I seldom write about music. First, there’s that whole ‘dancing to architecture’ thing, and then there’s the fact that I live in Nashville. You can’t swing a pack of dead catgut guitar strings without bumping into someone who Knows All About Music. Everywhere you go there are Music Majors, Music Theory Majors, the grandchildren of country artists from yesteryear and songwriters. Songwriters. Songwriters. With all the songwriters, who needs me to write about songs?
Me, I just like what I like and pass on what I don’t. I just turn it up loud when I need to clear my head or dance or feel a bit of what it’s like to fly.
And that’s why, no matter what other folks say, I am seriously dedicated to Jethro Tull. Yes, I know they have a flute in the band. I know that Ian Anderson’s signature flutist pose, with his left foot anchored into his right knee, looks rather fey and unrockgodlike. It isn’t cool, like the devil horns or the bat decapitations and it isn’t authentic like the stink of alcohol drifting off Hank Williams, Jr. in waves even after his death.
But I don’t listen with my eyes. Or to impress other people. I listen with my inner self, and that’s the part which likes the rumbling-train base and funk jazz piano of “Locomotive Breath”, the bittersweet melody of “Stuck In The August Rain”, the sneer of “Cross-Eyed Mary”.
My husband often tries to hide my portion of the CD collection, because the Tull and the disco compilations and the showtunes and the entire shelf of Meat Loaf are just so uncool. But to me the music I like is what I like for me. I’ve always loved music and it’s always been essential to who I am. It was only later that I found out there is the music You’re Supposed To Like and the music You’re Not Supposed To Talk About In Public.
So I’m breaking the rules. I like Jethro Tull. And I’m talking about it in public.
Don’t be ashamed, Jethro Tull is great music! Also, my boyfriend is named after Ian Anderson.
I can’t imagine anyone hatin’ on Tull, unless they’re the sort who rail against all prog rock, and there’s just no helping those people
That said, the flute *is* a first good clue that they had absolutely no business getting that heavy metal grammy.
I can’t imagine anyone hatin’ on Tull, unless they’re the sort who rail against all prog rock, and there’s just no helping those people
That said, the flute *is* a first good clue that they had absolutely no business getting that heavy metal grammy.
Well, people do LOVE to hate on prog rock, that’s for sure.
As for the Grammys…I shouldn’t say this in a town wallpapered with them, but the Simpson’s attitude toward them was pretty spot-on.
They seem to be about the most deluded award out there.
Megan, I love that your boyfriend Anderson
was named after Tull’s front man.
Oh, I should also point out that the biggest hater on Tull at the moment is Sarcastro, who is like the Vice Admiral of Hating On Things I Like.
Jethro Tull is awesome. The flute is incredibly cool, as is the flue in the Marshall Tucker Band.
Wait, the woman who won’t read depressing novels will listen to Aqualung?
You can’t dance naked to Anna Karenina.
Says who?
I love Tull, I love disco, and I love prog rock. I love that I was born early enough in the 70s that I got to spend my impressionable years hearing all three at the same time.
But, man, I hate the Marshall Tucker Band. The country rock trend of the 70s represents the worst of the decade. Blech.
Kat–
YouTube has numerous performances of Aqualung from Ian with symphonies to Tull in amazing live performances.
If you sort it by date on YouTube, you can see a magnificent performance of Anderson and Tull doing Aqualung a few years ago and sounding as good, if not better, than in the 70s.
I hope this Friday you’ll join in with all of us who post a video for ‘Feel Good Friday’ and consider posting a JT video.
Better than Rear Admiral, I suppose.
My idea of Hell is being stuck in a huge crowd at Tull/Yes/EmersonLakePalmer show.
Fortunately, those bands haven’t seen huge crowds for the last few decades.
Long live the Tull! And indeed while reviled and ignored in their time indeed they have. Let us not forget that Shakespeare was not unknown in his time but he was reviled and ignored, drunkards were often his crowd, the intelligentsia of the time “knew better.” But to even be considered alongside the great Metallica and Janes Addiction is honor enough in itself. Would that music could be reduced to sport, where there are final scores and if you want to be in the fast lane you had best be paying rapt attention, and, I daresay the level of beating the Tulls from any era would lay on Metallica and their ilk would be truly unspeakable, even if the only available color were metal. And Elvis Costello, U2, Sex Pistols, Clash and Radiohead? You’re next.
Let us not forget that Shakespeare was not unknown in his time but he was reviled and ignored, drunkards were often his crowd, the intelligentsia of the time “knew better.”
Say what? The guy whose plays were performed, during his own lifetime, for Elizabeth I and James I? The guy with the greatest critical reputation among English poets and playwrights of his day?
Forget it, he’s rolling…
Sarcastro–
Come on over to my place, otherwise known as hell!
You know A LOT about music, so you know how much ELP contributed to the Moog first getting used in rock music, and obviously the flute with Tull.
Have you never been mellow and put on some Tull and ELP?
I sort of agree with you on ‘Yes,’ though they had a few good songs.
The only good thing, (and I Do mean the ONLY) good thing about being old and having actually lived through the 60s and 70s is remembering the experiences that went along with these groups, as opposed to just listening them as an audio experience.
“So tell me, have you ever been experienced? Well, I have…”
audio=auditory
The only thing the bloated, pretentious corpse of prog rock is good for is as a pool float.
Ew, the stink! Sar, you have a strange idea of what’s fun in pools.
Sar, you have a strange idea of what’s fun in pools.
It’s all that liquor, I’m sure.
The only thing the bloated, pretentious corpse of prog rock is good for is as a pool float.
Well, I’ll float anywhere on Fish, Peter Gabriel and Ian Anderson.
Hmmm. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of hunky Scots in the world of Prog Rock. This, of course, means that it’s the natural music for a Braveheart geek such as myself. And it surprises me that some Scots around these parts are so snide.
Well, you know, there can be only one.
Bwah!
Still, it’s nothing to lose one’s head over.
Brian Jones made for an excellent pool float.
I would gladly awaken to The Proclaimers ‘500 Miles’ every morning for the rest of me life than ever hear Tull and their ilk ever again.
I wondered when we’d get around to Brian Jones.
Now you’re ragging on the Proclaimers? What is with your hatred of ScotRock?
A bit of self-loathing, perhaps?
Hey, Brian Jones played a flute, too. Or was it a recorder? Sigh. The Stones have never been the same without him.
skin flute joke in 3….2…..
How is that ragging?
How is that ragging?
It’s sort of holding the Proclaimers’ “500 Hundred Miles” as the death that the prog rock is a fate worse than.