance to win an Aqualung LP signed by Ian Anderson. To enter, follow Jethro Tull on Twitter and post your art submission on Twitter using #Aqualung50thArtContest. Competition ends on 14th March. T&Cs Apply (JethroTull@em.rhino.com) Here is my effort posted on Twitter ..Fingers crossed link Nice one Ash
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Post by JTull 007 on Mar 8, 2021 2:50:55 GMT
Aqualung 50th Anniversary 😃 Released March 19th, 1971 Recorded April 1970 – February 1971 Studio Island Studios, Morgan Studios
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Post by JTull 007 on Mar 8, 2021 11:42:35 GMT
50 min./34 sec. In The Studio with Redbeard AQUALUNG 50th LINK
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 11, 2021 7:42:27 GMT
www.antimusic.com/news/2021/March/09Jethro_Tull_In_The_Studio_For_Aqualung_50th_Anniversary.shtmlJethro Tull In The Studio For 'Aqualung' 50th AnniversaryMichael Angulia | 03-09-2021 The 50th anniversary of Jethro Tull's Aqualung album is being celebrated by the syndicated radio show In The Studio With Redbeard: The Stories Behind History's Greatest Rock Bands. The show's host Redbeard had this to say "In his first letter to the Christians at the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul wrote in Chapter 13, verse 11, "When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things." If that had been me in March 1971, I would have added this postscript: " And started listening to Jethro Tull's new Aqualung album. Every day." "The current movie Nomadland starring Frances McDormand recently won two Golden Globe Awards for Best Drama and Best Director five decades after Ian Anderson wrote and sang Aqualung . Both Nomadland, based on the 2017 book by Jessica Bruder, and the title song to Jethro Tull's fourth album released March 1971 have protagonists who ostensibly are homeless. In between, Phil Collins would revisit the subject several times beginning in 1989 with 'Another Day in Paradise', but two years before Aqualung, Pete Townshend of The Who greenlighted the misfit-as-hero with Tommy and would continue throughout his career to remind us how so many of rock'n'roll's originators emanated from the margins of society and struggled to find a voice. As the late David Bowie told me here In the Studio, rock music would suffer "the tyranny of the mainstream" by the 21st century, and certainly Bowie would have known, having felt compelled to invent multiple alter-egos to inhabit over his long illustrious career including at least one extraterrestrial! "Guitar Hero" and "rock god" are a far cry from the tramp at the bottom of the stairs which Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson immortalized five decades ago in the song 'Aqualung'. "Meanwhile, few albums from any time in the Rock Era continue to satisfy quite so well as Jethro Tull's masterpiece, Aqualung. Ian Anderson smartly wrote songs for all seasons for a superb band, including the timeless rockers 'Aqualung', 'Cross-Eyed Mary', 'Locomotive Breath', and 'Hymn #43', but perfectly paced the album with tasty acoustic classics like 'Wond'ring Aloud' and 'Mother Goose'. And the Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) remix and 21st Century remastering results in a stunning listening experience. Ian Anderson is my guest In The Studio with insights and revelations in this classic rock interview concerning Jethro Tull and Aqualung on its fiftieth anniversary. "Ian Anderson's house is haunted. Or at least the Jethro Tull leader has good reason to believe that it's haunted. Sitting in the dining room of the very old but modern-updated "Bucks" home in the English countryside for this interview to mark the golden anniversary of March 1971's Aqualung album, we shared in common the fact that we both live and record on working farms just outside major cities, Anderson's less than an hour west of London. The current house was built more than three centuries ago on the ruins of a nunnery plundered by Oliver Cromwell during the mid-17th century English military/political leader's genocidal campaign against Catholics. In this classic rock interview, Ian told me that there are historical accounts of the nuns being raped before they were murdered by Cromwell's troops, which could explain the curious reactions of certain visitors to Anderson's isolated home over the years. "It seems that without any knowledge of the home's history, one popular British comedian became convinced during a visit that intensely strong paranormal vibrations were emanating from beneath the house, while on another separate occasion a female guest stayed but a minute before running from the house in hysterics. Anderson's lovely wife claims on occasion in broad daylight to see a white horse running up the stairs, which one would surmise could present a problem getting good domestic help. And while Ian himself has never witnessed that specter, once he did glance up into a wall-mounted mirror, the angle of which allowed him to see into their downstairs laundry room, where he observed clearly the back of a dark-haired young woman dressed in an ancient gray robe. Thinking it was his wife, Anderson called out to her but received no response. When he entered to peer into the laundry room, no one was there. "The moral of this story? Don't expect anyone to volunteer to help you with laundry in the next world, either." Stream the episode here.
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Post by Catqualung on Mar 15, 2021 18:19:34 GMT
Since I don't know how to post on instagram, and I am not living in the UK, and the competition is over, so I have no chance to win the autographed album... so I try to post my artistic homage here
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Post by JTull 007 on Mar 16, 2021 0:36:39 GMT
View AttachmentSince I don't know how to post on instagram, and I am not living in the UK, and the competition is over, so I have no chance to win the autographed album... so I try to post my artistic homage here CATQUALUNG MY FRIEND !!! Well done
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Post by Catqualung on Mar 16, 2021 15:08:03 GMT
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Post by JTull 007 on Mar 17, 2021 0:49:13 GMT
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 17, 2021 9:24:43 GMT
www.thisisdig.com/AQUALUNG WAS “THE TESTER”: IAN ANDERSON ON JETHRO TULL’S CLASSIC ALBUMA make-or-break album, ‘Aqualung’ has become Jethro Tull’s most-loved work. ‘I wanted to make a mark,’ frontman Ian Anderson tells Di 15 March 2021 By the time Jethro Tull set about recording their landmark fourth album, Aqualung, the group needed a moment to catch their breath. The success of Aqualung’s predecessor, Benefit, had kept them on the road extensively throughout Europe and the US, but left them on the verge of collapse. Bassist Glenn Cornick was on his way out the door (to be replaced by the relatively untested Jeffrey Hammond) when rehearsals for the new album begin in June 1970, and drummer Clive Bunker, increasingly feeling the strain of the band’s gruelling touring schedule, wouldn’t be far behind. “We were a bit exhausted,” Ian Anderson, singer, guitarist, flautist and principal architect of Jethro Tull tells Dig! “I, for one, as a songwriter and producer and whatever else, was feeling a bit jaded.” Though Benefit had helped Jethro Tull gain a reputation as a formidable live band on the burgeoning prog-rock scene, Anderson wanted to take his songwriting in a new direction for its follow-up and viewed Aqualung as “an opportunity to write something of a social documentary”. “This was the one that was either going to mark the beginning of the decline,” he says, “or it would be another step on the ladder.” “WE JUDGE THINGS IN THE CONTEXT OF OUR OWN LIVES” “I wanted to make more of a mark as a singer-songwriter,” Anderson reveals of his approach to what would become Jethro Tull’s most-loved album. “The tinselly, heart-on-sleeve, ‘I’, ‘me’ kind of work is not usually my forte.” Rather, Anderson was more interested in writing “things that, lyrically speaking, were a bit more relevant and hard-hitting, and not based on the more universal themes of love, lust, sex, drugs and whatever”. Having always been drawn to the idea of photography as a form of social commentary, it’s fitting that photos taken by Anderson’s wife, of destitute people along London’s River Thames, inspired Aqualung’s title track: a character portrait of a homeless man whose breath rattles with “deep-sea-diver sounds” as he lives out his final days. “It’s always interesting to see something that the artist is privileged to see,” Anderson says, “whether it’s in a brothel or a strip club, or on a sunny afternoon having a picnic on the grass – there’s something that draws you into the apparent everyday, commonplace, but through the eyes of a painter or photographer or, indeed, a songwriter… It’s a bit like a theatrical stage: you have a context bound by a proscenium arch, for people and characters to bring life to you.” It’s a sad indictment of our times that, over 50 years since Aqualung’s release, homelessness has only increased on a global scale, yet Anderson’s engagement with the issue – along with songs such as Locomotive Breath and Hymn 43, which, respectively, saw him tackle overpopulation and what he saw as hypocrisies in organised religion – has, in the long-term, ensured that Aqualung continues to resonate. “We judge things in the context of our own lives,” Anderson says. “I think the sense of voyeurism and guilt that the singer of the song seems to exhibit is something people can share. It’s the embarrassment, the awkwardness, the mixture of emotions you have when confronted with the homeless – you perhaps feel a certain anger or threat, but you also feel this tugging at the heartstring in terms of someone who is so much less fortunate than yourself.” “JIMMY PAGE WAS A BIT INTIMIDATING” Fortune didn’t appear to smile on the band when, in December 1970, they settled into Island Records’ newly opened studios on Basing Street, in London’s Notting Hill area, to record the album. The facilities were “untried, untested and very difficult, acoustically and technically”, Anderson recalls – far from ideal for a band looking to capture their most ambitious work to date. “We were stuck in this cavernous, awful room upstairs,” Anderson says. “It was a bit creepy and not a very comfortable place to work, so it wasn’t an enjoyable album to make, in terms of recording sessions.” Meanwhile, former touring partners Led Zeppelin “were in this little cosy studio in the crypt underneath”, recording what would become their own boundary-pushing fourth album. But while the sessions were “fraught with difficulties” and Jethro Tull ended each day “just glad to have got something down”, the group received encouragement when Jimmy Page came into the studio, encouraging guitarist Martin Barre as he recorded his solo for Aqualung’s title track. “Jimmy let himself into our control room and was standing at the back, very visibly to Martin, and was sort of cheering him on,” Anderson says. “It was a supportive kind of thing, but it was a little bit intimidating because… we all saw Led Zeppelin as the superior race in terms of musical ability and stagecraft and skills… We were, in a sense, trying to struggle along in the wake of their success and see if we could in some way emulate or get close to that kind of standard.” As with the album’s other riff-heavy songs – Cross-Eyed Mary, My God, Locomotive Breath – Aqualung’s title track, and Barre’s guitar work, cemented Jethro Tull’s place as a group capable of delivering the heaviosity required of rock bands in the early 70s, as the late-psychedelic era solidified into hard rock. “It’s got one of the iconic guitar riffs,” Anderson says of the song, though when he first played it to Barre on an acoustic guitar in a hotel during down time between shows, the guitarist wasn’t convinced it would work. “I said, ‘Now think of it through a Marshall amp turned up to 12 – that’s what this is going to be…’ And the first time he played it through a big amplifier, it all gelled for him – and for the guys in the band.” “WE DIDN’T CARE WHETHER PEOPLE SAW IT AS FITTING” By the time Aqualung was released, on 19 March 1971, it was ready to gel with the wider world. “It was a slow start,” Anderson says, “but it resonated with increasing levels of reverberation… Its impact, particularly in the US, was the big factor that really made it, for us, probably the long-term most successful Jethro Tull album.” While, on paper, a British prog group singing about homelessness and critiquing organised religion would have “spelt doom and gloom for most artists” looking to connect with a US audience, following their own path is what put Jethro Tull ahead of their contemporaries. Against their record label’s predictions – “Oh no, you can’t do that – that’s not what they want,” Anderson recalls being told – Aqualung found a fanbase that not only took it to No.4 in the UK, but helped the group break into the US Top 10 for the first time, where the album settled at No.7. “They did want it,” Anderson asserts. “It just took them a few months to realise it.” Noting that “Americans have always been pretty good at spotting the real deal – something that is authentic and not too desperate to achieve favour”, Anderson recalls how “the swashbuckling Led Zeppelin” stormed the US, leading the way for bands like Jethro Tull. “They didn’t give a toss if you liked them or not,” he says. “They just went out there and steamrollered their way across America in the way that Cream did a year or two before.” Without pandering, “Jethro Tull and a host of other British bands achieved success because we weren’t trying very hard. We were just doing what we wanted to do in the way that we were doing it, and we didn’t really care whether people saw it as fitting – in terms of genre, styling, image – to the norm… We did it our way, and that seemed to resonate that it had this authenticity.” While songs like Aqualung and Locomotive Breath gained airplay in the US, the album also found some unlikely fans back home. Half a decade after Aqualung’s release, punk ostensibly waged war on everything prog rock stood for but, in 2015, Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon told a surprised London audience, “I like Jethro Tull!… Aqualung, that’s a f**kin’ stunning record, you know?” “I was always disappointed that there seemed to be that Malcolm McLaren-generated hostility that was meant to somehow feather his nest in terms of being the manager and promoter of something that was an alternative,” Anderson says. “That you had to trash Genesis and Jethro Tull and all the rest of us. It was “understandable, it’s forgivable,” he continues, but punk “greatly appealed” to Anderson himself, who saw in it “great songs, great ideas, and it was very forceful”. Not unlike Aqualung itself, then, whose charged social commentary can conceivably have influenced the nascent punks as they grew up in the early 70s. “If you look at the early performances of Johnny Rotten – a hunched, sort of slightly fearful and angry kind of creature – and then look at the front cover of the Aqualung album, maybe that’s not entirely coincidental,” Anderson says. “IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE A CONCEPT ALBUM” Years before punk tried to declare whether you could listen to Jethro Tull or not, Anderson sought to protect the group from other outside forces: critics who defined Aqualung as a concept album. A collection of thematically-linked vignettes, maybe, but Anderson remains resolute: “I’ve always said that three or four songs don’t make a concept album. There were perhaps three or four songs that you could conceivably have bundled together as the core of something that could have been built upon and would have delivered something like a concept album, but… it was never meant to be a concept album.” Instead, the group arranged its 11 songs in a way that gave them cohesion, with Aqualung’s first half offering Anderson’s character sketches, its second featuring his critiques of organised religion. “It was divided into two sides of a vinyl record that had something you could build upon to give it a bit of intellectual tinsel,” Anderson says. The critics’ obstinance, however, led Anderson to create what he calls “the mother of all concept albums” with Aqualung’s follow-up, Think As A Brick: one continuous piece of music put across as a single 44-minute song. “Everybody said, ‘You can’t do that, it’ll never get played on radio,’” Anderson says, adding, “And of course it did. American radio stations played it in its entirety, top to tail, even though we did a segmented version for radio that broke things down into three- or four-minute sections. But a lot of the time they just put it on and had an extended pee break.” For Jethro Tull, “Aqualung was the tester.” It opened up new creative pathways that led not only to satirical concept albums like Thick As A Brick, but increasingly ambitious works such as 1973’s A Passion Play, which followed a fictional character’s journey through the afterlife and saw Jethro Tull edge into multimedia live performances with video footage that helped bring the album’s storyline to the stage. “A lot more people have become aware of Aqualung,” Anderson says of the album’s continued growth in stature. “Particularly the title track, and one or two other songs are still staples on rock radio… along with the other alumni of the 70s.” Not only a landmark album for Jethro Tull, but an early indicator of where prog rock would head throughout the 70s, Anderson is justifiably assured when he says: “It continues to have its place.” link
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Post by Catqualung on Mar 18, 2021 20:29:10 GMT
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Post by JTull 007 on Mar 19, 2021 0:41:45 GMT
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Post by aqualung on Mar 19, 2021 16:54:04 GMT
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Post by bunkerfan on Mar 19, 2021 17:27:58 GMT
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 20, 2021 7:34:29 GMT
abcnewsradioonline.com/music-news/2021/3/19/jethro-tulls-ian-anderson-reflects-on-aqualung-on-the-classi.htmlJethro Tull's Ian Anderson reflects on 'Aqualung' on the classic album's 50th anniversaryBy Matt Friedlander Today marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Jethro Tull's classic album Aqualung, which features some of the eclectic British rock band's most enduring songs, including the title track, "Locomotive Breath," "Hymn 43" and "Cross-Eyed Mary." Aqualung, Jethro Tull's fourth studio effort, peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200, and is the group's all-time best-selling record, having sold over 3 million in the U.S. The album kicks off with the title track, a dynamic, riff-heavy song about an unsavory street person. Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson tells ABC Audio that the song was inspired by a photo of a London homeless man taken by his then-wife Jennie, who also co-wrote the lyrics. As Anderson recalls, "It was the humanity and the sadness, the vulnerability of this person that made me say…'Let's write a song about this character. Let's imagine who he is. Whether he has a name. What does he do? Where does he live?' But more importantly, it's not just about him. It's about our reaction to the homeless. Our feelings of compassion, of fear, of discomfort, of sometimes disdain." Meanwhile, Ian says the Aqualung album "is defined by that song, in the sense of drama and the sense of dynamic variation between loud and quiet, and slow and fast." While Aqualung often is labeled a concept album, Anderson insists it isn't, although, as he notes, the record is split into two thematic sides. The first features "whimsical social documentary pieces" such as the title track and "Cross-Eyed Mary," while the second showcases "religious commentary songs" like "My God" and "Hymn 43."
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 21, 2021 7:39:03 GMT
www.denofgeek.com/culture/jethro-tull-aqualung-50th-anniversary/Aqualung at 50: Jethro Tull’s Half Concept Album Hits Half a CenturyAfter 50 years, you’d think we knew Jethro Tull’s Aqualung. But we got the damned thing all wrong. By Tony Sokol March 18, 2021 “In the beginning Man created God,” reads the back cover of Jethro Tull’s Aqualung. “And in the image of Man created he him.” The album came out 7 million days later, on March 19, 1971. We’d only recently been told God was “a concept by which we measure our pain,” by John Lennon. Aqualung is framed by two halves of a concept. The first songs on the first side tell the stories of the outcasts, those out of sight of the eyes of the man who created god. The B-side explains why organized religion blinds us. In between are songs which have nothing to do with either theme. First off, for those who don’t know, Jethro Tull is not a person, but a band. The songs on Aqualung were written by Ian Anderson, bandleader, singer-songwriter, guitarist, occasional saxophonist, and heaviest metal flutist to make Bach swing. Anderson maintained, throughout numerous interviews, Aqualung was not a concept record. He would go on to mock the very idea of it with the satirical prog masterpiece Thick as a Brick. The Beatles suffered the same misnomer dilemma. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band wasn’t a concept album. Paul McCartney got the idea the band would play the album as if they were this other band. The concept lasted two songs and a reprieve. The rest of the album is a full immersion into the possibilities of the studio under the steady gaze of George Martin. Aqualung opens with songs inspired by true life candid shots Ian’s wife Jennie Anderson (now filmmaker Jennie Franks) took while studying photography. One was a homeless man, another an under-age prostitute. Other than that, the first side includes a beautiful love song, and hard and soft confessional pieces. The first concept album is Woody Guthrie’s 1940 album Dust Bowl Ballads, which stuck to one theme: the economic and ecological fallout of the devastating 1930s drought. Frank Sinatra explored loneliness and late nights on a pair of classic concept long-players unified by mood. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s Freak Out!, from 1966, is the first concept album, as well as the first double-album, of rock, although every song on the Beach Boys’ 1963 album Little Deuce Coupe is about a car. The Who’s Tommy, Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, and Pink Floyd’s The Wall are rock operas which tell full stories. Bands like the Kinks tried unifying songs with imperceivable segues and tone. Aqualung delivers a consistent tone. Sometimes the songs fluctuate between soft acoustic and hard rock, other times the individual pieces grow through progressive layering. The harder and more social pieces employ metric modulation, and the religious ones dabble in the chordal modulations of spiritual music. The acoustic songs are less folk than singer-songwriter stylings. The album revels in its contrasts. We get riff-rock ready-made for Madison Square Garden, and intimate nylon string fingerings to burn toast to. Ian Anderson’s lyrics are filled with rich, detailed imagery, regardless of how pretentious critic Robert Christgau found him. The band mix progressive rock, hard rock, folk music, jazz, classical, and even medieval and pagan music, along with what Anderson would call “ugly changes of time signature and banal instrumental passages” on the Thick as a Brick album notes. This WasJethro Tull formed in 1967, the same year Anderson took up the flute, on a whim. After realizing as a guitarist, he “was never going to be as good as Eric Clapton,” Ian “parted company with my Fender Strat, whose previous owner was Lemmy Kilmister, who was then the rhythm guitar player for the Rockin’ Vickers,” Anderson told Classic Rock. He then “bought a flute, for no good reason. It just looked nice and shiny.” Energized by Pink Floyd’s The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, the band was able to drop the twelve-bar blues songs which led to non-pop record deals in London. Anderson got the name Jethro Tull from the 18th-century agriculturist who invented the seed-drill, which gave birth to modern agriculture. Their first album, This Was, was blues, but the band distinguished itself, especially live. They were the first band to perform at The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus, though their part was mimed, with Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi on guitar. Martin Barre took over for the band’s original guitarist, blues specialist Mick Abrahams, and on their 1969 album, Stand Up, the band stood out, sounding unlike any other band. It was eclectic, incorporating Western classical, Asian music, English folk, and harder rock. The band continued experimenting melodically and rhythmically through 1970’s Benefit, which just failed to make the U.S. Top 10. Jethro Tull has become known as a band of ever-changing instrumentalists. Aqualung was the bridge album towards reassembling one of Ian’s first bands. Anderson was 23 when he led Jethro Tull through Aqualung. When he was young, Anderson could be found in Dunfermline, Scotland, where he was born on August 10, 1947. But he was packed off to school in Blackpool, where he sang and played guitar and harmonica for The Blades in 1963. John Evans, who joined on piano, organ, and mellotron, had been a guest musician on Benefit. Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, who’d been mythologized in the songs “Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square,” “Song for Jeffrey,” and “For Micheal Collins, Jeffrey And Me,” replaced Glenn Cornick on bass. Both had been in the Blades. Barriemore Barlow, also from the early sixties band, would replace Clive Bunker on drums after Aqualung. Tull mythology says Hammond-Hammond didn’t know the instrument and had to be taught on a note-by-note basis. He may very well have had to have been coached through each specific part he was playing. They are often incredibly intricate runs, and often go against the grain of what is expected from the bass. He had to have been familiar enough with the instrument to click in with both Clive Bunker and Barriemore Barlow, each were virtuosos with vastly different approaches to rhythm. Bunker never met a beat he couldn’t undermine for unexpected force and dynamic. Yet, he could make a 5/4 song danceable. The ensemble playing is tight, the players moved easily through more intricate arrangements. The orchestrations are done by Dee Palmer, who later joined as a full-time member. The British press coined the term “progressive rock” to describe bands like Frank Zappa, Yes, King Crimson and Genesis. Tull was prog, but more accessible than classical music enthusiasts Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Guitar Gods and Flute Solos Jethro Tull is probably best known as the classic rock band with the lead flute. “Aqualung,” possibly their best-known song, has no flute. Martin Barre’s guitar solo was rated #25 in Guitar World‘s “100 Greatest Guitar Solos” reader’s poll. But it could just as easily have been a whirl of woodwind. “In those days, if you didn’t get a guitar solo in one or two takes, it might become a flute solo. It was, ‘Go in there and do it or else,” Barre told Guitar Player in a 2015 interview. Aqualung was recorded in a large, cold-sounding studio that Island Records built in a converted church in London. Led Zeppelin were recording their fourth album in the moderate sized basement studio that had been the crypt. “The only thing I can remember about cutting the solo is that Led Zeppelin was recording next door, and as I was playing it, Jimmy Page walked into the control room and waved to me,” Barre remembered for Guitar Player. While there have been countless theories about why the players had the faceoff, both Tull and Zeppelin fans appreciate the dual pressure of the session. “And here was Jimmy, waving like mad – ‘Hey, Martin!’ – and I’m thinking, ‘I can’t wave back or I’m going to blow the solo.’” The song “Aqualung” opens with one of the most recognizable riffs in rock, in the same league as Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,” and the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” It has been venerated and mocked in equal measure, but in all cases lovingly. It opens the song with the drama of the four-note opening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and becomes a motif. “Aqualung” is “a tortured tangle of chords,” according to Ian, with atonal harmonies, meaning the root is open to interpretation. The chords themselves are a journey to the acoustic segment of the song, which then builds, like most songs on the album, one instrument at a time. The audio effect on the later vocals is called “telephone burbles,” which happens when all audio frequencies are removed except for a narrow band around the 1,000 hertz mark, making the voice sound like it’s coming through a megaphone. The song has a cold ending rather than a fadeout, which makes it perfect for stage performances. Bad IntentIan got the title for the album and song from the TV show Sea Hunt, where the main character, played by Lloyd Bridges, wore an Aqualung for underwater breathing. Aqualung was a brand name, and the Aqualung Corporation of North America took legal action after the album came out. Artist Burton Silverman, who created the cover portrait, also sued, saying the likeness should not be used on merchandising, T-shirts, and promotional materials. Before the codpiece and the medieval minstrel suits and lutes, Ian performed in an overcoat, which had been stolen after a concert, but has been described as looking ratty. This led to further complications of identity. Because of Tull’s manager, Terry Ellis, Silverman’s cover portrait looks like Anderson, against the singer’s wishes. “I’m not this character,” he told Louder Sound. “I’m not a homeless person. I’m a spotty middle-class English kid. I’ve never had to sleep rough on the street, and I don’t want to be pretending to be that character.” The character Aqualung, is a homeless man like the character in Pearl Jam’s “Even Flow.” Both characters are blank slates in everyday life and can have any association imposed on them. Besides inspiring the album through her photographs of homeless people living under the railway arches on the Thames Embankment in south London, Anderson’s wife Jennie also co-wrote the lyrics. “I had feelings of guilt about the homeless, as well as fear and insecurity with people like that who seem a little scary,” Anderson told Guitar World in a 1999 interview. The lyrics have more to do with the assumptions people make of Aqualung, like his predilection for little girls or frilly panties. But he also saw the angry man as “a free spirit, who either won’t or can’t join in society’s prescribed formats.” She’ll Do It For A Song“Cross-Eyed Mary” didn’t only capture the attention of Aqualung, she was one of the subjects in the photographic collection of the lesser people cast into the void: a child prostitute. The song transforms her into a squinty Mary Magdalene, whose jack-knife barber abortionist drops her off at school. In the lower income neighborhood Highgate, she’s a Robin Hood figure. In wealthy Hampstead Village, which was the site of the St. Mary Magdalene House of Charity in the Victorian era, she’s a business expense. The song opens with flute and mellotron rising in rhythm and pulse until the band kicks in. The interplay between guitar and piano is delicate, and the bass line buzzes with riff-worthy changes. Iron Maiden transformed the flute part into baroque metal guitar when they covered it. “Cheap Day Return” is the first of three short acoustic songs on the album, each under two minutes. A “cheap day return” is a reduced-price round trip train ticket, and the song was written while Ian was waiting for a connecting train on his way to visiting his father, who was seriously ill in a hospital in Blackpool. In interviews, Anderson has said the song would have been longer, but the train arrived. “Mother Goose” opens with acoustic folk guitar under Elizabethan madrigal sounding recorders played by Barre and Hammond-Hammond, who also provides harmony vocals. The electric guitar comes in late in the song, kicking the childhood Piccadilly Circus nursery rhymes into the adult playground of Johnny Scarecrow. “It’s only the giving which makes you what you are,” Ian sings in “Wond’ring Aloud.” The second short acoustic piece is a simple love song made grandly beautiful by the piano and string arrangement. The longer version, “Wond’ring Again,” which appears on Living In The Past (1972), reached the opposite conclusion, but kept the idealistic romance at the center of the piece. The third acoustic piece, “Slipstream,” from side two, presses Ian’s last dime on God’s waiter to pay the tab. The song is tideless, but the unreasoning strings paddle the way out of the mess. “Up To Me” opens not with a recognizable riff, nor a classical piano twist, but a whole hearted laugh which is as contagious as the song itself. Praying ‘til Next Thursday to All the Gods that You Can Count Side two, subtitled “My God,” deals with religious hypocrisy, golden cages, and plastic crucifixes. If Jesus saves, then he’d better save himself. The song “My God” had been kicking around since at least the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. The imagery recalls William Blake and the metallic break-in sounds like Black Sabbath, both the band and the dark holiday. Once again, the song uses progressive modulation beginning with a solo acoustic guitar introduction like Evan’s piano on “Locomotive Breath.” But when Barre’s electric guitar takes over for the nylon classical fretwork, the song is full-blown metal. Ian’s voice drips with as much disdain for organized religion as his songwriting does for musical structure. The song goes through the arpeggios of classical guitar, through hymnal chord changes, a metallic flute lead backed by instruments, another flute lead accompanied by a chorus of harmonizing bishops, inverted chromatics, and comes to a dark Pied Piper ending. “Hymn 43” is a piano-driven soul-stirrer with enough propulsive licks to set the white man free. Ian’s preaching to the faithless on this one, though. He bears witness in the city, on the moon and on that bloody cross. The guitar and flute interplay works like a gospel call and response, and Ian’s voice stings with insinuation. If you want to hear Ian play electric guitar, you should give another listen to the rhythm on “Locomotive Breath.” He’s also on the hi-hat and bass drum which he laid out for the basic rhythm, allowing Bunker space for tom-toms and the cymbals. The song opens with Evan giving a jazzy spin to dramatic classical concerto piano. The song, which is about overpopulation, rhythmically careens like a train about to derail. It is a concert favorite and frequent showstopper. “Wind Up” asks this God a question and learns it’s “not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.” The song is structured to grow on you, and age well. It begins with acoustic guitar and vocal, which is joined by the rest of the outfit until the climactic solos, and then reminiscences a second time symmetrically with piano grounding the build-up. In a fairly straightforward song, Bunker plays everything but a straight beat. Anderson concludes, in the liner notes which are cast in liturgical-style Gothic lettering, the Spirit that caused man to create his God lives on, but goes unnoticed. He advises listeners, “for Christ’s sake,” to start looking. The album has been pilloried and praised by people of all faiths and none. The title song gave a face to the homeless and inspired grassroots organizations to create aid. Musically, it is a constant irritation to sitcom characters and an equally steady inspiration to players. In spite of having to explain how flute was a heavy metal instrument after winning the Grammy for 1987 Crest of a Knave, Jethro Tull was a huge influence on heavy metal and hard rock. Even the Sex Pistols’ John Lydon ranks Aqualung among his favorite records. It may be dinosaur rock to some, but Aqualung is far from extinct. Tracks like “Aqualung”, “Cross-Eyed Mary, “Hymn #43” and “Locomotive Breath” take up the bulk of Jethro Tull’s playlist on classic rock media outlets. After 50 years, Aqualung can still blow a wheezy breath of fresh air into stale misconceptions, even if he does have snot running down his nose.
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 21, 2021 16:30:18 GMT
A lengthy piece on Aqualung. Click on 'link' to read it in full. The Class of 1971: Jethro Tull — AqualungIn 1969, we attended the Laurel Pop Festival in Maryland. We surely knew who Led Zeppelin and Johnny Winter were, and we were hip to Al Kooper from the original Blood, Sweat & Tears and The Edwin Hawkins Singers and their smash hit “Oh, Happy Day!” And we had at least an idea about Buddy Guy, almost 34 at the time. The group we didn’t know was Jethro Tull. Country rock from England, maybe, we’d heard? And then there was this guy in the bathrobe prancing about the stage in his bathrobe. They were stunning. Immediately, we latched onto This Was, the band’s debut recording from 1968 (still my all-time favorite). In quick succession, we grabbed Stand Up (1969) and Benefit (1970). They had a big presence on the festival scene, but there was simply no way to anticipate the explosion that would occur when the group released its fourth studio effort, the ubiquitous Aqualung. That album catapulted the group into the forefront of the rock radio and concert world. link
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 23, 2021 7:42:03 GMT
www.telegraphindia.com/culture/arts/its-50-years-of-jethro-tulls-aqualung-ian-anderson-takes-it-song-by-song/cid/1810152It’s 50 years of Jethro Tull’s Aqualung! Ian Anderson takes it song by song‘As an album, it was social documentary, social realism, and touches on the everyday street scenario; musically, it’s about dynamics of extremes’ Feeling alone The army's up the road Salvation a la mode and a cup of tea Aqualung, my friend Don't you start away uneasy You poor old sod You see, it's only me Me-ee-eeh, o-o-o-ohThis is when Martin Barre’s Les Paul comes in, unhurried, laying out the contours of the journey he’s about to take on the fretboard, embedding a riff in the hearts and minds of generations of Tull fans. He eases in, naturally free flowing. Soon, he ratchets up the pace emphatically, and dives into the whirligig of emotion, screeching, bending and stomping. It’s the section of the song where all the dramatis personae appear to come together, standing face-to-face. It’s 50 years of Aqualung, the album named after the song. Do you still remember December's foggy freeze? Thanks to the marvels of technology and the uncertainties of a pandemic, the world got to watch Jethro Tull founder-frontman Ian Anderson live-stream his thoughts on the genesis of each song in the seminal album of the iconic rock band that can still bring together folks across time zones to commemorate the occasion. From USA, Turkey, Poland, Serbia, South Korea, not to mention Calcutta, Mumbai, Bengaluru, fans had gathered Friday night, eyes preened on their devices to hear the 74-year-old tongue-flutist look back fondly. Ian was only 24 when Aqualung was released. Not that he makes a big deal of it anyway. After all, the number of personnel changes notwithstanding, Jethro Tull has to its credit today 21 studio and seven live albums, setting aside a handful of compilations. The Aqualung album, he notes, marks a departure from the straight-ahead rock album styles and heavy guitars to arrive at a “dynamic mix of big riffs and aggressive music” punctuated by “singer-songwriter acoustic pieces”. Ian says it was about his gaining the confidence to do songs that were in a more intimate setting. “As an album, it was social documentary, social realism, and touches on subjects, the everyday street scenario, people in a landscape,’’ he says of the 11 songs. The dynamism comes from the songs as well as their sequence. Once upon a time listening to an album from beginning to end was the only way to enjoy music seriously. Bookended by the weighty rock pieces _ the seductive power of the title track, the foot-stomping character of Cross-Eyed Mary and the frenetic urgency of Locomotive Breath _ are the soft “non sequiturs”. These are intimate acoustic delicacies about a son taking a train trip to pay a visit to his ailing father, soaking in the sun at London’s Hampstead Heath _ a la the Calcutta Maidan _ imagining a love so pure that it needs shielding by a string quartet and then winding up with an ode to school days where learning comes amid a deep understanding of power, its consequences and the responsibility that comes with it. Pay attention to the lyrics and sense the extent of Ian’s heavy-duty introspection. Poverty and homelessness are a concern (Aqualung), stitched together as he says via a painting. Organised religion comes in for some deep scrutiny (My God, Hymn 43) with Ian making no bones about his feelings towards those who use religion as an instrument of power and control. Controversy? Oh yes, a few copies of the album were burnt in the USA, but that’s about all. “I got away with it. Nobody got hurt as far as I know.” Listen in. Ian’s quite the raconteur. He has stories about a certain Jimmy Page’s presence at the recording of the title track’s lead riff and a novice bass player who went on to nail it Aqualung “The music, as I recall, probably came after the lyrics, but soon after. I remember writing the opening riff (hums the tune) as a loud electric guitar piece. But of course, I was at that time in a hotel room in the mid-west of America and I phoned Martin Barre in his room and said, ‘come over, I’ve got this new song… maybe we can just work on it together’. So, he came along with his electric guitar _ no amplifier, just a feeble tin tin tin, almost inaudible. I played him the riff and the chords on the acoustic guitar and said, ‘this is your part.’ It was to be a full-on heavy rock riff, and indeed it was a very memorable one… also highlighted by Martin’s great guitar solo in the middle as witnessed by one Jimmy Page when we were recording the album in Island Records’ Basing Street Studios. And Jimmy popped into our studio and watched that bit of the proceedings when Martin did his guitar solo live in the studio knowing that Jimmy was watching him. Pretty scary stuff. We didn’t return the favour ‘cause we were far too shy to go and intrude on the (Led) Zeppelin recording sessions.” Cross-Eyed Mary “It’s a weird one. But again, it’s about people in a landscape. And this particular one was an imaginary woman, probably flawed in some people’s eyes by being cross eyed, but none the less, I suppose, attractive in some way to men who wanted to pay for her favours. And it draws together a lot of stereotypes. It’s probably not really a politically correct kind of song _ and there are quite a few of those on the Aqualung album now that I think of it (laughs). If I was to write those today, I might just moderate some of the descriptive nature, titles, names just to soften it a little bit.” Cheap Day Return “This was a song written about a brief visit up to Blackpool where my father was quite seriously ill and in hospital at the time. Not knowing whether he was going to make it, I jumped on a train and went up to visit him from London. We only spent, I guess, half an hour together in a ward in a hospital and (it) seemed like he was going to pull through and was being well looked after. But I had to change trains, in fact, in Preston town in the north of England, where I stood on one platform and went to another platform and stood there in bitter cold stamping my feet to try and keep warm. Hence on ‘Preston platform do you soft shoe shuffle dance’. It’s a little ode to my father and perhaps more importantly to the nurses looking after him in hospital. He did come home and did live a few more years after that. So, it was a nice, memorable and a very short little song.” Mother Goose “Playing live on stage, I do Cheap Day Return and Mother Goose back-to-back as a little pair of allied songs. Different subjects (though) Mother Goose was really predicated on some of those summer walks around Hampstead Heath, a public park around north of London where in the summer you’d find all kinds of people from the dying days of the hippie times through to those just out exercising, having a good time. People would kind of dress up and be endowed with the blessings of the summer sun. I remember it as being a pageantry of colour, people were wearing lots of colourful clothes. It is indeed a kind of slightly surreal but interesting pastiche of topics. People probably scratched their heads listening to it, thinking, who is Johnny Scarecrow? Why is he doing his rounds? For the life of me I can’t remember.” Won’dring Aloud “One of those rare occasions when I write something approximating to being a love song. And I’m not very good at that sort of stuff. I am not really a heart-on-sleeve kind of guy. … Wond’ring Aloud, it’s a personal, imagined kind of a song. I guess it’s a waking up in the morning kind of a song... It’s rather poignant… I think I did two takes of the song, no edits or anything. But it was just an acoustic guitar and a voice. So, it had a little bit added to it in the way of some piano from John Evans, bass from our novice bass player Jeffery Hammond. And then I thought that it would be rather nice to hear a string quartet. So, I contacted an old chum David Palmer who’d worked with Jethro Tull even as early as 1968. And he’d done a great string quartet piece on a song back in 1968 called, A Christmas Song. And in a way we reprised that idea a bit. Being a relatively solitary acoustic piece but with the warmth of a string quartet which makes it one of those early songs where, I think, we did a good job of bringing together the elements of a classical string quartet with folky pop music.” Up To Me “Here’s another of those walking down the street kind of a song as I am seeing things and imagining people. Not so much imagining people. Seeing real people but imagining what their back story is. Who are they? Where did they come from? What do they do?” My God “The opening track of Side Two, My God, may well have been the first song that was written for the Aqualung album. It was performed live on stage some months before we actually got to record Aqualung. But I remember doing My God in the summer of the year before in 1970 at least in America. And it had slightly changed lyrics, but it was always a dramatic piece and a bit of a critique of organised religion. It’s not that I have anything against organised religion, but I think you’ve got to question the validity of people who use religion for self-aggrandisement, to make themselves look powerful or important and exercise some control over their flock. “So, all of those things infused that song and the lyrics, and the drama of the opening acoustic pieces with piano and acoustic guitar through to the crashing in of the big riff that’s very much part of what Aqualung as an album is about. It’s about dynamics of extremes, musically. Again, lyrically speaking I might just modify two or three words in the whole text today in order not to be misunderstood as I was for that song back in 1971 when they burnt copies of Aqualung in the southern states of the United States because they thought it was sacrilegious and a huge offence. But I got away with it. Nobody got hurt as far as I know. Certainly, I escaped intact. So far!” Hymn 43 “In keeping with one or two other things on Side 2 of the Aqualung album, it has obvious references to Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth, or in this case Jesus Christ, being perhaps held up to be something that may be he might have been a little uncomfortable with. We can never know. I am trying to be sympathetic and understanding of the huge weight placed upon the historic shoulders of Jesus. Tough gig. Almost as bad as being the Pope, really.” Slipstream “I love the little, short things. The little non sequiturs of music where you just have this tiny thing that lasts 20 or 30 seconds. There is no before, there is no after; just a tiny little glimpse of here and now encapsulated into this very narrow time-frame. So, it has a rather enigmatic but none the less nice little lyric that (after a long pause) does have an optimism about it, I think. But also, a rather gloomy side too. It is enigmatic. I’d like to think I am quite good at being enigmatic. It comes quite easily to me.” Locomotive Breath “Always an unpopular thing to talk about because people get their knickers very readily in a twist if you talk about population issues. But growing up in the ’70s it seemed quite obvious that we were on a real level of growth in terms of global population… We were entering into a world that was just colossal in terms of industry, commerce, greed, banking and investments and all of the trappings that come with a lot of people, a lot of mouths to feed, a lot of people to buy products. So, I wrote the song very carefully, I think, to talk about that runaway train of population growth. I was born in 1947. And in my lifetime so far, the population of our little fragile planet has increased to be slightly more than three times as many people living here as there were when I was born _ in one man’s lifetime more than tripling the population of our planet. So, we have a big job in trying to create levels of equality to feed those people to cope with a real jungle of folks.” Wind-Up “The last song on the album, which, I think, intentionally was called Wind-Up as a final song for the album, is one that begins with the lyric, ‘When I was young, and they packed me off to school and taught me how not to play the game’. Again, I am going back to my childhood days of being, I suppose, subject to the authoritarian regime of a grammar school that pretended to be a public school _ the English term of being a private school that was very old fashioned and traditional. Boys were caned. It was ridiculous. All of that is my growing up, part of my sideways glance towards education, my sideways glance towards religious education. “But in many other ways I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that because it’s given me a sense, not only of a degree of anger, a degree of rebelliousness, but also a degree of understanding as to how people will use the degree of authority given to them whether they are senior prefects at a school or whether they are teachers. … and may be I’d have written the song a little bit differently with the wisdom of my years than I did back in 1971.” The Aqualung livestream experience was heart-warming and rewarding for all. It’s fascinating how the same songs are appreciated differently over time. Back in 1994, when I was fortunate enough to meet Ian Anderson and Martin Barre in then Bombay when Jethro Tull was touring India, he had spoken of some songs that simply had to be a part of their live shows no matter where they played. “Realistically, the over 200 songs that we have recorded, only 25 per cent are useful live performance songs. Locomotive Breath is okay. Living in the Past is one that’s due for a little light retirement for a year or so. Aqualung has paled, but somehow it’s a song that a Jethro Tull concert would be incomplete without,” he said. Aqualung the album, Ian agrees now fifty years from its release, is one of the most important albums for him and Martin Barre for sure. For him because it helped cement in him the idea of pursuing a varied repertoire of songs, both acoustic and heavy rock-infused electric. And for Martin because he was “really beginning to find his feet at that time as a soloist and having that ability to convey the drama of the Les Paul guitar which is what he played back then”. As for Jeffery Hammond, he had joined the band three weeks before recording and had no experience of playing the bass guitar. Hence, he had to be taught song by song. “But to our amazement, once he’d got all that in his head, he became probably the most dynamic, expressive and entertaining bass player that we’ve ever had,” recalls Ian. “Entertaining because he was a great stage character.,. also because he did play all the right notes all of the time. He hardly ever made a mistake.” Aqualung was remixed at the time of its 40th anniversary re-release in 2011 by British producer Steven Wilson who acknowledged it was a masterpiece but rued its poor sonic credentials. “What we did with Aqualung was really make that record gleam in a way it never gleamed before. I think a lot of people, including myself, have come around to thinking that the album is a lot better than they even gave it credit for previously. So, there is certainly something very gratifying about being able to polish what was already a diamond and making it shine in a way it never has before," he said in an interview to music magazine Innerviews. Jethro Tull songs keep coming. They always do. Cut to 1972, a year after Aqualung, Thick As A Brick is released. Spin me back down the years and the days of my youth. Draw the lace and black curtains and shut out the whole truth. Spin me down the long ages: let them sing the song. www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00168140.htmlJethro Tull's Ian Anderson Admits He Would Have Recorded One 'Aqualung' Song DifferentlyWhen Celebrating The 50th Release Anniversary Of His Band's Classic Album, The Folk-Rock Frontman Acknowledges That 'Cross-Eyed Mary' Was 'Not Really A Politically Correct Kind Of Song.' Mar 22, 2021 AceShowbiz - Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson would have tweaked songs he wrote for the band's classic album "Aqualung" if he knew how politically correct the world was set to become 50 years later. The folk-rocker celebrated the 50th anniversary of the release by talking about the songs during a YouTube chat with fans over the weekend, and admitted there are a number of tunes on the album he would have recorded differently if he could go back in time, including the second track, "Cross-Eyed Mary", about an unappealing prostitute. "I have no personal experience of ladies of the night...," Ian said. "This particular one was an imaginary woman, probably flawed in some people's eyes by being cross-eyed, but nonetheless, I suppose, attractive in some way to men who wanted to pay for her favors." "It draws together a lot of stereotypes. It's probably not really a politically correct kind of song. There are quite a few of those on the 'Aqualung' album... If I was to write those today I might just moderate some of the descriptive nature, titles, names, just to soften it a little bit." In another interview, Anderson opened up about the inspiration behind the album's title track. Speaking to Grammy.com, he revealed that he and his then-wife Jennie Franks were compelled to write the about a homeless person because of "a photograph [of homeless people in the south of London] that she had taken." "One particular one caught my eye and I said, 'Let's write a song about this guy.' Not trying to imagine much about his life, but more in terms of our reaction to the homeless," he detailed. "I felt it had a degree of poignancy because of the very mixed emotions we feel - compassion, fear, embarrassment."
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 26, 2021 7:45:49 GMT
www.grammy.com/grammys/news/jethro-tull-ian-anderson-aqualung-interview-2021Jethro Tull's 'Aqualung' At 50: Ian Anderson On How Whimsy, Inquiry & Religious Skepticism Forged The Progressive Rock ClassicIan Anderson wasn't sure if Jethro Tull's fourth album, 'Aqualung,' could beat the last three. But the 1971 album turned out to be their masterpiece, consolidating Anderson's feelings about homelessness, love, God and an overpopulated Earth MORGAN ENOSGRAMMYS MAR 19, 2021 - 1:28 PM By now, Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" has been lampooned by everyone from Ron Burgundy(opens in a new tab) to Tony Soprano(opens in a new tab), but the song's import goes many layers deeper than throwaway jokes. It arguably could save the world. Sure, everybody remembers that thunderclap six-note riff and leader Ian Anderson's snarling portrait of a disreputable street dweller, "eyeing little girls with bad intent." What happens next in the song is less discussed. Over tranquil acoustic strums, Anderson sings of the itinerant character not with disgust but with almost Christlike compassion. He paints a detailed portrait of his daily routine. He takes pity on his loneliness. Most tenderly, he addresses him as "my friend." Fifty years after Aqualung was released on March 19, 1971, it's safe to say this attitude hasn't been evergreen. In an era of quick demonization, most wouldn't try to understand Aqualung's plight or even give him the time of day. "I felt it had a degree of poignancy because of the very mixed emotions we feel—compassion, fear, embarrassment," Anderson tells GRAMMY.com of the title track. "It's a very mixed and contradictory set of emotions, but I think part of the way of dealing with these things is to try to understand why you feel those things."
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 27, 2021 7:36:10 GMT
bromsgrovestandard.co.uk/Music: Jethro Tull reissue captures the golden age of ‘Aqualung’James Iles 19 hours ago JETHRO Tull celebrate 50 years since the release of their best-selling ‘Aqualung’ album with a golden reissue this week. Shifting more than 7million units worldwide and streamed over 81 million times around the world, the LP peaked at No.4 in the UK album chart in April 1971 and was Tull’s fourth studio album. While ‘Aqualung’ is widely regarded as a concept album featuring a central theme of “the distinction between religion and God”, the band have said there was no intention to make a concept album, and that only a few songs have a unifying theme. The LP’s success signalled a turning point in the career of the band, who went on to become a major radio and touring act, and it features a variety of genres with elements of folk, blues, psychedelia and hard rock. Recorded at Island Records’ studio in London, it was their first album with keyboardist John Evan as a full-time member, their first with new bassist Jeffrey Hammond, and last album featuring Clive Bunker on drums, who quit the band shortly after the release of the album. Something of a departure from the band’s previous work, the album features more acoustic material than previous releases; and inspired by photographs of homeless people on the Thames Embankment taken by singer Ian Anderson’s wife Jennie contains a number of recurring themes, addressing religion along with Anderson’s own personal experiences. The album spawned two singles, “Hymn 43” and “Locomotive Breath” and was well received with Sounds saying that its “taste and variety” made it the band’s “finest” work. The Village Voice’s annual Pap and Jop critics’ poll voted it the 22nd best album of 1971 Retrospective reviews generally regard it as a classic and AllMusic’s Bruce Eder referred to the album as a “bold statement” and “extremely profound.” Indeed, Steve Harris from Iron Maiden describes it as “a classic album” that features “fantastic playing, fantastic songs, attitude [and] vibe.” * Aqualung is officially re-issued today (March 26th). link
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Post by tullpress on Mar 29, 2021 18:12:39 GMT
I watched that live stream: it was notable for a couple of things re: IA's comments on Cross-Eyed Mary, especially in light of my previous posts on this topic.
1) The full quote from the stream is: "It’s a weird one. But again, it’s about people in a landscape. It's about a girl .. a woman maybe .."
A woman, maybe? So it's got to the stage where he's attempting to row back the fact that the character was defined as a schoolgirl in every interview before now. Guess he's coming to realise that there's something a bit off about this interest in sexually active children.
He was even more explicit when introducing the song on stage in 1971: "a song about a little 12-year-old Catholic schoolgirl."
So not only is she extremely young, and a criminal to boot, but the Scottish Protestant IA also defines her as the demonised Other from the opposite end of the religious tracks to himself. Another trait that puts her beyond the pale.
2) ".. and this particular one was an imaginary woman, probably flawed in some people’s eyes by being cross eyed .."
Right! Why go to all the trouble to use interesting, figurative language when you can just be boringly literal!
She's Cross-eyed because she's Catholic: the Cross is reflected in her eyes every time she looks at it, just like the "graven-image Catholic with his plastic crucifix."
There are other Cross-eyed Marys, of course .. who actually *were* women .. but never mind.
A
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Post by maddogfagin on Mar 31, 2021 6:27:56 GMT
wsau.com/2021/03/30/rock-religion/Rock & ReligionBy Tom King March 30, 2021 6:14 AM We continue our look at the music of 50 years ago…. Rock & Roll and religion have always had a diametric relationship…dating back to Elvis and his swiveling hips…to the Beatles record burnings in the 60’s by Christians upset with John Lennon…to Tipper Gore and her followers in the 80s…up until two weeks ago and the backlash over the Grammys. Rock musicians in the 1970’s took a hard look at the religion they grew up with and wrote songs about the hypocrisy they saw. One of the albums that came out in 1971 was the Jethro Tull classic Aqualung. It was the 4th Lp for the band and for many was their high water mark. Some called it a concept LP although Ian Anderson says it’s really not. Some of the songs do follow a theme though…as Anderson took a hard look at his religious upbringing. He tried to write about the dichotomy of “God vs Religion” and as one critic put it “it’s one of the most cerebral albums ever to reach millions of rock listeners.” My advice, if you’ve never really listened to the whole album before is to look at the lyrics and delve into songs like My God, Hymn 43 and Wind Up. Lyrics To “My God” People what have you done? Locked Him in His golden cage Golden cage Made Him bend to your religion Him resurrected from the grave From the grave He is the God of nothing If that’s all that you can see You are the God of everything He’s inside you and me So lean upon Him gently And don’t call on Him to save You from your social graces And the sins you used to waive The bloody Church of England In chains of history Requests your earthly presence At the vicarage for tea And the graven image You know who With his plastic crucifix He’s got Him fixed Confuses me as to who and where and why As to how he gets his kicks He gets his kicks Confessing to the endless sin With endless whining sounds You’ll be praying ’til next Thursday To all the gods that you can count Lyrics To Hymn 43 Our Father high in heaven, smile down upon your son Who is busy with his money games – his women and his gun Oh Jesus save me And the unsung western hero, he killed an Indian or three And then he made his name in Hollywood to set the white man free Oh Jesus save me If Jesus saves, well he better save himself From the gory glory seekers who use his name in death Oh Jesus save me If Jesus saves, well he better save himself From the gory glory seekers who use his name in death Oh Jesus save me Well I saw him in the city, and on the mountains of the moon His cross was rather bloody, and he could hardly roll his stone Oh Jesus save me Lyrics To Wind Up When I was young and they packed me off to school And taught me how not to play the game I didn’t mind if they groomed me for success Or if they said that I was just a fool So I left there in the morning With their God tucked underneath my arm Their half-assed smiles and the book of rules And I asked this God a question And by way of firm reply He said “I’m not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays” So to my old headmaster and to anyone who cares Before I’m through I’d like to say my prayers I don’t believe you You had the whole damn thing all wrong He’s not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays Well, you can excommunicate me on my way to Sunday school And have all the bishops harmonize these lines How do you dare tell me that I’m my father’s son When that was just an accident of birth I’d rather look around me, compose a better song ‘Cause that’s the honest measure of my worth In your pomp and all your glory you’re a poorer man than me As you lick the boots of death born out of fear When I was young and they packed me off to school And taught me how not to play the game I didn’t mind if they groomed me for success Or if they said that I was just a fool So I left there in the morning With their God under my arm Their half-assed smiles and the book of rules Well, you can excommunicate me on my way to Sunday school Have all the bishops harmonize these lines When I was young and they packed me off to school And taught me how not to play the game I didn’t mind if they groomed me for success Or if they said that I was just a fool So to my old headmaster and to anyone who cares Before I’m through I’d like to say my prayers Well, you can excommunicate me on my way to Sunday school And have all the bishops harmonize these lines I don’t believe you You had the whole damn thing all wrong He’s not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays I also want to send a shout out to one of the underrated guitarists of this era. When we think of Jethro Tull we automatically focus on Anderson’s flute…but listen to Martin Barre’s guitar work…fantastic! Enjoy
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