How about Ian's favourite Tull songs. IA's favourite Jethro Tull songs | The Jethro Tull Forum AQUALUNG "This is the title track of the Aqualung album, and is really a piece of social realism. It's street photography and something like a painting from the (19th/20th century) English artist Walter Langley. It's really about observing people, and learning from what they do and how they behave. The lyrical idea came from a photo my first wife, Jennie Franks, took of homeless people south of the River Thames when she was a student. In fact, she helped to write the lyrics for the song. The line "Snot running down his nose..." is not something I would have written! That came from her. "I believe the sentiments of the song are as obvious now as they were in 1971, because the issue of homeless people hasn't gone away. You still see them everywhere. In the 50 and 60s, we called them tramps, but they were harmless. Now, as so many are on the streets due to drugs problems or sexual exploitation it has become if anything more worrying. All of which makes Aqualung so relevant." LOCOMOTIVE BREATH "Again from Aqualung, this has been the Jethro Tull encore since 1972. Despite the title, it's actually about the problems of population explosion and the demands society puts on us as a consequence. We're on a train heading in the future, whatever that might lead, and we cannot get off. The song is meant to be a bit scary and threatening. "Train songs have been with us ever since the blues began, and I have written my fair share of these. I keep being drawn back to the subject, because public transport is part of my life. I don't drive, so rely on buses, trains and the like. But here it is about a serious social issue." SONGS FROM THE WOOD "This, the title song of our 1977 album, was unashamedly twee. It's decorative folk rock. It openly extols the virtues of the countryside, and the values you want to impart through this to other people. I suppose it is country rock, but in the British sense. It's all delivered with a fair amount of hefty music. There are big guitar riffs and a lot of flute as well. And it does get a little angry, but with a purpose." HEAVY HORSES "The title track of the 1978 album. It's about social realism, which is what a lot of my songs are about. I enjoy being observational, but also welcoming you into this world. Usually, I stick to subjects I know something about, although I have been known sometimes to stray into territory that's a little more unknown. But on this occasion I was sticking to my feelings about the changing world. The music was very much pastoral and British. It must have seemed like deeply unfashionable folk rock at the time, coming as it did towards the end of the punk era, and just before the next big thing happened, which was synth pop." FARM ON THE FREEWAY "That's from Crest Of A Knave, which won the Grammy in 1988 for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, even though it's neither a hard rock nor a metal album! This song is about the change in land usage, and the way in which farms, which have been in families for generations, are being lost, as they are being bought up to build freeways, airports and shopping malls. It's not specifically about the situation in America, and I did think of calling it Farm On The Motorway. But somehow that didn't have the same ring to it! " BUDAPEST "Again from Crest Of A Knave, this has been seen by some as being a very sexist song, when the opposite is true. It is actually about having respect for someone. It's really about admiring someone in the same way that you would admire an exhibit in The Louvre... or even the loo! It's a series of musical vignettes, moving from blues to classical to folk, and I like doing that." A BIRTHDAY CARD AT CHRISTMAS "From the Jethro Tull Christmas Album, and I think it's the last track on which Doane Perry played drums. The idea came from the fact that my daughter's birthday is on December 22. Maybe one in six people have a birthday one month either side of Christmas. And they so often lose out because they're given combined birthday and Christmas presents. That's just so unfair and lazy. I have always given my daughter separate presents for the two occasions, even though they're only a couple of days apart. As I said earlier, we treat Jesus the same way. We forget about December 25 being his birthday, and get embroiled in all the consumption of Christmas celebrations. It's a song I played in churches and cathedrals, and it is an uptempo kind of piece."
He resurrected "So Much Trouble", too (the blues cover from '68), on the '93 tour and blew blues harp on it. So I think his affinity fluctuates a bit. In '84 he said he didn't like to keep old photographs (in reference to the Under Wraps setlist), but oldies from the first three albums & Living In the Past came flooding back in the early 90s. So it seems like he reconnected.
catfish2 Anderson's aim was to write and record a set of entertaining, lighthearted songs, with humour and warmth. Acoustic instruments were more suitable to obtain this than synthesised sounds. The result was a set of rustic, organic songs with an overall bluesy mood, though it definitely was not revisiting the blues. No '1990 This Was upgrade', as Anderson explains: "I love doing acoustic music that's got an attack to it, and that's what I tried to do on Catfish. To make basically acoustic songs, but a bit more agressive and pushy. Most of the songs were written on open tuning mandolins, so therefore they have a kind of bluesy feel about them, although they are not 'the blues' as such. I've taken those ideas and feelings and tried to go somewhere else with it, both muically and lyrically. I've made it a bit less Louisiana, and a bit more Surrey!". That may be the case, but we do have on this album at least two evident blues songs at our hands: "Sleeping With The Dog" and "Still Loving You Tonight". And than there is the odd album title "Catfish Rising". The catfish is an image applied by many black American country blues singers, like Muddy Waters. Julie Hankinson hits the nail on the head when she states: "There is a logical connection there. The Mississippi Delta is a natural environment for catfish. They're a large component of Cajun/Creole cooking. Perhaps "rising" could be an allusion to the fact that the blues influence in Tull's music is once again rising", as does Pamela: "The contents of Catfish Rising are not just blues, they are about turning again. Catfish are bottom feeders, so a catfish rising would be a fish coming up to the surface from the dark"
Ding dong, we have a winner! And basically, it's the same as with Marillion: We fans don't mind waiting a bit longer if it means we get superior product (doesn't mean the finished mix should be held back for years though, *cough* Tears for Fears Seeds of Love Wilson remix *cough*). And if Steven does it instead of Jakko, it will be superior - I think we can all agree on that, don't we?
I've bought all of the SW Jethro Tull remixes, even though I think most of them sounded fine originally and did not need a remix. But if any album benefitted from a remix, it was A Passion Play IMHO. It's become a fave of mine. I think Stormwatch sounds fine like it is.
Search "jethro tull a new day magazine" in books in Amazon usa. I think all AND numbers have the look inside option.
I am very curious about what the content will be. I hope they include the Jethro Toe tracks and a few surprises as promised.
