Jethro Tull

relic245

Thick as a brick and crest of a knave have both been favourites of mine.

for some reason I’ve never listened to much else.

drofluf

My claim to fame is that Dave Pegg nearly ran me over once. I’ve had a quiet life

if I get a chance on Thursday I’ll see if he remembers it as well as I do….

prowla

They managed to turn folky "Heigh-ho nonny-no" into some darned good prog!

Aqualung and Thick As A Brick are my favourites.

Chuffola

Excellent stuff @jaymenon ;

Philly_Q

Tannin said:

Philly_Q said:

All very interesting, although it was a bit out of date - 2008 - and pre-dated the band breaking up then becoming an Anderson solo project.

For all practical purposes, Tull has been an Anderson solo project since at very least the late 1970s; many would say since  the early '70s. 

True, but at least there was a band, with members who were there for a very long time.  I don't think it can ever be regarded as Jethro Tull without Martin Barre (some great, though brief, live clips in that documentary by the way - his Hamers were very cool).

Nitefly

Tannin said:

Philly_Q said:

All very interesting, although it was a bit out of date - 2008 - and pre-dated the band breaking up then becoming an Anderson solo project.

For all practical purposes, Tull has been an Anderson solo project since at very least the late 1970s; many would say since  the early '70s. 

I'd say it's always been that - I knew him at school, and the local Blackpool bands that he went through (The Blades, The John Evan Blues Band) prior to Tull were usually a vehicle for him.  

I suspect it's also the reason Mick Abrahams left.

Fun Fact: Tony Iommi was in JT between Mick Abrahams and Martin Barre!

jaymenon

I hear you, and I agree that teamwork is a wonderful thing.

Sometimes however, some peoples level of ability/genius is so phenomenal,  that demanding conformity to a team approach hinders rather than helps. “He’s not a team player“ is something that has been used to destroy the spirit of many a truly wonderful musician/surgeon/fill in whatever you wish…

Having said that, the level of sheer musicianship in Jethro Tull in the mid 70s with Barriemore Barlow, John Evan, David Palmer, and John Glascock was breathtaking. (And Martin Barre obviously)

there again were their compositional skills as good as their performance skills?

jaymenon

Sometimes true teamwork involves recognising that a particular individual is truly a genius - and is going to be a star.

’What can we do to facilitate this?’ Should be the approach, but sadly very rarely is

EricTheWeary

IIRC Iommi made a TV appearance with Tull so his very brief period with them does see the light of day from time to time. 

I think the strength of Tull was being their own thing. I don't think they were really prog rock or folk rock or even heavy rock ( didn't they win a Grammy for Metal?). All credit to them that they had a vision and pursued it. 

scrumhalf

Tull with Iommi were on the Stones' Rock & Roll Circus, which was on telly last night. 

SRich

scrumhalf said:

Tull with Iommi were on the Stones' Rock & Roll Circus, which was on telly last night. 

Watched that this morning....realising it wasn't Martin Barre I was surprised to find it was Iommi.

Further surprised to realise it was 50 years ago I saw Jethro Tull @ the Sunderland Empire (March 71)

EricTheWeary

scrumhalf said:

Tull with Iommi were on the Stones' Rock & Roll Circus, which was on telly last night. 

Ahh. Flicking through the channels I saw that but thirty seconds of the Stones doing full hippy nonsense was enough for me. 

prowla

I recorded the Stones thing last night, so will watch it and skip the silly bits. 

scrumhalf

The Who are the best thing on R&RC. I belioeve the reason that it was never released was because the Stones believed that The Who upstaged them. Look at the Stones' performance - they were upstaged by the circus acts.

prowla

Well, so far:

• Tull’s performance was a bit lame.Notable only for a bass player with a strap-on harmonica.
• The Who’s performance was three blokes up-front doing naughty lower-sixth humour and some incredible drumming by Keith Moon. 
• Some darned good blues rock by Taj Mahal. 

proggy

I'm a massive Tull fan. I've forgotten how many times I've seen them. 
Ian Anderson is such a great showman, and great musician of course.

prowla

The circus contd. 

• Marianne Faithful trying to carry off a song with no tune. 
• Lennon, Clapton, Richards doing a fine rendition of Yer Blues. (Oh, and was it Mitch Mitchell on drums?)
• Yoko trying to prove she can out-screech a violin (and succeeding!)
• The Stones doing a pretty good Jumping Jack Flash. Then a blues number to show their Norllins roots. Jagger singing rather well. One or two of their well-known songs, like alternative mixes. 

Overall curiously dated but yet fresh too; an interesting quirky performance.
That was probably what they were aiming for. 

blobb

Clive Bunker taught me to play drums.

Well, I say that, what I mean is when I started to learn properly I found a trio of videos in the library called 'Out Of Your Head' by Clive. I had no idea who he was at the time. He takes the view of someone who basically bashed around for too long and wanted to know how all the pieces fit together. He breaks it all down into very simple logic, starting with just a snare drum and how to count. By the end (and they are pretty long videos) I felt I had a pretty close relationship with Clive, now my drum mentor!

Then I found out about his time in Tull and even better, he was Steve Hillage's drummer for a while. I was in prog drummer heaven.

ICBM

scrumhalf said:

The Who are the best thing on R&RC. I belioeve the reason that it was never released was because the Stones believed that The Who upstaged them. Look at the Stones' performance - they were upstaged by the circus acts.

prowla said:

Well, so far:

• Tull’s performance was a bit lame.Notable only for a bass player with a strap-on harmonica.
• The Who’s performance was three blokes up-front doing naughty lower-sixth humour and some incredible drumming by Keith Moon. 
• Some darned good blues rock by Taj Mahal. 

prowla said:

The circus contd. 

• Marianne Faithful trying to carry off a song with no tune. 
• Lennon, Clapton, Richards doing a fine rendition of Yer Blues. (Oh, and was it Mitch Mitchell on drums?)
• Yoko trying to prove she can out-screech a violin (and succeeding!)
• The Stones doing a pretty good Jimping Jack Flash. Then a blues number to show their Norllins roots. Jagger singing rather well. One or two of their well-known songs, like alternative mixes. 

Overall curiously dated but yet fresh too; an interbank quirky performance.
That was probably what they were aiming for. 

... and I'd still far rather watch stuff like this than Joe Bonamassa or Derek Trucks or [insert other modern technically well-played but totally formulaic blues-rock].

It was a time when rock musicians were really pushing the boundaries of (something that might have been trying to be) art, and failed as often as they succeeded - but at least they made the attempt, and it was risky and not entirely predictable.

Sorry, I have been at the gin again.

prowla

ICBM said:

scrumhalf said:

The Who are the best thing on R&RC. I belioeve the reason that it was never released was because the Stones believed that The Who upstaged them. Look at the Stones' performance - they were upstaged by the circus acts.

prowla said:

Well, so far:

• Tull’s performance was a bit lame.Notable only for a bass player with a strap-on harmonica.
• The Who’s performance was three blokes up-front doing naughty lower-sixth humour and some incredible drumming by Keith Moon. 
• Some darned good blues rock by Taj Mahal. 

prowla said:

The circus contd. 

• Marianne Faithful trying to carry off a song with no tune. 
• Lennon, Clapton, Richards doing a fine rendition of Yer Blues. (Oh, and was it Mitch Mitchell on drums?)
• Yoko trying to prove she can out-screech a violin (and succeeding!)
• The Stones doing a pretty good Jimping Jack Flash. Then a blues number to show their Norllins roots. Jagger singing rather well. One or two of their well-known songs, like alternative mixes. 

Overall curiously dated but yet fresh too; an interbank quirky performance.
That was probably what they were aiming for. 

... and I'd still far rather watch stuff like this than Joe Bonamassa or Derek Trucks or [insert other modern technically well-played but totally formulaic blues-rock].

It was a time when rock musicians were really pushing the boundaries of (something that might have been trying to be) art, and failed as often as they succeeded - but at least they made the attempt, and it was risky and not entirely predictable.

Sorry, I have been at the gin again.

I do agree with that.

(Bloddy iPad auto-correct somehow replaced "interesting" with "interbank"!)