Jethro Tull are legendary.
People obsess over them …
Well, people of a certain age group obsess over them.
I must admit general ignorance of them.
General …
I have their “Greatest Hits Volume One” and I have their 1980 album “A”, which I bought when it came out and which I love (loved).
Odd?
A story …
On the holidays, as a very young teen (or late pre-teen), I’d hang out with my Aunt’s (who lived one street over from me) nephew, from her side of the family, when he came up, yearly, to Brisbane from Wollongong. When he was up we would go record shopping. Clearly Wollongong was limited in the record store stakes. On one occasion I recall us going into town (as the Brisbane CBD was referred to then) and him wanting to buy Kiss’ “Double Platinum” (from where I don’t recall but I think it was a “Chandlers” chain store). He didn’t have enough money even with his bus money added to the pile (it is a double album). So I gave him my money, not enough, my bus money, enough, he bought the album and we walked home. Luckily, living in an inner city working class suburb, as it was then, we didn’t have far to go. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen year olds regularly, and innocently, roamed the streets, so we weren’t out of place. The story of course, is still recounted by the uncles and aunts … nutty kids spending all their money on music and walking home.
And I wasn’t even into Kiss.
I’ve gone off on a tangent.
My aunt’s nephew was a couple of years older than me, a Chilean migrant who seemed to know a lot more about contemporary music than me. I thought Elvis and Chuck Berry were contemporary in the mid to late 1970s. Well they were, but they weren’t the same sort of “contemporary”. So I listened to his Kiss, Peter Frampton, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin (I think) records (clearly he wasn’t into “new wave”), and on his recommendation I bought Jethro Tull (and this is long, convoluted and not particularly interesting “background” which I have mentioned in another comment on a Jethro Tull album on this blog).
“A” (1980) had just been released and I bought it … on cassette which was the latest musical format rage (though I since bought the vinyl, and now cassettes seem to be coming back in …).
It is not regarded as one of Jethro Tull’s best albums, or even perhaps, a good one, but, I loved it. I played it incessantly and at one stage I am sure I knew all the words to the songs.
It is that time in your life where certain things will have an effect on you regardless of their worth to the larger world.
My affection for Jethro Tull never progressed from there … an ongoing Elvis fascination, a discovery of the Kinks, American indie music and the new wave put them on the backburner.
Needless to say, like a lot of popular 70s album orientated acts their vinyl ended up in op shops and, needless to say, I have bought a few.
Now is the time to give them a listen …
Better late than never?
Allmusic, “Jethro Tull were a unique phenomenon in popular music history. Their mix of hard rock, folk melodies, blues licks, surreal, impossibly dense lyrics, and overall profundity defied easy analysis, but that didn’t dissuade fans from giving them 11 gold and five platinum albums. At the same time, critics rarely took them seriously, and they were off the cutting-edge of popular music by the end of the ’70s. But no record store in the country would want to be without multiple copies of each of their most popular albums (Benefit, Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, Living in the Past), or their various best-of compilations, and few would knowingly ignore their newer releases”. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jethro-tull-mn0000850692/biography
Jethro Tull have been described by Rolling Stone as “one of the most commercially successful and eccentric progressive rock bands” which is a worry as I thought I hated progressive rock …
In my defence they aren’t strictly progressive in style, and had their roots in the UK blues boom …
Background, Allmusic, “Tull had their roots in the British blues boom of the late ’60s. Anderson (b. Aug. 10, 1947, Edinburgh, Scotland) had moved to Blackpool when he was 12. His first band was called the Blades, named after James Bond’s club, with Michael Stephens on guitar, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond (b. July 30, 1946) on bass, and John Evans (b. Mar. 28, 1948) on drums, playing a mix of jazzy blues and soulful dance music on the Northern club circuit. In 1965, they changed their name to the John Evan Band (Evan having dropped the “s” in his name at Hammond‘s suggestion) and later the John Evan Smash. By the end of 1967, Glenn Cornick (b. Apr. 24, 1947, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England) had replaced Hammond-Hammond on bass. The group moved to Luton in order to be closer to London, the center of the British blues boom, and the band began to fall apart when Anderson and Cornick met guitarist/singer Mick Abrahams (b. Apr. 7, 1943, Luton, Bedfordshire, England) and drummer Clive Bunker (b. Dec. 12, 1946), who had previously played together in the Toggery Five and were now members of a local blues band called McGregor’s Engine … In December of 1967, the four of them agreed to form a new group”.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jethro-tull-mn0000850692/biography
They have distinct periods of music which leached into other and cross referenced future and past periods … blues rock (1967-1970), progressive rock (1971–1976) hard folk rock (1977–1979), electronic rock (1980–1984), hard rock (1987–1994), world music influences and traditional (1995–now). This is part of their joy … they seem to be marching to the beat of their own drum and this is more often than not a good thing. There has been a lot of stinkers and some laughs amongst the strained seriousness but there has been some great tunes.
The band continued to release singles and albums with the albums, especially, consolidating their success on both sides of the Atlantic.
Their great run started in the early 1970s, in the US, with a string of hit albums “Aqualung” (1971) #7, “Thick as a Brick” (1972) #1, “A Passion Play” (1973) #1, “War Child” (1974) #2, “Minstrel in the Gallery” (1975) #7, “Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!” (1976) #14, “Songs from the Wood” (1977) #8.
Having lasted into the late ’70s, Jethro Tull now found themselves competing in a new more (healthily) cynical musical environment. Their old fans grew old (and they tended to be older to start off with – post teens) and slowed down or stopped their record buying, whilst the new shoppers became fixated on the growing punk rock phenomenon.
Accordingly, from 1977 they gradually fell out of the mainstream public consciousness (even though they had some late Top 40s) as the mainstream was replaced by younger generations of musicians.
But here, they are on the cusp of international stardom.
This album was their first international success, and, especially significant is the US, given the size of that market.
This success is odd, perhaps, given the music is a distinctly English (thematic) take on US rock ‘n’ roll. US folkies had flirted, as part of their anthropological folk concerns, with English folk music but adapting it to rock was an exclusively English thing of the late 1960s.
Their thematic concerns were part ye olde England (the Kinks circa “Village Green Preservation Society”), part dancing pixie mystical (Shawn Phillips (an American in England), Donovan), and part religious (Jesus Christ Superstar).
It was “head” lyrics way back when though the feel of pure geek with an earthbound JR. Tolkien on a tour of England hanging out with whores, street people, bums, as well as schoolboys, nurses and bishops, is never far away.
People pontificate over the lyrics and always seem to be amused about how it would have offended the sensibilities of the time. If the “sensitive” people bothered to listen, I suspect they would have found the lyrics either obscure or overpowered by the music and emotive diction to be understood, and offended.
Musically, the album is a vivid summation of its times. Despite it being praised (rightly perhaps), its parts are all found in other bands 1968 -1971:
- art rock – Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Frank Zappa, Procul Harum, The Moody Blues
- progressive psychedelica – King Crimson, Pink Floyd,
- electric blues – Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie, Spooky Tooth
- hard rock – Black Sabbath, Uriah Heap Alice Cooper
- English folk – Fairport Convention, Barclay James Harvest, Lindisfarne, The Incredible String Band, Fotheringay, Pentangle, The Strawbs, Steeleye Span
- Jazz fusion – Nucleus, If, Nektar, Colosseum
Jethro Tull weren’t creating anything new so much as accumulating, reassembling and communicating their influences which is something as old as music itself.
This is not criticism, this is the zeitgeist they were travelling in, and I should say, it’s a two way street as Jethro Tull had impact on some of these “other” bands also.
The music is all done so well with enough originality that it’s hard not to be entertained despite the profusion of “profound” and “serious” issues (two words used a lot when it comes to this album) dealt with in a profound and serious way.
A bit of Dylan-esque humour (at their own position within the music world) would have made it even better.
There are still “heads” out there who consider this to be profound but there are some laughs here.
Especially after watching Ron Burgundy’s jazz flute show at Tino’s club … google it.
Some have called this a concept album though it’s not and Ian Anderson has said as much. There really was no full concept to this album. There are definite themes running through the separate sides (the sides are named after their title songs “Aqualung” and “My God”), but the central narrator character, if there is one, on the first side, is gone by the end of the side, and replaced by general rants against the Church of England.
The album has been said to be pro-God but anti-organised religion and this was a familiar theme in the 1970s as anti-church rhetoric was increasing in volume.
And I have no problem with the specifically anti-Church of England rhetoric … being a Catholic.
All songs by lead singer Ian Anderson unless noted.
Tracks (best in italics)
Side One
- Aqualung – (Ian Anderson, Jennie Anderson) – The song was written by the band’s front man, Ian Anderson, and his then-wife Jennie Franks. A great song and later Pink Floyd I think owes a little to this. It starts of pretentious and silly at (perhaps) ends that way but it works out a great memorable groove in between ends it is hard to dislike. Actually it is excellent, and, there is no flute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqualung_(song)
- Cross-Eyed Mary – Ian’s flute goes off and there is even a flute vs guitar duel of sorts. It’s a hoot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-Eyed_Mary
- Cheap Day Return – a mid tempo ballad. Very tender and quite beautiful.
- Mother Goose – a mostly acoustic song in the “Elizabethan madrigal” musical style. Again, quite beautiful and a bit like Shawn Phillips. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Goose_(song)
- Wond’ring Aloud – Piano and sensitive lyrics this comes across like the Left Banke on holidays in England. Still, it is quite good.
- Up to Me – a jaunt.
Side Two
- My God – the serious anti-religious song with some Black Sabbath influence, if they had a flute player.
- Hymn 43 – Quite powerful. “Ian Anderson described the song as “a blues for Jesus, about the gory, glory seekers who use his name as an excuse for a lot of unsavoury things. You know, ‘Hey Dad, it’s not my fault — the missionaries lied.'” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymn_43
- Slipstream – a gentle short ballad
- Locomotive Breath – apparently this is about overpopulation. It’s a magnificent progressive blues thumper. It neatly uses a blues trope, a train, to punctuate the theme of the song https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotive_Breath
- Wind-Up – a pro-God and anti-organized religion song (I think) which starts as a ballad and ends as a shouter. I could google the lyrics but …
And …
I’m not sure I could play this for (some of) my peers, well not straight-faced, but this is good, very good … I’m keeping it.
Chart Action
US
Singles
1971 Hymn 43 #91
Album
1971 #7
England
Singles
nothing
Album
1971 #4
Also:
1971 Australian Albums #3
1971 Danish Albums #3
1971 Canadian Albums #5
1971 German Albums #5
1971 Italian Albums #2
1971 Norwegian Albums #3
Various music magazine (aka wanker) accolades:
- Classic Rock (UK) The 100 Greatest Rock Albums of All Time 2001
- Rolling Stone (US) 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 2003
- Q (UK) 40 Cosmic Rock Albums 2005
- 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (US) 2005
Sounds
Aqualung
Live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCMS-NJ7VxU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ZZ8QnUFVM
mp3 attached (my vinyl with its crackle and pop is better than this clean digital to y ears but convenience is everything … so you get the digital)
Cross-Eyed Mary
live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLL31o2iu44
Cheap Day Return
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DBa07sTqJA
Mother Goose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27SB-2nLO6M
Wond’ring Aloud
live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lRUCdvy6dw
Up to Me
live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5GDEOrSraw
My God
Live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwMiXBcGPgw
Hymn 43
Live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amhUURR6y2o
Slipstream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Tne209Au4
Locomotive Breath
Live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSUdlUmtg3Q
Wind-Up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNQxv0E4q1s
Others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0GAuexrVzo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTWI0TvnfQ8
Full concert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cr5PjgOT8c
Review
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqualung_(Jethro_Tull_album)
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/aqualung-189561/
https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/album-of-the-week-club-review-jethro-tull-aqualung
https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/73062/Jethro-Tull-Aqualung/
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/jethro-tull-aqualung-40th-anniversary-edition-album-review/
http://www.classicrockreview.com/2011/01/1971-jethro-tull-aqualung/
https://americansongwriter.com/2012/01/jethro-tull-aqualung-40th-anniversary-edition/
and there are many, many other reviews – you can google
Bio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_Tull_(band)
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jethro-tull-mn0000850692/biography
Website
https://www.facebook.com/aqualungmygodjethrotullblog/
Trivia
- The album’s original cover art by American artists Burton Silverman.
- Oddly, like the Kinks and Led Zeppelin their 70s albums sold more in the US than in their homeland. What I mean by sold more is that the US market is a bigger, harder market an album that reaches #40 there is the equivalent to a Top 10 in the UK (there are exceptions, I’m talking in generalities) that’s why UK acts are looking for that chart success in the US. Yes, yes I know there are more people in the US etc etc …
