Jethro Tull is a progressive rock / folk rock band which formed in Blackpoo… Read Full Bio ↴Jethro Tull is a progressive rock / folk rock band which formed in Blackpool, Lancashire, England in 1967. Their music is marked by the initially soulful and bluesy, and later expressively idiosyncratic, vocal style and unique lead flute work of frontman Ian Anderson, and their notable guitarist Martin Barre. Their songs feature unusual and often complex construction, incorporating elements of classical and celtic folk music, as well as art rock and alternative rock. Anderson has attributed the marked difference between their music and the music of their contemporaries to the group's avoidance of narcotics. While other music groups did influence them in their early years, they quickly developed a unique, instantly recognizable sound.
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 beginning in early 1971. However, after moving to London, most of the band quit, leaving Anderson and bassist Glenn Cornick to join forces with blues guitarist Mick Abrahams and his friend, drummer Clive Bunker, both from the band McGregor's Engine. At first, they had trouble getting repeat bookings and 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 Jethro Tull after the 18th-century agriculturist who invented the seed drill. This name stuck simply by virtue of the fact that they were using it the first time a club manager liked their show enough to invite them to return.
After an unsuccessful single (an Abrahams-penned pop tune called "Sunshine Day" on which the band's name was misspelt "Jethro Toe", making it a collector's item), they released the bluesy album This Was in 1968. Accompanying music written by Anderson and Abrahams was the traditional arrangement "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 skills as a flute player.
Following this album, Abrahams departed to pursue the career of a blues performer subsequently forming his own band, Blodwyn Pig. Anderson chose Tony Iommi (later of Black Sabbath) to replace Abrahams. Iommi, however, felt uncomfortable and decided to leave after only a few weeks, though he agreed to stay on through Tull's appearance on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. (On the program, where the band played "A Song for Jeffrey", only Ian's vocals and the flute were live; everything else was played from a backing tape.) Iommi was replaced by former Motivation, Penny Peeps and Gethsemane member Martin Barre, who impressed Anderson. Barre would become the second longest-standing member of the band after Anderson.
This new line-up released Stand Up in 1969, the band's only UK number 1 album. Written entirely by Anderson—with the exception of a rearrangement of J. S. Bach's "Bourrée" it branched out further from the blues towards progressive rock popularized by such acts as King Crimson, The Nice and Yes. The "Living in the Past" single of the same year reached No. 3 in the UK charts, and though most other progressive rock bands actively resisted issuing singles, they had further success with the singles "Sweet Dream" (1969), "The Witches' Promise" (1970), and a 5-track EP "Life Is a Long Song" (1971), all of which made the Top 20. Despite being inspired by the jazz performances of Dave Brubeck the song "Take Five" "Living" displayed a significant influence of American rock and roll - a trend which has continued throughout the history of Jethro Tull to the present day. In 1970, they added keyboardist John Evan (a session performer at that time) and released the album Benefit which has a continuity owing as much to studio technique as to compositional skill.
Bassist Cornick left following Benefit, replaced by Jeffrey Hammond, a childhood friend of Anderson's whose name appeared in the songs "A Song for Jeffrey," "Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square," and "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey, and Me." Jeffrey was often credited on Tull albums as 'Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond', but the extra 'Hammond' was phoney.
This line-up released album Aqualung in 1971 which became the most played album of the band. The album is a combination of heavy rock music focusing on themes such as social outcasts and organized religion, and an acoustic fare about the mundanity of the everyday life.
Anderson's writing voiced strong opinions about religion and society. The title character of "Aqualung" is a homeless alcoholic paedophile and the focus of the song "Cross-eyed Mary" is an underage prostitute. "My God" showcased Anderson's opposition to ecclesiastic excesses of the contemporary Anglican Church exposed in the verse: "People what have you done / locked Him in His golden cage. / Made Him bend to your religion / Him resurrected from the grave. / He is the god of nothing / if that's all that you can see." In contrast, "Wond'ring Aloud" is a love song.
Drummer Bunker was replaced by Barriemore Barlow in early 1971; he 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 a concept album consisting of a single very long track split over the two sides of the LP, with a number of movements and recurring themes melded to form one piece. The first movement with its distinctive acoustic guitar riff got limited airplay on rock stations but later ended up being referred to as a "deep and rare" cut. The lyrical content was jokingly accredited on the album cover, as having been written in an Essay by a young, fictitious boy named Gerald Bostock. Thick as a Brick was the first Jethro Tull album to reach #1 on the (US) Billboard Pop Albums chart (the following year's A Passion Play being the only other; the featured songs on either album were over 40 minutes long). This album's quintet—Anderson, Barre, Evan, Hammond and Barlow—was one of Tull's longest-standing line-ups, enduring until 1975.
1972 also saw the release of Living in the Past, a double-album compilation of 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. The live tracks excepted, it is regarded by many Tull fans as their best overall release. The title track (in 5/4 time) is one of their more enduring singles, though reportedly Anderson wrote it with the specific intent of preventing its ascent to the pop charts.
In 1973, the band attempted to record a double album in tax exile at Chateau d'Herouville (something the Rolling Stones and Elton John among others were doing at the time), but supposedly they were unhappy with the quality of the recording studio and abandoned the effort, subsequently mocking the studio as the "Chateau d'Isaster." (An excerpt from these recordings was released on the 1988 20 Years of Jethro Tull boxed set. The complete set was later released on the 1993 compilation Nightcap). Instead, they quickly recorded and released A Passion Play, another single-track concept album with very allegorical lyrics. After several years of increasing popularity, A Passion Play sold well but received generally poor reviews. Up until this point, Ian Anderson had a friendly relationship with the rock press, but this album marked a turning point for the band. They had passed the peak of their popularity with the critics, even though their popularity with the public continued. However, 1974's War Child, an album originally intended to be a companion piece for a film, reached number 2 on the Billboard charts and received some critical acclaim, and produced the radio mainstay "Bungle in the Jungle". 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 Minstrel in the Gallery, an album which resembled Aqualung in that it contrasted softer, acoustic guitar-based pieces with lengthier, more bombastic works headlined by Barre's electric guitar. Critics gave it mixed reviews, but the album ultimately came to be acknowledged as one of the band's most-beloved albums by longtime Tull fans, even as it generally fell under the radar to listeners familiar only with Aqualung. Following this album, bassist Hammond left the band, replaced by John Glascock.
1976's Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! was another concept album, this time about the life of an ageing rocker. Anderson, stung by critical reviews (particularly of A Passion Play), responded with more sharply-barbed lyrics. The press seemed oblivious to the ploy, and instead asked if the title track was autobiographical — a charge Anderson hotly denied.
During the early 1970's 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 show 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 colorful costume. Other band-members joined in the dress-up, with Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond dressed in a black and white diagonally striped outfit, John Evans dressed in a white suit, etc. Live shows featured interactive interludes including on-stage phone calls, brief films, and performance art such as costume play "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles".
As the band moved to a more settled style in the late 1970s, so too did Ian and the crew move towards more serene outfits and stage antics. Anderson often dressed as a country squire on tours in the late 1970s. However, the climactic conclusion of shows still included bombastic instrumentals and the famous giant balloons which Anderson would carry aloft over his head and toss into the crowd.
The band closed the decade with a trio of folk rock albums, Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses and Stormwatch. Songs from the Wood was the first Tull album to receive unambiguously positive reviews since the time of Benefit and Living in the Past.
The band had long had ties to the 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 a lot of exchanging of musical ideas between Tull and the folk-rockers. Also, at this time Anderson had moved to a farm in the countryside, and his new bucolic lifestyle is clearly reflected in these albums. In particular, the title track of Heavy Horses is 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 of the lineup that many Tull fans consider 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 pee. Ah, he's back. Did you give it a good shake?") The vinyl LP contains three tracks not found on initial CD editions, Martin Barre's guitar solo tracks "Quatrain" and "Conundrum" and a version of the 1969 UK single hit, "Sweet Dream." These tracks were restored in a re-mastered double-CD edition released in 2004.
During this time, David Palmer, who had orchestrated some strings for earlier Tull albums, formally joined the band, mainly on keyboards. Bassist Glascock died in 1979 following heart surgery and Stormwatch was completed without him (Anderson contributed bass on a few tracks). Anderson decided to record his first solo album.
Due to pressure from Chrysalis Records, Anderson released his solo album as a Jethro Tull album in 1980. Entitled A (taken from the labels on the master tapes for his scrapped solo album which had been marked simply A for Anderson), it featured Barre on electric guitar, Dave Pegg (Fairport Convention) on bass, and Mark Craney on drums. The album had a heavy electronic feel, contributed by guest keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson (ex-Roxy Music, UK). It had a sound and feel completely unlike anything Tull had exhibited before, highlighted by prominent use of synthesizers.
In keeping with the mood of innovation surrounding the album, Tull made an early foray into the emerging genre of a music video with Slipstream, a movie of their concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon in September 1980 featuring the A lineup. The electronic style of the album was even more pronounced in these live performances and was used to striking effect on some of the older songs, including "Locomotive Breath". The more familiar Tull sound was brought to the fore in an all-acoustic version of "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day" featuring Pegg on mandolin. Slipstream, long a rarity on VHS, was in 2004 included as a bonus DVD with the digitally-remastered edition of the A album.
Jobson and Craney departed following the A tour and Tull entered a period of revolving drummers (primarily Gerry Conway and Doane Perry). Peter-John Vettese replaced Jobson on keyboards, and the band returned to a folkier sound — albeit with synthesizers — for 1982's Broadsword and the Beast. 1981 marked the first year in their album career that the band did not release an album.
An Anderson solo album finally saw the light of day in 1983, in the form of the heavily electronic Walk into Light. As with later solo efforts by Anderson and Barre, some of these songs later made their way into Tull live sets.
In 1984 Tull released Under Wraps, a heavily electronic album. Although the band was reportedly proud of the sound, the album was not well-received, particularly in North America, and as a result of the throat problems Anderson developed singing the demanding Under Wraps material on tour, Tull went on a three-year hiatus during which Anderson began a highly successful salmon-farming business.
Tull became active again with 1987's Crest of a Knave. In the absence of Vettese Anderson contributed the synth programming and the band relied more heavily on Barre's electric guitar. The album was a critical and commercial success and earned them a 1989 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, outrunning Metallica. However, the award raised controversy as Jethro Tull wasn't considered hard rock or heavy metal band. Under advisement from their manager, the band didn't attend the award ceremony. In response to the criticism they received over the award, the band then took out an advert in a British music periodical with the line, saying "The flute is a heavy metal instrument!".
The style of Crest has been compared to that of Dire Straits, in part because Anderson seemed to no longer have the vocal range he once possessed. Tull's frank treatment of sexuality was unabated, however. The album contains the popular live song "Budapest", which depicts a backstage scene with a shy local female stagehand. The staging on the 1989 tour (supporting Rock Island) featured projected silhouettes of lithe dancers during the song "Kissing Willie", ending with an image depicting an expressly sexualized scene. Another song from Rock Island called "Big Riff and Mando" reflects life on the road for the relentlessly touring musicians, giving a sardonic account of the theft of Barre's prized mandolin by a star-struck fan.
1988 was notable for the release of 20 Years of Jethro Tull, a 5-LP themed set (also released as an unthemed 3-CD set and as a truncated single CD version) consisting largely of outtakes from throughout the band's history as well as a variety of live and digitally remastered tracks. It also included a booklet outlining the band's history in detail.
After Rock Island, the band released Catfish Rising, Roots to Branches and J-Tull Dot Com that are less heavy-rock-based than Crest of a Knave was. While Catfish Rising has an overtly bluesy feel to it, the other two albums incorporate more folk and world-music influences, reflecting 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 3rd-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".
1992's A Little Light Music was a mostly-acoustic live album which was well received by fans due to its different takes on many past compositions. This record also boasts of the arguably best vocal performance from Anderson in several years, as well as a rendition of the folk song "John Barleycorn."
In 1995 Anderson released his second solo album, Divinities: Twelve Dances with God, an instrumental work comprising 12 flute-heavy pieces that pursue varied themes with an underlying motif.
The band has endured into the 21st century and has continued to release new albums on a semi-regular basis. Recently, Anderson's voice seems to have regained some of its previous range. 2003 saw the release of The Jethro Tull Christmas Album with a collection of traditional Christmas songs together with old and new Christmas songs written by Jethro Tull.
As of April 2005, according to the official Tull website, Anderson said the band had no plans to record any new studio albums in the near future, and that he would prefer to dedicate his time to touring with both Tull and his solo Rubbing Elbows band. He would also like to make more guest appearances with other musicians, live and in the studio. There was an Ian Anderson live double album and DVD released in 2005 called Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull. In addition, a DVD entitled Nothing Is Easy: Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 and a live album Aqualung Live (recorded in 2004) were released in 2005.
Ex-drummer Mark Craney, from the short-lived 1980-1981 line-up, died of diabetes and pneumonia on November 26th, 2005. He had suffered through a history of health problems including kidney ailments, paralysis and a heart condition; a number of Tull members (including Anderson) contributed to a recent charity album, Something with a Pulse, to help Craney pay medical bills and return to health.
The band has discussed the possibility of recording a new studio album by October 2006, which to date hasn't materialized. The band has evolved into a "family" now working with a large group of different musicians from Europe and America, playing acoustic, orchestral and synthesizer music.
In 2023 jethro Tull released the new album RökFlöte.
Discography:
A) Studio albums
1968 - This Was
1969 - Stand Up
1970 - Benefit
1971 - Aqualung
1972 - Thick as a Brick
1972 - Living in the Past
1973 - A Passion Play
1974 - War Child
1975 - Minstrel in the Gallery
1976 - Too Old to Rock ’n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!
1977 - Songs from the Wood
1978 - Heavy Horses
1979 - Stormwatch
1980 - A
1982 - The Broadsword and the Beast
1984 - Under Wraps
1987 - Crest of a Knave
1989 - Rock Island
1991 - Catfish Rising
1995 - Roots to Branches
1999 - J-Tull Dot Com (oder kurz Dot Com)
2003 - The Jethro Tull Christmas Album
2023 - RökFlöte
B) Live albums
1970 - Nothing Is Easy: Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970 (veröffentlicht
1978 - Bursting Out
1978 - Live at Madison Square Garden (veröffentlicht 2009)
1984 - Live at Hammersmith ’84 (veröffentlicht 1990)
1991 - In Concert (At The Hammersmith Odeon, 8th October 1991) (veröffentlicht 1995)
1992 - A Little Light Music
2002 - Living With the Past
2003 - Live at Montreux (veröffentlicht 2007)
2005 - Aqualung Live
2008 - The Jethro Tull Christmas Album and Christmas at St Bride’s (2-CD-Set, zweite CD Live)
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 beginning in early 1971. However, after moving to London, most of the band quit, leaving Anderson and bassist Glenn Cornick to join forces with blues guitarist Mick Abrahams and his friend, drummer Clive Bunker, both from the band McGregor's Engine. At first, they had trouble getting repeat bookings and 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 Jethro Tull after the 18th-century agriculturist who invented the seed drill. This name stuck simply by virtue of the fact that they were using it the first time a club manager liked their show enough to invite them to return.
After an unsuccessful single (an Abrahams-penned pop tune called "Sunshine Day" on which the band's name was misspelt "Jethro Toe", making it a collector's item), they released the bluesy album This Was in 1968. Accompanying music written by Anderson and Abrahams was the traditional arrangement "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 skills as a flute player.
Following this album, Abrahams departed to pursue the career of a blues performer subsequently forming his own band, Blodwyn Pig. Anderson chose Tony Iommi (later of Black Sabbath) to replace Abrahams. Iommi, however, felt uncomfortable and decided to leave after only a few weeks, though he agreed to stay on through Tull's appearance on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. (On the program, where the band played "A Song for Jeffrey", only Ian's vocals and the flute were live; everything else was played from a backing tape.) Iommi was replaced by former Motivation, Penny Peeps and Gethsemane member Martin Barre, who impressed Anderson. Barre would become the second longest-standing member of the band after Anderson.
This new line-up released Stand Up in 1969, the band's only UK number 1 album. Written entirely by Anderson—with the exception of a rearrangement of J. S. Bach's "Bourrée" it branched out further from the blues towards progressive rock popularized by such acts as King Crimson, The Nice and Yes. The "Living in the Past" single of the same year reached No. 3 in the UK charts, and though most other progressive rock bands actively resisted issuing singles, they had further success with the singles "Sweet Dream" (1969), "The Witches' Promise" (1970), and a 5-track EP "Life Is a Long Song" (1971), all of which made the Top 20. Despite being inspired by the jazz performances of Dave Brubeck the song "Take Five" "Living" displayed a significant influence of American rock and roll - a trend which has continued throughout the history of Jethro Tull to the present day. In 1970, they added keyboardist John Evan (a session performer at that time) and released the album Benefit which has a continuity owing as much to studio technique as to compositional skill.
Bassist Cornick left following Benefit, replaced by Jeffrey Hammond, a childhood friend of Anderson's whose name appeared in the songs "A Song for Jeffrey," "Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square," and "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey, and Me." Jeffrey was often credited on Tull albums as 'Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond', but the extra 'Hammond' was phoney.
This line-up released album Aqualung in 1971 which became the most played album of the band. The album is a combination of heavy rock music focusing on themes such as social outcasts and organized religion, and an acoustic fare about the mundanity of the everyday life.
Anderson's writing voiced strong opinions about religion and society. The title character of "Aqualung" is a homeless alcoholic paedophile and the focus of the song "Cross-eyed Mary" is an underage prostitute. "My God" showcased Anderson's opposition to ecclesiastic excesses of the contemporary Anglican Church exposed in the verse: "People what have you done / locked Him in His golden cage. / Made Him bend to your religion / Him resurrected from the grave. / He is the god of nothing / if that's all that you can see." In contrast, "Wond'ring Aloud" is a love song.
Drummer Bunker was replaced by Barriemore Barlow in early 1971; he 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 a concept album consisting of a single very long track split over the two sides of the LP, with a number of movements and recurring themes melded to form one piece. The first movement with its distinctive acoustic guitar riff got limited airplay on rock stations but later ended up being referred to as a "deep and rare" cut. The lyrical content was jokingly accredited on the album cover, as having been written in an Essay by a young, fictitious boy named Gerald Bostock. Thick as a Brick was the first Jethro Tull album to reach #1 on the (US) Billboard Pop Albums chart (the following year's A Passion Play being the only other; the featured songs on either album were over 40 minutes long). This album's quintet—Anderson, Barre, Evan, Hammond and Barlow—was one of Tull's longest-standing line-ups, enduring until 1975.
1972 also saw the release of Living in the Past, a double-album compilation of 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. The live tracks excepted, it is regarded by many Tull fans as their best overall release. The title track (in 5/4 time) is one of their more enduring singles, though reportedly Anderson wrote it with the specific intent of preventing its ascent to the pop charts.
In 1973, the band attempted to record a double album in tax exile at Chateau d'Herouville (something the Rolling Stones and Elton John among others were doing at the time), but supposedly they were unhappy with the quality of the recording studio and abandoned the effort, subsequently mocking the studio as the "Chateau d'Isaster." (An excerpt from these recordings was released on the 1988 20 Years of Jethro Tull boxed set. The complete set was later released on the 1993 compilation Nightcap). Instead, they quickly recorded and released A Passion Play, another single-track concept album with very allegorical lyrics. After several years of increasing popularity, A Passion Play sold well but received generally poor reviews. Up until this point, Ian Anderson had a friendly relationship with the rock press, but this album marked a turning point for the band. They had passed the peak of their popularity with the critics, even though their popularity with the public continued. However, 1974's War Child, an album originally intended to be a companion piece for a film, reached number 2 on the Billboard charts and received some critical acclaim, and produced the radio mainstay "Bungle in the Jungle". 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 Minstrel in the Gallery, an album which resembled Aqualung in that it contrasted softer, acoustic guitar-based pieces with lengthier, more bombastic works headlined by Barre's electric guitar. Critics gave it mixed reviews, but the album ultimately came to be acknowledged as one of the band's most-beloved albums by longtime Tull fans, even as it generally fell under the radar to listeners familiar only with Aqualung. Following this album, bassist Hammond left the band, replaced by John Glascock.
1976's Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! was another concept album, this time about the life of an ageing rocker. Anderson, stung by critical reviews (particularly of A Passion Play), responded with more sharply-barbed lyrics. The press seemed oblivious to the ploy, and instead asked if the title track was autobiographical — a charge Anderson hotly denied.
During the early 1970's 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 show 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 colorful costume. Other band-members joined in the dress-up, with Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond dressed in a black and white diagonally striped outfit, John Evans dressed in a white suit, etc. Live shows featured interactive interludes including on-stage phone calls, brief films, and performance art such as costume play "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles".
As the band moved to a more settled style in the late 1970s, so too did Ian and the crew move towards more serene outfits and stage antics. Anderson often dressed as a country squire on tours in the late 1970s. However, the climactic conclusion of shows still included bombastic instrumentals and the famous giant balloons which Anderson would carry aloft over his head and toss into the crowd.
The band closed the decade with a trio of folk rock albums, Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses and Stormwatch. Songs from the Wood was the first Tull album to receive unambiguously positive reviews since the time of Benefit and Living in the Past.
The band had long had ties to the 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 a lot of exchanging of musical ideas between Tull and the folk-rockers. Also, at this time Anderson had moved to a farm in the countryside, and his new bucolic lifestyle is clearly reflected in these albums. In particular, the title track of Heavy Horses is 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 of the lineup that many Tull fans consider 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 pee. Ah, he's back. Did you give it a good shake?") The vinyl LP contains three tracks not found on initial CD editions, Martin Barre's guitar solo tracks "Quatrain" and "Conundrum" and a version of the 1969 UK single hit, "Sweet Dream." These tracks were restored in a re-mastered double-CD edition released in 2004.
During this time, David Palmer, who had orchestrated some strings for earlier Tull albums, formally joined the band, mainly on keyboards. Bassist Glascock died in 1979 following heart surgery and Stormwatch was completed without him (Anderson contributed bass on a few tracks). Anderson decided to record his first solo album.
Due to pressure from Chrysalis Records, Anderson released his solo album as a Jethro Tull album in 1980. Entitled A (taken from the labels on the master tapes for his scrapped solo album which had been marked simply A for Anderson), it featured Barre on electric guitar, Dave Pegg (Fairport Convention) on bass, and Mark Craney on drums. The album had a heavy electronic feel, contributed by guest keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson (ex-Roxy Music, UK). It had a sound and feel completely unlike anything Tull had exhibited before, highlighted by prominent use of synthesizers.
In keeping with the mood of innovation surrounding the album, Tull made an early foray into the emerging genre of a music video with Slipstream, a movie of their concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon in September 1980 featuring the A lineup. The electronic style of the album was even more pronounced in these live performances and was used to striking effect on some of the older songs, including "Locomotive Breath". The more familiar Tull sound was brought to the fore in an all-acoustic version of "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day" featuring Pegg on mandolin. Slipstream, long a rarity on VHS, was in 2004 included as a bonus DVD with the digitally-remastered edition of the A album.
Jobson and Craney departed following the A tour and Tull entered a period of revolving drummers (primarily Gerry Conway and Doane Perry). Peter-John Vettese replaced Jobson on keyboards, and the band returned to a folkier sound — albeit with synthesizers — for 1982's Broadsword and the Beast. 1981 marked the first year in their album career that the band did not release an album.
An Anderson solo album finally saw the light of day in 1983, in the form of the heavily electronic Walk into Light. As with later solo efforts by Anderson and Barre, some of these songs later made their way into Tull live sets.
In 1984 Tull released Under Wraps, a heavily electronic album. Although the band was reportedly proud of the sound, the album was not well-received, particularly in North America, and as a result of the throat problems Anderson developed singing the demanding Under Wraps material on tour, Tull went on a three-year hiatus during which Anderson began a highly successful salmon-farming business.
Tull became active again with 1987's Crest of a Knave. In the absence of Vettese Anderson contributed the synth programming and the band relied more heavily on Barre's electric guitar. The album was a critical and commercial success and earned them a 1989 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, outrunning Metallica. However, the award raised controversy as Jethro Tull wasn't considered hard rock or heavy metal band. Under advisement from their manager, the band didn't attend the award ceremony. In response to the criticism they received over the award, the band then took out an advert in a British music periodical with the line, saying "The flute is a heavy metal instrument!".
The style of Crest has been compared to that of Dire Straits, in part because Anderson seemed to no longer have the vocal range he once possessed. Tull's frank treatment of sexuality was unabated, however. The album contains the popular live song "Budapest", which depicts a backstage scene with a shy local female stagehand. The staging on the 1989 tour (supporting Rock Island) featured projected silhouettes of lithe dancers during the song "Kissing Willie", ending with an image depicting an expressly sexualized scene. Another song from Rock Island called "Big Riff and Mando" reflects life on the road for the relentlessly touring musicians, giving a sardonic account of the theft of Barre's prized mandolin by a star-struck fan.
1988 was notable for the release of 20 Years of Jethro Tull, a 5-LP themed set (also released as an unthemed 3-CD set and as a truncated single CD version) consisting largely of outtakes from throughout the band's history as well as a variety of live and digitally remastered tracks. It also included a booklet outlining the band's history in detail.
After Rock Island, the band released Catfish Rising, Roots to Branches and J-Tull Dot Com that are less heavy-rock-based than Crest of a Knave was. While Catfish Rising has an overtly bluesy feel to it, the other two albums incorporate more folk and world-music influences, reflecting 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 3rd-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".
1992's A Little Light Music was a mostly-acoustic live album which was well received by fans due to its different takes on many past compositions. This record also boasts of the arguably best vocal performance from Anderson in several years, as well as a rendition of the folk song "John Barleycorn."
In 1995 Anderson released his second solo album, Divinities: Twelve Dances with God, an instrumental work comprising 12 flute-heavy pieces that pursue varied themes with an underlying motif.
The band has endured into the 21st century and has continued to release new albums on a semi-regular basis. Recently, Anderson's voice seems to have regained some of its previous range. 2003 saw the release of The Jethro Tull Christmas Album with a collection of traditional Christmas songs together with old and new Christmas songs written by Jethro Tull.
As of April 2005, according to the official Tull website, Anderson said the band had no plans to record any new studio albums in the near future, and that he would prefer to dedicate his time to touring with both Tull and his solo Rubbing Elbows band. He would also like to make more guest appearances with other musicians, live and in the studio. There was an Ian Anderson live double album and DVD released in 2005 called Ian Anderson Plays the Orchestral Jethro Tull. In addition, a DVD entitled Nothing Is Easy: Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 and a live album Aqualung Live (recorded in 2004) were released in 2005.
Ex-drummer Mark Craney, from the short-lived 1980-1981 line-up, died of diabetes and pneumonia on November 26th, 2005. He had suffered through a history of health problems including kidney ailments, paralysis and a heart condition; a number of Tull members (including Anderson) contributed to a recent charity album, Something with a Pulse, to help Craney pay medical bills and return to health.
The band has discussed the possibility of recording a new studio album by October 2006, which to date hasn't materialized. The band has evolved into a "family" now working with a large group of different musicians from Europe and America, playing acoustic, orchestral and synthesizer music.
In 2023 jethro Tull released the new album RökFlöte.
Discography:
A) Studio albums
1968 - This Was
1969 - Stand Up
1970 - Benefit
1971 - Aqualung
1972 - Thick as a Brick
1972 - Living in the Past
1973 - A Passion Play
1974 - War Child
1975 - Minstrel in the Gallery
1976 - Too Old to Rock ’n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!
1977 - Songs from the Wood
1978 - Heavy Horses
1979 - Stormwatch
1980 - A
1982 - The Broadsword and the Beast
1984 - Under Wraps
1987 - Crest of a Knave
1989 - Rock Island
1991 - Catfish Rising
1995 - Roots to Branches
1999 - J-Tull Dot Com (oder kurz Dot Com)
2003 - The Jethro Tull Christmas Album
2023 - RökFlöte
B) Live albums
1970 - Nothing Is Easy: Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970 (veröffentlicht
1978 - Bursting Out
1978 - Live at Madison Square Garden (veröffentlicht 2009)
1984 - Live at Hammersmith ’84 (veröffentlicht 1990)
1991 - In Concert (At The Hammersmith Odeon, 8th October 1991) (veröffentlicht 1995)
1992 - A Little Light Music
2002 - Living With the Past
2003 - Live at Montreux (veröffentlicht 2007)
2005 - Aqualung Live
2008 - The Jethro Tull Christmas Album and Christmas at St Bride’s (2-CD-Set, zweite CD Live)
My God
Jethro Tull Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
People, what have you done
Locked Him in His golden cage
Golden cage
Made Him bend to your religion
Him resurrected from the grave
From the grave
He is the God of nothing
If that's all that you can see
You are the God of everything
He's inside you and me
So lean upon Him gently
And don't call on Him to save you
From your social graces
And the sins you used waive
You used to waive
The bloody Church of England
In chains of history
Requests your earthly presence at
The vicarage for tea
And the graven image you know
With His plastic crucifix
He's got him fixed
Confuses me as to who and where and why
As to how he gets his kicks
He gets his kicks
Confessing to the endless sin
The endless whining sounds
You'll be praying 'til next Thursday to
All the Gods that you can count
Locked Him in His golden cage
Golden cage
Made Him bend to your religion
Him resurrected from the grave
From the grave
He is the God of nothing
You are the God of everything
He's inside you and me
So lean upon Him gently
And don't call on Him to save you
From your social graces
And the sins you used waive
You used to waive
The bloody Church of England
In chains of history
Requests your earthly presence at
The vicarage for tea
And the graven image you know
With His plastic crucifix
He's got him fixed
Confuses me as to who and where and why
As to how he gets his kicks
He gets his kicks
Confessing to the endless sin
The endless whining sounds
You'll be praying 'til next Thursday to
All the Gods that you can count
The lyrics of Jethro Tull's song "My God" are a stark commentary on how religion, specifically Christianity, has been used by people to control and manipulate others. The first verse talks about how people have locked God in a golden cage and made him bend to their religion, while he has resurrected from the grave. This suggests that while people may have created their own idea of God and their religion, the real God has a life of its own.
The second verse is more contemplative as it asks the listener to look beyond what they see and question their faith. It suggests that those who see God as nothing are the real gods themselves, for they have the power to create and control their own lives. It goes on to say that God is not an entity to call upon when one needs saving from their social graces and sins.
The third verse is even more scathing as it takes a jab at the Church of England and its history of chaining people to its beliefs. The lyrics also criticize the idea of graven images, which are believed to have supernatural and divine power, but are in fact made of plastic and are nothing more than a fiction. The verse ends with a stinging critique of religion as a whole, saying that even the endless prayers and confessions to endless sins are not enough for God to save us.
Overall, Jethro Tull's "My God" is a song that challenges religious beliefs and encourages people to question their ideas about God and religion.
Line by Line Meaning
People, what have you done
What actions have you taken, people?
Locked Him in His golden cage
You have imprisoned Him in a gilded cage.
Golden cage
This is a symbolic reference to the luxurious prison in which you have trapped God.
Made Him bend to your religion
You have forced Him to conform to your specific religious beliefs.
Him resurrected from the grave
This line is referring to Jesus' resurrection from the dead.
From the grave
This is a reminder of Jesus' victory over death and a call to remember the true meaning of his sacrifice.
He is the God of nothing
If all you see is emptiness, then God means nothing to you.
If that's all that you can see
If you only see emptiness, then you're missing the whole point.
You are the God of everything
But if you can see the beauty and wonder of the world and recognize the sacredness of all things, then you are the embodiment of God.
He's inside you and me
God is not an external force, but rather something that resides within each of us.
So lean upon Him gently
If you feel lost or alone, seek God's guidance and support, but approach with respect and reverence.
And don't call on Him to save you
Don't expect God to fix your problems for you; take responsibility for your own actions.
From your social graces
Don't rely on social hierarchies or customs to guide your behavior; instead, look to your own conscience and inner morality.
And the sins you used waive
Don't let your past mistakes or transgressions influence your present actions or beliefs.
You used to waive
This line is a reminder that you've learned from your past mistakes and have moved on from them.
The bloody Church of England
This is a reference to the violent, bloody history of the Church of England.
In chains of history
The Church's past actions are a weight that it still bears today.
Requests your earthly presence at
The Church still seeks the support and attendance of its members.
The vicarage for tea
This is a somewhat sarcastic reference to the Church's attempts to remain a relevant and inviting presence in people's lives.
And the graven image you know
This line is referring to the prevalence of religious icons and symbols, and how they can be used to manipulate and control people.
With His plastic crucifix
Modern religious symbols often lack the depth and meaning of their historical counterparts.
He's got him fixed
This line is a criticism of the superficial and commercial nature of modern religion.
Confuses me as to who and where and why
This is a lament about the confusing and contradictory nature of modern religious practices and beliefs.
As to how he gets his kicks
This is a reference to how the Church can manipulate people for its own gain and profit.
He gets his kicks
This is a condemnation of the Church's hypocritical and manipulative behavior.
Confessing to the endless sin
This is a reference to the cycle of sin and redemption that is central to many religious beliefs.
The endless whining sounds
This is a criticism of the self-pitying nature of many religious practices.
You'll be praying 'til next Thursday to
This is a jab at the endless repetition and futility of religious prayers and rituals.
All the Gods that you can count
This is a reminder that religious belief should not be reduced to mere mathematical calculation or logical reasoning.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: IAN ANDERSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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