Ian Anderson interviews

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www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/ian-anderson-expands-on-jethro-tull/Content?oid=2899152

Ian Anderson expands on Jethro Tull
By Tom Lanham, September 15, 2014 Arts » Pop Music & Jazz

Jethro Tull flautist-vocalist Ian Anderson's new self-released solo album, "Homo Erraticus," isn't easy to explain. Divided into three parts ("Chronicles," "Prophecies" and "Revelations"), it revisits 1972's "Thick As A Brick" character Gerald Bostock, a former child prodigy who has reappeared with lyrics based on an unpublished manuscript by amateur historian Ernest T. Parritt. Its recurring theme? Human migration. "But it's also about the movement of aesthetics, ideas, trade, commerce, plus art, entertainment and culture itself," says Anderson, 67, who also oversaw a four-disc 2014 reissue of Tull's 1973 classic "A Passion Play."

Are you pleased that Ron Burgundy repopularized jazz flute -- and your "Aqualung" -- in the film "Anchorman"?

That's an interesting one. I saw "Anchorman," and of course it was fun and flattering to be utilized -- and satirized -- in that way. I enjoy getting the odd poke in the ribs from time to time. But I'm pretty sure that the movie's writers were also basing that character on Tony Snow, the late White House press secretary and journalist for Fox TV. I think the fact that he was a jazz-rock flute player in his spare time must have registered with a few people.

You're phoning from your office, on your farm in the southwest of England. What happens there each day?

Well, I share my office with my wife, and she deals with more personal-related administrative stuff, and farming stuff. And I sit on the other side of the office and do the music-related stuff. She has a bigger desk than me, but we both have quite big computers, and we've been working with computer technology since '82, '83, when computers first came out. So we weren't left behind, in the way that many of our generation were.

How does office work help your rock career?

I can sit and write music there using my Mac laptop, or -- worst-case scenario -- use my phone to record things. As long as these tools have been around -- which is quite a few years now -- they've made life much easier for working musicians. But the organizational side involves me staying at my desk and becoming a travel agent, planning exotic foreign trips, working out tour itineraries, and booking flights and hotels. We don't use tour managers anymore.

What if your drummer asks about that missing vegetarian in-flight meal he was promised?

Well, I send out all the itineraries online for the guys to access. So he will have keyed that little box that says "special requirements." If you treat musicians like respectable human beings with common sense, remarkably, they usually rise to the occasion. But if you treat them like sheep? Hey, they become sheep.

[Equus]

This must be the one...



... Hey, Aqualung!!!

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www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/music/2014/09/16/ian-anderson-interview-jethro-tull/15718423/

Interview: Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull
Ed Masley, The Republic | azcentral.com 3:45 p.m. MST September 16, 2014


Photo: Martyn Goddard

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull is touring in support of an album called "Homo Erraticus," his second solo effort in three years to feature Gerald Bostock, a character whose first appearance on a record was Tull's 1972 classic, "Thick as a Brick."

That does not mean this album is part of a trilogy, says Anderson, whose Mesa Arts Center performance this weekend will feature one set devoted to "Homo Erraticus" and a second set of old Tull favorites.

Question: What is it about the Gerald Bostock character that keeps you coming back to him?

Answer: Well, it's a bit of fun. It's creating a back story and giving points of reference for the dedicated fans. It's creating a link. But it's a tenuous link and should not be seen as part three of a trilogy. It's just that as a music writer, I use the devices any writer would — bringing back characters, perhaps in a little cameo role or in some context that gives continuity. People like continuity in their lives. At least some do.

I'm also aware that for a lot of folks, it gets too complicated. They like their rock and roll delivered in traditional, generic terms and anything that seems a bit more complex is a bit too much for them. Perhaps some of our fans are just beyond the challenge. But I like to feel that I'm not there to talk down to people and give them cheesy fodder. I'm there to challenge my abilities as a writer and musician and I hope, to some extent, I can take most of the audience with me.

Q: There's a lot of talk of past and future lives on this new album. Is that something you believe in?

A: I don't disbelieve in the idea of there being some sort of metamorphosis through different lives. It plays a part in a number of world religions and beliefs, this idea of coming back to try again. I'm naturally a skeptic in regard to most things but I don't rule them out. I'm not a Christian but I support the Christian religion because, from a pragmatic point of view, it's a relatively, these days, trouble-free, benign religion — until, of course, you fall into the clutches of evangelists. Then it's all hellfire and damnation, xenophobia and a hatred of anybody else who chooses to worship a deity in a different way. But luckily, those are a small minority and mostly, I'm afraid, for you folks, confined to parts of the U.S.A. Generally, Christianity is a fairly benign religion. It fulfills a great spiritual function in people's lives. It's also responsible for building some beautiful cathedrals and churches back in Europe. So I'm a supporter of Christianity. That doesn't make me a Christian.

Q: How much research went into the historical details on these latest records?

A: Well, it was all based on stuff I knew. Or thought I knew. I'm not going back to the origin of our species but I am going back to the last Ice Age and taking little snapshots of the story of our migratory urges from then until now. As a species, we have a tremendous capacity for going where the grass is greener, and anybody who happens to be standing in our way, well, they'd better get out of it, like the North America Indians or a few nations that had to get out of the way of the Brits in the nation-building stampede of the Empire. We're all responsible for bad stuff.

But on balance, we've also left a lot of positive things. The Romans left a great deal when they invaded the British Isles 2,000 years ago. The Normans brought a huge amount of culture and art in their invasionary period. Even the aboriginal Indian tribes of North America, at least you've given them casinos.

Q: Do you find that having a back story makes it easier or harder to create an album?

A: It gives me a sense of completing something. You've got to somehow wrap it up in a parcel, tie it with a nice pink ribbon. I think I've always had that view since I first started writing and recording some 46 years ago. "Aqualung" was an early attempt not to create a concept album but to wrap up a group of quite disparate songs into a cohesive whole. And it seemed to capture people's attention when it did that, although they wrongly described it as a concept album at the time.

Q: But you do consider these most recent efforts concept albums?

A: Oh yeah. Very much so. Concept albums in the style of what we used to call progressive rock.

Q: Do you find that taking that approach has reinvigorated your creative energies?

A: Yes. But it is driven by the need to do more things because my time is running out. You have to be aware that once you're approaching that latter few years of your productive life, you can either back off and kind of coast a bit or use the time that's left to tackle bigger challenges that perhaps you hadn't in the past..

Q: Have you thought at all about what you might tackle next?

A: I'm absolutely avoiding thinking about what I'm tackling creatively next because at 9 o'clock on January 1 of 2015, I want to walk into my writing space with an empty head, a blank file on my computer that simply is titled "new project" and a clean flute and some shiny strings on my acoustic guitar. And then I will see what offers come to me from the muse, should she care to visit sometime between the hours of 9 a.m. and 12 noon. And if she's not paid a visit by then, then I may have to shoot myself.

Q: (After much laughing) Sorry. I'm laughing because I'm assuming you're joking.

A: I am. I'm joking about at least 60 percent of what I say. It's part of the charm of being a writer is that you can bring serious subjects a little closer to people by using some humor to perhaps make it easier. It's a sugar coating on the bitter pill. It lures them into your clutches and then they have to swallow the medicine. Humor is a good way of bringing people to you and disarming them. So I've always felt there's a good use for humor. It may be rather dark humor.

Q: You've said "Thick as a Brick 2" allowed you to reflect on "how we Baby Boomers look back on our lives and often feel an occasional 'what if' moment." What do you think of in your "what if" moments?

A: Well, there are really a lot of them. George (W.) Bush had an autobiography titled "Decision Points," which was released shortly after his presidency. And not being a fan of George Bush up to that moment, I felt obliged to give him the time of day. So I downloaded the book and read it. And it was for me quite notable because he was looking back on his professional life as well as his earlier life, before politics, and taking these sort of crucial moments that, for him, were life-changing.

And I thought about lots of my own little experiences like that, these kind of crossroads in your personal journey through life. It's a bit like you're just following your navigation device and you aren't really in control. It says, "Turn left in 100 yards" and so you do, because it's easier just to kind of go with the flow. Sometimes we do that. We let strange and other powers — call it fate if you like — take us in a different direction.

Q: You did an interview with Billboard this year that made it seem as though we'd seen the last of Jethro Tull. Is that the case?

A: Well, no, you haven't, because the Jethro Tull catalog and repertoire is all still available on Amazon.com and iTunes. So it doesn't go away. It's just the fine nuance of my approaching the final years of my life and I would like you, without wishing to sound arrogant, to know my name.

And for a lot of people, maybe some who think of themselves very much as Jethro Tull fans, they think of Jethro Tull, they think of the guy standing on one leg playing the flute. But what it says on my passport, I can assure, is not Jehtro Tull. Jethro Tull's passport belongs to Jethro Tull. Or did. He was an 18th Century agriculturalist who invented the seed drill. So the historical character Jethro Tull is the one whose place in history should be remembered.

And I think my making reference to it has made a difference because a couple years ago, the real owner of the name was not listed in a Top 10 Google search for Jethro Tull. It was all me and the musical entity of Jethro Tull. But during these more recent times when I've been talking more about him, the last time I looked, there were two mentions in the Top 10 of Jethro Tull, the historical character. And I think well, maybe I've had a little to do with that. So it's perhaps a positive way of kind of apologizing for identity theft.

But to perform simply as Jethro Tull, I am reminded by the recent death of Glenn Cornick and the fact that several other ex-band members are not feeling terribly well — there are 28 people who rightfully are part of that great family of music known as Jethro Tull — I came to that point where I just feel I would rather refer to Jethro Tull as being the repertoire as opposed to going out within this rather ever-changing lineup of musicians as the central character.

I kind of put my own name in the mix because it's may be a little bit of vanity but it's also about not exactly retiring the name but sort of putting it into context. It is a body of work rather than specific individuals at any given point in time.

Details: 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20. Mesa Arts Center, 1 E. Main St.$45-$95. 480-644-6500, mesaartscenter.com.

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Inside the Alternate Realities of Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson
By Glenn BurnSilver Wed., Sep. 17 2014 at 9:03 AM 

"Could erupting Icelandic volcanoes be the premise for Ian Anderson's next concept album?"

blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2014/09/jethro-tull-ian-anderson-interview-mesa-arts-center.php

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Passion Play of a Wandering Man
Tull’s Anderson mulls past and present
By August March, 18th September

"Unless you’re talking about the dude who nudged British agriculture toward the modern age, there is no Jethro Tull. That Tull invented the horse-drawn seed drill in the 17th century." 

alibi.com/music/47630/Passion-Play-of-a-Wandering-Man.html

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Ian Anderson talks Jethro Tull, current tour
By Robert Philpot
September 20, 2014

Whenever a classic-rock artist begins a show with new material, he or she runs a risk: Can you hold the attention of audience members likely there to hear the hits?

Especially if they have to leave because they told the baby sitter they’d be home by a certain time or because they have to get up early for work the next morning?

Yet Ian Anderson is willing to take that risk with his show Tuesday at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas.

www.dfw.com/2014/09/20/927699/ian-anderson-talks-jethro-tull.html

[JTull 007]

A great interview from The Pearl in Vegas. VIVA Ian Anderson TULL 2014

[bassackwards]

Sept 23, 2014 17:57:15 GMT JTull 007 said:

A great interview from The Pearl in Vegas. VIVA Ian Anderson TULL 2014

A nice interview, thanks! I particularly like the last 2 minutes. It shows a man pretty well grounded, perhaps a bit cautious about his fame or lack of it. Seems like he's considered this stuff a bit.

[Equus]

Sept 23, 2014 17:57:15 GMT JTull 007 said:

A great interview from The Pearl in Vegas. VIVA Ian Anderson TULL 2014

Right Ian!! Long live Ian Anderson's Jethro Tull... or whatever you choose to call it... It really doesn't matter! Jethro Tull forever!! ... and... Hit us with the new stuff... It's fabulous!!

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Ian Anderson isn't always on the same page as is alter ego
www.mrt.com/entertainment/article_695c7242-441a-11e4-bf6f-4f6854e577ac.html
Wednesday, September 24, 2014 By Rich Lopez

For more than 30 years, Ian Anderson has impacted heavy metal in the most out-of-the box fashion.
Fronting the band Jethro Tull, Anderson strayed out of the box to deliver a catalog of dramatic progressive rock that stands on its own but still apart from contemporaries like Rush or Pink Floyd.

As vocalist, guitarist and flutist, he led Tull into a musical territory all their own and garnered a controversial Grammy in 1988 for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental, beating out favorite (and decidedly category-fitting) Metallica.

But Anderson has also cultivated a solo career since the 1980s in which he’s explored complex avenues of instrumental music with a fictionalized world he’s created and his wind instruments. That led to his 2014 release “Homo Erraticus,” which peaked at No. 14 on the charts of Great Britain, his homeland. It’s also his highest ranking album.
He brings both Tull’s legacy and his own work to Midland on Wednesday at the Wagner Noel.

Before his show, he talked about how creating worlds and his character Gerald Bostock for his music is by choice and how anger and rage are merely shapers of arts and culture.

MRT: You resurrect your character Gerald Bostock from your “Thick as a Brick” albums to appear in “Homo Erraticus.” All three albums have such a weight to them, yet “Brick 2” and this one were written in short time. How did you concentrate your focus?

Anderson: I try to work fairly quickly and intensely. I just gave myself a cold start at 9 a.m. on Jan. 1 last year in got on with it. By that first afternoon I had a title and some lyrics. Then I start determining where am I going with these ideas of the movement. I think of early ancestors and their various ways in which our species has gone in search of better things metaphorically.

MRT: Where are we going now?

Anderson: We go where things are better whether it’s politely or with an honest spirit or in terms of conquest and domination. It’s a story of all of us, but not just people moving; the aesthetic of ideas and art and culture and science. We will see that happen in many parts of the world. Gerald then reacts to that through his beliefs that I can’t always say myself. Sometimes I don’t always believe in what he believes.

MRT: You mentioned in an interview that you create characters as voices of your music, but would we ever hear a autobiographical album by you?

Anderson: Why?

MRT: Well, it’s somewhat of a conundrum to hear you say Gerald says the things you can’t say, or believes in things you don’t believe, but inherently he is you.

Anderson: We make these simplistic assumptions that the song represents my own emotions. Why should that be the case? It’s not like that in opera or movies or literature. We accept when writers are nom de plumes with their own views expressed largely through those characters. I’m a writer who uses music.

MRT: I could quote Gerald Bostock by saying “We are the angry species.” Likely we’re the only angry species, right?

Anderson: Anger is one of those emotions that makes us uncomfortable, along with jealous and extreme rage, but that’s where all the best of arts and culture stem from. If it wasn’t for those, there wouldn’t be Shakespeare or Quentin Tarantino. These things are part of what shapes our understanding as entertainment. In this sense of fiction, we learn about ourselves that way.

MRT: Are you angry?

Anderson: I’m most comfortable talking about people and giving them a context. I’m thinking like a stage or thespian performance and I inhabit that stage myself. I give it the authority but not me. So, no I’m not.

MRT: Could you ever live without Gerald Bostock at this point?

Anderson: I think he’s done his job. I’ll consign him to the scrap heap but he’s unlikely to return. He’s been a useful bit of continuity in last three years, but I don’t foresee his return. Perhaps he’ll make some comment or deliver a little vitriol to spite me. I can always give him a punch in the nose. [laughs]

MRT: When would we know that?

Anderson: I guess we wait to see on Jan. 1 at 9 a.m. in 2015.

[Equus]

Sept 23, 2014 17:57:15 GMT JTull 007 said:

A great interview from The Pearl in Vegas. VIVA Ian Anderson TULL 2014

What exactly is happening with the tour? Jethro Tull is so much more than Bourée and Locomotive Breath... Great tunes, but we have them in numerous versions... Ian Andersons Jethro Tull is a tour de force of breathtaking beauty, an exceptional achievement by an artist, and great musicians backing him up... something that is unlikely to be equaled by any person, now or in the future... A fact that too many people probably won't realize long before Ian is dead and gone... but is he underestimating the audience? Or what is this all about??

"People come from nostalgia... that's the main reason... It's not about wanting to hear your new album... If you play some new music too... Your an old band, playing new music to old fans... They are only going to come and do it because they are being polite... They are not really there to hear that stuff... A few of them are, but most aren't... ("...and now a little defiance..." - Equus) ...but my job is not just to sit there and be a, you know, a mobile jukebox that roles into town... I'm there to challenge... You know I'm there to invite some fistycuffs... You know of my new music? You know, that's what I'm here for. You know, I'm here to be a bit more, you know, energetic, and try to do the impossible, and making people enjoy what I'm doing today, as well as what I did 40 years ago... 46 years ago..." - Taken from the Ian Anderson interview above

It makes me sad to here Ian talk like that... and I don't think that he is right... People want to hear the new stuff, though many of these people might not know it... So using Thick As A Brick as a bait, or the best of, is in my opinion a brilliant move by Ian, and then when they, or we, are in the "lion's den"... hit them, us, with the new stuff... People didn't walk out on them, but listened in awe to this amazing spectacle... Stay the course Ian... You're on the right track...

[Deleted]

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull Talks Music and The Walking Dead
Posted on: Sep 26 2014by Michael Hagerty
www.houstonmatters.org/segments/segment-e/2014/09/26/ian-anderson-of-jethro-tull-talks-music-and-the-walking-dead

[Deleted]

Ian Anderson on Martin Barre’s Departure, Homo Erraticus AUDIO ONLY

Published on Oct 1, 2014

Ron Placone interviews Jethro Tull frontman,Ian Anderson. Ian offers a few thoughts on the new album, “Homo Erraticus” as well as the departure of long-time guitarist, Martin Barre. This interview is audio only and originally aired on the Indie Bohemians Morning Show in Nashville, TN. www.facebook.com/IndieBohemian... www.ronplacone.com www.jethrotull.com

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Kaedy Kiely interviews Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson about his career and his thoughts on music

t.co/nnxaQlVnRz

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IAN ANDERSON
Published on October 7th, 2014
www.tommagazine.com.au/2014/10/07/ian-anderson/

Jethro Tull’s Ian anderson is heading to Australia for a tour playing the hits that made him and the band famous. So there’s no confusion the tour is dubbed “The Best of Jethro Tull with Ian Anderson”. Sean Sennett chatted to Anderson at his home in the UK about the tour, his new albums and the hardships of a ‘full’ passport.

TOM: When did you first come to Australia?

Ian: It was 1972 and we played the album Thick as a Brick all the way through. I thought it was appropriate this year when we come back to Australia and New Zealand we would do a recap on that original Thick as a Brick. It features heavily in the selection of music we’re playing in the final days of December.

TOM: How is it going back and doing Thick as a Brick 2? Did it feel intimidating, especially after that?

Ian: We always played little snippets of Thick as a Brick in the repertoire over the years. It’s commonly featured in the set list, but to play the whole thing top to tail as it was originally recorded is something that we only did a few times back in ’72. So I would say it wasn’t particularly difficult for me. There were a couple of guitar chords I had to really think about what is this inversion, these are kind of weird inversions I had to work hard to sort of decipher what it is that I recorded. That held me up for a few minutes in a couple of places, but otherwise it didn’t take very long for me to learn it all again.

Of course, the other members of the band, a few of whom weren’t born at that point, were faced with a bigger task. For them there was a lot more analysis and careful writing down of all the original parts, and learning to play them. But they’re all accomplished musicians and I dare say they found it somewhat easier to play than their predecessors did at the time they recorded it.

TOM: I was curious about your song writing process now as opposed to when you started out. Can you talk me through that? Do you get a germ of an idea and work on it meticulously for days, or do things tend to write themselves quickly?

Ian: I think they’ve always come fairly quickly, but the emphasis has shifted slightly over the years, in the sense that to begin with, like many people writing lyrics, I was possibly a little intimidated or embarrassed to put words and thoughts on paper. They were not very adventurous. They tended to talk about very basic, stereotypical emotions.

But that was just at the beginning. By the time I got to the second album, I think my song writing was beginning to get a little more involved. But it probably came to fruition in the fourth year, the year of “Aqualung.” I was writing about topics that were not just how do I feel today or on the subject of relationships. They were topics that were much more observational or more emotional in the sense of being about issues like homelessness, or organised religion and child prostitution. If you’re going to do that stuff, you’ve got to get the bit between your teeth and be bold enough to put it on paper.

I probably had in my fourth year the courage to do that. These days, it just comes naturally because I think I’ve got reasonably good at being a writer and using the devices that writers use to draw people in with a bit of whimsy, a bit of humour, a bit of vernacular, a bit of heavyweight stuff. And you present it in a way that you hope will be invitational to a listener, and draw them into it with curiosity, and not preaching at them, or telling them what they should believe or think. I’m just saying think.

TOM: When you started the band and started your professional music career, there was a lot of great music being made. Did you sort of feel you were riding the Zeitgeist at that time?

Ian: I think the feeling was very competitive with most bands. You always had that feeling from growing up that it was a battle to get a gig. It was a battle to keep the gig, and play there again. It was a battle to get on a festival. You were competing against your peers at that time.

If you were the opening act for Led Zeppelin I mean you didn’t humbly go on and know your place. You went out to try and give a 35-minute good account of yourself, and make yourself a hard act for the Zeps to follow. Once or twice we probably managed to do that on a tour, but the point being it was competitive. You might feel a certain peer group kinship with your fellow musicians, but I’m sure they do in the locker room at Wimbledon before a final tournament. Maybe not before, but probably after, when the job is done and losers have to pat the victor on the back and say good show.

TOM: A song like “Living in the Past,” how did that come about? How was it written?

Ian: My manager, Terry Ellis said — if I’m correct, it was a holiday somewhere on the outskirts of Boston, where we were staying. My manager Terry said, “We’re away from England for 13 weeks on this first sparse US tour. We need something to keep the pot boiling. Could you quickly whip upstairs to your room and write a hit single we could record next week in New York, and send it back to the UK and get it released, to keep the name of the band before the small coterie of emerging fans happy?”

I said to humour him, “Sure, just give me an hour. I’ll be back.” So I went upstairs and decided to write the most uncommercial, three and a half minute song I could muster, from the title “Living in the Past.” It was hardly trendy and contemporary, and it was in 5/4 time, which of course was commercially a no-no because you couldn’t really dance to it, unless you had two and a half legs.

In spite of the fact that many rock stars were reputed to have two and a half legs, if the caster/plaster girls with Jimi Hendrix and others, if anything to go by. But the task was duly executed. We recorded it in New York, and I think I overdubbed the vocals and did the mixing in San Francisco a couple of weeks later.

Against all odds, this slightly out-of-time and out-of-tempo tract did become a top-10 hit in the UK. And a couple of years later was re-released for the American market, and became a bit of a hit there too. I think to my pretty certain knowledge it was the second and probably the last time that a tune in 5/4 time signature would make it into the top-10 of the charts. The first of course being Dave Brubeck’s famous “Take Five.”

To see if I could repeat the trick, Dave Brubeck’s second attempt much less successful than the first was a piece called “Unsquare Dance” which was in 7/8. I decided to give that a crack in 1976 with a song called “Ring Out Solstice Bells.” And rather like Dave Brubeck, it was less successful than the first one. It only made the top-20, not the top-10.

It was sort of one of those challenges. You’re trying to prove that you can make some unconventional ideas still work. it’s a bit of bloody arrogance and a bit of showing off. But it’s rather rewarding when you can leave behind you a piece of music which doesn’t fit the usual regimented prerequisite of a pop song, other than being relatively short, which it has to be to get radio play.

TOM: With the new record, Homo Erraticus, what was the jumping off point for that? Did you have a lot of songs and cull it down to the final running order, or do you sort of start with one and add, brick by brick?

Ian: Rather in the same way as I think the other more conceptual pieces, like the original Thick as a Brick, or Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die! These things were writing as a concept and once you’ve got all the ideas and the general subject material, maybe some of the titles, you’ve got it all on paper, then you sit down to write it. You sit down to actual tackle it bit by bit, and build upon that sketch that you’ve outlined in the first place. That was how it was done. And it was done, for me rather importantly, by having a deadline to follow, and a definite starting point and finishing point.

I knew in the early part of last year that if I started at 9 a.m. on January the 1st, 2013, that I would want to try and complete it by the end of the month, which I did, in March, when I was away for a week’s holiday I made the demos in a hotel room in Barbados, and sent the demos and all the lyrics and chord sheets and stuff to the band, knowing we wouldn’t be recording it until December. But at least they had it on their laptop computers for nine months or eight months before they had to turn their attention to writing out all the elements, and preparing their own ideas for what they would play to join the dots together.

And so we went into rehearsal all able to play it through immediately, in a sketchy outline form. And then the finer points of the arrangements, the tuning of everything in the sense of making sure peoples’ parts are very complementary, that you shift the emphasis here and there from one instrument to another. And above all, keep it all very playable live, by not getting into too many overdubs and complexities.

Then we had an album that was delivered absolutely to the day on schedule, which was a couple of weeks before Christmas, couple of weeks after Christmas, and we delivered it on the 15th of January ready for mixing and mastering, which took another 10 days or so to get that process done. It was completely on schedule because it had to be, to meet the release date, which had been decided in November.

That’s what you have to do if you’re a professional musician; you’ve got some deadlines. And you can goof off and hang around a studio waiting for inspiration to strike, but it’s not a very productive way of conducting your life, especially when you get as old as I am. Life may not offer you second chances. You need to crack on with it, and when you feel you’re energised and committed to doing a project, then you’ve really got to get a lot of energy and focus going to make sure it all goes to the plan, or you go off piece, as you inevitably do here and there.

At least it’s in a controlled experiment and you don’t try and sky on the rocky bits, like poor old Michael Schumacher. You know you’re free to kind of go into places that are a little more experimental, a bit more taking a chance, but you don’t get foolhardy. You don’t waste time. You don’t risk an accident, because you’ve got to every day probably get four minutes of real-time recording done.

TOM: I guess it’s interesting, people have a very romantic idea of an artist’s life, waiting for inspiration to strike, and you record when you’re in the mood. I guess like a lot of those classic records, they’ve been made under the pump like you’ve said before. You’ve got one hour to write a hit.

Ian: I’m sure I remember reading that in a couple of cases, one was with U2 I think when Bono had failed to write any lyrics, and the rest of the band had completed all the backing tracks, and they were getting fairly annoyed that he was just going la-la-la through the songs, and hadn’t actually written the lyrics yet. There was obviously a lot of pressure on Bono to come up with stuff.

Same thing with Peter Gabriel, on a recording of an early Genesis album. They locked him in a barn because he’d not written the lyrics. They locked him in there and said don’t come out until you’ve got the lyrics done.

There will be pressure from a band when there is more of that cooperative spirit and the singer is perhaps being a little — understandably nervous to commit himself with lyrics, and will make excuses like it’s hard to write the lyrics until I’ve heard the music, and I kind of know where the emotional drive is, and so on.

But in reality, it’s often the other way around to me. I prefer to get the song titles and lyrics done either before writing the music or it becomes an almost simultaneous process, where you’ve got a line of lyrics; immediately it suggests rhythm, immediately will suggest some cadence. And you’re halfway towards a melody when you’ve written the first line, on a good day.

TOM: What’s the difference for you working under the banner of Ian Anderson versus working under the banner of the band? Is it a different metal approach?

Ian: I’m just in two places on the supermarket shelf, really. It’s two brand identities, once perhaps accepted in a more historical sense. One accepted maybe in my twilight years, that I’d like people to know my own name, rather than calling me Jethro or Mr. Tull. If you open the boxes of Corn Flakes, it’s the same old Corn Flakes inside, whether I’m calling it Jethro Tull or Ian Anderson.

Jethro Tull is a band. It’s 28 different musicians plus me. That’s obviously a huge family of people who’ve changed over the years, and I’m very honoured to work with all of them. But I’m the guy who writes the songs and produces the records and manages the band. On some days I’m the travel agent, and I book their airplane flights.

TOM: How many times have you been down here now?

Ian: I think it’s possibly five, I think.

TOM: That’s a few stamps on the passport.

Ian: There’s a few stamps in a few passports, because my passports don’t last very long. They get full of visas when these really annoying immigration officials insist on starting a blank page, just to give you some tiny little entry stamp in some country that half the world’s never heard of. Of course, I’m not referring to Australia here, but I do get annoyed when they use up — obviously, if you’ve got a proper visa, like you need in Australia, the USA, Russia, or India, you’ve got to have not only a full blank page but a blank facing page as well for the accompanying stamps.

When somebody goes and ruins two pages of your passport by insisting on a fresh page for their tiny little stamp to go wherever, that’s really annoying. It uses up passports at a fearful rate, and so I’m always having to reapply every two or three years for a new passport. And it’s such a tedious business, as you probably know.

Ian Anderson plays the Best of Jethro Tull at the Sydney Opera House (Thursday and Friday, December 11 & 12), Brisbane’s QPAC Concert Hall (December 13) and Melbourne’s Palais Theatre (December 15).

[maddogfagin]

A Visit With Ian Anderson – Yes, That Ian Anderson!

I was almost giddy with excitement at my impending interview with Ian Anderson, scheduled during a break between legs of his current American tour. He is touring in support of his 2014 release, ‘Homo Erraticus’ (a wonderful album – I suggest buying it). Not only was it my first interview (although I feel it was more of a conversation) but I would be talking with rock royalty!

suzereviewstheblues.com/2014/10/12/a-visit-with-ian-anderson-yes-that-ian-anderson/

[maddogfagin]

Coming Tuesday: A conversation with Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson
Published: October 20, 2014 01:00 AM

www.providencejournal.com/features/entertainment/music/20141020-coming-tuesday-a-conversation-with-jethro-tull-frontman-ian-anderson.ece

Andy Smith shares his conversation with Ian Anderson, longtime front man and composer for Jethro Tull, who is coming to the Providence Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, Oct. 29.

[maddogfagin]

Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Forget Gerald Bostock, Ian Anderson prefers talking climate change
by Bill Lynch, Staff writer
link

Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson comes to the Clay Center Friday night to perform some of the classic progressive rock band’s best known hits, as well as cuts off his latest solo record, “Homo Erraticus.”

Contrary to some reports, Gerald Bostock doesn’t really figure into Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson’s latest record, “Homo Erraticus.” At least that’s what Anderson, who performs Friday night at the Clay Center, said — perhaps a bit testily in the beginning.

Bostock isn’t a real person. He never was.

“Gerald is a writer’s tool,” the 67-year-old British progressive rocker said. “He’s a nom de plume who can be trusted to express opinions that aren’t necessarily mine. It would be a dull world if all of us writers and songwriters only bleated on about our own emotions.”

Anderson created Bostock in the late 1960s/early 1970s. He was a fictional child poetry prodigy and the central figure of Jethro Tull’s 1972 “Thick as a Brick” album, as well as Anderson’s solo follow up to that record 40 years later.

Anderson will be performing a lot of classic Jethro Tull songs Friday, but he’ll also be digging into his solo material, including “Homo Erraticus.”

Gerald Bostock hardly makes an appearance on that one.

Anderson said, “Gerald Bostock is just an old friend who drops in for a cup of tea, and, frankly, we’re glad when he’s put on his hat and coat and moved out the door.”

The new record and the new concert have less to do with Anderson’s imaginary friend and more to do with those of who live in the real world right now.

“Homo Erraticus” is about climate change and migration, something that mankind and civilization has been involved with as long as there have been people.

“Climate change was the prime mover,” Anderson said.

He said that because Homo Sapien was able to adapt and leave Africa, they were able to survive and thrive, while others members of the species failed and died out.

“I took snapshots of histories from 8,000 years ago to a little bit into the future,” Anderson said of the album. “I try to talk about that a little and explore in hopes we might find a better future and better circumstances.”

Anderson believes that as the world warms and parts of it become increasingly more difficult to eke out a way of life, people will have no choice but to move. Societies will become unstable, borders will not hold and populations will go toward where they hope to find food, water and security.

“Migration is only really beginning to play that part,” he said. “But it’s something our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will be facing with some enormity.”

Countries and their citizens need to start planning for that now.

Anderson said, “I think we need to find ways to be hospitable and welcoming, but also able to take the tougher view and say no to people we can’t admit when there are no rooms left at the inn.”

He added that the world isn’t there yet, but it would be in a few generations.

Anderson said he’s believed that some sort of climate change was happening as far back as the early 1970s. The subject has come up in his songs over they years, though he said in the earlier days, everyone thought the world was on the verge of another global Ice Age.

“We got better science later,” he said.

Anderson does what he can to reduce his contribution to climate change. He doesn’t own a car. His wife owns a high-efficiency hybrid. He takes public transportation, rides on commercial flights and has paid for the planting of 30,000 trees in the U.K. to help offset his carbon footprint.

“But that doesn’t make it all right,” he said. “It makes it not as bad as it might have been.”

What he can do just isn’t enough, and while he doesn’t have the solution to curing climate change, he believes he can do his part to keep the conversation going.

At least, that will be what he’ll be talking about for a while. “Homo Eraticus” is his most recent project, the one he’s most focused on, and it’s part of the concert he’s touring with through the rest of the year. At some point, however, Anderson said, he’ll sit down and work on something new. He believes in always trying to move forward.

“I do think about what comes next, but not too much,” he said. “There’s no point when you can’t actually develop the idea.”

Gerald Bostock probably won’t be back, however.
______________________________________________________________________________

Anderson to perform ‘Best of Jethro Tull’ Friday at Clay Center
Posted: Wednesday, October 22, 2014 5:58 pm | Updated: 5:59 pm, Wed Oct 22, 2014.
by Mary Wade Burnside, LIFESTYLES EDITOR
link

CHARLESTON — Most Jethro Tull fans recognize “Thick as a Brick” as a standard album and song from the 1970s-era progressive rock band.

They might not realize that the 1972 concept album was based on an 8-year-old character that Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson named Gerald Bostock.

Nor might they know that as a solo artist, Anderson has released two follow-up albums that continue Bostock’s story as an adult.

“He’s a non de plume,” Anderson said during a telephone interview from his native England, where he was resting between legs of his tour in support of the 2014 album “Homo Erraticus,” released last April.

“He’s a writer’s tool. He can be an alter ego through which I can express thoughts and emotions that aren’t mine.”
Play and movie writers from Shakespeare to Quentin Tarantino do this all the time, Anderson noted, and no one necessarily attributes them with the characters’ words and actions.

“But people have a simplistic assumption about pop music,” Anderson said. “They think that if someone sings in the first person, they are talking about themselves. But I could be expressing views that are not my own. Which is a risk I am prepared to take in order to make what I do more interesting, if only to me.”

Anderson will perform in concert as “The Best of Jethro Tull Performed by Ian Anderson” at 8 p.m. Friday at the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences of West Virginia in Charleston.

Backed by a band, the flute-playing Anderson will perform a 35-minute-or-so set from “Homo Erraticus” before starting in on some familiar Jethro Tull tunes.

A staple of 1970s rock radio, Jethro Tull is known for songs such as “Living in the Past,” “Bungle in the Jungle,” “Locomotive Breath” and the 6-1/2-minute “Aqualung,” which experienced extensive radio play in spite of never being released as a single.

“It’s a mixture of very familiar pieces and surprisingly forgotten pieces that we dig out of the attic or the basement, depending where it is where we keep our dusty relics,” Anderson said.

In 1988, Jethro Tull garnered some notoriety when the album “Crest of a Knave” won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental, beating out Metallica. The band’s label took out an ad in a British magazine that said, somewhat tongue in cheek, that “the flute is a heavy metal instrument.”

Although Anderson has a collection of flutes and piccolos from all over the world, he tends to stick with the concert flute during performances.

“I save my other instruments for playing in the studio context.”

In recent years, when it comes time to start creating a new album, Anderson generally has set a date — which lately has tended to be Jan. 1 — and sits down and begins the task of writing songs.

“I don’t wait for the muse to visit,” he said. “I go out and drag her screaming from the ether.”

Tickets $87, $65, $55 and $39. Call [phone] or www.theclaycenter.org

[maddogfagin]

Audio interview

Z106 Interview with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

chirb.it/H7gefO

[maddogfagin]

Ian Anderson continues move away from Jethro Tull
By John J. Moser,
Of The Morning Call
www.mcall.com/entertainment/music/mc-ian-anderson-sands-bethlehem-tull-20141024-story.html#page=1


Ian Anderson (MARTIN WEBB, COURTESY OF LEIGHTON MEDIA)

Ian Anderson has been a member of British prog-rock band Jethro Tull for nearly five decades.

He's written and sung the majority of the songs that fill the group's 21 studio discs, nine live albums and 15 compilations, which collectively have sold 15 million and produced such iconic songs as "Aqualung," "Living in the Past" and "Bungle in the Jungle."

Yet, in what Anderson calls his "twilight years" (he's 67), the vocalist is concerned that too few listeners know who he is.

So in April when Anderson released his newest batch of material, the album "Homo Erraticus," he did so under his own name as a solo album. That made it the fourth straight solo album since 1999, when Jethro Tull last released a full studio disc of original material.

Now that the singer is back out on tour — he comes to the Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Sunday — it's also under his own name.

Does that mean Jethro Tull has come to an end?

Anderson, in a phone call from his home in the United Kingdom during a short break from the tour, answers by saying, "I think we have to say, 'What is Jethro Tull?'"

"Jethro Tull is 28 musicians who, over a period of 46 years, have been members of the group. Jethro Tull has a vast repertoire of some 350 songs. It just doesn't come to an end, it goes on.

"But if we're talking about releasing albums simply under the name Jethro Tull or going out and doing tours simply under the name Jethro Tull, I rather feel that in my twilight years, I would like you to know my name, and a lot of people actually don't know my name. They think Jethro Tull is the guy who plays the flute, stands on one leg, jigs about the stage and sings the songs."

That doesn't in any way diminish "Homo Erraticus," which has gotten strong reviews — one critic called it "as close to 1970s progressive rock as is possible in 2014" — and become Anderson's highest-charting solo disc in the U.K.

The album follows the Jethro Tull concept-album template — it's a loose follow-up to Jethro Tull's 1972 chart-topping "Thick as a Brick" and Anderson's 2012 solo "Thick as a Brick 2." Like those discs, "Homo Erraticus" follows the life of fictional character Gerald Bostock.

Through 15 songs divided into three parts, the album weaves a tale of man as a creature forced by climate change in prehistoric times to be migratory, and who could face the same fate in the future.

Anderson explains how the first song he wrote for the disc, the opening "Doggerland," refers to a "low-lying, marshy land between northwestern Europe and what became the British Isles when sea levels rose at the end of the last Ice Age and cut off Britain from the rest of Europe."

In a 5 1/2-minute verbal treatise, Anderson references the Americas being cut off from Asia by the submerging of Beringia, the land bridge under the Bering Strait, and explains how climate change is again "driving a lot of migratory urges in certain parts of the world."

"As certain parts of the world become very difficult to support the populations they currently have, and to produce food and have stable social and economic environments … in the days to come you may find yourself knocking on the doors of those awfully nice Canadians, saying, 'Hey, let us in; it's too hot down here,'" he says.

Asked why he chose to make "Homo Erraticus" a concept album, Anderson says, "there were lots of times when I've written individual songs that are only, you know, 3 or 4 minutes long and they are little mini-themes themselves.

"But I suppose what I do feel is a general tendency to want to bring things together in some way. Not necessarily to always make them a concept album, but at least to bring things together under a common banner of musicality — of tonality, of instrumentation. And I try to give them some form, since we tend to work in blocks of 10 or 12 songs, traditionally, in terms of recording albums of music."

He again used the Gerald Bostock character because "an alter ego can have opinions and thoughts and ideas and express them in a way that I can't as an individual."

"I don't just want to write with my own emotions and viewpoints; I want to sometimes adopt other people's ideas and expression," he says.

"People in other walks of creative endeavor, artistic endeavor, we accept that they are not always doing things in an autobiographical kind of a way. … But somehow in pop and rock music, we assume that if somebody's singing in the first person, we assume they're talking about themselves."

Despite Anderson focusing on his solo career, he understands the value of the Jethro Tull brand.

While the show carries his name and he plays the new disc in its entirety, the concert also is subtitled "The Best of Jethro Tull," and he includes band hits such as "Thick as a Brick" and "Locomotive Breath."

Asked about that, Anderson says he not only wrote "nearly all the music, I also was a record producer and often the engineer. I played a fundamental role, obviously, from more or less the beginning onwards." He also notes that all members of his backing band have played as members of Jethro Tull.

"Maybe it's just vanity on my part, that I would just like you to know my name before I die."

With the band's 50th anniversary nearing, would Anderson consider doing a 50th anniversary tour — as classic bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and The Who have done — under the name Jethro Tull?

Anderson says he couldn't gather the most meaningful members of Jethro Tull for such a landmark tour. He says only one other classic-lineup member still performs. (He doesn't name him, but that is guitarist Martin Barre, who continues a solo career.)

"The others have all given up long ago, and don't or can't play their instruments any longer, and two of them actually are distinctly unwell right now," he says. "So that's an impossibility — if I was trying to pluck the most meaningful members as I see it, they're not available to do it."

So Anderson says he would "just would like to think that I could use my own name rather than simply hide behind a masquerade of a band name. So that I can leave just a bit more of a personal mark and you recognize the name on my passport rather than a stage name or a working identity."

And yet Jethro Tull is "an identity that, you can't just wipe it away," he says.

"People seem to have difficulty in grasping the nuance," he says. "They think either Jethro Tull must exist or it must not! But Jethro Tull goes on — of course it does. Life goes on, and so does Jethro Tull, if not simply in name. But in reality, the music carries on and I'm still there doing what I do."

[Deleted]

Oct 25, 2014 8:45:12 GMT maddogfagin said:

Ian Anderson continues move away from Jethro Tull
By John J. Moser,
Of The Morning Call
www.mcall.com/entertainment/music/mc-ian-anderson-sands-bethlehem-tull-20141024-story.html#page=1

Interviewing Ian Anderson: Solo tours, discs mean Jethro Tull to live on in music only
www.mcall.com/entertainment/lehigh-valley-music/mc-ian-anderson-says-solo-tours-discs-mean-jethro-tull-to-live-on-in-music-only-20141024-column.html#page=1

[maddogfagin]

Apologies if a re-post

Interview with Ian Anderson – at Lynn Auditorium Saturday
October 27, 2014 by Blake Maddux
lynnhappens.com/2014/10/27/interview-with-ian-anderson-at-lynn-auditorium-saturday/

In February 1968, MGM Records released a single called “Sunshine Day,” which they credited to the band Jethro Toe. Thankfully, the song did not become a massive hit. Otherwise, the British music magazine Melody Maker would have voted Jethro Toe the #2 band of the following year, smack dab in between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and with The Who suffocating in its wake. Jethro Toe would have also been the band that scored back-to-back chart-toppers in the United States with albums that each consisted of a continuous forty-something-minute song. And neither last nor least, Jethro Toe – quite possibly the most artistically and commercially successful progressive rock band of the 1970s – would have beaten out Metallica and AC/DC for the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Grammy. (Hey, a flute rocks pretty hard as a lead instrument, you know.)

Of course, it was the correctly named Jethro Tull that became arguably (but briefly) the most popular band in the world in the early 1970s. Spearheaded by singer and flautist Ian Anderson, the group named after an 18th century agriculturalist and inventor incorporated elements of blues, jazz, classical, rock, and folk into its heady prog-rock brew.

Despite a slew of personnel changes and diminishment as a commercial force, Jethro Tull continued to record and tour throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Since 2010, Ian Anderson has released two albums under his own name: Thick As A Brick 2, a sequel to the 1972 masterpiece that included lyrics that Anderson credited to a fictional 8-year-old boy named Gerald Bostock; and this year’s Homo Erraticus, which includes liner notes signed by the grown-up (and still made-up) Mr. Bostock.

Anderson’s current tour is divided into segments devoted to Homo Erraticus and the best of Jethro Tull. Those who fancy hearing what the former sounds like and what the latter includes should proceed to Lynn Auditorium on Saturday, November 1, where Anderson will be joined by bandmates Florian Opahle (electric guitar), Scott Hammond (drums), John O’Hara (keyboards), David Goodier (bass), and Ryan O’Donnell (vocals, theatrical input).

Lynn Happens recently spoke to Ian Anderson by phone about his music, his thoughts on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and whether or not he will be visiting an old colleague who lives in Marblehead.

Blake Maddux: Have you ever met or otherwise been made aware of anyone named Gerald Bostock?

Ian Anderson: Um, I don’t believe that I have, but there was a boy at our school called Bostock. That’s where I got the name from when I came to write Thick As A Brick. I remembered the name of one of our schoolboys from our school in the north of England, Bostock being a fairly common name in counties like Yorkshire in the north of England. So, that’s where the name came from.

Maddux: Does your opinion what constitutes “the best of Jethro Tull” differ from that of audiences?

Anderson: I think if you took, you know, 10 people in the audience and asked them to write their version of their 20 favorite songs of Jethro Tull, you would find some common ground. But you would probably end up with a top 100 not a top 20. People have their own ideas, and my job is to try and balance the heavy hitters and the iconic songs that people expect to hear and I, too, expect to play because I like doing them. But I also have to try and put in a few things that are a perhaps bit a bit more unusual from the back catalog, maybe things I haven’t played for many, many years, or perhaps even haven’t played at all live. So I try and mix it up a little bit and come up with what I think is a good balance. But to go out and campaign amongst the attention of the audience, you’d have to write a special computer program to make any sense of it. It would be so varied.

Maddux: Is there a difference between fans in Europe and fans in America on that question?

Anderson: Well, it varies a little bit. There are certain songs that I think were particularly popular in the U.S.A., like “Teacher” or “Bungle in the Jungle,” but weren’t necessarily so popular in Europe because their popularity in the U.S. was as a result of getting a lot of radio play. But in Europe we don’t really have radio play for rock music to any great extent.

If you went to Germany, you’d probably find the songs from the Broadsword [and the Beast] album in 1982 were very popular with the German audience but wouldn’t necessarily be popular with the U.S. audience because that album didn’t really resonate with our audience in the U.S.A. very much. So there are differences. I guess you’ll find to a fairly strong degree most people would generally be in agreement with, you know, the more obvious things. Of course audiences are different everywhere you go, but they’re not rabidly different.

Maddux: What do you think is the most underappreciated album that you have ever recorded?

Anderson: I suppose at the time the album A Passion Play was one that probably got a lot of notoriety and probably turned off a lot of fans who found it too detailed and confusing. But over the years it’s somehow regained its poise within the Jethro Tull repertoire and for a lot of people it’s their number one favorite Jethro Tull album these days. So, you know, things do come and go in terms of the perception of them in that historical sense. But, you know, there are albums that, I just mentioned one, Broadsword, which was a particularly successful album in Europe, but one that didn’t really click in the U.S.A. But the reason for that was to do with the change in radio broadcast formats at that point. A lot of the classic, what were then called AOR [album-oriented rock], stations changed their format, thought they needed to move with the times and started playing alternative 1980s rock. So probably Huey Lewis and Blondie, Billy Idol were getting lots of play but Jethro Tull wasn’t. And after two or three years, as you may know, things changed around again because, basically, that isn’t what a broad sway of the listening audience wanted, and things went back to the old regime. Stations went back to what became then referred to as the classic rock format, and Jethro Tull started getting played a lot again. In 1982, we were not getting much radio play, in 1986 we were getting a lot of radio play with the album Crest of a Knave, which won a Grammy. Not necessarily that we did anything particularly different, it was just the changing format of American radio. The failed experiment to try and ditch the music of the 70s and replace it with the music of 80s, but that isn’t what the public wanted, so most of those stations switched back to being the classic rock stations that we know today.

Maddux: Of which honor are you more proud: the Best Hard Rock/Metal Grammy or the induction into the National Association of Brick Distributors Hall of Fame in 1991?

Anderson: I’m afraid I’m not really one for awards. It’s always nice to be given a peer group award by people who are in the business, which, of course, applies to the Grammys. But it’s a bit like chart positions. I think there’s a terrible danger that people take it all too seriously and start to fret that they don’t see the conspicuous signs of success. Frankly, I know who I am and I know what I do, so I don’t really need to be reminded by hanging things on the wall that tell me what a clever chap I am. It just doesn’t really play a role in my life at all. Looking around the walls I don’t see anything that’s remotely of that sort of thing. It’s not that I disregard it or don’t take it seriously. It’s just that I don’t feel the need to have them on display or even really think about them. I could put several letters after my name if I wanted to be a bit pompous. You know, I could add Doctor of Literature twice, I could add MBE after my name, but of course I don’t because it would be seen as a bit pompous. It’s silly, really. But I know people who do have such awards, whether they’re honorary doctorates or Queen’s awards, and they actually do put them up after their name, and they’re very proud of it. That’s up to them to do, but I think I would feel a little silly if I did that.

Maddux: I take it, then, that you are not particularly keen on becoming a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Anderson: Well, I’m rather keen on not being in it because it is the American rock and roll hall of fame. It’s there, as far as I’m concerned to celebrate American music and American artists. It may include people who are heavily influenced by American music but aren’t American citizens. But I think Jethro Tull doesn’t really fit because we’re neither American citizens nor is the music we play – or most of the music that we’ve played since our first album – really influenced by American music, certainly no more so and much less so than classical music or folk music of European origin. So I don’t think we really qualify on any grounds to be in the American rock and roll hall of fame. I can think of a lot of American artists that ought to be celebrated in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame long before they scrape the bottom of the barrel to find Jethro Tull.

Maddux: Do you think that there are some best of-worthy numbers on Homo Erraticus?

Anderson: Well, I certainly hope so otherwise I wouldn’t dare release it, would I? It’s music that I’ve written, arranged, recorded, produced in the same ways I have all of the albums that have been released simply under the Jethro Tull banner. So to me it’s another day at the office. It’s what I do. (laughs) I don’t think it’s better or worse or indeed any different except that it’s not going out under the name Jethro Tull because I tend to use my own passport name most of the time these days when I’m doing performances.

Maddux: What is it like to work with Steven Wilson on both your new material and the remastering of the Jethro Tull back catalog?

Anderson: We have a good understanding of the way each other work after doing several albums together. Largely he can get on with things and the way he would do it is present everything in a kind of roughed-out format. I would listen to it all, make some comments, maybe go to the studio and sit with him for a few hours and we would change a few things, move a things around a little bit, and I’d leave him to it again and he’d send me some more stuff to listen to. It’s a well-worn pattern, so it’s just quite easy when you have a way of working with somebody that you can, you know, you can second-guess to some extent what the other person’s going to do or think. Having done several albums with Steven it’s just kind of easy for us both to work together and it doesn’t require a vast amount of input from me. But of course, ultimately he wants to make sure I’m happy with everything and so we do spend time together.

Maddux: Dave Mattacks, a former drummer for Jethro Tull, lives in Marblehead, a town not far from Lynn. Do you plan to see him?

Anderson: Well I haven’t been in touch with Dave Mattacks for a while. I do remember he turned up somewhere where we played, I think in Boston, at a concert a few years ago. It was good to see him and, as always, to hear what he’s been doing and what he’s up to. But, I doubt if the email address that I have for Dave Mattacks is one that still works. Like many people that I’ve worked with over the years, they pop up from time to time and it’s always good to see them. But I haven’t received any requests for tickets or passes or whatever from Dave Mattacks and I wouldn’t really know how to go about getting in touch with him if I did.

But, you know, we’re not there on vacation. As I say, it’s another day in the office. You come through my office door, it’s business only. I’ve got a full day schedule, so I’m not really there to hang out. People who enter my workspace, they better have a damn good reason to be there. I’m not there to, you know, have a little drinky or celebrate old times. We’re very, VERY busy from the load-in in the morning until the load-out at night, everybody is pretty much flat-out. No one has time to hang out with buddies, old or new. So it’s not a good time for meeting up with folks. My meet-and-greet responsibilities are usually with media people that I owe something to. One in a while there are some friends or family or people that crop up that I always feel very embarrassed or short-changed by the fact that I only have a couple of minutes to say hello, and that’s it.

Ian Anderson at Lynn Auditorium, Saturday November 1. Doors at 6:30 p.m., show at 8 p.m. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster ($47 – $87, plus fees), at the box office during City Hall business hours, or by calling (781) 599-SHOW.

[Deleted]

Oct 28, 2014 8:48:22 GMT maddogfagin said:

Apologies if a re-post

Interview with Ian Anderson – at Lynn Auditorium Saturday
October 27, 2014 by Blake Maddux
lynnhappens.com/2014/10/27/interview-with-ian-anderson-at-lynn-auditorium-saturday/

Thanks Graham
Posted to: Jethro Tull Appreciation Thread (part2) forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/jethro-tull-appreciation-thread-part2.253041/page-4

[maddogfagin]

SPACE STORIES IAN JIM FLUTE VIDEO H264
Uploaded on 22 Oct 2014 by Vanessa O'Brien

[Equus]

Oct 29, 2014 8:47:18 GMT maddogfagin said:

SPACE STORIES IAN JIM FLUTE VIDEO H264
Uploaded on 22 Oct 2014 by Vanessa O'Brien

Lots of interesting information in this interview! I especially noticed that Ian said that he was inspired by John F. Kennedys famous words, and here they are: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." The fact is that whenever we do things that we find to be easy, we are also doing something that we are good at, and therefore doing something that has a tendency, not to push us to the next level. Ian and the band have always worked in the area of: "This is really hard..." and therefore we see this ever evolving greatness of Ian Anderson and the musicians that he's working together with... Words can change the course of a lifetime... Well done Ian!

[maddogfagin]

An Interview with Ian Anderson: Art Ambassador
Robert Gluck, November 5, 2014
www.theaquarian.com/2014/11/05/an-interview-with-ian-anderson-art-ambassador/

I remember digging through my dad’s record collection and feeling overwhelmed at what was in front of me. There were so many classics sitting on the shelf in pristine condition. These weren’t just good records, they were ones that shaped our culture. The Doors, Dark Side Of The Moon, and so many more. I would get lost for hours, staring at the artwork, liner notes, and the old receipts included. I studied the gatefolds as if I was to be tested on what I had remembered. What was track three on side two of “American Beauty?” What year was Led Zeppelin II released? Who said the one line on “One Of These Days” on Pink Floyd’s Meddle? After, I would reward myself the only way I knew how. I would play each LP on the old Gerard turntable and Bose 901 speakers, and continue studying the liner notes and lyrics.

One album that really piqued my interest was Jethro Tull’s Stand Up. Not only did I enjoy hearing tracks like “Fat Man” and “Bourée,” but the pop-ups inside was such an interesting concept to me. It was more than your ordinary record, and I loved that about it. It’s easy to forget that the sleeve and gatefold do more than hold the music. Music is art, and the gatefold is included in the presentation of this art. As time went on, bands have been able to include more in the packaging and presentation of their work.

Jethro Tull’s lead singer and flutist, Ian Anderson, has built a legendary career with the Jethro Tull catalog, spanning four decades. This year, he has released his latest solo effort, Homo Erraticus, available on CD, 2x LP vinyl, and in a deluxe edition, including a hardback book and a making-of DVD. I recently had the opportunity to converse with Anderson about the new album. We discussed surround sound and lossless files, releasing music as a solo artist, and watching his son-in-law Andrew Lincoln, star of AMC’s The Walking Dead. Check out what Ian had to say below:

The new album, Homo Erraticus, came out in April and is available in several different formats, including 5.1 surround sound, 2 CD/2 DVD sets and 2x LP as well. There is talk in the industry of HD and lossless files being the future. What are your thoughts on the topic?

Without any compression, the high definition audio is the format that we have been using in the mastering sessions, one way or the other, probably since the mid-1980s. We are technically going back quite a long way with all of that stuff. Today’s customary 24-bit/96-kHz, which is 24-bit resolution, with either a 48 or 96 kHz sampling radius is superior to the CD and is exactly what we use to record the masters in the studio. It is at the limits to human hearing to detect anything of a higher resolution than that. You and I just won’t be able to hear it, even my dog would struggle to tell the difference (laughs). We actually don’t need to go any further. We are at the limits to where we would even benefit from an increase.

And that would solely pique the interest of audiophiles. The main goal for most would be the ease of access to the music.

Of course. The public want to listen on vinyl, good old-fashioned CD, or mp3 files for convenience. The latter are quick to download and easy to store on computers or cell phones. You aren’t going to go out and buy a new iPhone with 32 GB of memory and fill it up in a very short period of time with 24-bit audio or HD video. You would eat it up immediately. That is where we run into the problem, the storage and ease-of-use. So really, we have about five formats that we need to release in. Each one requires some changing, to not only on the technical audio side, but the way we package it and send it out to our audience. So there is at least five times as many days and hours spent on doing artwork and various visual and marketing formats to promote all of those different versions of the product.

You also created a wonderful 60-page book to include in the packaging of the collector’s edition of Homo Erraticus. That must have taken an immense amount of time to package and create as well.

Yes, and it does take a lot of time, and possibly even more time than it does writing and recording the album. We have to dedicate a lot of time to that postproduction work nowadays. It used to be the case where you would send off the album to the label and they would make the artwork in a couple of days and bang it out. You know, I wonder how many days it took to do the artwork for Bob Dylan’s first album, or The Beatles’ first album. Probably an afternoon, tops.

It definitely is a bit more complicated today in terms of presentation. You guys did a great job though with the collector’s edition.

Thank you. We aimed to present a more lavish version of the product with a coffee table book, something that would have a limited number produced and be a collector’s item. Hoping fans would connect with it, like how you might feel about your vinyl records. Something to keep on a bookshelf, and pick it up and take a gander at it every now and then. Something a little bit sexier than a cassette (laughs).

All of the available info and extra materials adds great value to Ian Anderson fans. Has releasing music under your own name and not Jethro Tull been a welcomed change?

Well, it may be sheer arrogance on my part, but I would like people to know my name in my latter years before I die. And so Jethro Tull at this point is 350 songs and 46 years in making music with a band comprised of 28 musicians apart from myself. I tend to relate the name Jethro Tull to the repertoire, and not the band. And right now, it is nice to have my name in the mix when it comes to billing, ticketing, and advertising.

From what I read, the live shows will be split into two parts. Is this correct?

Yes, we have two sets with a 15-minute intermission in the middle. For the first 35 minutes, we play the new record, Homo Erraticus. After intermission, we play for about an hour and 10 minutes of older Jethro Tull repertoire, loosely called, the Best of Jethro Tull.

How have the shows gone so far in promoting the new record?

The shows have been great. In the UK and some European dates, we played the new album in its entirety. For the U.S., we cut it down some to make more room for the “Best Of” part of the show. It works well because they get a nice taste of the new stuff, and the rest of the show is some of the favorite Jethro Tull material.

Your son-in-law is Andrew Lincoln, who portrays Officer Rick Grimes on the critically acclaimed AMC show, The Walking Dead. Do you watch the show or discuss it at all with Andrew?

I tried to watch it two nights ago when they had the season premiere. Unfortunately, I can’t deal with all of the breaks in ads, so I figured I would record it. Sadly, the recording failed. I set it up to record the rest of the season while I am away in the U.S. I have to keep my fingers crossed that when I return home, all of the other episodes will be there for me to watch. I have been following it from the very beginning, when my son-in-law came into the kitchen clutching a comic book and asking if I had heard of it. He had been asked to do a reading for a tv series and he had wanted the opportunity to work with the renowned writer/director Frank Darabont.

I said that it looked rather scary and gory and is that the kind of thing he had wanted to do in his career. It is a big job to maintain all of that action. Andy ended up doing a Skype audition with him, and a couple of days later they told him to get on a plane. In a week, he was set to start filming season one. He still works extensively to try and maintain that Georgian accent.

The Walking Dead is in about 150 countries around the world and has adopted many, many languages. It serves as not only an icon of entertainment, but it can win hearts and minds alike. I actually have a couple references to The Walking Dead and other examples of American film and culture which seemed appropriate. It was a way for me to pay homage to what we produce, our contribution, which is the great elements of art and entertainment.

Ian Anderson will play at Circus Maximus in Caesars Atlantic City on Nov. 7, The Paramount in Huntington, NY on Nov. 8, the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ on Nov. 9, and the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ on Nov. 10. Homo Erraticus is available now. For more information, go to jethrotull.com.

[maddogfagin]

www.abc.net.au

JETHRO TULL'S FLAUTIST IAN ANDERSON

Saturday, November 15, 2014
by Mark Sutton and Ian Anderson

Mark speaks with the flute-playing Jethro Tull frontman himself - Ian Anderson. Anderson reflects on his long career in music and how his inspirations have changed over the years.

Download as MP3 here

[maddogfagin]

Ian Anderson, a Wandering Man
Posted on November 14, 2014 by Jen Cunningham
www.rebeatmag.com/ian-anderson-a-wandering-man/

More and more I am starting to suspect that Ian Anderson is actually the Doctor. Yes, as in Doctor Who. And yes, I mean the lead singer, songwriter, and flautist of Jethro Tull. (No, I don’t mean the 18th-century agriculturalist.)

Now hold on, hear me out. His music seems to jump through time, he’s privy to wear interesting clothes that certainly don’t seem to fit the current chic, he’s got a bit of a madman flare, his lyrics often question humanity, and tell me he wouldn’t be the kind of person to travel in an antiquated police box.

Okay, okay. I’m being silly. But this legend of prog rock might as well be a time-traveler given the breadth of sounds he’s explored since Jethro Tull’s humble beginnings in the late-1960s. His music has touched on jazz and blues, classical and medieval, hard rock and once or twice bordered on psychedelia, and even pop. So maybe he’s not actually a time lord, but that doesn’t make him any less interesting.

This past Sunday I ventured to the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ, to see Mr. Anderson perform on his world tour, which both promoted his latest solo album, Homo Erraticus, as well as showcased his large body of work with Jethro Tull. Fans may wonder why the band was not billed under the Tull moniker; after all, it’s undergone so many lineup changes that there doesn’t seem to be a problem with carrying on the name with new personnel backing Anderson. The liner notes to Homo Erraticus explain Anderson’s mode of thinking:

Is this a Jethro Tull or an Ian Anderson album, I hear you whisper? Well, to many observers it is both one and the same. In all but name…But I think I prefer, in my twilight years, to use my own name for the most part, being composer of virtually all Tull songs and music since 1968. After all, being named after a real-life historical character of no little importance is a bit weird, to say the least…I think it might now be time to use the name Jethro Tull as reference to the repertoire rather than the man or the band.
And of course, he is right. I found that I was not disappointed that the show was billed under his name; it doesn’t retract from the songs, or his performance. The faces are new, but the spirit is still there.

On this tour, Anderson is joined by Florian Opahle on Electric guitar, Scott Hammond on drums, David Goodier on bass, John O’Hara on keyboards, and on secondary vocals as well as supplying some theatrical fun is singer and actor Ryan O’Donnell. O’Donnell in particular can not only nearly mimic at times Anderson’s voice “back in the day,” but seems to serve as a kind of youthful shadow of Anderson’s Tull-persona. A somewhat black-humored look at aging, but effective all the same.

The first half of the show featured a selection of songs off Anderson’s latest release; he playfully remarked afterwards that many members of the audience coincidentally seemed to arrive late, missing the new material. And it’s a shame, too, as Homo Erraticus is just as inspired as any previous Tull record or any progressive rock album in general.Ian_Anderson_Homo_Erraticus_Packshot_Web

Released back in April, Erraticus is unsurprisingly and unapologetically a concept album, a story within a story translated into music. If you’re confused, I suggest you buy the album and read the liner notes which reveal the entire premise, but I will say that this album revives the life, once again, of a certain Gerald Bostock, who first “collaborated” with Jethro Tull on 1972’s Thick as a Brick and Anderson’s 2012 sequel. The performance of this album Sunday night was note-perfect to the album; not only does this demonstrate the tightness of the band Anderson is currently playing with, but the quality of the album’s production. The stage was transformed into both a traditional concert as well as a something akin to a pantomime. Together with projected background videos, Anderson and his bandmates not only performed the selection of Erraticus, but acted it out as well. (The videos featured in the show are also available on a special DVD included with the Tour Edition of the album.)

The second half of the show featured a creative back and forth leap through the Tull discography, employing some background visuals such as a scrolling date as we jumped with Anderson through time to various songs from his career. (See, I still think he could be the Doctor.) Again, the band is so well-rehearsed that we can even see Anderson singing along with old footage of himself from his youthful days in perfect sync.

In a phone interview with Ian Anderson at the end of October, he explained the basic concept of Homo Erraticus as well as discussing his career.

REBEAT: I’ve been listening to your new album and I really love the way it’s structured, how it’s a story within a story within within a story. Could you talk more about that?
Ian Anderson: Well it’s a story within a story within within a story. It started off with a simple conceptual notion of looking at different examples of migration over the past 10,000 years since the last Ice Age. It’s the story, of course, of which [The United States] is made and my country and all of Europe and most of the civilized world since our ancestors first left Africa some 65,000 years ago being driven by climate change, the thing we read about in the paper constantly being provoked to argue over by climate change deniers and doom-laden soothsayers who proclaim the end of the world as we know it. Somewhere down the middle is probably the true reality. Migration, of course, continued right across the planet, the sense of humans having to move to places to survive and grow food and find work. It’s a political hot potato in most countries of the western world including yours, but even moreso in Europe where we already have a huge amount of unrestrained and morally and ethically difficult migration issues to deal with.

[In Homo Erraticus] I’m talking about little snaps through history illustrating that idea of people going from somewhere to somewhere else and after all this doing it perhaps initially kindly, in many cases leaving behind some positive benefits and lasting examples of the goodness and cleverness of our species, but I also talk about migration in the non-human sense, of ideas, the migration of aesthetics, of art and entertainment and culture, of science of engineering, of commerce and industry. Some of the lyrics touch upon those other forms of migration which were in your country. In mine, we’re very good at doing it. We don’t have a great track record of putting men on the ground with boots and guns, but when it comes to sending our arts and entertainment around the planet, we achieve. We dominate other countries extraordinarily well through movies, through television, and of course, in my case, through music. In the case of my son-in-law [actor Andrew Lincoln], through the 150 countries that subscribe to AMC’s The Walking Dead. You know, we’re very good at getting out there across the planet and making our emotions and our ideas and our personalities felt in a more benign way than by trying to invade with bombs and guns.

Would you consider your career from the beginning a migration until you could make a name for yourself? Is your career your own migration?

Well, it does form a very real physical reality of migrating, in my case, the short distance from the north of England to the south of England. We knew to have a successful musical career based in the north of England wasn’t going to be very easy, we knew we had to go down to London to make it. So at the age of 20, I set off in a very cold winter of 1967 with only a harmonica and a flute that I couldn’t yet play to try and seek my musical fame and fortune in London. And against all the odds, lucky enough to succeed within three or four months; things had started to look up. The little band that I was a part of became known as Jethro Tull, and we got a residency at the Marquee Club. Within a year, we were traveling abroad to other countries and by the middle of ’69 we were out there in the USA on our first tours.

I think of the image you had when you first started of this vagabond kind of character, and throughout your career, the costumes in your performances changed and migrated. Do you think the migration of your entire career is reflected in Homo Erraticus? Do you think it connects?
Well, I think most things do connect; it would be a shame if they didn’t. I rather like the idea that there is a logical and organic growth in the way that people as individuals develop in terms of personality and the way their lives develop, perhaps professionally. Indeed, my stage attire when I first started playing, I believe, was thought to be that of a homeless person, someone living in the streets, rough. A shabby old coat, unkempt hair, and things weren’t quite as bad as that, but it is true that in the first few weeks of moving south in that very cold winter I had to sleep in that coat and work in that coat. It was an absolute necessity. It became something of a talisman, that old overcoat that my father gave me when I left town and that stayed with me until one of the US tours — I’m not sure which one — in 1969 when we were supporting Led Zeppelin. Unfortunately, it disappeared, I think, backstage at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, and I never saw it again.

I feel like that happens a lot in the music business, things tend to disappear.
Actually, in all of 46 years of being on tour, we’ve had remarkably few thefts from dressing rooms. We did learn very early on that we had to request the keys for our dressing rooms and keep them locked at all times so everybody’s pretty used to locking everything up all the time these days. The buses lock, the truck is locked, the dressing rooms in venues are locked, we make sure our hotel rooms are locked and we don’t leave stuff lying around. But you know, I guess we’ve probably all had one thing stolen somewhere along the line. And of course it might seem like an insignificant thing, you can go out and buy a new coat, but this was a coat my father gave me. It was an emotional blow to lose it. But the loss of other things, you can replace. I’ve had a flute stolen. Martin Barre had his mandolin stolen. These are things that you can go out and replace.

People often talk about the instrumentation, your use of the flute, or just the lyrics in your music. But your voice has had enormous shifts throughout your career. You started out with a very bluesy, raspy voice, and you’ve had melodic moments as well. When you got to around Heavy Horses and Songs From the Woods, you have a very gruff voice. In your new album, it’s gentler. Do you do this deliberately? Do you think about how your voice is going to sound for the album, or does it just come naturally based on the music?

I was not born with the equipment of Robert Plant or Lou Gramm of Foreigner or any of the great rock ‘n’ roll singers. I’m not really naturally a singer. I found it very difficult and I was always very self-conscious about singing. But it was something that I tried to do as I suppose most of us do early on, we try to imitate other people. So when I was in my teenage years, I suppose listening to the blues and jazz, I sang with a fake American accent, which is what we thought we had to do. But it dawned on me by the time I was a professional musician and making records that this was really rather silly. It wasn’t my voice; it wasn’t reflective of my origins. And whilst other British rock stars like Elton John and Mick Jagger affected these quite absurd American twangs totally unlike their speaking voices, I tried to tame that approach. While still using rather blunter vowel sounds I tried to avoid it sounding obviously like imitating American regional accents. And probably through my career and perhaps through the career of David Bowie, for example, we’ve tried not to fall into that trap.

We just accept that we speak in one voice and then we adopt the accent of a country 3,000 miles away. I mean, it’s completely blatantly absurd, as indeed, it would be so absurd if Iggy Pop sang with a fake cockney accent. He would be laughed off the stage, wouldn’t he? And quite rightly, too. We love Iggy and all the American rock ‘n’ roll heroes because they really sound like the real deal. They have authenticity, they sound like they really belong to the world that they sing about and their country of origin. But somehow you guys seem to accept such absurd insults as this skinny kid with the short legs from South London singing in a fake Southern American accent. His name is Mick Jagger. He should be laughed off the stage as well because the stupid way he sings really is ridiculous. I remember when I first heard the Rolling Stones thinking they were really quite a good group, but the singer’s voice was such a silly voice. It sounded like a really bad attempt to imitate something completely wrong. There are professionals who do it for a living. My son-in-law has to play a Georgian cop, so he has to has to have a Southern American accent. He has a voice coach standing next to him in every scene he’s in.


Aqualung-era Jethro Tull.

I don’t really understand why singers from Europe, not just British, but singers singing in American accents whose origins are from Sweden or Germany adopt these fake American accents. I’ve spoken to some who tell me, “Oh, if you were to hear my German accent when I sing in English my friends would laugh at me.” And I said, “Well, then get some new friends, because frankly, I would rather hear in your English-language singing that you’re from Germany or France or Italy or Spain or Sweden, or wherever.” That’s part of the charm. I want to know where you’re from. I want to know it’s you singing the song, not you pretending that you come from the Midwest of the USA.

Anyway, these are all things that are part and parcel in shaping the way that you develop as a singer, or at least the way I did. I try to work within the limitations that I have. I’m not a great, born talent as a singer, I just used the tools of my trade the best that I can. I sharpen the swords, I keep the heads of my screwdrivers well-presented because I have to do what I do every night, so I do a certain amount of rehearsal and practice. At the age of 67, obviously things get more difficult than they were when you’re 27. We work with what we can.

Before we go, I wanted to ask you about your work with the producer of the Wombles. [For our non-British readers, the Wombles are a group of fictional, furry creatures originally from a children's book series and later a '70s TV series. From the show, the Wombles became a music group of sorts, putting out pop songs in the UK.]
He’s a chap called Mike Batt. Today, he’s made quite a few successful pop records as a producer and even as a performer in his brief career dressed in a Wombles suit. Probably these days he’s more famous for being the manager and producer of Katie Melua who’s a hugely successful female singer/songwriter in Europe. Mike Batt has long been associated with producing mainly, but also writing music and songs for his artists and for himself. He’s a guy who’s thought of as being a little bit pop-oriented; he doesn’t really have any street cred whatsoever. The record company asked us to work with him to try to turn one of my songs into a Top 10 hit, but when they heard the end result, they didn’t like it very much and released the version that I’d already recorded both on the album and as the single. The song “Ring Out, Solstice Bells” became a late entry into the Christmas Top 20 charts in the UK.

That’s a beautiful song.
Well, thank you very much.



Returning to the concert, I reflected on Anderson’s thoughts on his own abilities, vocal or otherwise. Has Anderson still got it at 67? Amazingly so. Hairline notwithstanding, Anderson is just as animated on stage now as he ever was in the past. He breathes life into his music through his gleeful and sometimes manic facial expressions and his energetic prancing about the stage. He can still balance, perfectly poised, on one leg in his signature stance better than I can in any of my few failed attempts at yoga. And of course, the old sod is still as cheeky as ever with his suggestive flute handling. There were mutterings about the crowd afterwards, I noticed, questioning the employment of O’Donnell’s joint vocals on many of the songs and the quality of Anderson’s own singing, but I find the choice to bring in a second voice helpful. It maintains the integrity of the music and demonstrates that Anderson, as he said himself, can identify his own limitations. It hasn’t stopped him from making new music and performing and that, I believe, deserves complete respect.

Set List: Ian Anderson, Red Bank, NJ (11/9/14)

From Homo Erraticus

“Doggerland”
“Enter the Uninvited”
“Puer Ferox Adventus”
“The Engineer”
“Tripudium Ad Bellum”
“The Browning of the Green”
“Cold Dead Reckoning”

The Best of Jethro Tull

“Bourée”
“Thick as a Brick”
“Living in the Past”
“With You There to Help Me”
“Sweet Dream”
“Teacher”
“Critique Oblique”
“Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die”
“Songs from the Wood”
“Farm on the Freeway”
“Aqualung”
Encore: “Locomotive Breath”

[maddogfagin]

dwdunphy.tumblr.com/post/102913285276/interview-with-ian-anderson

Interesting interview with IA from a few years back which the author D W Dunphy has reposted from the original site that has now "disappeared" from the internet.

[bassackwards]

Nov 18, 2014 14:35:19 GMT maddogfagin said:

dwdunphy.tumblr.com/post/102913285276/interview-with-ian-anderson

Interesting interview with IA from a few years back which the author D W Dunphy has reposted from the original site that has now "disappeared" from the internet.

Thanks mad dog. That might be the most interesting interview I've read of Ian inquite a long time.

[maddogfagin]

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull
Originally aired on Afternoons, Thursday 20 November 2014
www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/20158035/ian-anderson-of-jethro-tull


Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, 2007 CC BY SA 2.0 Craig ONeal.

MP3 download here