Jethro Tull takes a toll on predictability
Jethro Tull takes a toll on predictability
By MaryAlice Bitts
SundayNews (Lancaster, PA)
November 14, 2004
It's a few days before Ian Anderson heads out on a tour bringing him to Reading on Wednesday and he's feeling a tad annoyed.
The front man for Jethro Tull needs to pull up music files from his iPod, so he can practice them. But the computer, he says, is "in suicide orbit."
"I would quite like to take all of the computers in my house and use one of Saddam's missing Weapons of Mass Destruction on them," Anderson exclaimed. "That would give me a lot of pleasure - to have a scud missile descend on all of my computers. To see what sparks would fly, and what pretty colors would appear in the sky."
It's not that he's a computer illiterate. The 57-year-old singer-flutist designs album covers on Photoshop, creates spreadsheets and records digitally.
That contradiction shouldn't surprise anyone. Anderson is a man of intense curiosity, which leads him down many intellectual and musical avenues. That makes him hard to peg.
A self-described cynic who is agreeable and satirical at once, Anderson is a wild-eyed, flamingo-stanced rock icon. But he also has the optimism of an entrepreneur (having run a fish farming business for 25 years of Jethro Tull's 30 years), the idealism of an animal protectionist (he campaigns for the preservation of Bengal cats) and the groundedness of an agriculturalist (having lived on a working farm for 25 years).
He does not normally farm his property himself. ("I have slender, girly fingers that are equipped for playing guitar or flute. I don't want to get them mangled in any mechanical equipment.") But he has, on occasion, done so. ("It's nice to come back at the end of the day, you're covered with dust and grime, and you're sweaty. You feel like you've done a man's work, on a man's terms.")
He admires the Amish ("Their approach - letting their children go - is really quite mature.") He also admires Frank Zappa's music.
An unapologetic rock star, he won't drive himself anywhere. ("I don't drive a car any more than I would pilot a 747.") But he has done most of the jobs of fish farming and washes his own clothes while on tour.
Fasten your earphones
It's clear that he fronts the right band. Jethro Tull fans know to eschew narrow categorizations and expect the unexpected.
Like a continually changing cast of drummers. Or a front man who just got back from touring Europe with an orchestra. Or an ex-keyboard/saxophone player, David Palmer, who became a woman named Dee.
Or ambitious explorations into the wildly diverse genres of blues, jazz, art rock, folk and even electronic music.
Jethro Tull not only takes on different musical forms, it captures them with full-force creativity. Each piece, no matter the genre, sounds distinctly Jethro Tull.
Anderson has a simple explanation: "I just get bored easily. I always wanted to have the freedom to play different kinds of music and whatever strikes me as fun at the moment."
That makes for interesting live performances like the one awaiting Wednesday's audience at the Sovereign Center in Reading.
"The first set will be acoustic, and the second will be electronic. I don't think we've ever done that before," Anderson said. "It gives us the opportunity to play some acoustic stuff we never played before, in some cases. In theory, that should be amusing."
The move toward acoustic work isn't unexpected. He presents acoustic work in his latest compact discs, 2003's witty and wry "Jethro Tull Christmas Album," and a sparkling solo effort, "Rupi's Dance."
The solo album also reveals Anderson's sweeter, gentler side.
This time, it's personal
"As you get older, you find different dimensions in musical expression, as well as the way you read things in the world at large," he said. "I tend to be a little bit more personal in my acoustic music and more objective in the more electric and rock-oriented stuff ... .
"It's always a little difficult when you speak in quite personal ways in song lyrics, but you're sharing the stage with loud rock musicians. It seems a bit weird; it seems you're drawing attention to yourself a little bit by making things too personal on the lyrical front.
"I don't think grumpiness and cynicism will ever leave me, but I can afford sometimes to be a little more revealing, a little bit more unguarded in my emotional output in music, especially doing solo records."
Tull's fans - musicians and music geeks among them - not only tolerate style and time-signature shifts, they relish them.
Those looking for another "Aqualung" or "Locomotive Breath" had better not hold their breath. Anderson's still not about to conform to expectations.
"I quite often get people saying, 'Why don't you do 'Thick as a Brick, Part 2?'" he said.
"That doesn't really have a lot of appeal for me. Maybe I should skip Part 2, and just go straight to Part 3. We'll see."
Go to the Top
By MaryAlice Bitts
SundayNews (Lancaster, PA)
November 14, 2004
It's a few days before Ian Anderson heads out on a tour bringing him to Reading on Wednesday and he's feeling a tad annoyed.
The front man for Jethro Tull needs to pull up music files from his iPod, so he can practice them. But the computer, he says, is "in suicide orbit."
"I would quite like to take all of the computers in my house and use one of Saddam's missing Weapons of Mass Destruction on them," Anderson exclaimed. "That would give me a lot of pleasure - to have a scud missile descend on all of my computers. To see what sparks would fly, and what pretty colors would appear in the sky."
It's not that he's a computer illiterate. The 57-year-old singer-flutist designs album covers on Photoshop, creates spreadsheets and records digitally.
That contradiction shouldn't surprise anyone. Anderson is a man of intense curiosity, which leads him down many intellectual and musical avenues. That makes him hard to peg.
A self-described cynic who is agreeable and satirical at once, Anderson is a wild-eyed, flamingo-stanced rock icon. But he also has the optimism of an entrepreneur (having run a fish farming business for 25 years of Jethro Tull's 30 years), the idealism of an animal protectionist (he campaigns for the preservation of Bengal cats) and the groundedness of an agriculturalist (having lived on a working farm for 25 years).
He does not normally farm his property himself. ("I have slender, girly fingers that are equipped for playing guitar or flute. I don't want to get them mangled in any mechanical equipment.") But he has, on occasion, done so. ("It's nice to come back at the end of the day, you're covered with dust and grime, and you're sweaty. You feel like you've done a man's work, on a man's terms.")
He admires the Amish ("Their approach - letting their children go - is really quite mature.") He also admires Frank Zappa's music.
An unapologetic rock star, he won't drive himself anywhere. ("I don't drive a car any more than I would pilot a 747.") But he has done most of the jobs of fish farming and washes his own clothes while on tour.
Fasten your earphones
It's clear that he fronts the right band. Jethro Tull fans know to eschew narrow categorizations and expect the unexpected.
Like a continually changing cast of drummers. Or a front man who just got back from touring Europe with an orchestra. Or an ex-keyboard/saxophone player, David Palmer, who became a woman named Dee.
Or ambitious explorations into the wildly diverse genres of blues, jazz, art rock, folk and even electronic music.
Jethro Tull not only takes on different musical forms, it captures them with full-force creativity. Each piece, no matter the genre, sounds distinctly Jethro Tull.
Anderson has a simple explanation: "I just get bored easily. I always wanted to have the freedom to play different kinds of music and whatever strikes me as fun at the moment."
That makes for interesting live performances like the one awaiting Wednesday's audience at the Sovereign Center in Reading.
"The first set will be acoustic, and the second will be electronic. I don't think we've ever done that before," Anderson said. "It gives us the opportunity to play some acoustic stuff we never played before, in some cases. In theory, that should be amusing."
The move toward acoustic work isn't unexpected. He presents acoustic work in his latest compact discs, 2003's witty and wry "Jethro Tull Christmas Album," and a sparkling solo effort, "Rupi's Dance."
The solo album also reveals Anderson's sweeter, gentler side.
This time, it's personal
"As you get older, you find different dimensions in musical expression, as well as the way you read things in the world at large," he said. "I tend to be a little bit more personal in my acoustic music and more objective in the more electric and rock-oriented stuff ... .
"It's always a little difficult when you speak in quite personal ways in song lyrics, but you're sharing the stage with loud rock musicians. It seems a bit weird; it seems you're drawing attention to yourself a little bit by making things too personal on the lyrical front.
"I don't think grumpiness and cynicism will ever leave me, but I can afford sometimes to be a little more revealing, a little bit more unguarded in my emotional output in music, especially doing solo records."
Tull's fans - musicians and music geeks among them - not only tolerate style and time-signature shifts, they relish them.
Those looking for another "Aqualung" or "Locomotive Breath" had better not hold their breath. Anderson's still not about to conform to expectations.
"I quite often get people saying, 'Why don't you do 'Thick as a Brick, Part 2?'" he said.
"That doesn't really have a lot of appeal for me. Maybe I should skip Part 2, and just go straight to Part 3. We'll see."
Go to the Top
Labels: ian anderson, jethro tull, mary alice bitts, MaryAlice Bitts, thick as a brick
posted by MaryAlice Bitts at 9:23 AM
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