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| Jethro Tull | ||
|---|---|---|
 Jethro
Tull, Aqualung line-up, 1971.
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| Background information | ||
| Origin |  Blackpool & Luton, England |
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| Genre(s) | Progressive
rock Art Rock Folk-Rock |
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| Years active | 1968–Present | |
| Label(s) | Chrysalis
Records Eagle Records Roadrunner Records EMI Capitol Records Island Records |
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| Members | ||
| Ian Anderson Martin Barre |
||
| Former members | ||
| Doane
Perry Andrew Giddings Jonathan Noyce Mick Abrahams Glenn Cornick Clive Bunker John Evan Jeffrey Hammond Barriemore Barlow John Glascock David Palmer Dave Pegg Mark Craney Eddie Jobson Gerry Conway Peter-John Vettese Don Airey Maartin Allcock Dave Mattacks Tony Iommi (Minor member) Tony Williams (Minor member) Phil Collins (Minor member) Steve Bailey (Minor member) |
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Jethro Tull are a Grammy
Award winning English
rock
band that formed in 1967-1968.
Their music is marked by the distinctive vocal style and lead flute work of front
man Ian Anderson.
Initially playing blues rock with an experimental flavour, they have,
over the years, incorporated elements of
Contents
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Ian Anderson's first band, started in 1963 in Blackpool, was known as The Blades. It had developed by 1966 into a seven-piece white soul band called the John Evan Band (later the John Evan Smash), named for pianist/drummer John Evans, who dropped the final "s" from his name to make it sound less ordinary. At this point, Barriemore Barlow was the band's drummer, as he would later be for Tull itself.
The band moved to the London area in search of more bookings,
basing themselves in nearby Luton. However, money remained short and
within days of the move most of the band quit and headed back North,
leaving Anderson and bassist Glenn Cornick to join forces
with blues guitarist Mick Abrahams and his
friend, drummer Clive Bunker, both from the
Luton-based band "McGregor's Engine".
At first, the new band had trouble getting repeat bookings and they
took to changing their name frequently to continue playing the London
club circuit. Band names were often supplied by the staff of their
booking agents, one of whom, a history buff, eventually christened them
After an unsuccessful single produced by Derek Lawrence (an Abrahams-penned pop tune called "Sunshine Day" on which the band's name was misspelled "Jethro Toe", making it a collector's item), they released the bluesy album This Was in 1968. In addition to music written by Anderson and Abrahams the album included the traditional "Cat's Squirrel", which highlighted Abraham's blues-rock style. The Rahsaan Roland Kirk-penned jazz piece "Serenade to a Cuckoo" gave Anderson a showcase for his growing talents on the flute, an instrument which he started learning to play only half a year before the release of the album. The overall sound of the group at this time was described in the Record Mirror by Anderson in 1968 as "a sort of progressive blues with a bit of jazz".
Following this album, Abrahams left, forming his own band, Blodwyn Pig. There were a number of reasons for his departure: he was a blues purist, while Anderson wanted to branch out into other forms of music, Abrahams and Cornick did not get along, and Abrahams was unwilling to travel internationally or play more than 3 nights a week, while the others wanted to be successful by playing as often as possible and building an international fan base.
Earth/Black Sabbath guitarist Tony
Iommi took on guitar duties for a short time after the
departure of Abrahams, appearing in
After auditions for a replacement guitarist, Anderson chose Martin
Barre, a former member of Motivation,
This new line-up released
Bassist Cornick left following Benefit, replaced by Jeffrey Hammond, a childhood friend of Anderson whose name appeared in the songs "A Song for Jeffrey", "Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square", "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey, and Me", and who also is the writer and narrator of "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles" featured in the A Passion Play album. Jeffrey was often credited on Tull albums as "Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond", but the extra "Hammond" was an inside joke regarding the fact that Hammond's mother's maiden name was also "Hammond", no relation to his father.
This line-up released Tull's best-known work, Aqualung in 1971. On this album, Anderson's writing voiced strong opinions about religion and society. The title character of Aqualung is a disreputable tramp, wandering the streets and "eyeing little girls with bad intent"; the focus of the song "Cross-Eyed Mary" is an underage prostitute. "My God" - written before Benefit and already a staple of the band's live act before Aqualung's release - is a full-frontal assault on ecclesiastic excesses: "People what have you done/locked Him in His golden cage/Made Him bend to your religion/Him resurrected from the grave..." In contrast, the gentle acoustic "Wond'ring Aloud" is a love song. The title track and "Locomotive Breath" remain staples of US classic rock stations.
Because of the heavy touring schedule and his wish to spend more time with his family, drummer Bunker left the band after the Aqualung album, and was replaced by Barriemore Barlow in early 1971. Barlow first recorded with the band for the EP Life Is a Long Song and made his first appearance on a Jethro Tull album with 1972's Thick as a Brick. This was conceived as a concept album consisting of a single track running 43:28 (an innovation previously unheard of in rock music), split over the two sides of the LP, with a number of movements melded together and some repeating themes. The first movement with its distinctive acoustic guitar riff received some airplay on rock stations at the time (and occasionally turns up in modern classic-rock programming as a "deep" or "rare" cut). Thick as a Brick was the first true progrock offering by the band, as well as the first Jethro Tull album to reach number one on the (U.S.) Billboard Pop Albums chart (the following year's A Passion Play being the only other). This album's quintet – Anderson, Barre, Evan, Hammond, and Barlow – endured until the end of 1975.
1972 also saw the release of Living in the Past, a double-album compilation of remixed singles, B-sides and outtakes (including the entirety of the Life Is a Long Song EP, which closes the album), with a single side recorded live in 1970 at New York's Carnegie Hall. Fans regard the album as arguably the band's best compilation. The title track remains one of their more enduring singles, though Anderson reportedly wrote it in 5/4 time with the intent of preventing its ascent to the pop charts.
In 1973, the band attempted to record a double album in tax
exile at
Around this time, the band's popularity with critics began to wane, but their popularity with the public remained strong. 1974's War Child, an album originally intended to be a companion piece for a film, reached number two on the Billboard charts and received some critical acclaim, and produced the radio mainstays "Bungle in the Jungle" and "Skating Away (On the Thin Ice of the New Day)". It also included a song, "Only Solitaire", allegedly aimed at L.A. Times rock music critic Robert Hilburn, who was one of Anderson's harsher critics.
In 1975, the band released
1976's
The band closed the decade with a trio of folk rock
albums,
The band had long had ties to folk rockers Steeleye Span. Although not formally considered a part of the folk rock movement (which had actually begun nearly a decade earlier with the advent of Fairport Convention), there was clearly an exchange of musical ideas among Tull and the folk rockers. Also, by this time Anderson had moved to a farm in the countryside, and his new bucolic lifestyle is clearly reflected on these albums. A stellar example is the title track of Heavy Horses, a paean to draft horses.
The band continued to tour, and released a live double album in 1978. Entitled Bursting Out it featured dynamic live performances from the lineup that many Tull fans consider comprising the golden era of the band. It also features Anderson's often-ribald stage banter with the audience and band members. ("David's gone for a piss. Ah, he's back. Did you give it a good shake?") The vinyl LP contains 3 tracks not found on the initial U.S. single-disc CD edition: Martin Barre's guitar solo tracks "Quatrain" and "Conundrum" (which had an extended drum solo from drummer Barriemore Barlow) and a version of the 1969 UK single hit, "Sweet Dream". (These tracks were included on the original two-CD U.K. edition, and were restored in a globally released re-mastered two-CD edition released in 2004.) During the USA tour, because of health problems, John Glascock was replaced by Anderson's friend and former Stealers Wheel bassist Tony Williams.
During this time, David Palmer (now known as Dee Palmer), who had long been the band's orchestra arranger, formally joined the band on keyboards. Bassist Glascock died in 1979 following heart surgery and Stormwatch was completed without him (Anderson contributed bass on most tracks). The following tour featured Dave Pegg of Fairport Convention on bass guitar. After this tour, Anderson decided to record his first solo album.
During the early 1970s Tull went from a progressive blues band to one of the largest concert draws in the world. In concert, the band was known for theatricality and long medleys with brief instrumental interludes. While early Tull shows featured a manic Anderson with bushy hair and beard dressed in tattered overcoats and ragged clothes, as the band became bigger he moved towards varied costumes. This culminated with the War Child tour's oversized codpiece and colourful costume.
Other band-members joined in the dress-up and developed stage personae. Bassist Glenn Cornick always appeared in vest and headband; his successor Jeffrey Hammond eventually adopted a black and white diagonally striped suit (and similarly striped bass guitar, electric guitar, and string bass); both performed while moving forcefully around their stage areas. John Evan dressed in an all-white suit with a neck-scarf of scarlet with white polka-dots; described as a "sad clown" type, he joined in the theatrics by galumphing back and forth between Hammond Organ and grand piano (placed on opposite sides of the stage in the Thick as a Brick tour) or by such sight-gags as pulling out a flask and pretending to drink from it during a rest in the music. Barriemore Barlow's stage attire was a crimson tank-top and matching runner's shorts with rugby footgear, and his solos were marked by smoke-machines and enormous drumsticks. Martin Barre was the island of calm amongst the madmen, with Anderson (and sometimes Evan) crowding him and making faces during his solos.
The band's stage theatrics peaked during the Thick As A Brick tour, a performance distinguished by stage hands wearing the tan trench-coat/madras cap ensemble from the album art, extras in rabbit suits running across stage and an extended interlude during which Barre and Barlow entered a beach-tent onstage and swapped pants.
A Passion Play was planned to have a full-length film to go with the stage theatrics; of this effort, it seems that only a few excerpts have survived to be re-released on recent commemorative videos of the band, including the interlude "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles."
A similar multi-media effort had been planned for Too Old To Rock and Roll... but was not completed. Thereafter, the emphasis on theatrics was reduced but never eliminated. Anderson often dressed as a country squire on tours in the late 1970s, with the rest of the band adopting the style during their folk phase. The A tour featured the same white jumpsuit uniforms worn by the band on the album cover. Certain routines from the 1970s have recently become ensconced in concerts, such as having a song interrupted by a phone call for an audience member (which Anderson now takes on a cell) and the climactic conclusion of shows including bombastic instrumentals and the giant balloons which Anderson would carry over his head and toss into the crowd.
Tull's first album of the 1980s, A, was originally intended to be Ian Anderson's first solo album. Anderson retained Barre on electric guitar, and added Dave Pegg (Fairport Convention) on bass, Mark Craney on drums, and special guest keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson (ex-Roxy Music, UK, Frank Zappa). Highlighted by the prominent use of synthesisers, it contrasted sharply with the established "Tull sound". After pressure from Chrysalis Records, Anderson decided to release it as a Jethro Tull album. Entitled A (taken from the labels on the master tapes for his scrapped solo album, marked simply "A for Anderson"), it was released in mid-1980.
In keeping with the mood of innovation surrounding the album,
Tull made an early foray into the emerging genre of music video with
Jobson and Craney departed following the A tour and Tull entered a period of revolving drummers: Gerry Conway, Phil Collins (who played with the band at the first Prince's Trust concert in 1982 as a fill-in drummer for the then recent departed Gerry Conway), Paul Burgess (for the US leg of the Broadsword and the Beast tour), and Doane Perry. The year of 1981 was the first year in their album career that the band did not release an album; however some recording sessions took place (Anderson, Barre, Pegg, and Conway, with Anderson playing the keyboards). Some of these tracks were released on the Nightcap compilation in 1993. In 1982, Peter-John Vettese joined on keyboards, and the band returned to a somewhat folkier sound – albeit with synthesisers – for 1982's Broadsword and the Beast. The ensuing concert tour for the album was well-attended and the shows featured what was to be one of the group's last indulgences in full dress theatricality: the stage was built to resemble a Viking longship and the band performed in traditional medieval regalia.
An Anderson solo album (which was in fact an Anderson-Vettese effort) appeared in 1983, in the form of the heavily electronic Walk into Light. Although the album featured electronic soundscapes and synthesiser voicings advanced for its time, as well as cerebral lyrics about the alienating effects of technology, the release failed to resonate with longtime fans or with new listeners. However, as with later solo efforts by Anderson and Barre, some of the Walk Into Light songs, such as "Fly By Night", "Made in England" and "Different Germany", later made their way into Tull live sets.
In 1984, Tull released Under Wraps, a heavily electronic album with no "live" drummer (instead, as on Walk into Light, a drum-machine was used). Although the band was reportedly proud of the sound, the album was not well-received, particularly in North America. However, the video for "Lap of Luxury" did manage to earn moderate rotation on the newly influential MTV music video channel. Also, the acoustic version of the title track, Under Wraps 2, found some favour over the years and a live instrumental version of the song was included on the "A Little Light Music" concert CD of 1992. Some longtime Tull fans regard Under Wraps as one of the band's weaker efforts; however, Martin Barre considers it his favourite. As a result of the throat problems Anderson developed singing the demanding Under Wraps material on tour, Tull took a three-year break, during which Anderson continued to oversee his salmon farm which he founded in 1978.
Tull returned strongly with 1987's Crest
of a Knave. With Vettese absent (Anderson
contributed the synth programming) and the band relying more heavily on
Barre's electric guitar than they had since the early 1970s, the album
was a critical and commercial success. Shades of their earlier
electronic excursions were still present, however, as 3 of the
album's songs again utilised a drum machine. The band won the 1989 Grammy
Award for
The style of Crest has been compared to
that of Dire Straits, in part because
Anderson no longer seemed to have the vocal range he once possessed.
The album contains the popular live song "Budapest", which depicts a
backstage scene with a shy local female stagehand. Although "Budapest"
was the longest song on that album (longer than ten minutes), "Mountain
Men" became more famous throughout Europe, depicting a scene from World
War II in Africa. Ian Anderson referred to the battles of El Alamain
and the Falkland Islands, drawing historic parallels of the angst that
women left behind by their warrior husbands might feel.
died in the trenches at El Alamain,
died in the Falklands on TV - from Mountain Men
1988 was notable for the release of
Multi-instrumentalist Martin (Maart) Allcock, who as a member of Fairport Convention had played with Tull at Cropredy the previous year, joined the band mainly as keyboard player, starting with the 20th Anniversary tour.
In 1989, the band released
1991's Catfish Rising was a more solid album than Rock Island. Despite being labelled as a "return to playing the blues," the album actually is marked by the generous use of mandolin and acoustic guitar and much less use of keyboards than any Tull album of the Eighties. Notable tracks included "Rocks on the Road", which highlighted gritty acoustic guitar work and hard-bitten lyrics about urban life and "Still Loving You Tonight", a bluesy low-key ballad.
Allcock, who had played on the Catfish Rising tour although not the album itself, left the band at the end of the year.
In 1992, Tull embarked on a tour titled
1993 was marked as the 25th Anniversary of Jethro Tull by the release of various new products, as well as an extensive Anniversary Tour, which started in May 1993 and lasting nearly a year. In keeping with the anniversary theme, this tour again revived a number of older songs.
The 25th Anniversary Box was a four-CD set including new and vintage live recordings, remixed and remastered songs from earlier albums, and re-recordings of old songs by the 90s band. A two-CD Anniversary Collection compilation was also released, containing original tracks remastered, and a video collection included new interviews, promo videos and archive material. The remixed single, Living in the (Slightly more Recent) Past, reached #32 in the UK singles chart. A planned second boxed set of outtakes and rare tracks was scaled down to 2 discs and released towards the end of the year under the title Nightcap.
After the 1992 tour, Anderson had re-learned how to play the flute, and begun writing songs that heavily featured world music influences. Dave Pegg also left the band at this time to concentrate on his work with Fairport Convention; his replacement was Jonathan Noyce. 1995's Roots to Branches and 1999's J-Tull Dot Com are less rock-based than Crest of a Knave or Catfish Rising. These most recent original Tull efforts reflect the musical influences of decades of performing all around the globe. In songs such as "Out of the Noise" and "Hot Mango Flush", Anderson paints vivid pictures of third-world street scenes. These albums have reflected Anderson's coming to grips with being an old rocker, with songs such as the pensive "Another Harry's Bar", "Wicked Windows" (a meditation on reading glasses), and the gruff "Wounded, Old, and Treacherous".
In 1995, Anderson released his second solo album,
2003 saw the release of
An Ian Anderson live double album and DVD was released in 2005
called
Ian Anderson performed a cover version of the song "The Thin Ice," on the 2005 Pink Floyd tribute album Back Against The Wall.
2006 saw the release of a dual boxed set DVD "Collectors Edition". This contained two DVDs, "Nothing Is Easy", documenting the previously released Isle Of Wight footage from 1970. Not to be missed as a classic Tull performance. This is joined with "Living With The Past", a documentary featuring the band on tour, in Britain and America, in 2001. It includes great live footage of the period with band interviews and other bonus features. From a nostalgia point of view, it has some excelent footage of a reunion line up with Anderson, Abrahams, Cornick and Bunker filmed in a pub gig environment performing some early Tull classics.
March 2007 saw the release of
2007 sees another busy tour schedule but Tull are also in the studio recording some new material for a new CD which is expected to be released late Autumn 2007 and will be the band's first proper new album for 8 years; some of the new songs were performed live during the recent UK acoustic tour.
Jethro Tull recordings appear in numerous films, including Breaking the Waves, Jumanji, Boogie Nights and Almost Famous.
The song "Aqualung" is briefly joked about in the Will Ferrell comedy Anchorman. Ferrell's character, Ron Burgundy, plays a jazz flute solo and suddenly plays the main riff from "Aqualung" and then shouts, "Hey Aqualung!"
In a season ten episode of Friends, "The One With Ross's Grant", Rachel and Monica find Jethro Tull listed in Phoebe's black book of men that she has dated.
Anderson has attributed the marked difference between their music and the music of their contemporaries to the group's avoidance of illegal recreational drugs.
In the 1997 debut album of Blackmore's Night (Shadow of the Moon), Ian takes the flute solo on "Play Minstrel Play".
In an episode of The Simpsons, Martin is given the award for best flautist. He plays the flute and begins to sing "Thick as a Brick" until he's hit on the head with a chair by Lisa.
In an episode of King of the Hill entitled "The Incredible Hank", part of "Aqualung" is played while Hank lifts weights in his garage.
In the song "Virus Alert" by
Jewish
folk-punk artist
In an episode of
In the movie "Big Daddy," when Sonny Koufax is asked what he was doing instead of going to his aunt's funeral he replies, "Jethro Tull had a reunion concert, so I caught that."
In the movie "Armageddon," Oscar Choi (Owen Wilson) states that he hates when people think that Jethro Tull is just the name of a member in the band.
In Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, in the Gunslinger, Tull is the name of the last city before the desert. Stephen King says that he took the name from Jethro Tull in the Song of Susannah, when speaking to Roland Deschain and Eddie Dean.
Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times called the album The Crane Wife by The Decemberists "the best Jethro Tull album since Heavy Horses."
In 2004, the Drum & Bugle Corps the Cadets show was entitled, "Living With the Past" which featured the music of Jethro Tull.
1967 - 1968 |
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1968 - 1969 |
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1969 - 1970 |
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1970 - 1971 |
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1971 - 1975 |
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1975 - 1976 |
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1976 - 1978 1978 - 1979 |
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1978 |
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1979 - 1980 |
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1980 - 1981 |
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1981 |
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1982 |
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1984 - 1985 |
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1985 - 1987 |
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1987 - 1988 |
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1988 - 1991 |
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1991 - 1992 |
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1992 - 1995 |
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1995 - 2006 |
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2007 |
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| Year | Album | Info | Chart Statistics | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 |
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Island Records |
| 1969 |
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Island Records |
| 1970 |
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Island Records |
| 1971 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1972 |
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Island Records |
| 1972 |
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Island Records |
| 1973 |
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Island Records |
| 1974 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1975 |
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Island Records |
| 1976 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1977 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1978 |
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Island Records |
| 1978 |
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Island Records |
| 1979 |
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Island Records |
| 1980 |
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Island Records |
| 1982 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1984 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1985 |
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RCA Records |
| 1987 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1989 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1991 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1992 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1993 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1995 |
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Chrysalis Records |
| 1999 |
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Fuel 2000 |
| 2002 |
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Eagle Records |
| 2003 |
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Fuel 2000 |
| 2005 |
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RandM Records |
| Jethro Tull |
|---|
| Ian Anderson | Martin Barre | Jonathan Noyce | Andrew Giddings | Doane Perry |
| Mick Abrahams | Clive Bunker | Glenn Cornick | Barriemore Barlow | Jeffrey Hammond | John Evan | David Palmer | John Glascock | Mark Craney | Peter-John Vettese | Eddie Jobson | Dave Pegg | Gerry Conway | Maartin Allcock | Dave Mattacks | Tony Iommi |
| Discography |
| Studio: This Was
| Live: Compilation: Compilation containing previously-unreleased material: Living in the Past | Nightcap Box set: |
| videos lyrics discography biography article music mp3 gallery pictures |
