Ian Anderson interviews

[Deleted]

Progressive rock, Rock Music, Something Else! Interviews, Uncategorized — June 19, 2013 at 11:26 am
Something Else! Interview: Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull
by Nick DeRiso
somethingelsereviews.com/2013/06/19/something-else-interview-ian-anderson-of-jethro-tull/
Ian Anderson, even as a massive four-DVD set of live Jethro Tull performances is set to be released next week, continues a well-received solo tour, highlighted by a June 30 stop at London’s Royal Albert Hall and then a string of U.S. dates.
He paused to discuss these on-going concert performances, his recent return to a legendary character from the Jethro Tull discography on Thick as a Brick 2,, and the prospects of working with long-time Tull collaborator Martin Barre again.
Anderson also speaks frankly about the outsized personalities of
early prog rock, and his predictions on whether that kind of furious
invention will ever return to music …

NICK DERISO: Do you think that, ultimately, Jethro Tull got
lumped in with the progressive-rock genre because there simply wasn’t an
easy to categorize what you were doing?

IAN ANDERSON: That probably would be the case, if you look at the
bigger body of work. It clearly isn’t all fitting comfortably into the
term ‘prog rock.’ I think you could describe it as progressive rock
music, because loosely speaking — as a very general term — that’s what
it is. But I think you’ll probably find more definitions along the lines
of folk rock, in terms of looking at the bigger picture of Jethro
Tull’s repertoire and discography. It would appear probably more often
that people would think of it that way. It’s something rock,
and whatever that ‘something’ is, I still like the original term that
comes from 1969: progressive rock. But that was with a small ‘p’ and a
small ‘r.’ Prog Rock, on the other hand, has different connotations — of
grandeur and pomposity. Back then, when we were doing Thick as a Brick,
bands like Yes and Emerson Lake and Palmer were already gaining a
reputation for being a little pompous and showing off with their music. I
think that was OK. The reality is that certain members of Yes were
quite humorous about it; they could laugh at themselves — as, indeed,
Emerson Lake and Palmer privately laughed amongst themselves about
themselves. They’d do that with me, too. There’s a ready understanding
that what we are doing is a bit ‘Spinal Tap,’ in more contemporary
comparative terms. I personally think the world is a better place for
having Emerson Lake and Palmer and Yes, because their music was quite
elevated — great tunes, and some innovative playing. But, of course, it
was to many people a bit excessive. I think some writers and some
musicians found it pompous, because they were displaying their technical
skills as musicians sometimes in way that made them seem like party
showoffs.
NICK DERISO: You toured together, something that must have provided some insight.

IAN ANDERSON: It’s difficult sometimes when you think of
performances back then, with the lengthy drum solos that didn’t really
mean anything, the noodly guitar solos and so on. Sometimes, it just was
a bit of showing off. I remember when Yes were on tour with us, it was
kind of vaguely interesting to watch Steve Howe playing his party-piece
guitar stuff. You knew that it was a collection of bits that must have
evolved over all of his years as a guitar player, and it was just kind
of showing off. We all have a bit of that that we do. I have a couple of
things that I blatantly refer to as party pieces, because they are just
a bit of fun — something you play when you are called upon to be the
circus clown. (Chuckles.) Clearly, we all — Steve Howe, Ian Anderson —
we have other things that we do in which we’re not showing off. We’re
too busy with our heads down, and with furrowed brows, trying to play
something that is really quite difficult. But that’s part of what was
going on back then, and I think looking back on it that most of it was a
pretty good experience for musicians and listeners alike. Some of it
was a little bit overblown, but in the case of much of the music, it was
absolutely spot on.

NICK DERISO: Did it take growing older, and accumulating more experiences, before you felt compelled to return to Gerald Bostock and Thick as a Brick? There’s so much within the sequel about life choices, and roads not taken .

IAN ANDERSON: In 2010, we had some of the inevitable remixing and remastering of the original Thick as a Brick album,
and I thought about the possibility of playing it on stage and so that
tossed out the possibility a sequel. When the eureka moment struck, it
was late in 2010, based on the response to the simple question: Well, I
wonder whatever happened to Gerald Bostock — the fictitious child poet
who supposedly wrote the lyrics to Thick as a Brick in 1972? In
response to that, I wrote down a number of possible scenarios as to what
Gerald Bostock might be doing today. Rather than just pick one, I
thought I’d pick six different outcomes to the young boy’s life and
explore how he might have gotten to all of them. In that way, it’s a
reference to the situation that we all face when growing up about making
choices, and where we’re headed in life. Sometimes, we diligently think
it through and apply ourselves to a thoughtful moment of life-changing
decision making, other times fate, luck, or chance seem to make those
decisions for us. That whimsical notion is what started me on writing
what became the sequel. We recorded that in the back end of 2011, and
we’ve been on tour pretty much since the release of that album in April
of last year.
[SOMETHING ELSE! REWIND: Jethro
Tull's 'Aqualung' remains an album that’s simply bursting with strange,
sometimes unsavory characters and blunt questions about faith and its
earthly trappings.]
NICK DERISO: What’s next in the reissue series being overseen
by Steven Wilson, which has also yielded a sparkling new anniversary
edition of Aqualung?

IAN ANDERSON: There are actually three waiting in the wings for
release, which Steven did last year. They’re all mastered and finished,
and waiting to roll. The (1970) Benefit album comes out in October. Coming next in 2014 will be (1973′s) A Passion Play and Chateau d’Isaster Tapes (originally released as Disc 1 of Nightcap
in 1993). That’s according to EMI, if they are still in business —
which, of course, they won’t be. The material will be with Warner Bros.
by then, and presumably they will honor the commitment to release it in
remastered form. It would be silly not to, because there’s a profit
margin in doing it, so I can be reasonably confident those things will
see the light of day.

NICK DERISO: You’ve always had a problem, much like the
members of Pink Floyd, with people thinking you are a person actually
named Jethro Tull. I wondered if performing Thick as a Brick 2 as a solo act is only further blurring those lines.

IAN ANDERSON: It blurred the lines. But if it just said “Jethro
Tull” on the tickets, people are going to come expecting to see the 20
best-known songs of Jethro Tull. Rather than disappoint those folks by
then focusing on a more conceptual concert evening, I think it’s better
to be more specific — even if it may blur lines or even confuse. I do
try to spell out what it is people are going to see when they come to
see the show. Of course, Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson — to a lot of
people, they are one and the same thing. But I do think it’s important
to let them know that this is very much a focused performance.
[SOMETHING ELSE! REWIND: Jethro
Tull's Ian Anderson remembers winning the heavy metal Grammy over
Metallica to a shower of 'boos and hisses and gasps of disbelief.']
NICK DERISO: Are there plans write original work with Martin again?

IAN ANDERSON: There are actually no specific plans. He’s
finishing the mastering of an album that he’s been working on. I haven’t
heard it, but it’s what he’s devoted the last few months towards doing.
He’s got quite a lot of dates lined up throughout the year. So, his
projects — which we discussed back in 2010, I think — are reaching
fruition, and I’ve set out to do some of my projects. When that’s done,
we’ll consider the future, but I don’t have any plans right now to be
recording another studio album with Martin Barre. He’s busy, and so I
am, doing other stuff. We’ve been playing together for so many years
that I think both of us probably feel — I would hope, understandably —
that there are some things that you’ve got to sort out and do, while you
still can. The worst possible scenario, really, is to sort of carry on
doing repertoire — going out and doing that sort of repetitive thing
until you die. It works for some folks, and they probably enjoy it, but
some of us have the conviction that there is still unfinished business —
while we still have our marbles and our musical expertise to go with
it. (Chuckles.) I think fans will understand that it’s good that we are
actually passionate about doing new things, and reinterpreting some old
things — whatever it might be. The idea that you are sort of an old
married couple that has to go on display? (Laughs.) Martin feels the
same as I do: It’s nice to have a bit of a life of your own, and be
recognized as an individual, rather than just as that bloke who plays
guitar in Jethro Tull. It’s important to me, let alone him, that he’s
recognized as an individual by name for his work over the years and his
contributions to the sound of Jethro Tull. It’s good that he’s doing
these things. I look forward to hearing the fruits of his efforts in the
months to come.

NICK DERISO: You work with Martin on the original Thick as a Brick
project was meant to poke fun at the era’s oft-derided prog-rock
concept albums — a fact that was, unfortunately, lost by many. Were you
disappointed that not everybody got the joke?

IAN ANDERSON: I think the fun of doing something like that is
that you very deliberately try to create that bit of ambivalence. You’re
not really spelling it out for people and making it too clear. It’s fun
if they wonder. People have an endless fascination for imagination, and
grasping impossible scenarios. They love the fantasy, the improbable.
So, the idea of presenting a piece of music supposedly written by an
eight-year-old boy — of course, it’s fanciful; of course, it’s
ridiculous. People went along with it and, if they thought about it,
they would I guess scratch their heads and wonder. But a lot of people
just accepted it for what it was. They enjoyed it because they enjoyed
the music and the words, without really analyzing it in any great depth.
I don’t think you have to spell it out in 100 percent clear terms. It’s
good to create a little of that kind of fantasy where you can’t really
pin it down as to whether this is serious, funny, real, sad or a spoof.
It’s all of those things. You try to make it work on more than one
level. I guess if I’d been trying to pinpoint how I was hoping the
outcome of that would be, it would be that 50 percent of the people who
get the more humorous and surreal side of it, and 50 percent would take
it for what it was without thinking too much. I suppose that’s the art
of writing something like that. You make it not too clear, otherwise
you’re taking away a lot of the fun for other people. You’re taking away
the ‘I wonder what this really means’ kind of moment that makes stuff
like that fun.
[SOMETHING ELSE! REWIND: Jethro
Tull's 'Thick As A Brick' ended up as one of the most distinctive prog
albums ever — even as it tried to spoof the very idea.]
NICK DERISO: Much of that criticism of prog rock came from the
American press, which has always fetishized the idea that rock ‘n’ roll
must have an overt blues element in order to be authentic. The
disconnect seemed to be with prog’s overtly European, or classical,
influences.

IAN ANDERSON: Well, there was definitely a disconnect with
‘Rolling Stone’ magazine. They didn’t much like the Brits, whether it
was Led Zeppelin or Yes or Jethro Tull, or whoever. ‘Rolling Stone,’ and
quite understandably, is a celebration of things America. It played a
vital part in the social context of being an alternative, news and
current affairs publication — of being a more analytically, and grown up
way, of looking at the evolving young American society. Of course, it
featured a lot of music and, begrudgingly, did features on Jethro Tull,
and Led Zeppelin too. But we were not the favorites, by any means. The
editorial staff, I think, resented a little bit the British invasion.
That’s the way that it was, for sure. A couple of other magazines around
then took up what became around then a body-bruising instrument of
torture, beating us over the head. The same thing was happening later,
of course, in the UK — with the evolution in the 1970s towards punk, and
a revival of very basic music forms. There was a backlash there against
all of the blues-based and progressive rock-based music that had gone
on a few years prior to that.

NICK DERISO: Were you surprised to see this backlash happen at home, as well?

IAN ANDERSON: It’s just part of what happens in the world.
Allegiances change, tastes change. A new generation comes about and they
want to listen to something that represents their growing years, not
the stuff of their older siblings. It’s understandable. It didn’t
particularly upset me. When the punk thing came about, it was in some
ways quite a welcome return to basics. I went out and bought my own copy
of the first Sex Pistols album, and the first Stranglers album, and I
quite enjoyed them in a funny sort of way. It didn’t stop me from
carrying on what I was going at the time. And many years later, the
likes of Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols admitted that they had
actually been a bit of a Genesis and Jethro Tull fan all along!
(Laughs.) It was just his way of coping with the theatrical side of the
music — to embrace certain elements that would appear on the face of it
to be very derisive, regarding the music that came before. In fact,
Johnny Rotten definitely learned something from the presentation side.
I’m not suggesting he was the Peter Gabriel of punk, but Johnny Rotten
knew how from a theatrical point of view and a presentation point of
view how to wind people up, how to put across an image, how to sell
himself through body language. Johnny Rotten’s stance on stage was very
reminiscent of the character on the cover of Aqualung — which he
later on mentioned as one of his favorite albums, and a seminal piece of
music that he grew up listening to. We’re all influenced by stuff, even
if we don’t necessarily want to admit it at the time. It’s all part of
the jigsaw that makes up 50 years of rock and pop, which we should all
be quite proud of.
[SOMETHING ELSE! REWIND: Well after Ian Anderson came to fame with Jethro Tull, he discovered he had been playing the flute 'embarrassingly wrong'.]
NICK DERISO: Do you see those days returning, when outsized
personalities will be furiously vying for the heart of rock, as we saw
during the prog-vs.-punk era?

IAN ANDERSON: I have to say that I think, these days, we’re wrong
in expecting revolutionary, new changes in popular music forms. I think
that’s a thing that people really have a bee in their bonnets about,
always wanting to somehow raise the next pop group to the standards of
something like the Beatles. Of course, we were there at a time when that
stuff happened. It’s not going to happen again. Like it’s not going to
happen again that there’s another Charlie Parker. It’s not going to
happen again that there’s another Mozart or Beethoven. These things have
moved on. To somehow imagine that we are going to have some kind of
heavy new rock or pop music form that equals or surpasses the Beatles or
indeed the rock bands of the 1970s, or ’80s or ’90s, I think that’s a
mistake to think that that’s going to happen. We live in a world of
reinvention, of reinterpretation. Out there, there’s a bunch of guys
playing generic pop and rock music — all of which owes a great deal to
what’s gone on before. Very rarely does anybody manage to put a stamp of
originality on what they do. It’s not their fault. There’s just not a
busting amount left to do that hasn’t been done before. It’s a lot
tougher these days to be original in the world of rock and pop music
than it was 30 or 40 years ago, when you could just conjure up a few
notes and find a way to play them in a way that no one had ever done
before. That’s impossible to do now.
   

[Tull50]

Ian Anderson - "Neil McCormick's Needle Time" Vintage TV, June 18, 2013
www.dropbox.com/s/4mwr1vy87eac4z1/Ian%20Anderson%20-%20Neil%20McCormicks%20Needle%20Time..mpg

[maddogfagin]

Jun 20, 2013 0:01:44 GMT Tull50 said:

Finally, the video has been uploaded to Dailymotion due to copyright problems with youtube

Ian Anderson - "Neil McCormick's Needle Time" Vintage TV, June 18, 2013
www.dailymotion.com/video/x112g8v_ian-anderson-neil-mccormicks-needle-time-vintage-tv-june-2013_music#.UcJHZ5wzL2w

I don't know how you do it Remy but "thumbs up" for posting the programme.

[Tull50]

Jun 20, 2013 9:30:34 GMT maddogfagin said:

Jun 20, 2013 0:01:44 GMT Tull50 said:

Finally, the video has been uploaded to Dailymotion due to copyright problems with youtube

Ian Anderson - "Neil McCormick's Needle Time" Vintage TV, June 18, 2013

I don't know how you do it Remy but "thumbs up" for posting the programme.

Well Graham, summarizing much I would say contacts.
As you can imagine I am a collector of Tull videos, I started many years ago, you recently published leaflets that were distributed years ago before and after concerts featuring concert bootlegs Tull.
Since that time, thanks to the Internet that has changed, now being exchanged but never pay for a Tull bootleg , the contacts have grown and I don't need to ask something, new things tend to be shared with all collectors, a group of friends collectors which in some cases has lasted for many years.
I forgot to say that this collector network extends worldwide, also my youtube channel has helped me a lot to get good recordings, the new servers as WeTransfer, also help a lot to share.
In this case the recording I've received from Holland,
Take this opportunity to thank Cor Koppenol from Holland

[maddogfagin]

Jun 20, 2013 18:05:53 GMT Tull50 said:

Jun 20, 2013 9:30:34 GMT maddogfagin said:

I don't know how you do it Remy but "thumbs up" for posting the programme.

Well Graham, summarizing much I would say contacts.
As you can imagine I am a collector of Tull videos, I started many years ago, you recently published leaflets that were distributed years ago before and after concerts featuring concert bootlegs Tull.
Since that time, thanks to the Internet that has changed, now being exchanged but never pay for a Tull bootleg , the contacts have grown and I don't need to ask something, new things tend to be shared with all collectors, a group of friends collectors which in some cases has lasted for many years.
I forgot to say that this collector network extends worldwide, also my youtube channel has helped me a lot to get good recordings, the new servers as WeTransfer, also help a lot to share.
In this case the recording I've received from Holland,
Take this opportunity to thank Cor Koppenol from Holland

There's some really good items on your channel Remy - most impressive.

The same thing happened with the exchange of concert audio cassette tapes many years ago. Fans freely exchanged tapes and many lasting friendships were made. One day I will go through the many cassettes that I've got over the years as I'm sure that there are some which have never circulated, especially those from the late Michael Veith amongst others.

[nonrabbit]

Echoing Graham's words Remy... Thanks and I'll watch it at the weekend.

[Tull50]

Jun 21, 2013 9:54:01 GMT maddogfagin said:

Jun 20, 2013 18:05:53 GMT Tull50 said:

Well Graham, summarizing much I would say contacts.
As you can imagine I am a collector of Tull videos, I started many years ago, you recently published leaflets that were distributed years ago before and after concerts featuring concert bootlegs Tull.
Since that time, thanks to the Internet that has changed, now being exchanged but never pay for a Tull bootleg , the contacts have grown and I don't need to ask something, new things tend to be shared with all collectors, a group of friends collectors which in some cases has lasted for many years.
I forgot to say that this collector network extends worldwide, also my youtube channel has helped me a lot to get good recordings, the new servers as WeTransfer, also help a lot to share.
In this case the recording I've received from Holland,
Take this opportunity to thank Cor Koppenol from Holland

There's some really good items on your channel Remy - most impressive.

The same thing happened with the exchange of concert audio cassette tapes many years ago. Fans freely exchanged tapes and many lasting friendships were made. One day I will go through the many cassettes that I've got over the years as I'm sure that there are some which have never circulated, especially those from the late Michael Veith amongst others.

Can be good, recover Those tapes.
I have several videos of this last tour, but unfortunately have asked me not to be uploaded to YouTube, only to exchange among collectors...

[nonrabbit]

www.maximumink.com/index.php/articles/permalink/ian_anderson/


An Interview With Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson On The 2013 Thick As A Brick Tour And July 22 Stop At Ravinia


Maximum Ink: We last spoke three years ago, and I must update the more serious inquiries… what is your favorite color, and if you could be any tree, what would you be?

Ian Anderson: Still gray, a nice battleship gray. As for tree, still an oak. They’re slow growing, slow to mature, a bit grand,, solid and decorative. Plus, they are quite useful, if you want to build a ship, sail around, and attack a small country far away, or something like that.


MI: Are there any archival releases of Jethro Tull performances planned for the near future?


IA: Well, in terms of archival material, we have a soon to be released 5-DVD set of performances entitled, “Jethro Tull LiveAround The World,” from over the years. In October, there is the remixed and remastered “Benefit” album, the remix was done by Steve Wilson last year, and in 2014, the remixed and remastered “Aqualung.”

And there’s also the studio album of, what we refer to, as the “Chateu D’Isaster” tapes, from 1973 (the tapes were recorded as a follow-up to TAAB, but sessions fell apart with poor studio conditions, and eventual food poisoning contracted by band members). That is being remixed and remastered…but first in the pipeline, is the big DVD compilation and box sets. So, there’s all that stuff. Somewhere along the way, there’s a string quartet album that I want to do, of variations on some classic Jethro Tull songs. Hopefully, that will be achieved, and really that takes us through to 2015, so you’ll have to ask me again, in that period of time..

MI: That’s a very ambitious slate, and all the best wishes to you?

IA: Well, in 2015, I’ll be 68…we’ll see.

[nonrabbit]

Not a bad idea to relink this - one of the most insightful interviews that Ian has ever given

www.retrosellers.com/features198.htm

[nonrabbit]

Very interesting offering here as the latest interview... once you trudge through the usual that is;

www.examiner.com/article/ian-anderson-chats-about-thick-as-a-brick-2-for-whom-the-bell-tulls#sthash.8Ae6Eh6W

Quite a detailed explanation about his lyric writing and a reason why Marc Almond was chosen to join the show;



“I got an e-mail today from a singer called Marc Almond who enjoyed success in the ‘80s with a band called Soft Cell – one of the Brit pop synthesizer people. He was just reading the lyrics to ‘TAAB 2’ and was amused and engaged by the references to homosexuality and the gender confusion and the way it’s affecting parents.”

“He had just gone through that. I'm assuming that’s what he was referring to and Marc is very obviously and quite vociferously gay. And in a way I feel quite flattered by his enjoyment of the lyrics.”

“Because to get into the portrayal of characters through language, through a little bit of personal experience or observation of others, when you step into the dangerous territory, whether it’s religious or whether it’s political or whether it’s to do with issue of sexuality, you are treading an area where you have to be a little careful because you don’t have the authenticity of, in this case, being gay, at least I don’t think I am.

I haven’t had the experience, but it sounds like it could be fun. Quite frankly, it scared the s**t out of me, so I've not had that experience. But I think I understand to quite a large extent how it feels growing up and having temptations of others and the relief with which you find solace and kindred spirits in the relationships with the same sex, with relationships you explore.”

“I think I understand. I can’t be sure, but I think I understand it. And I try to write sensitively about it and sympathetically about it, if perhaps a little angrily because I do know the feeling that I had when my father decided I was a ‘poof’ and a ‘jessie’ when I was quite young.”

“You know, it hurts. It was an ugly experience and I found it very distressing and I didn’t want to defend myself and say, ‘No, I'm not.’ If that upsets you so much, that’s your hang up not mine. So I didn’t do anything to try and persuade him.”

“Of course when I was out and about as an adult and got married and had children, I suppose it was a great sense of relief to him because he did have a bit of a hang up about homosexuality. In that era, people of that sort perhaps had some kind of difficulty through not recognizing his own femininity, because we all have a bit of something in us – I’ve got slim girly fingers (chuckling). I'm a flute player. I am not a lumber jack or a coal digger. I’ve got sensitive, girly hands so I play the flute. What could be more natural?......”

[JTull 007]

That interview says a lot about Ian Anderson and his humanity.
For many the idea of writing lyrics that may be interpreted as an admission of sexuality would be unthinkable.
Life is a struggle for identity and having someone in tune with that be able to sing those words makes sense.

The whole album TAAB2 shows the struggles of several different Geralds which is confusing to some.
I was hooked the day I first heard the music and the lyrics were just as intriguing. We are who we are.
Growing up is hard enough. Growing older ain't easy. Marc Almond was perfect.

“I really do feel time is running out and I don’t want to just drift into the sunset
doing ‘Best of Jethro Tull’ tours and going over all the familiar material over and over again.
I'm happy to do that from time to time. I actually enjoy spending most of June, in fact, doing the ‘Best of Jethro Tull’ concerts.”

Love this part too.

[Deleted]

Rock On! Interview with Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson
By Danny Coleman For The Trentonian Posted: Thursday, 07/11/13 08:48 pm Updated: Thursday, 07/11/13 08:49 pm
www.trentonian.com/article/20130711/ENTERTAINMENT01/130719905/rock-on-interview-with-jethro-tull-s-ian-anderson#full_story

Ian Anderson was not only fortunate enough to front one of most influential rock bands of all time but to have made, in his words, “the right career choice.”

The man whose identity, along with that of “Pink Floyd,” was probably more mistaken than any other in music history spoke with me recently about being “Jethro Tull,” his peers, his upcoming tour in support of 1972’s “Thick As A Brick,” the decision to do it’s 2012 sequel “Thick As A Brick 2 Whatever happened to Gerald Bostock?” and his desire to continue to bring his music to the masses.

Anderson will be bringing this latest edition of his ensemble into Philly for a show at The Kimmel Center on July 17. I was fortunate enough to catch up with him for a great conversation just before the tour launched in Europe.

Having prepared six questions for what was only scheduled to be a 20 minute interview, I was pleasantly surprised to have Anderson spend double that amount of time with me. He was candid, forthcoming and very satisfied with himself, his music and the journey that has taken him to this point.

The following is a portion of the Q & A that took place just prior to him heading off to a rehearsal for the upcoming tour:

Rock On: You’re doing “Thick As A Brick” in its entirety on this tour? Why Now?

Anderson: “Well, last year it turned 40, seemed appropriate to recognize its significance. We will be doing it note for note just like the original in 1972.”

Rock On: Why the sequel? “Thick As A Brick 2 Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock?”

Anderson: “I’ve been approached by many over the years to do a sequel. I suppose that I always thought about it half heartedly, the subject material, the validity of it all didn’t come to me before; but it did now. When it came to me, it came thick and fast, it came in about three weeks. I recall I had already begun the process for my newest album and I put it aside, I often figured that’s probably how it would’ve happened, definitely feet first.”

Rock On: As you start this tour, did you ever imagine yourself still doing this after all of these years?

Anderson: “I made a good career choice, doors don’t close on you. If I were a pilot I’d be very near (mandatory)retirement, an astronaut I’d be out of work, the only up elevator now is with the Russians. The idea of giving it up is not as increasingly seductive as the idea of fishing or golf. I have no desire to chase some little white ball around a green field or bait a hook. I find the prospect of still doing it into old age fascinating, it’s much better than giving it up. If you are even slightly successful why would you want to quit?”

Rock On: Along those lines, do you have any thoughts or opinions on some of the bands like The Stones who’ve been doing their thing for all of these years?

Anderson: “The Stones? Hmmm, there are three guys that have been there since the start, Ron Wood is the relative newcomer, he’s been there 30 years. There’s a reason why some of the bands who have been together a long time, their stars so to speak, stay at opposite ends of the stage; they tend to be in it just for the money and/or ego, they don’t necessarily like each other but they keep making music. The problem that I find with bands like the Stones, is that they are old rockers trying to make new music, when their fans want to hear old rockers making or playing old music. Their audiences want to hear the old material and the appeal isn’t necessarily there for the younger set. I really respect when to walk away with dignity. Lennon and McCartney knew when it was time to call it the end. People couldn’t understand why the Beatles split, they knew that they just couldn’t work together any longer. Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, The Police, they all knew when to leave while leaving the groups legacy in tact. I’m not speaking bad of anyone, because they were all very talented musicians in their own right but you see the true talents that rose from the ashes of those acts. Sting went on to a successful solo career, as well as Mark Knopfler and Waters from Floyd; these are the ones that obviously were the driving forces behind the music.”

Rock On: There’s something to be said for longevity though isn’t there? I mean, you still take Jethro Tull on the road.

Anderson: “A band to me is whoever happens to be in the room. You have to understand that it’s not forever, things change, people change, styles change; you need to rely on them (band mates) for only a short time then it’s time to move on. My current band is exceptional, very adept, great players but if one of them decides to move on I’ll be forced to replace them, it’s an ever evolving process.”

Rock On: So who is in your current line up?

Anderson: “I’ve been with these mates for awhile now. I have Scott Hammond on Drums, David Goodier on bass guitar, John Hile on keys, Florian Opahle on guitars and Ryan O’Donnell who is truly my alter ego doing additional vocals. Ryan comes from a theatrical background so he dances and sings; he adds a lot to the production.”

Rock On: So when you look back on your Jethro Tull days from years ago, how do they compare to now; that band versus this solo tour?

Anderson: “I truly hope that the musicians that were a part of it, both now and then, look fondly upon having to do their time with Jethro Tull. I’ve played with over 30 musicians just in the Jethro Tull line up. I don’t wax nostalgic because most of them don’t even perform let alone play anymore; they’ve all gotten on with their lives, involved with other things, careers, family and the what not. Hopefully anyone who takes part in anything that I do will look back at it fondly.”

Rock On: So what does the future hold for Ian Anderson?

Anderson: “(laughing) Rehearsal! Right now I need to get to rehearsal. I find that the rehearsals help me refocus. Life tends to get in the way at times and rehearsals help; when they’re good it’s comforting, when they are not, well let’s just say that doesn’t happen too often.”

There you have it. Anderson was one of the most informative and interesting interviews that I’ve ever conducted. Ian’s confidence was only overshadowed by his brilliance. He showed no signs of slowing down anytime soon, was excited about embarking on his current tour and was as fresh as ever. July 17 he and his “mates” will be rockin’ The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. To obtain more information and/or tickets please go to www.iananderson.com .

[Deleted]

Progressive rock, Rock Music — July 17, 2013 at 12:16 pm
‘Well, the others aren’t here yet’: Ian Anderson on how his solo work evolved out of Jethro Tull
by Something Else!
somethingelsereviews.com/2013/07/17/well-the-others-arent-here-yet-ian-anderson-on-his-solo-work-evolved-out-of-jethro-tull/
Ian Anderson says the impulse to work as a solo artist — something that led to his release of Thick as a Brick 2 without the Jethro Tull label — goes all the way back to the sessions for 1971′s Aqualung.

“That was the point where I did find myself sitting in the studio sometimes with a little song I had written and just thinking: ‘Well, the others aren’t here yet; I’ll just whack this down on tape,’” Anderson tell Rick Wakeman in this newly posted video. “These were little acoustic pieces, singer-songwriter type of music. That started happening, and to some extent, maybe the others would join in and overdub some things later — or not.”

Tracks like “Jack-In-the-Green” from 1977′s Songs of the Wood were recorded by Anderson alone, while 1980′s A was rumored to be an Anderson album that became rebranded for Tull over the course of the sessions, as well.

“A lot of those records from the 1970s, it was quite common that the other guys weren’t on all of the music,” Anderson says. “But we still called it Jethro Tull. I suppose they accepted the fact that my musical calling was really as an acoustic musician.”

As the lineups have continued to shift, leaving only Martin Barre as Jethro Tull’s only other consistent presence, it was perhaps natural that the music itself would begin to feel more and more like an Anderson project. “There was a point when I did feel that I wanted to do something that was solo, partly to work with other musicians,” Anderson adds.

Last year saw Anderson release his own follow up to Gerald Bostock’s adventures in 1972′s Thick as a Brick. He also began performing the entire original album live for the first time since the original Jethro Tull tour.

[Deleted]

Fab Flautist: Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson Talks Thick as a Brick and Offers Advice to Wannabe Pop Stars
by Jeff Niesel
www.clevescene.com/cleveland/fab-flautist-jethro-tulls-ian-anderson-talks-thick-as-a-brick-and-offers-advice-to-wannabe-pop-stars/Content?oid=3608243


A concept album about 8-year-old schoolboy Gerald Bostock and his struggles in life, 1972's Thick as a Brick cemented Jethro Tull as prog-rock icons. And yet the British group never played the entire album in a live setting. Until now. Tull leader, singer-flautist Ian Anderson will perform the whole thing. He'll also play material from last year's sequel, Thick as a Brick 2. Anderson recently phoned in from a San Francisco tour stop to talk.

What originally inspired your invention of Gerald Bostock, the 8-year-old protagonist of Thick as a Brick?

The thing that inspired the album as a whole was to write a surreal concept album that was a step beyond what some of our peers were doing. I did so because our previous album, Aqualung, was conceived as a concept album. I said at the time and I say now, "No. It was not. It was a collection of songs." But if you want a concept album from Jethro Tull, here it comes with Thick as a Brick. I wanted something that had an element of parody and a comedic mask but was about the transition of the life of a young schoolboy into post-puberty and imagining the trials and tribulations of early adult life. That's what the album was about. It was through the eyes of a schoolboy.

Why a schoolboy?

I know about schoolboys. I used to be one. I'm particularly thinking of a grammar schoolboy with a pretty good education and the opportunity to excel. I'm imagining a boy who is the top of the class but who probably doesn't have many friends. Nobody likes the smart kid at school. He's the guy who gets bullied and picked on. That's something I thought I could write about from my awareness of my school days. There was a boy named Bostock at my school but I never met him. When you heard the roll call, that name stuck out in my mind. It was a good Northern English family name.

Do you know when you first heard the expression "thick as a brick"?

Probably when I was about 13. It was a derogatory term applied to boys who weren't very bright and couldn't absorb the elements of Latin or physics or algebra. They weren't necessarily stupid. They were probably just lazy and drifted through life at the other end of the spectrum. Schoolboys can be quite cruel to each other.

Talk about the fake newspaper articles that accompanied the original release. Did you write all the articles?

Yeah. And most of what's on the website is written by me and the work on album covers is usually mine. I didn't necessarily design the artwork but all the text that accompanies it comes from me. I like to be hands on. While the first album was my artwork and choice, I didn't do the artwork for the three albums that followed. When it came to Thick as a Brick, I decided it was time to take control again because I wanted something that fit the concept. I designed that one myself.

I read a live review that described you as "Captain Hook gone mad." Is that an accurate description?

I'm not conscious about those things. I think it's best to have the stage persona grow out from something inside you rather than model yourself on another character or performer. I can't tell you clearly where it comes from. I do remember that when I saw the Sex Pistols, thinking that Johnny Rotten looked like the character on the Aqualung cover. It turned out later that he was a fan of that album. He didn't say anything about it at the time. That would have been admitting an infatuation with progressive rock music, which is not something his manager would have liked. He made it his own. He took a stance; he had a hunchback way of leering at the camera. He did it his way. He took Frank Sinatra's words to heart.

How is it that the album was never performed in its entirety?

It was too difficult. It was impossible to recreate the original record. There were so many overdubs and it was impossible for me to play everything I do on the original record. I only have two hands. We have an extra person in the band for this production, which gives me the flexibility to play the extra flute lines and extra bits of pieces.

What was it like revisiting Gerald Bostock now that he's 50?

It's like lots of people. You remember them as children and they turn out differently and then things happen along the way. Whatever happened to Gerald Bostock is the subtext. The various things that could have happened to him are a metaphor for all of us. We must all wonder now and then if things had turned out much different. I'm sure we do as we sit on the front porch with a can of Miller's Lite. We wonder about the things that didn't happen as well as the ones that did. For the young people who have to live the rest of their lives, there is that sense of trepidation and making themselves ready for what unfolds. Some people are better prepared. It's an album for the old and for the young at the opposite ends of the age spectrum.

What do you have against The X Factor and the Eurovision Song Contest?

I don't have anything against them. It doesn't provide much in the way of lasting value in music. They're not encouraged to be original. They're encouraged to be clones of other successful stars. I don't think that's a productive way of making music. It serves as easy entertainment for the masses. In many cases, the winners of those TV talent shows get signed to multi-million-dollar record deals and are promised the earth and th3en fade away after the disappointing sales. You believe you are a star only to find that after a year or two you're on the scrapheap and you're only 22 years old. It's a cruel world. My advice to people is that if you do that kind of stuff, don't take it seriously and don't expect it to last. Don't start believing in the idea of stardom just because you enter or compete or even win one of these TV contests. You're just there to churned out of the sausage machine and gobbled up by a hungry audience and then shat out into the sewer system. That's the harsh reality. You end up as a turd on the beach.

[maddogfagin]

Jul 17, 2013 18:37:35 GMT @tootull said:

Fab Flautist: Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson Talks Thick as a Brick and Offers Advice to Wannabe Pop Stars
by Jeff Niesel
www.clevescene.com/cleveland/fab-flautist-jethro-tulls-ian-anderson-talks-thick-as-a-brick-and-offers-advice-to-wannabe-pop-stars/Content?oid=3608243

I know about schoolboys. I used to be one. I'm particularly thinking of a grammar schoolboy with a pretty good education and the opportunity to excel. I'm imagining a boy who is the top of the class but who probably doesn't have many friends. Nobody likes the smart kid at school. He's the guy who gets bullied and picked on. That's something I thought I could write about from my awareness of my school days. There was a boy named Bostock at my school but I never met him. When you heard the roll call, that name stuck out in my mind. It was a good Northern English family name.

I wonder where he is today or whether he even knew that his surname was one of the inspirations behind the album.

[tullist]

Jul 17, 2013 18:37:35 GMT @tootull said:

Fab Flautist: Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson Talks Thick as a Brick and Offers Advice to Wannabe Pop Stars
by Jeff Niesel
www.clevescene.com/cleveland/fab-flautist-jethro-tulls-ian-anderson-talks-thick-as-a-brick-and-offers-advice-to-wannabe-pop-stars/Content?oid=3608243


A concept album about 8-year-old schoolboy Gerald Bostock and his struggles in life, 1972's Thick as a Brick cemented Jethro Tull as prog-rock icons. And yet the British group never played the entire album in a live setting. Until now. Tull leader, singer-flautist Ian Anderson will perform the whole thing. He'll also play material from last year's sequel, Thick as a Brick 2. Anderson recently phoned in from a San Francisco tour stop to talk.

What originally inspired your invention of Gerald Bostock, the 8-year-old protagonist of Thick as a Brick?

The thing that inspired the album as a whole was to write a surreal concept album that was a step beyond what some of our peers were doing. I did so because our previous album, Aqualung, was conceived as a concept album. I said at the time and I say now, "No. It was not. It was a collection of songs." But if you want a concept album from Jethro Tull, here it comes with Thick as a Brick. I wanted something that had an element of parody and a comedic mask but was about the transition of the life of a young schoolboy into post-puberty and imagining the trials and tribulations of early adult life. That's what the album was about. It was through the eyes of a schoolboy.

Why a schoolboy?

I know about schoolboys. I used to be one. I'm particularly thinking of a grammar schoolboy with a pretty good education and the opportunity to excel. I'm imagining a boy who is the top of the class but who probably doesn't have many friends. Nobody likes the smart kid at school. He's the guy who gets bullied and picked on. That's something I thought I could write about from my awareness of my school days. There was a boy named Bostock at my school but I never met him. When you heard the roll call, that name stuck out in my mind. It was a good Northern English family name.

Do you know when you first heard the expression "thick as a brick"?

Probably when I was about 13. It was a derogatory term applied to boys who weren't very bright and couldn't absorb the elements of Latin or physics or algebra. They weren't necessarily stupid. They were probably just lazy and drifted through life at the other end of the spectrum. Schoolboys can be quite cruel to each other.

Talk about the fake newspaper articles that accompanied the original release. Did you write all the articles?

Yeah. And most of what's on the website is written by me and the work on album covers is usually mine. I didn't necessarily design the artwork but all the text that accompanies it comes from me. I like to be hands on. While the first album was my artwork and choice, I didn't do the artwork for the three albums that followed. When it came to Thick as a Brick, I decided it was time to take control again because I wanted something that fit the concept. I designed that one myself.

I read a live review that described you as "Captain Hook gone mad." Is that an accurate description?

I'm not conscious about those things. I think it's best to have the stage persona grow out from something inside you rather than model yourself on another character or performer. I can't tell you clearly where it comes from. I do remember that when I saw the Sex Pistols, thinking that Johnny Rotten looked like the character on the Aqualung cover. It turned out later that he was a fan of that album. He didn't say anything about it at the time. That would have been admitting an infatuation with progressive rock music, which is not something his manager would have liked. He made it his own. He took a stance; he had a hunchback way of leering at the camera. He did it his way. He took Frank Sinatra's words to heart.

How is it that the album was never performed in its entirety?

It was too difficult. It was impossible to recreate the original record. There were so many overdubs and it was impossible for me to play everything I do on the original record. I only have two hands. We have an extra person in the band for this production, which gives me the flexibility to play the extra flute lines and extra bits of pieces.

What was it like revisiting Gerald Bostock now that he's 50?

It's like lots of people. You remember them as children and they turn out differently and then things happen along the way. Whatever happened to Gerald Bostock is the subtext. The various things that could have happened to him are a metaphor for all of us. We must all wonder now and then if things had turned out much different. I'm sure we do as we sit on the front porch with a can of Miller's Lite. We wonder about the things that didn't happen as well as the ones that did. For the young people who have to live the rest of their lives, there is that sense of trepidation and making themselves ready for what unfolds. Some people are better prepared. It's an album for the old and for the young at the opposite ends of the age spectrum.

What do you have against The X Factor and the Eurovision Song Contest?

I don't have anything against them. It doesn't provide much in the way of lasting value in music. They're not encouraged to be original. They're encouraged to be clones of other successful stars. I don't think that's a productive way of making music. It serves as easy entertainment for the masses. In many cases, the winners of those TV talent shows get signed to multi-million-dollar record deals and are promised the earth and th3en fade away after the disappointing sales. You believe you are a star only to find that after a year or two you're on the scrapheap and you're only 22 years old. It's a cruel world. My advice to people is that if you do that kind of stuff, don't take it seriously and don't expect it to last. Don't start believing in the idea of stardom just because you enter or compete or even win one of these TV contests. You're just there to churned out of the sausage machine and gobbled up by a hungry audience and then shat out into the sewer system. That's the harsh reality. You end up as a turd on the beach.

If other folks are like me, I really don't read these things, I have seen all the questions before though of course I understand why they are asked for individual audiences who may be life long fans, but not to the extent where they are members of web pages. Having said that I must stress the need to read the response to that last question concerning the likes of the X Factor, Eurovision, doubtless American idol, subjects I regularly breach for their lowest common denominator factors, their huge contribution to this mindset that I also believe that Old School Song uncovers, and I will curb myself before I derail into some bitter political commentary, other than to say precisely what freedoms have our military misadventures of the past 50 years brought us. And this from someone, like most who have 160 year or longer roots in this country, have seen service, bloodshed and death. Doubtless many who serve are among our very best, additionally many who are among our very worst. Sorry, I will not be drawn into the pure b*****s of thank you for your service or whatever the catch phrase of the time is. Thank them when it is time to pay higher taxes to make damn sure they are cared for for the rest of their days after the horror we have introduced them to. f**k platitudes that could have come right from the mouth of Nancy Palin or Ronald Raygun and lets do something about reversing the flow of funds that see a minimum wage earner in 1968 getting the equivalent of 21 dollars an hour now while the upper 7 to 10 percent are doing a damn good Marie Antoinette impersonation and are only too rarely the ones doing the misguided fighting, indeed bring the fight and fear where it belongs. Give the trod upon a fighting chance to get in the game and shove those psuedo patriotic commentaries where they belong. Start by just saying no to the likes of Walmarts and McDonalds. But by all means read the last couple sentences of that response from Ian Anderson. That's my boy. If you wonder what I am referring to all I will say is you just gotta poke around.

[Deleted]

Q&A with Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson
Legendary rocker to perform 'Thick as a Brick' and more at PNC Pavilion Saturday
Home - Blogs - Staff Blogs - July 19th, 2013 By Amy Harris
www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-4886-qa_with_jethro_tulls_ian_anderson.html

Jethro Tull's unique sound — which eloquently combines Rock, Blues, and Classical music — continues to outlast Father Time and thrill legions of dedicated fans. Leader/singer/Rock flautist extraordinaire Ian Anderson performs the classic Tull album Thick as a Brick (and more, including Thick as a Brick II) at Riverbend's PNC Pavilion Saturday night at 8 p.m., continuing the legacy of Tull’s self-proclaimed “music for grown-ups.”

CityBeat was able to speak with Anderson this week about protests, social issues and his thoughts on performance art.

CityBeat: Why did decide to bring the flute to Rock music?

Ian Anderson: When I was a young aspiring guitar player in my late teens I became aware of Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Richard Blackmore, who were the hot-shot guitar players down in London, and I decided maybe I should switch from guitar and find something else to play. The shiny precision of the flute, the ergonomics, the design, the manufacture — it’s kind of like a Swiss watch. It appeals to my sense of physics and engineering. For a particularly good reason, other than the way it looks, I decided I would give that a go. I learned to play it by trying to imitate the lines I played on guitar — solos and rifts. So I became the flute player in a Blues band and I was the only flute player in a Blues band, which gave me the difference that helped Jethro Tull stand out from the crowd.

CB: One of my favorites on Thick as a Brick II is “Adrift and Dumbfounded.” Can you tell me a little bit of the story behind that song or how it came about?

IA: Having been picketed a couple nights ago in Kansas City by the Westboro Church, the “Godhatesfags.com” people … I am seen as a fag-hyphen-enabler according to that unworthy organization. I don’t think I am a homosexual, but I am a supporter of gay rights and a lot of my friends and people close to me are gay people and I find that the prejudices and difficulties faced by young people, particularly in post-puberty, where they are sometimes questioning their gender and their physiology because some people are just born that way … so, it is a difficult time for relationships with parents and for society around you.

It’s difficult now. Back in the ’60s, it was really scary. So at the time when homosexuality wasn’t just a predilection but an actual crime, punishable by the courts by incarceration, being gay was a difficult position for any young person to be in, so I decided I would write a parent’s perspective of what that may be like — to lose a child through lack of communication and understanding with the parental, to lose that child to drugs and to, essentially, male prostitution.

That is an extreme scenario but it happens out there in the world. These are issues that face society today. These are issues that have faced society throughout the history of mankind. These days I suppose we are more able to talk about it and to examine the possibilities themselves. I always have to think when I was 15 years old and a little unsure of myself, maybe that could have happened to me. I try to use some of my personal history with my parents, with the lack of communication, particular on matters of sex. I try to extrapolate a little on my own limited experiences in that world.

CB: The Westboro Baptist Church never ceases to amaze me. How did you handle it that day?

IA: I was rather hoping to see them in the flesh. Unfortunately, I had my spies out. I had my spies out to try to keep an eye out because I tried to get a photograph opportunity with these people. Unfortunately, at the time, I guess they showed up when the audience was coming in or going out. When the audience is coming in, I am busy in my dressing room changing and tuning up my guitar. Afterwards, I am busy changing again and packing up my instruments. Unfortunately, I did not get to see them. That is very disappointing. I was really hoping to have the opportunity to have a nice smiling photograph with them and their evil representatives.

CB: Why did you choose this tour to play the Thick as a Brick albums in their entireties?

IA: When you are planning any kind of stage show, your first obligation is to keep it on a level that will engage people and keep it interesting for them and present them with a lengthy piece of musical work with a 15-minute intermission. You have to put your thinking cap on and try to construct everything to keep the audience with you, especially if you are playing a lot of music (with) which the audience is unfamiliar, you have got to make it work the first time around. It is not the result of hearing it many times so you have to make it a piece of working entertainment.

It seems to be successful because I have yet to see, when I go onto the second half of the show, any empty seats as a result of people leaving at halftime. Normally people stay until the end of the show and they seem to follow the momentum of the whole show.
You get a personal sense of achievement when you present a large amount of relatively unknown music and you keep people engaged and enjoying the stage.

I don’t think many bands would attempt to do that. I can afford to do it because, a) I am prepared to take more risks musically and, b) I am really kind of doing it for me more than I am doing it for the audience anyway. I have always been a musician who has gone out there to make myself happy. You have to really have your own personal goals you achieve every night in performance. Primarily, I will say, it is nice you folks are here as well, but if you weren’t here, I would be doing this anyway. I am just doing this for fun.

CB: You have seen music change in the way it is recorded over many decades. Do you think it sounds better or worse today?

IA: Music has evolved in the terms of recording techniques over a period of about 60 years, hugely. It goes back to the early stages of monophonic and stereophonic tape recorders, which is what it was when I was a teenager.

When it got to the mid-’60s, it was becoming possible to create the simplest multi-track recordings, usually using two-track recorders, but bouncing back between the two to get a four-track sound. The very first Beatles recordings were made that way. By the time they got to Sgt. Pepper, they were recording with four-track and shortly on the heels of that came eight-track.

The first album I recorded was done on eight-track in 1968. That quickly evolved into 16-track and then to the most often used standard of 24-track, which continued through the late ’80s and even in some cases into the ’90s.

Frankly, the digital age really came about not in the ’80s or the ’90s but in the last 10 years, because that technology began to support 24-bit audio recording, which effectively mimics the human hearing to detect the difference between that and the original audio signal. We have 24-bit 96k recording, which is essentially all we need. We don’t need to advance upon that standard. We’d have to grow new ears before we could benefit any further resolution of earlier technology.

It is the same thing as when cameras hit the 10 mega-pixel mark … essentially equal (to) the very best film quality of film cameras in the last 50 or 60 or 70 years. We have now fairly commonly cameras that will deliver resolutions of 24 megapixels, which will be essentially much better quality you or my eye could fully appreciate.

We are there with audio and visual. We have now reached, during these last four or five years, human physiology would have to change for us to benefit from any increase of the resolution of the technology we are working with now. It is as good as it needs to be. We are there. We are done. We have reached the limit in terms of audio recording and digital recording.

CB: Was there a single incident that changed how you approached music?

IA: Well, I suppose a single incident was the first moment I played notes on a musical instrument, because I was aware as a small child of music as church music and music of Big Band Wartime Jazz, which my Father played on 78-rpm records.

It wasn’t until I was 9 years old and I acquired for a couple of dollars a plastic Elvis Presley ukulele and I strummed my first simple chord on the ukulele. At that point, even though the instrument was a rubbish piece, I could actually strum some little chords and sing along with it, and that was the magic moment of making music the first time.

I suppose that was the single most important moment of discovering music. There are a lot of people who never learn to play anything on a musical instrument and I feel like they are missing out on something. But some of them might be bungee jumpers and they feel like I am missing out on something, because I haven’t thrown myself off a bridge attached to a long piece of elastic.

CB: What is your ideal day look like these days?

IA: It depends if I’m on tour. My ideal day is to wake up around 7 a.m. and be driving rather than flying and getting to another city, another hotel by lunchtime, finding a Red Lobster or McCormack & Schmidt and (eating) some seafood or that sort for lunch and then having a rest and getting my e-mails in the afternoon before going to sound check.

That’s kind of normal practice. If I am at home, I wake up a little earlier, usually around 6:30 a.m. and I usually, again because of working in different time zones, it’s a good time to check e-mails from last night, generally prepare, shower, play with the cats, let the dogs out. If it’s the weekends, I have to go and feed the chickens.

In my ideal world, it would be a mixture of sitting at my office desk, playing a little bit of music and having a little bit of time to walk around the garden and sit and talk to my cats.

CB: What is the biggest difference in touring in 2013 versus 1970?

IA: The biggest difference is you can take a little stress (out) as you are touring easily because of more organization. Twenty years ago and 40 years ago, travel was a lot more disorganized that it is today. We can now be planning the next tour while we are doing this one.

Later today and tomorrow morning when I have a little time off, I shall be booking some internal U.S. flights for the next tour, looking at the various cities and suggesting to my U.S. travel agent some hotels I would like to get quotes on. Generally speaking, doing that planning exercise, when it comes to doing the tour itself, hopefully everything is in place. Everybody knows where everybody will be on most hours on most days.

You can take the stress out of things these days, where it was not so easy many years ago. We had to employ tour managers and people to carry our bags and people to herd us like sheep through airports. These days, people have their virtual boarding pass, which they can collect online from the booking reference code, which was on the tour itinerary, and they can print out their own boarding pass and head straight to the gate. I think things are easier these days, not because of the level of security we face now that we didn’t face 40 years ago, even 20 years ago. That makes lines a little more stressful and perhaps a little longer in the course of the day. We allow for two hours at airports from flight times to be safe these days, not knowing how long security queues may be or what indignities we may have to suffer to keep ourselves safe from the bad guys.

CB: Do you have any fond or crazy Cincinnati tour memories from the past?

IA: Probably with a Holiday Inn, Hilton or a Marriott or two. My bonds tend to be with what my particular life throws at me. The airport, even after all these years, is strangely familiar. I have been tracking the evolution of the airport from the late ’70s — when we were accosted by the children of God, doing their evangelical work, trying to hand out bibles and stuff — all the way to today. Airports quite often have that sense of déjà vu, even that nostalgic memory for me — certain hotels, certain venues of course, iconic venues we still play today.

CB: What was your favorite live performance ever?

IA: It is probably the show in an American venue near Washington D.C. called Wolf Trap. It is my favorite because it is the one I am going to be doing tomorrow and the one I have to focus on and prepare for.

Past shows are in the past. I don’t dwell on those. I don’t have favorites. I don’t have preferences, except for a couple iconic venues, as I suggested. My favorite show is the one I am about to go out and attempt to do because I always have to think it could be my last. Walking on stage is not a God-given right; it is a privilege to be able to step out there into the spotlight another time. I just take each show as they come. My next show is always the best show of my life.

CB: What can the fans expect here in Cincinnati this weekend?

IA: They can expect all they like, but it won’t vary one iota in delivery to them. Their expectation may be many and may be varied, but we try to make a point of emphasis to play Brick 1 and then Brick 2, then a long call of classic repertoire.

We have a very tightly organized show. If anybody starts shouting out during the quiet moments of the show, they will be studiously ignored. I don’t even have time to admonish them. It happened to me last night when I came on stage, I was astonished to hear two female voices shouting at me in one of the spoken words sections with a delivery of theatrical passion. You wouldn’t be considered cultured to be shouting and whistling during a Shakespeare play — please don’t shout and whistle during the performance of mine because I am here to do the work. You are here to listen and if you don’t like it get up and leave. Don’t start interrupting me.

Once in a while you get a drunkard out there that gets to shout at your band, but it happens so rarely these days and it strikes me as so being incredibly curious. I think our audiences do understand this is not a regular Rock show but a theatrical presentation (for which) they have to sit and let me do the work. That’s what I am there for. I may be 66 years old but I am there to do a man’s work for two and a half hours, where you can sit back and, if necessary, bring yourself a comfy cushion and maybe a sandwich because it is a long show.

[maddogfagin]

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull Advocates for Small Wild Cats

www.parade.com/54447/michelechollow/ian-anderson-of-jethro-tull-advocates-for-small-wild-cats/

One of his favorite cats is the Andean Mountain Cat because it has never been caught or kept in captivity. It lives high in the Andes. Ian admires this breed because it is such a mystery. However, it is endangered. “Like the Margay, the Ocelot, Pallas’ Cat, and others, many are threatened because of their fur,” he explains. “It is hoped that international pressure will bring this ridiculous trade to an end in our lifetime.”

[maddogfagin]

Published on 5 Aug 2013 by Rally98765
From WOR Radio in New York. Mostly talks about Thick as a Brick 2.

[Tull50]

Jun 20, 2013 9:30:34 GMT maddogfagin said:

Jun 20, 2013 0:01:44 GMT Tull50 said:

Finally, the video has been uploaded to Dailymotion due to copyright problems with youtube

Ian Anderson - "Neil McCormick's Needle Time" Vintage TV, June 18, 2013
www.dailymotion.com/video/x112g8v_ian-anderson-neil-mccormicks-needle-time-vintage-tv-june-2013_music#.UcJHZ5wzL2w

I don't know how you do it Remy but "thumbs up" for posting the programme.

As the video has been removed by copyright on this link can watch and download
www.dropbox.com/s/4mwr1vy87eac4z1/Ian%20Anderson%20-%20Neil%20McCormicks%20Needle%20Time..mpg

[Deleted]

Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson talks with Dr. Music
Posted on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 by Scott "Dr. Music" Itter
www.positivelynaperville.com/2013/09/10/jethro-tulls-ian-anderson-talks-with-dr-music/26610

Ian Anderson, the wide-eyed minstrel flautist that fronts the progressive English folk rock band Jethro Tull, has always been a staple in my life. As a very young boy, I was attracted to his searing vocal attack on songs like “Aqualung” and “Locomotive Breath,” but it was later in life when I started to appreciate the melodic acoustic renderings of the band, and Anderson’s keen arrangement skills. As I started to delve deeper into the Jethro Tull catalog, I found influences of blues, folk and Indian music. Ian Anderson took me on a journey around the world through this music and that same journey still continues to this day.

Getting a chance to speak with this highly intelligent, proper Englishman was an honor that can’t be put into words. As you will find by reading through Anderson’s well thought out and highly descriptive answers, he is a man that is confident and in touch with his beliefs. It was very difficult to edit what was said, simply because each word was chosen wisely for the purpose of a full and complete explanation. I chose to include almost every word that was spoken, in hopes that Anderson’s spirit and vibrancy might shine through.

Our conversation begins with Anderson discussing his current tour in support of his live performance of the Tull classic, Thick As A Brick, in its entirety, as well as his latest release, Thick As A Brick 2.

Dr. Music: My son and I saw you perform a few weeks ago. It was the first time that he got a chance to see you, and it was a wonderful experience. It was memorable for me because I was able to take my son. As far as memorable shows for you, I think of the riot at Red Rocks, or the Isle Of Wight when you played between The Moody Blues and Jimi Hendrix. Is there one particular gig that’s most memorable to you?

Ian Anderson: No. There are lots of shows that I remember, but not necessarily for the right reasons. There are memorable shows because bad things happened; people died, or something really bad happened. Those are the ones that, unfortunately, tend to stick in the mind; whereas a show that is good, or just okay, blends in with a whole host of others. Hopefully, the majority fit into that category. But, geographically I suppose there are, because I travel around the world and there are places I remember because of the very individualistic nature of the venue; like Ephesus in Turkey, the ancient Roman amphitheatre where St. Paul preached, not very successfully. And, some of the venues I’ve played in Germany in years gone by which began their lights as amphitheatres built for the Nazi rallies in the late 30’s. I have a feeling of privilege to have played in some of the great amphitheatres of the world. The sort of places where you know there were lions on the loose backstage 2000 years ago, then it’s a sobering thought that you’re just part of a long lineage of people that’ve tried to entertain the baying crowds.

Dr. Music: On the current tour you’re playing Thick As A Brick, the classic Tull album, and your latest Thick As A Brick 2. Why did you choose to revisit Thick As A Brick?

Ian Anderson: Thick As A Brick was always one that was a bit of unfinished business at the time because we curtailed the second tour in the U.S.A. back in 1972 with a, on my part anyway, a huge feeling of disappointment. It’s so difficult to perform that music to an audience who were restless and wanted to hear loud, consistent rock and roll music. It felt a bit like unfinished business to go back there one day and try it again. It took me 40 years to work up the courage and, happily, it’s been working out pretty well during these last two years. Not only have we managed to deliver it in a more entertaining form, but the audience seems to have, generally speaking, shall we say, matured a little bit in their behavior.

Dr. Music: I think of Thick As A Brick 2 as a Jethro Tull album, but it is billed as an Ian Anderson album. What was the decision there, to not have it as a Jethro Tull release?

Ian Anderson: The majority of shows in the last few years have been under my own name rather than simply as Jethro Tull, and that’s because I’m very often doing things that are more project performances and recordings where I’m specifically doing a thing that I don’t think I want to have confused with generic Jethro Tull performances of “best of” repertoire. I mean, the majority of bands, let’s say The Rolling Stones, go out there – you know what their set list is gonna be, don’t you? You do. You’re gonna pick it with certainly 80 or 85% unerring certainty. I don’t want to be like that. I want to keep people guessing. I want to be doing something that’s a little bit more challenging to me, and potentially to the audience too. When I’m doing that, I think it’s important that I don’t just call it Jethro Tull, otherwise people, understandably, will expect the generic “best of” shows.

At this point in our conversation, Anderson began to express his dislike for audience noise and interruption. I think this portion of the interview is of great importance because it sums up Anderson’s attitude and approach toward musical performance in general, which helps define his character quite well.

There’s no point in shouting things out at me from the audience because I don’t take requests. I’m there to do a job that I designed over previous months and weeks of rehearsal and presentation, so I’m there to do that gig. If you go to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and they start playing, and you start shouting out halfway through, ‘Play the 5th! Rock and roll!,” you’re gonna get some pretty nasty looks from the conductor or the members of the orchestra, and more than half the audience. I don’t really see that it should be particularly different if you’re going to a rock concert. I think there are some standards of culture, behavior, maturity, that ought to apply whenever you sit down and watch and listen to something that’s been very carefully arrived at. I think it’s very boorish and very philistine to shout and whistle and hoot and make noises. Maybe you think that’s in your culture. I think it’s a sad reality, but I don’t accept it. I feel that I ought to try, for everyone’s sake, to move toward something that’s a little bit more refined. I’m unashamed about that. I do it with good grace. I do get people once in a while, maybe once every two or three weeks, a show where somebody shouts or whistles something, but it’s happily very very rare these days. Whereas a few years ago, and certainly 40 years ago, I couldn’t hear myself sing or play anything because there was whistling and shouting and hooting. It was pretty upsetting actually, back then.

Dr. Music: I’ve read that you have another conceptual album planned for 2014. Is that true? Can you talk about that?

Ian Anderson: I can talk about it a little bit. I started writing a new album back in 9am January the first of this year, just as I had intended that I would do. I went in with a completely blank sheet of paper, which these days of course means an open document on my laptop computer, and started work. After about three or four weeks I had a pretty much complete album of material, lyrically and musically, and a couple of months later I made some demos for the other musicians, and we’ll start work recording that in December of this year for a release a week before Easter in 2014. Immediately after which, we start a UK tour. Tickets are already on sale. It’s a commitment that I can’t undo. It’s gotta be done and delivered on the due date. And it will be. It will be, because I have to.

Anderson would, later in our conversation, go on to explain the content of what he has written, which became quite revealing in nature.

I had decided that I would make an album which would be much more of a rock album, and made myself accept that declaration that there would be very little acoustic guitar in it. I would concentrate, really, on playing the flute as a musical instrument. In fact, there are just two little places, for about a minute each time, when I will play the acoustic guitar. The rest of it is much more of a rock album, with more of a full on kind of a sound. It’s just something I suppose I haven’t done for a very long time. Usually, the acoustic side of things plays a prominent part in what I do. I used the instrument for writing almost all of the music, so it’s very much at the heart of it all, it’s just that in performance terms and for recording I don’t see me playing very much of it at all.

Dr. Music: If you met somebody that had never heard Jethro Tull music, what would be the first song that you’d play for them?

Ian Anderson: Umm… (slight pause) “Stairway To Heaven”

Dr. Music: (laughs) You know, that’s the best answer I could’ve imagined, actually!

Ian Anderson: Well, you know, in a way, “Stairway To Heaven” is a good example of that era of British music. It combines some elements of very Americanized rock and roll, blues, but it also has an airy, almost sort of medieval kind of English feel about it. I think Led Zeppelin are one of the groups, and in spite of their origins being very much blues and rock based, they really did increasingly start to use more eclectic and folky forms of music as the basis of a lot of their later work. I think that’s a good introduction to Jethro Tull, because that’s exactly where we come from at about the same time. I think there is quite a tangible link there between some of our peers and us. I always felt, in a way, closer to Led Zeppelin musically than I did to, perhaps, Yes or the early Genesis. Zeppelin had a rough edge. They had a rawness and an attack, which was something I always wanted to keep in touch with as well, not just to get too musically clever, or too musically precise. So, yeah, I would say first song listen to “Stairway To Heaven,” and then maybe listen to something from, I don’t know…. the title track from Songs From The Wood.

Dr. Music: Wow! That’s exactly what sums it up for me with Jethro Tull. “Songs From The Wood” would be exactly what I would play.

Ian Anderson: Good.

Dr. Music: It’s obvious that you love to write. On the Jethro Tull website, you even give us your take on a lot of the biographical Jethro Tull books that are out there. Have you ever thought about writing your own memoir, or even a fictional novel?

Ian Anderson: Of course I’ve thought about writing a fictional story because, in a sense, it’s just an extension of writing lyrics. But, I’ve so far discounted it because I, first, think you have to have the talent. Equally, you gotta have the skill. And, there are those people who write their first novel in middle age and have a huge success, but they are relatively few and far between. The majority of novelists have many spectacular failures before they achieve any recognition, so, it’s a tough world out there. I don’t think it’s something I see as very likely, but it is quite likely that at some point I will write a book, maybe not necessarily a book of fiction, but a book about stuff – perhaps a little more philosophical on the subjects of religion, ethics, or whatever it might be. I might try that at some point. But an autobiography, I don’t think I’m going to do that, because that means telling tales. That means spilling the beans. That means betraying personal relationships with people. Even if they’re people that I don’t necessarily hold dear, I’m not about to tell you secrets that would embarrass them. Without that, it would be a very, very dull book indeed. I’m just not made of that stuff. Obviously, we all like to read a good spicy biography where Keith Richards tells us what size penis Mick Jagger has, but I’m afraid I’m just not made of that stuff.

Ian Anderson will be performing both his composition THICK AS A BRICK in its entirety for the first time since 1972, and his new album, THICK AS A BRICK 2 at the Star Plaza Theatre, 8001 Delaware Place, in Merrillville, Indiana, on October 20, at 7:30 PM. Tickets range from $55 to $75, plus service charges.

The Theater phone numbers are [phone] and [phone], or visit www.starplazatheatre.com.

You can see Ian Anderson’s full tour itinerary at www.jethrotull.com.

Share the post "Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson talks with Dr. Music"

[bunkerfan]

Thanks for posting this very interesting interview TT. It's good to know Ian had a New Years resolution and started writing the new album on Jan 1st.

I did chuckle when I read this......"There’s no point in shouting things out at me from the audience because I don’t take requests."


Aqualung!!!

[maddogfagin]

Published on 25 Sep 2013 by TomWoodsTV
Bestselling author Tom Woods talks to Jethro Tull front man Ian Anderson about Thick as a Brick, its sequel, what he's proudest of, and what his advice would be for budding musicians. Aired September 2013.

[nonrabbit]

Liked this bit of Tom Woods interview;

"Woods asked toward the end for the Jethro Tull frontman to elaborate on a statement made in a different interview–”Once in an interview you said there has to be a place for ‘thinking man’s music’”.

Anderson clarified calling it “thinking person’s music”. He said this music is made to appeal to the sensitive and feminine types, not just the black shirt, beer drinking fist pumping types.”

Woods asked the multitalented musician “what in his catalog he was most proud of?”, Anderson replied, “lyric writing at it’s best and rock flute”.




Is this a new thing or has he always stated that he's extremely chuffed with his lyric writing?

[Deleted]

Saturday, October 5, 2013
Searching for Gerald Bostock: An Interview with Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson
Read More: www.joelgausten.com/2013/10/searching-for-gerald-bostock-interview.html

One very crucial part of your current production is your guitarist, Florian Opahle, who wasn’t even born when Thick As A Brick came to be. How do you think he has impacted the proceedings, and what does he bring to the table as a musician that perhaps wasn’t there in earlier incarnations of this material?

I think he brings a very Germanic kind of quality with him, which is that of discipline, organization [and] the ability to prepare things. When it comes to performance, he gives it both precision and a lot of emotion, so he’s a very European kind of guy. I wouldn’t say that he’s necessarily a better guitar player than [longtime Tull guitarist] Martin Barre or other guitar players that I’ve worked with over the years, but he’s a very good guy for working with when you have to learn new material, change arrangements and be very much able to prepare things in your own time and in your own space, which in his case is Rosenheim in Bavaria. When he hops on a plane and meets us at Heathrow Airport or wherever we’re going, I know he’s done his homework. He’s a pretty good guy; I’ve worked with him now for about 11 years. He’s performed as a guitarist in some Jethro Tull concerts here and there when Martin Barre was ill-disposed or didn’t want to do a particular tour, as happened I think a couple of times in Russia, India and places he’s not very fond of. The other guys in the band [have] all played as members of Jethro Tull during the last years, and they know the repertoire and they’re a good bunch of guys to work with. We’re probably a very mature group of men who know just how to spend a lot of time in each others’ company without things getting stressful or tense or upsetting to each other. That very often happens with bands, as you could imagine.

[maddogfagin]

Still 'Thick as a Brick' with Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson
By Ed Symkus/CORRESPONDENT
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted October 07, 2013

www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x1155172963/Still-Thick-as-a-Brick-with-Jethro-Tulls-Ian-Anderson#ixzz2hIx4odL0

BOSTON —
The long, scraggly hair he wore in the cover photo on Jethro Tull’s first album "This Was," and later in the painting on the band’s biggest album, "Aqualung," is long gone. Then again, most of Ian Anderson’s hair is gone, but he still retains a neatly clipped beard, and he still practices the politeness the British are known for.
Phoning from his office in England, to talk about his upcoming concerts that will feature entire presentation’s of 1972’s "Thick as a Brick," along with last year’s "Thick as a Brick 2" (Oct. 12 at the Wang Theatre), Anderson apologized for the call being late.

No, he was told. It’s noon, and you were supposed to call at noon.
"I was actually 45 seconds late," he said, "according to the atomic clock."
He was immediately forgiven, and just as quickly engaged in a chat about why he became a flute player, along with some history on "Thick as a Brick" and its four-decades-later sequel.

"I’d been a guitar player at school," said Anderson of his pre-flute, pre-band days. "I picked up a guitar and strummed a few chords, and sang a couple of songs, then I made the graduation to electric guitar with the almost certain knowledge that I was never really going to be so good at it. Once I heard Eric Clapton play, I thought, well, that’s it, I’m never going to be in that league, so I decided to find something else to play, and for no particularly good reason chose the flute. It was, in marketing terms, a point of difference for Jethro Tull to become known and sell itself to the public. Other bands at the time didn’t have flute players. And since Eric Clapton couldn’t play the flute, I was in with a chance."

Jethro Tull had been gigging around England for a couple of years, then hit the U.S. with a fury, first touring in 1969 when newly popular underground radio stations were playing tracks from "This Was." The band gained some commercial success with their follow-up, "Stand Up," and by 1971, had a string of hits off the "Aqualung" album, including the title cut, "Hymn 43," and "Locomotive Breath."

A year later, the concept album "Thick as a Brick" was also a hit, but it was, according to critics and fans, really only one long song.

"It was written in chunks," explained Anderson. "The process was to write a section, three or four minutes, every day, and join each one to the bit before it. It was conveniently written up [by critics] as being one long song because it was a continuous flow of music.

"I would write three minutes of music every morning," he added, "then meet up with the other guys in the afternoon, and we would learn it and rehearse it, along with what we’d prepared in the previous days. So at the end of about a 10-day period, we had the whole album in a state of being able to at least go in and record all the backing tracks."

Those songs told a loose story of a fictional character named Gerald Bostock who, as a young man, had to decide whether he would grow up to be a poet or a soldier. It was a rock album, but there was a lot of acoustic playing, and a great deal of instrumental work. The record sold well, but live presentations of the 45-minute piece were a disaster, at least in America.

"When we played it in the States, the audience really expected a rock concert," said Anderson. "They weren’t in tune with the idea of a lengthy piece of music involving a lot of acoustic guitar strumming. So it got whistled and shouted and hissed at by a lot of hairy rock ’n’ roll kind of people, and it was really a very disappointing and unpleasant experience. The big mistake, back then, was to play in several large arenas, where it was completely unsuitable for that kind of performance. This was in the days before video screens and cameras, and a lot of it was just lost on the audience. So for many years after that it remained a bad experience, and when I decided in 2010 and I would have a look at doing ‘Thick as a Brick’ as an entire performance again, I thought, ‘Well, it’s a bit of an opportunity to right a few wrongs, and go out there and rise to the challenge, and see if we get away with it this time."

But that music now comes with a complementary work, "Thick as a Brick 2," which revisits the same character today, and offers suggestions of even more ways his life might have turned out.

"Over many years, people in record companies, journalists, and fans, made the powerful suggestion of following up ‘Thick as a Brick’ with a sequel," said Anderson. "But I never had a good reason to do it because it always seemed to me that doing that would be going back to some rather nostalgic revisiting of a period in time, and I didn’t really feel motivated to do that. It wasn’t until 2010, when I was meeting an old friend who had indeed gone on to become a record company guy. He and I sat down to have lunch, and one of us – I can’t remember who – said, ‘Well, I wonder whatever happened to Gerald Bostock?’ That started me off by writing down 15 different life outcomes for the young Gerald. And out of the 15 I decided to whittle it down to five, and explore five alternative scenarios. I thought it was interesting to consider what I call the what-ifs, maybes, and might-have-beens of life."

So, fronting a band including bassist David Goodier, keyboardist John O'Hara, drummer Scott Hammond, guitarist Florian Opahle, and additional singer Ryan O'Donnell, Anderson will do "Thick as a Brick," take a 20-minute intermission, then do "Thick as a Brick 2," followed by some encores of Tull hits.

"The whole thing is about two and a half hours, and that’s quite a long time for anybody to sit through a musical entertainment of any sort," he said. "I strongly advise the audience to bring a soft cushion to sit on, and perhaps bring some sandwiches, because you might get a little peckish half way through."

Ian Anderson
WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 12, 8 p.m.
WHERE: Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St., Boston
TICKETS: $38.75-$85.
INFO: 866-348-9738; www.citicenter.org/brick

[bassackwards]

Here's a new one, I'm listening to now. Notable, I think,
that its Public Radio

lakeshorepublicmedia.org/laying-it-on-thick-with-ian-anderson-of-jethro-tull/

[maddogfagin]

Oct 18, 2013 15:21:17 GMT bassackwards said:

Here's a new one, I'm listening to now. Notable, I think,
that its Public Radio

lakeshorepublicmedia.org/laying-it-on-thick-with-ian-anderson-of-jethro-tull/

Thanks bassackwards - it's saved to the PC as an mp3 as I speak.

[rredmond]

Ah bunkerfan beat me to it. I never check Facebook, and an old friend hit me up because he saw this interview and knew I loved Tull.
Figure HAH it's an American interview, let me jump in here and take credit for one!
Short one but a good one. Be well!
--Ron--

[bunkerfan]

Oct 18, 2013 18:26:30 GMT rredmond said:

Ah bunkerfan beat me to it. I never check Facebook, and an old friend hit me up because he saw this interview and knew I loved Tull.
Figure HAH it's an American interview, let me jump in here and take credit for one!
Short one but a good one. Be well!
--Ron--

Sorry Ron, I'll hold back a couple of hours next time and let you have all the credit.