Jethro Tull excellent deluxe reissues continue with a 40th anniversary five-disc edition of 1977’s Songs From The Wood due to be released next month. After a couple of albums recorded in Monaco, JethroTull returned to Morgan Studios in London to cut their tenth studio set, “Songs From The Wood”. The comforts of home brought out the best in the band, and frontman Ian Anderson had a new country estate – and a book of British folklore given to him by the group’s manager – to inspire lyrics rooted in England’s past. While progressive and hard rock elements remain, acoustic and folk-based music plays a stronger role on the 1977 collection, highlighted by such songs as “Ring Out, Solstice Bells,” “TheWhistler” and the title track. Masterfully performed and skillfully arranged, “Songs From The Wood” made the Top 10 in the U.S., and it remains a favourite among band members and Tull fans.
This celebration of Jethro Tull’s tenth album follows a similar pattern to previous reissues, with the first disc containing a Steven Wilson remix followed by some ‘associated recordings’ including the previously unreleased Old Aces Die Hard and Working John, Working Joe.
CDs two and three offer 22 track live tracks, recorded on the Songs From The Wood Tour across two American dates, (Boston on 6th December 1977 and Maryland on 21st November 1977). These unheard tracks have been remixed to stereo by Jakko Jakszyk and are completely unheard.
There are two DVDs in this set. The first contains a 5.1 surround sound mix (DTS and Dolby 5.1) and 96/24 LPCM stereo versions of the both the original and Steven Wilson remixed version of Songs From The Wood. This DVD also features selected associated tracks, as well as various quad mixes and flat transfers.
The other DVD contains video footage from that Maryland gig of 21st November 1977. These visuals apparently come directly from the film that was played on the big screens in the venue and has never been seen since! The audio has been mixed to stereo and 5.1.
As before this is presented as a ‘bookset’ and has 96-pages of writing on the album including a track-by-track annotation of the album and associated recordings by Ian Anderson.
This five-disc deluxe edition of Songs From The Wood will be released on 19th May 2017 with vinyl and standalone CD versions to follow in July. Great value as usual – as well as the links below it’s available fromBurning Shed for less than £20.
This week in 1972: Jethro Tull started a two-week run at the top of the US albums chart with their 5th studio release, ‘Thick As A Brick’, on Reprise Records it was arguably the first rock album to feature one song for an entire album (the 44-minute-long title track); while musically ambitious & successful on its own merits, it was originally intended as a parody of the ‘concept’ album genre – the original packaging, designed like a newspaper, claimed the album to be a musical adaptation of an epic poem by the (fictional) eight-year-old ‘Gerald Bostock’ (though the lyrics were actually written by the band’s front man, Ian Anderson); in 2012, Ian Anderson released a follow-up album, ‘Thick As A Brick 2: Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock?’, that examined various potential scenarios of Gerald’s adult life…
In 1971, Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson set out with tongue-in-cheek to make “the mother of all concept albums”. With Thick As A Brick, he ended up fulfilling his ambition.
It might seem a little odd to mention the influential British comedy troupe Monty Python as we begin a journey through the story of the groundbreaking album Thick As A Brick. But Jethro Tull mainman Ian Anderson believed there’s a common thread.
“Monty Python lampooned the British way of life,” says Anderson. “Yet did it in such a way that made us all laugh while celebrating it. To me, that’s what we as a band did on Thick As A Brick. We were spoofing the idea of the concept album, but in a fun way that didn’t totally mock it.”
It’s often been said that the seeds for 1972’s Thick As A Brick (It was the band’s fifth album) were sown when its predecessor, ’71’s Aqualung, was wrongly perceived as a fully-blown conceptual piece. Myth has it that Anderson was angry about this misconception.
“Not angry, no,” explains the man nearly four decades on. “I was actually mildly irritated and wryly amused. However much I insisted that “Aqualung” wasn’t a concept album, the media still persisted in treating it as such. They seemed to believe the whole record was a major religious story. The truth was that three or four songs were linked by questioning the nature of religion. But the rest were stand-alone tracks. So, after this whole scenario, I thought, ‘OK, we’ll not only now do a real concept album, but we’re going to make it the mother of all concept albums!’.”
Adding to this determination was Anderson’s belief that progressive rock had become a touch too self important, needing to be pulled down a peg or two from its Olympian pretensions.
“When progressive rock started out, it was all about bands such as ourselves moving beyond merely being influenced by American blues. We stopped trying to be the next Fleetwood Mac or Chicken Shack – in other words, derivative of Elmore James – and began to take on board so many diverse musical ideas. It was exciting and dynamic. But, by the time the 1970s had begun, bands like ELP were a little up their own arses. Everything was too serious and overblown. So, we set out with Thick As A Brick to show up this side of the genre.”
The centrepiece of the album was a poem, ostensibly written by 12-year-old Gerald Bostock. However, this is a totally fictitious character, created by Anderson himself. Despite attempts over the years to uncover the true identity of the poet, the truth is that ‘Bostock’ has no connection to anyone from Anderson’s past. However, we can reveal that the poem itself does draw from the man’s childhood.
“Yes, there’s an autobiographical element in what I wrote. As a child, I was a bit of a rebel. Most of my peers aspired to going to grammar school, getting eight O Levels and three A Levels, then becoming part of conventional society. That never appealed to me. I was the sort of child who loved spending time collecting pond life and then analysing it. I also loved science fiction stories of the era (the 1950s), because they told of a different, exciting future. So, I stood apart from others of my age, and drew on this for the character of Gerald Bostock. But he himself is a fiction.”
Having written the crucial poem that became the fulcrum for the concept, Anderson and his band – guitarist Martin Barre, bassist Jeffrey Hammond, keyboard player John Evan, string/brass arranger David Palmer and new drummer Barriemore Barlow – now had the challenge of making the musical form work.
“I suppose I have to admit that I really imposed the whole idea on the other guys,” laughs Anderson, a benign dictator in this instance. “But, for whatever reason they went along with it, and actually warmed to the task once we got stuck into the music.”
Jethro Tull elected to work out the album during two weeks of intense rehearsals using the Rolling Stones mobile studio.
“This was based in Bermondsey, a rather dreadful part of South London. The way it worked was that I’d spend the morning in my home in Hampstead – sadly, not the posh part of that North London suburb – and get three or four minutes of music down on a sheet of paper from an exercise book. Then we’d meet as a band and go through not just the new part I’d written, but everything from the beginning. So, gradually we’d build up the piece.”
Finally, in December 1971, the band entered Morgan Studios in North West London and, under the production aegis of Anderson himself, recorded the album (which is effectively just one composition, split into two movements) over a period of a fortnight, including the mixing stage.
“It’s only in recent times that I’ve appreciated how complex the music is,” admits Anderson. “I was only 24 at the time we began to put this together. Yet there are so many weird time changes and musical innovations on the album. I would never compare what we did back then to jazz rockers like Weather Report or the Mahavishnu Orchestra – they were really amazing musicians – but we were a little more sophisticated than the usual riff rockers you’d find on the scene.”
But the music was just part of the ambitious concept the band put together. Almost of equal importance was the cover, which was in effect a 16-page newspaper called The St. Cleve Chronicle & Linwall Advertiser, which was a spoof of the sort of local newspapers prevalent around the UK at the time.
“That was a massive undertaking,” says Anderson. “Fortunately Roy Eldridge, our A&R man at the label [Chrysalis], had worked as a journalist on local papers prior to joining the company. So, we drew on his experience. We put together a lot of silly stories and also used lyrics from the album itself. We also got the road crew, label people and girlfriends to pose for photos.”
One of those names used was Derek Smalls, who emerged over a decade later as the bassist with the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap. “I was convinced that Harry Shearer (the actor who played the character in the celebrated movie) must have gotten the name from Thick As A Brick, especially as the Smalls in the film smoked a Peterson pipe – and the only three people I know in rock’n’roll who smoke such a pipe were all members of Jethro Tull! But, when I got the chance to interview Harry for a US TV show, he denied ever hearing Thick As A Brick. I find that somewhat hard to believe.”
However, the album did get some cultural recognition in the States when it was featured in an episode of The Simpsons. Not only does the character of Martin Prince sing part of the song in the episode Girls Just Want To Have Sums, but the original is used over the end credits. Perhaps this isn’t too surprising when you consider that the album reached Number One in the US when released in May 1972 (it hit Number Five in the UK).
“I must admit to being a little surprised that we got to the top of the charts over there,” says Anderson. “But everything had been building for us. Aqualung sold steadily, so either Thick As A Brick was going to take off, or we’d just sink. However, I’m not sure our American fans understood the humour behind our live performance on the subsequent tour.
“We decided to bring all the characters mentioned on the album and in the cover newspaper to life, and it was quirky, very British. We weren’t trying to be comedians, just to enhance the concept. The rest of the band got the chance to step outside of their dapper personae. It was funny because we had a laugh. But in the US… well, all I can say is that I’m none too certain they understood what we were doing. But perhaps this comes down more to the whole premise of progressive rock rather than anything else – at least as far as Anderson is concerned.
“Progressive rock is a purely British phenomenon. And these days all of us – and I include the likes of ELP here – know that there was a sense of fun about it. Privately, we all saw the silly side, we were like John Cleese in a bowler hat lampooning the bureaucrats, while revelling in it.”
Any spoof done well enough enhances both the perpetrators and the intended victims – think of Spinal Tap and the heavy metal genre. But, surely if it’s done too well then it becomes indistinguishable from the real thing? How does Anderson react to the fact that Thick As A Brick is frequently cited as the ultimate prog rock album?
“Job done, I’d say. We set out to make the mother of all concept records, as I stated earlier, and if that’s the way people see the album after all these years, then we achieved the ambition. It is hard sometimes to differentiate between what’s serious and what’s a send-up. But, for me, that’s beauty of true prog rock – it must have both.”
Jethro Tull’s classic 1972 concept album ‘Thick As A Brick’ was reissued on 5th November to commemorate it’s 40th anniversary with new SW stereo and surround mixes. The CD contains the 2012 stereo remix, while the DVD contains a 5.1 mix in DTS & Dolby Digital surround sound, the stereo remix in high quality 96/24, and the original 1972 stereo mix flat transferred to 96/24 PCM.
also being made available on the same date, which also includes Ian Anderson’s‘Thick As A Brick 2′ (which was also mixed by SW), and a coffee table book.
Jethro Tull
Ian Anderson – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, flute, violin, trumpet, saxophone, cover art, producer
“Stand Up” marked an early turning point for Jethro Tull, as their second album introduced folk-rock influences into what had previously been a sturdy blues-based sound. It also marked the first studio collaboration with Barre, a guitarist who would become Tull leader Ian Anderson‘s longest-running bandmate.
In a recent interview, Anderson selected Stand Up as his favorite Tull album, “because that was my first album of first really original music. It has a special place in my heart.”
The album topped the U.K. charts, and earned gold-certification status in the U.S. You can buy Stand Up: ElevatedEdition, now
Check out Jethro Tull‘s“Bouree: Morgan Version,” a previously unreleased song, from the expanded reissue of “Stand Up“.
The new set, called the “Elevated Edition,” features two CDs of music and a DVD. The first disc features StevenWilson’s new stereo mixes of the original 1969 album, paired with rare recordings like “Bouree.” There are also four additional songs recorded at the BBC, as well as stereo single mixes of “Driving Song” and “Living in the Past.”
The second disc in the Stand Up: Elevated Edition set finds Jethro Tull performing live in Sweden, just a few weeks after Martin Barre joined the band. Highlights from the evening’s set list include two cuts from Stand Up, plus songs originally found on the band’s debut album. Another Wilson remix, this time in surround sound, is included on the DVD along with concert footage from January 1969 and other goodies.
The Who, My Generation: Super Deluxe Edition
This 5-CD, 79-track box set celebrating The Who’s debut includes the original mono album (newly remastered), a disc of mono bonus tracks (newly remastered) and a disc of stereo bonus tracks. It also includes a new stereo remix of the album originally released on iTunes in 2014 featuring new overdubs by Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey using the same guitars and amps and the same type of microphones used on the original album. (Generation was first mixed to stereo for the 2002 reissue, but dropped many of the overdubs from the mono album – this new stereo mix recreates them). Finally, a disc of demos is included – which features three previously unheard songs: “The Girls I Could Have Had,” “As Children We Grew” and “My Own Love.” An 80-page book and six inserts top off this lavish set! The U.S. release for this box is set for December 9. It is available today in the U.K.
R.E.M., Out of Time: 25th Anniversary Edition
R.E.M.’s 1991 classic is revisited as a 3 CD/1 Blu-ray set, a 2-CD set, a 3-LP set, a single LP of the original album and as a digital download as part of the band’s new deal with Concord Bicycle Music. The box includes the original album on Disc 1 followed by nineteen demo tracks on Disc 2. The third disc contains a concert from Capitol Plaza Theater in Charleston, West Virginia performed on April 28, 1991 and aired on NPR as an installment of their Mountain Stage program. The Blu-ray has the original album both in Hi-Resolution Stereo and Hi-Resolution 5.1 Surround. It also contains 8 music videos and an 18-minute EPK which contains studio and performance footage. The new liner notes by music journalist Annie Zaleski features interviews with the band members and producers of the album. The 2-CD edition contains the first two discs of the deluxe edition and the 3-LP edition replicates those two discs as well.
Jethro Tull, Stand Up: The Elevated Edition
For the past several years, Jethro Tull has been releasing expanded editions of their albums featuring new remixes by Steven Wilson. Just under a year after the release of the last reissue in the series of 1976’s Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!, here is a 2CD/1DVD version of 1969’sStand Up, entitled Stand Up: The Elevated Edition. Housed in a deluxe hardcover book-style package complete with a pop-up in the style of the original release,
Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger
This seven disc set – four CDs, two DVDs and a Blu-ray – expanded the rockers’ third album to staggering proportions. Astoundingly, much of Badmotorfinger’s deluxe content has never been released before. You get the remastered album, a disc of studio outtakes (with just one released track, a version of “New Damage” with Queen guitarist Brian May), a 1992 live set at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre on two CDs and a DVD, an additional DVD of live footage and music videos (including the DVD premiere of the Motorvision VHS) and the entire album newly remixed in 5.1 surround for Blu-ray. The battery-operated (!) box set edition also comes with a 52-page book, a 12″ x 12″ lenticular print, four 8″ x 10″ band member photo cards, stickers and an iron-on patch. More frugal fans can opt for a 2CD deluxe edition, 2LP 180-gram vinyl or just the original album remastered on CD.
Tori Amos, Boys For Pele: 20th Anniversary Edition
This expanded edition of Tori Amos’ third album, Boys for Pele, will feature new liner notes penned by Amos and a 21-track bonus disc of demos, B-sides and alternate versions, four of which (“To the Fair Motormaids of Japan,” “Sucker,” a remix of “Talula” and an alternate take of “In the Springtime of His Voodoo”) are previously unreleased. A double vinyl reissue of the original album will also be available.
Dungen – Haxan
Long before psych fests were springing up all across the globe populated by bands operating aesthetically in ever decreasing circles, Sweden’s Dungen were blazing a trail through the consciousness with psychic transmissions that connected the pastoral spirit of the late ’60s with the 21st century. Haxan however marks something of a departure for the band, having been put together to soundtrack Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 classic silent film – taking the demonic and haunting imagery as inspiration, the result is a standalone piece replete with wild freakout, eerie soundscapes and panoramic ambience, reflecting new horizons and underlining this visionary troupe’s enduring power.
Featured on Jethro Tull’s 1971 album Aqualung, ‘Locomotive Breath’ is as known for its intricate flute solo as it is for its social commentary on a world quickly headed off the rails and when performed live, singer and flautist Ian Anderson is a human dynamo that embodies the overall feeling of being completely out of control – in the best possible way, of course!
Filmed in 1982, this exclusive concert footage features Jethro Tull performing ‘Locomotive Breath’and to say that it’s a wild ride is an understatement; much like an actual locomotive, the performance starts off slowly with its long, bluesy piano introduction and builds gradually with a blistering guitar solo by Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre before reaching its pinnacle as Ian Anderson appears onstage, looking like a man out of time with a story to tell.
It took a few attempts to record this song, as Anderson had to impress on the band that musically, it was supposed to feel like a train on the tracks, not one that goes off and explodes.
If this is what a train going off the tracks sounds like, then sign us up! Jethro Tull, more so than any other progressive rock band, had a tremendous gift for turning their songs into epic stories that when performed live, appealed to you on a visual level; while they weren’t big for flashy displays, Ian’s stage presence is what sells songs like ‘Locomotive Breath,’ and you can’t deny how much fun there is to be had with a band like Jethro Tull!
Through it’s not their first album – that would be “This Was”, from the year before – “Stand Up” represents the moment when Jethro Tull was born. Released on August. 1st, 1969, this project found frontman Ian Anderson molding the band’s sound to reflect his personal, highly original and idiosyncratic musical vision.
Before, Anderson had collaborated more extensively with now-departed guitarist Mick Abrahams on This Was, and even had a brief partnership with Black Sabbath’s guitarist Tony Iommi, in early ’69. As Ian Anderson began to fully assert his leadership, however, Jethro Tull headed down the path towards progressive rock greatness.
Indeed, a single listen to the album “Stand Up” is enough to marvel at its confident eclecticism, one that saw IanAnderson taking inspiration from numerous sources: Led Zeppelin for the post-blues heavy rock riff-crunch of “A New Day Yesterday,” “Nothing is Easy” and “For a Thousand Mothers”; Roy Harper for the eccentric folk stylings of “Look into the Sun” and “Fat Man”; and a variety of others on “Back to the Family” and “We Used to Know.” Elsewhere, there were even more exotic experiments in classical (the beautifully scored “Reasons for Waiting”; Bach’s rearranged “Bouree”) and world music (see “Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square,” where Ian Anderson plays a Russian balalaika).
New guitarist Martin Barre, who’d eventually become the only consistent member of Jethro Tull’s ever-evolving lineups over the years, joined a standing rhythm section of Glenn Cornick and Clive Bunker in creating this whirlwind of sound. Through it all, the only consistent threads were Ian Anderson’s quirky, elliptical lyrics, distinctive vocal affectations (worlds away from his tentative croon on This Was) and, of course, his ever-more present flute – which soon became a signature part of the Jethro Tull legend.
Fans responded, sending Jethro Tull to the top of the U.K.’s album charts for the first time. Stand Up also reached the American Billboard Top 20, signalling a new era of creativity and success. Seven straight Jethro Tull albums, beginning with this one, would reach at least gold-selling status in the U.S.
“Sitting on a park bench…” It’s one of the iconic opening lines in rock music, set against one of its most distinctive riffs, the listener’s introduction to the world of Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung“, released on March 19th, 1971.
Jethro Tull’s, “Aqualung” most famous sound Dun dah-dah, dah DUN DUN, allowed Ian Anderson and company to make an album that was two concepts in one. Side A is about some perv street person and Side B is a rumination on organized religion. This split is also reflective of the accompanying music: one part hard rock and one part British folk. Dun dah-dah, dah DUN DUN. “Aqualung” features Ian Anderson on his distinctive flute, acoustic guitar and vocals; Martin Barre on electric guitar; and Clive Bunker on drums and percussion for what would be his final album with the band. Rounding out the line-up were newer recruits John Evan on keyboards and Jeffrey Hammond,
Jethro Tull had already hit the top spot on the U.K. album charts with their 1969 release, “Stand Up“, Their third album, 1970’s “Benefit”, came close to the U.S. Top 10, but stopped one mark short, landing at No. 11. It wasn’t until the band issued their landmark album “Aqualung” in 1971 mainstream acceptance flung open in a big way. The album, a deft mix of pastoral folk-rock, thundering proto-metal and nascent prog, is generally regarded as Jethro Tull’s undisputed masterpiece. But as Ian Anderson wasn’t initially sure that the record’s broad blend of styles was a slam-dunk.
“We were getting quite esoteric on the album, and I felt that we might have pushed things too far in that regard,” he says. “What gets you noticed in one territory might not have the same appeal elsewhere. The record had a lot of more acoustic singer-songwriter material on it, and Jethro Tull had become thought of as more of a rock band. The riffy rock material had a pretty immediate appeal to live audiences, so I felt reasonably confident and gratified. But you never know until you put it out, and then the record did very well, so it all worked.”
It was never a concept album in my eyes said Anderson. Yes, it certainly set out with the idea that there would be a few songs that kind of hung together, but there were a whole bunch of songs that didn’t have anything to do with the others. When it came to the artwork for the album cover, which I rather left in terms of the pictorial images to our then manager, Terry Ellis, I thought that that would be best illustrated in terms of text by trying to give it some sense of order, by making it hang together a little bit more as a package. I guess that’s what made people think it was a concept album.
There were just a few songs as I say that were in a similar vein and on a general topic of, I suppose, religion and growing up, and I still to this day would not call it a concept album by any means. Of course, speaking to the concept album question, I said, “I’m going to get my comeuppance next time around,” and we did with “Thick as a Brick“, something quite surreal and preposterous—and we got away with it. [Laughs]
‘Aqualung’ has some incredible riffs, like the title track, “Hymn 43″, “Cross-Eyed Mary” and “Locomotive Breath“. They all began very much on the acoustic guitar, and then you try to imagine taking them into the world of large-scale rock rather than hearing them as singer-songwriter acoustic-y things.
This was the first album with keyboardist John Evan as a full-time member, the first with bassist Jeffrey Hammond, and it was the last album with drummer Clive Bunker. Anderson commented It was a rather dark mood, actually, and it was a bit frustrating for me because the recording was being done in the then new Basing Street Studios, which was a converted church that Island Records had bought and turned into a pair of studios. Led Zeppelin were working in the smaller studio downstairs, which is a much nicer acoustic room, much cosier and more like a proper recording studio. Upstairs it was the big, cavernous church hall, which had a rather spooky and threatening atmosphere. It was quite difficult acoustically and technically there were problems and shakedown issues with the equipment and wiring. It was a real struggle.
The contrast between the tramp’s socially unacceptable behaviour and the descriptions of his condition—his “leg hurting bad as he bends to pick a dog-end” and his reliance on the Salvation Army for comfort—is mirrored by the musical complexity. Anderson’s vocals are at once grisly and howling, then delicate and soft. Meanwhile, the band channels heavy rock, with Barre delivering searing riffs and solos. They point to their blues roots, then alternate to folksy intimacy. That’s not to mention the stark contrast between heavy rock instrumentation and Anderson’s flute. As an opener, it’s an introduction to the revitalized Jethro Tull, to their story-based songs, and to the themes that would carry on through the album.
The beginning tells the story of the character “Aqualung”. It’s an unforgettable Jethro Tull song as is “Cross-Eyed Mary”, kicking off the album on a strong note. There are many primarily acoustic tracks like “Cheap Day Return”, “Wand’ring Aloud”, “Slipstream” which are short and sweet and act as “bridges” between the main songs.
Some personal favourites include “Mother Goose” (actually one of my all time favourite Jethro Tull songs), “My God” and the adrenaline releasing “Locomotive Breath”, with their great folky melodies and arrangements.
It’s followed by perhaps the most personal song on the album, a love ballad called “Wond’ring Aloud.” “We are our own saviours as we start both our hearts beating life into each other,” Anderson sings against his acoustic strumming, punctuated by orchestral swells and the occasional weaving piano line. The song was originally recorded as a seven-minute epic, leftover pieces of which can be heard on “Wond’ring Again” on the 1972 compilation album “Living in the Past”. A complete alternate version of the suite turned up as “Wond’ring Aloud, Again” on a 2011 expanded reissue of “Aqualung“.
The side closes with “Up To Me.” It’s a riff-heavy blues-rock burner featuring winding electric guitar leads against Anderson’s gentle acoustic guitar and snaky flute lines, a perfect contrast to the breezier songs that precede it and a primer for the heavier material to come.
All of which makes it more difficult when you’re trying to convey to other musicians what you’re driving at. We had stepped away from the early Jethro Tull sort of music, and Clive Bunker found it sometimes beyond his points of reference. For Jeffrey Hammond, it was his very first album, so he was kind of just being given a list of notes and told how to play them. I was confident he would get it, but it was a little nerve-racking for him. Here, too, it was a little frustrating for me, trying to convey things to the other guys, which is why I just recorded some things on my own and then they came and overdubbed their bits afterwards.
The brief “Cheap Day Return,” clocking in at just over a minute, shows off Jansch-like guitar figures, along with complementary orchestrations by Dee Palmer. “[It’s] about a day I went to visit my father in hospital in Blackpool,” said Anderson in 1971. “I caught a train at nine, spent four hours traveling, four hours with my father, and four hours to get back again. It was a long song mainly concerned with the railway journey, but the section on the record is about visiting my father.
“Locomotive Breath” was a particularly hard song to record because we just couldn’t get a metronomic, solid feel. It just kept being kind of a bit scrappy and whatever, so I went out and played tambourine or something, or maybe I clicked two drumsticks together or something. I played bass drum and hi-hat all the way through the song, and everybody overdubbed their parts to that. I think I played one of the electric guitar parts as well, just to try and get something that would convey the feel of the song to the other guys. Then John went out and recorded the introduction part, which we edited onto the body of the song. But yeah, it wasn’t a great atmosphere. By the end of it, I was quite relieved to get out of there.
When you were working on the record, did members of Zeppelin ever drop by? Did you pop into their sessions at all?. I think I might have popped my head downstairs. Some people quite like it when they get visitors, and they rather enjoy the camaraderie, but I felt like it would be very intrusive to go in while somebody else is doing a session, whether they’re working on a backing track or doing overdubs or whatever.
Once or twice we did manage to get some work done in the studio downstairs when Zeppelin weren’t in. The only time I remember seeing anybody from that band is when Jimmy Page came in when MartinBarre was recording the guitar solo for “Aqualung,” and Jimmy sort of was standing behind me in the control room and waving some support to Martin.
‘Aqualung’ has gone on to be the band’s biggest seller. Are you OK with that, or do you wish that distinction were for a different record? Well, I’m glad it was that album and not some other ones. It was at a time when there was kind of a maturity coming about in terms of my writing and my understanding of music, so for me it was a very important album. It marked my move towards a more dynamic range in music, my understanding of creating more tension between loud and quiet passages, between simple and more complex pieces. Anderson says I’m very happy how successful ‘Aqualung’ has been. It wasn’t a huge hit out of the box, but it was a steady seller over the years, and that continues to this day. It’s clocked up a lot of mileage, which has put it in that sort of top echelon of rock albums from that era. I’m quite happy with how it’s regarded.
The album was inspired by photographs of homeless people on the Thames Embankment taken by singer Ian Anderson’s wife Jennie.
A great classic album. Like Ian Anderson said, this isn’t a concept album (like the follow up was) but just a bunch of songs. What an excellent bunch of songs though! Overall, it’s much more engaging than “Benefit” and although the song writing is just as good, the music has a different feel to it. “Aqualung” is much fresher, more inspiring and heartsome.
“Aqualung” has sold more than 7 million units worldwide according to Anderson, and is thus Jethro Tull’s best selling album. The album was generally well-received critically, and has been included on several music magazine best of lists. The album spawned one single, “Hymn 43”.
“Aqualung” explodes like “Jesus Christ Superstar” sitting on a keg of dynamite, here starring IanAnderson as our self-appointed conscience. The light and dark tones of “Benefit” are put into sharper relief this time by alternating disarming acoustic songs with a theosophical din of diabolical intent. The addition of Jeffery Hammond-Hammond on bass (yes, the very same “JEFFREY” chronicled on their earlier albums) doesn’t change the sound of Tull much, nor does the full-time addition of John Evan, who gets buried in the band’s sonic onslaught most of the time. Ian Anderson the performer and “Aqualung” the character may be alarming to some, but wasn’t it just a natural outcropping of the rock opera movement? Music fans proved they were interested in the persona as much as the player, and Anderson gave them something to think about: a composite sketch of a demigod drawn from Jesus, Loki, and Merlin among others. It’s just that songs like “Aqualung”, “Cross-Eyed Mary, “Hymn #43” and “Locomotive Breath” are such epic clashes of morality and reality that “Aqualung” assumes the scale of a Greek tragedy. The acoustic breaks are sometimes no more than lovely little bits of fluff (“Cheap Day Return”, “Wond’ring Aloud”) and sometimes a mortal analysis of the world around us (“Mother Goose”, “Wind-Up”).
The closing track, “Wind Up,” is the culmination of all the ideas that had run thorough the album so far, but more directly a condemnation of organized religion as a charade and its influence on youth. As Anderson recalled in a February 1971 interview, “[My parents] sent me to Sunday school when I was young but I rebelled after the first visit and I was never forced back. I think my parents are the exception, though, and there is so much religion today forced onto children simply by virtue of their parents’ race or creed—and that in itself is inherently wrong.” Here, he describes religion as an action done to erase sins, something that becomes a performative ritual, but is never truly embraced as a pathway to enlightenment. “To me, religion is something that you grow up to find in your own way,” he said to NME in March 1971. “I am sure that a lot of other people believe in God the same as I do, that faith is a form of goodness around which you relate your life.”
“Aqualung” is a great leap from songwriter to storyteller, though some felt Tull slipped too far into the fabled woods for the inscrutable “Thick As ABrick” and “Passion Play”.
Jethro Tull released their 4th LP titled “Aqualung” on March 18th, 1971. Many people have thought that it was a concept album, but the band strongly disagrees with the thought. The records success marked a turning point in the band’s career, who went on to become a major radio and touring act.
“Aqualung” would be a very memorable addition to your collection. 5 shining stars.
The Fat Angel Sings 