Wind-Up

...so I'm working at the record store and we get a new batch of import singles, one of which is "Moths" by Jethro Tull. A quick listen, hmmm...not bad, not bad at all. Being as I'm on a low-Tull diet, I don't pursue this any further. When I finally do hear the subsequent album "Heavy Horses", I am gobsmacked -- crikey, they've done it again! Well, maybe not -- half & half, I'd say, but the good songs are REALLY GOOD! -- and who expected that? Funny that a few albums previous, Ian was writing about classic themes like God versus the Devil, the Church versus Pan (well, that's probably a stretch...), and here comes Ian in full country squire mode, writing about the eternal struggle between cats and mice. Seriously, just because you're using a smaller canvas doesn't mean the concepts are smaller.(I just wish the album had the single mix of "Moths", MIA so far.)

"Heavy Horses" was a one-off for me. "Live - Bursting Out","Stormwatch" and "A" followed, but I was occupied elsewhere.




So, 4 years after "Heavy Horses", we get "The Broadsword and the Beast". A return to form? Not exactly, but instead a version of Tull that remembers past glories but looks to the future. It's one of their best, and I think most fans think of it fondly because it showed that our faith in the band wasn't misplaced after all.




Next, Ian releases a solo album "Walk Into Light" which is very keyboard-driven and synthy. It sells by the thimble-full, but I still find it interesting (except for Ian's leisure suit on the cover). And it was the bridge to the next official Tull album..."Under Wraps" -- what the hell?? A very divisive album in the Tull camp due to the synth-drums and programming. I confess: I haven't heard it for many years, but I do remember liking it at the time. Again, a case of Tull re-jigging the formula and trying something new.



3 years on and here it is: "Crest of a Knave", the album that had Metallica crying foul. Two myths: Ian held "listening parties" so fans could vote on their favorite songs so the band could then release the most radio-friendly version. Boo-hiss, pandering in the worst sense. Not so, says Ian. He already had the album ready to go, these events were to convince a skittish record company that there indeed was a market for it.

Second myth: Ian saw that Dire Straits was the latest flavour of the minute and so the album's vocals and guitar echo DS's Mark Knopfler. Boo-hiss, pandering in the worst way. Actually, Ian's ravaged voice caused him to write songs in a lower register so he wouldn't blow out his vocal cords on the road (nice try, but Ian's workaholic touring schedule strained his voice anyway). And the story goes that Mark Knopfler had asked the manufacturers of his guitars to help him get the sound of Martin Barre - from Jethro Tull.

Well I don't know how true this is, but "Crest" is pretty much top-notch all the way through, "Budapest", "Said She Was a Dancer" and "Steel Monkey" being aces in my book.






After this? Lots of anniversary collections, with the "20 Years of Jethro Tull" 3 CD set seriously excellent throughout -- single B-sides, radio broadcasts, unreleased demos -- they got this one right. "Rock Island" (jeez, again with the crap graphics?) and "Catfish Rising" were the last of the 80s and the first of the 90s, and I bowed out. Then the "25th Anniversary Box Set" which came in a really cool cigar box, but at 4 CDs was probably 3 CDs too much. Another compilation "Night Cap" was actually much better, again with b-sides and unreleased tracks, but it was obviously a labor of love and not intended to fleece the fans (Ian donated his cut to charity.)





"A Little Light Music" was a record of Tull's anywhere-we-can-plug-in tour schedule. I'll bet for many Eastern European and far-flung Asian markets, Tull was the first British rock band they'd ever seen. The tours may have wrecked Ian's voice but they brought the music to the underserved. I bought "Light Music" when I found it in a used bin, thought "What can I lose?", and was pleasantly surprised -- it's a good record of how Tull managed to re-interpret their material over the years to keep if familiar but fresh -- and there's a track recorded in Pullman WA!

Wrapping it up, Ian had a few more solo albums; I heard some tracks from the latest and wished it had been recorded with a band -- kinda sterile when Ian plays all the instruments. 1995's "Roots to Branches" had some more good material with "Wounded, Old & Treacherous" a winking update that puts Ian back in "Bungle in the Jungle" as a lion past his prime, but still with some fight left.


Tull continues to tour, and there are always rumors of new material still to come.
There may be other bands that I have more interest in these days, but I don't think there's any music that's given me more joy over the many years than Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull. Rock on, gentlemen.