mandocrucian
Feb-11-2005, 10:56am
UK Tour Programme (http://www.tullpress.com/ia90.htm)
April 1990
IAN ANDERSON'S TOP TEN TULL TUNES
A Christmas Song
<span style='color:red'>Although the more recent 'Another Christmas Song' has become a firm favourite of mine, particularly on stage, the original 'A Christmas Song' still holds special memories as being a slightly dangerous departure for a recognised blues group in 1968. I had just purchased a very cheap, but not very cheerful mandolin from a pawn shop in Copenhagen and, although unaware of how to tune it, had written this song during our return on the overnight ferry, sharing a cabin with an annoyed Mick Abrahams. The recording took place just after Mick had technically left the hand and Glenn, Clive and myself had to come up with a B-side for our first single 'Love Story'. The orchestral accompaniment which David Palmer arranged, was so out of time with the rest of the track that I had to re-record my parts to fit in with the "proper" musicians. Terry Ellis made a spirited contribution with sleigh bells</span>
= = = = =
New Musical Express, 11 April 1970 (http://www.tullpress.com/nme11apr70.htm)
'A Time For Everything' is one of the few where the flute plays a prominent role.
<span style='color:red'>I wrote this on mandolin. It was some time ago in Malvern —Jennie and I went back there for our honeymoon — we played there and stayed in a hotel on the side of a hill. I went off on the hill to write the song. As luck would have it, it was one of the few occasions when I was pursued by fans. There I was, sitting down trying to take in the Donovan thing ... trees and sunshine and nature ... and there were half a dozen grubby little 13 year olds thrusting fag packets at me for autographs.</span>
'Inside' is also the single and very commercial really too. It's nice and folksy and pleasant yet pushy with something of a Byrds feel, but still very much Jethro Tull.
<span style='color:red'>You'll like this one: it's a sing-along and another mandolin track. We chose it as the single because while it's not typical of the other tracks ... it's a nice pleasant happy little song ... it doesn't imply any veering away from what we've done before.</span>
============
Dirty Linen
December 1995 / January 1996; Issue no.61 (http://www.tullpress.com/dl95.htm)
There is a significant baroque flavor to many of the compositions on The Divinities but it's difficult to pin Anderson down on his musical influences.
<span style='color:red'>I can't really tell you. I don't really know much about classical music so I can't really comment. I just write stuff. If I write a piece in a certain vein then I will try to let it flow in that direction, but it is not an analytical or a formal approach. I'm not interested in that sort of detail. I'm certainly not interested in that sort of historical perspective on different periods of music.
It's one of the things I've always found really irritating about folk music. Many people feel that Jethro Tull has one foot in the world of folk, but I know nothing about folk music at all, in terms of traditional tunes. I don't know their names, where they're from, anything about them. What I do recognize is melody, harmony, and certain approaches, emotional and practical, because you're in many ways governed by the mechanics of the instrument you play. Fiddle players have a lot in common with mandolin players, because it's essentially the same instrument, so they are very much alike in terms of what you might end up playing on them.
To me things fall onto your fingers or they don't (Anderson continued). They're part of your vocabulary of influences or they aren't, but to sit and analyze them, you become sort of a boring academic. That was one of the things we used to find quite laughable about certain English folk bands — the sort of Smithsonian approach to folk music. I never had much time for that. I always preferred the folks like Bert Jansch and Roy Harper, who clearly moved on a pace, and whose influences were clearly much broader than the traditional English folkie thing. Bands like Steeleye Span were sort of cabaret folk; it was good fun, but I always felt they were at their best when they sort of stepped outside of that traditional format.
It's not that I dislike traditional music, it's just that I find it unnecessary to be tied up in that rather restrictive world of mechanically and practically perfect renditions of English folk or jazz or black American blues. To try to emulate the music precisely as some sort of historical traditional approach of any culture seems almost irrelevant. Much better to sort of soak up the ambience of it and if that comes through your music, fine. If it doesn't, well, something else will.</span>
==========
GO Magazine
April 1970
JETHRO TULL: FILTH, DEGRADATION AND THE ROOTY TOOT (http://www.tullpress.com/goapr70.htm)
Never saw a third-rate band I enjoyed more, this Jethro Tull band. Nobody sounds quite like them (it's not jazz, not blues, not 'rock-jazz'). They are not to be cherished and loved for this strange sound, for they are musically, yes, third-rate in comparison to, say, the maestro band Colosseum.
But
Who cares?
Their hearty rooty-tooty cheer and enthusiasm, coupled with leader and flutist Ian Anderson's outright filth and utter degradation right there on the wholesome stage, all make up for it. Jethro Tull is a departure from that breed of band that stands up there, exalting other-worldliness by ethereal-explosiveness Zeus-like glory. Jethro not only brings the behaviour down into the street, they take it into the sewer. For that, I love them. They deride their own 'heaviness' (even if we even knew what 'heavy' means).
The notes for the second album, Stand Up, credit Anderson with playing organs, mandolins, balalaikas, etc., even though he only plays a smattering of each. He explains:
<span style='color:red'>There's the danger that if you play all the instruments on stage, people will say, "Yah boo, multi-instrumentalists." We don't really play these instruments, but we play the desired thing, given enough time for rehearsal.</span>
And then later:
<span style='color:red'>One gets caught in an embarrassing position</span>
he said, expounding when he expounds best and that is when there is really nothing to expound upon.
<span style='color:red'>You could not mention the credits, and someone would say, "Well, what well-known balalaika studio-player could that be." Which, of course, there are none. Or else there's the one who stays up in his room all night with his $10 Hofner guitar trying to imitate a guitar line when it's actually a mandolin. We obviously can't come into contact with all these people, so we list these things. At the cost of being 'multi-instrumentalists'.</span>
April 1990
IAN ANDERSON'S TOP TEN TULL TUNES
A Christmas Song
<span style='color:red'>Although the more recent 'Another Christmas Song' has become a firm favourite of mine, particularly on stage, the original 'A Christmas Song' still holds special memories as being a slightly dangerous departure for a recognised blues group in 1968. I had just purchased a very cheap, but not very cheerful mandolin from a pawn shop in Copenhagen and, although unaware of how to tune it, had written this song during our return on the overnight ferry, sharing a cabin with an annoyed Mick Abrahams. The recording took place just after Mick had technically left the hand and Glenn, Clive and myself had to come up with a B-side for our first single 'Love Story'. The orchestral accompaniment which David Palmer arranged, was so out of time with the rest of the track that I had to re-record my parts to fit in with the "proper" musicians. Terry Ellis made a spirited contribution with sleigh bells</span>
= = = = =
New Musical Express, 11 April 1970 (http://www.tullpress.com/nme11apr70.htm)
'A Time For Everything' is one of the few where the flute plays a prominent role.
<span style='color:red'>I wrote this on mandolin. It was some time ago in Malvern —Jennie and I went back there for our honeymoon — we played there and stayed in a hotel on the side of a hill. I went off on the hill to write the song. As luck would have it, it was one of the few occasions when I was pursued by fans. There I was, sitting down trying to take in the Donovan thing ... trees and sunshine and nature ... and there were half a dozen grubby little 13 year olds thrusting fag packets at me for autographs.</span>
'Inside' is also the single and very commercial really too. It's nice and folksy and pleasant yet pushy with something of a Byrds feel, but still very much Jethro Tull.
<span style='color:red'>You'll like this one: it's a sing-along and another mandolin track. We chose it as the single because while it's not typical of the other tracks ... it's a nice pleasant happy little song ... it doesn't imply any veering away from what we've done before.</span>
============
Dirty Linen
December 1995 / January 1996; Issue no.61 (http://www.tullpress.com/dl95.htm)
There is a significant baroque flavor to many of the compositions on The Divinities but it's difficult to pin Anderson down on his musical influences.
<span style='color:red'>I can't really tell you. I don't really know much about classical music so I can't really comment. I just write stuff. If I write a piece in a certain vein then I will try to let it flow in that direction, but it is not an analytical or a formal approach. I'm not interested in that sort of detail. I'm certainly not interested in that sort of historical perspective on different periods of music.
It's one of the things I've always found really irritating about folk music. Many people feel that Jethro Tull has one foot in the world of folk, but I know nothing about folk music at all, in terms of traditional tunes. I don't know their names, where they're from, anything about them. What I do recognize is melody, harmony, and certain approaches, emotional and practical, because you're in many ways governed by the mechanics of the instrument you play. Fiddle players have a lot in common with mandolin players, because it's essentially the same instrument, so they are very much alike in terms of what you might end up playing on them.
To me things fall onto your fingers or they don't (Anderson continued). They're part of your vocabulary of influences or they aren't, but to sit and analyze them, you become sort of a boring academic. That was one of the things we used to find quite laughable about certain English folk bands — the sort of Smithsonian approach to folk music. I never had much time for that. I always preferred the folks like Bert Jansch and Roy Harper, who clearly moved on a pace, and whose influences were clearly much broader than the traditional English folkie thing. Bands like Steeleye Span were sort of cabaret folk; it was good fun, but I always felt they were at their best when they sort of stepped outside of that traditional format.
It's not that I dislike traditional music, it's just that I find it unnecessary to be tied up in that rather restrictive world of mechanically and practically perfect renditions of English folk or jazz or black American blues. To try to emulate the music precisely as some sort of historical traditional approach of any culture seems almost irrelevant. Much better to sort of soak up the ambience of it and if that comes through your music, fine. If it doesn't, well, something else will.</span>
==========
GO Magazine
April 1970
JETHRO TULL: FILTH, DEGRADATION AND THE ROOTY TOOT (http://www.tullpress.com/goapr70.htm)
Never saw a third-rate band I enjoyed more, this Jethro Tull band. Nobody sounds quite like them (it's not jazz, not blues, not 'rock-jazz'). They are not to be cherished and loved for this strange sound, for they are musically, yes, third-rate in comparison to, say, the maestro band Colosseum.
But
Who cares?
Their hearty rooty-tooty cheer and enthusiasm, coupled with leader and flutist Ian Anderson's outright filth and utter degradation right there on the wholesome stage, all make up for it. Jethro Tull is a departure from that breed of band that stands up there, exalting other-worldliness by ethereal-explosiveness Zeus-like glory. Jethro not only brings the behaviour down into the street, they take it into the sewer. For that, I love them. They deride their own 'heaviness' (even if we even knew what 'heavy' means).
The notes for the second album, Stand Up, credit Anderson with playing organs, mandolins, balalaikas, etc., even though he only plays a smattering of each. He explains:
<span style='color:red'>There's the danger that if you play all the instruments on stage, people will say, "Yah boo, multi-instrumentalists." We don't really play these instruments, but we play the desired thing, given enough time for rehearsal.</span>
And then later:
<span style='color:red'>One gets caught in an embarrassing position</span>
he said, expounding when he expounds best and that is when there is really nothing to expound upon.
<span style='color:red'>You could not mention the credits, and someone would say, "Well, what well-known balalaika studio-player could that be." Which, of course, there are none. Or else there's the one who stays up in his room all night with his $10 Hofner guitar trying to imitate a guitar line when it's actually a mandolin. We obviously can't come into contact with all these people, so we list these things. At the cost of being 'multi-instrumentalists'.</span>