Ian Anderson: 11 Jethro Tull songs. A thoughtful playlist
“Anderson’s fairy tales. Jethro Tull between concept, parody and prog” is the title of the new book by Vincenzo Oliva and Ruggero Menin, which offers an in-depth analysis, from a lyrical point of view, on the so-called “Anderson’s fairy tales”: the translation, history and interpretation of the most significant texts in Jethro Tull’s discography, all by Ian Anderson, with a particular eye on the three most beloved records, namely “Aqualung” (1971), “Thick as a Brick” (1972), “A Passion Play (1973)”.
I asked Vincenzo Oliva for a thoughtful playlist of songs written by Ian Anderson, with special attention to the lyrics.
Aqualung (1971)
An immortal riff on a shabby old bum: he is the vagabond with ‘Andersonian’ features portrayed on the cover. The name is that of a brand of underwater breathing apparatus, whose sound seems like the rattle of a homeless man who lives on the streets and is having a bad time, together with his friend, the cross-eyed Cross-Eyed Mary: Sitting on a park bench, he looks at the little girls playing with his evil gaze; the sun’s rays are cold, and so he wastes time in the only way he knows how. His leg hurts as he bends to pick up a butt; then he goes down to the urinal to… warm his feet. He feels alone, but there is Caritas: humanity is so fashionable and there is also a cup of tea. Aqualung, friend, do you still remember the freezing fog in December, when the ice stuck to your beard and made you scream in pain? Now you try to steal the last breaths that rattle like the gurgles of a diver, while the flowers bloom like madness in spring.
Spring, the flowers that bloom and the new life that starts its cycle again, in contrast with the slow and inexorable decay of man, bring back to Aqualung’s clouded mind a youth that he probably never had. With these crude images, Anderson wanted to represent the mixture of sensations that the common man feels when he sees a homeless person: revulsion, guilt, fear, pity.
Cross Eyed Mary (1971)
Introduced by a legendary flute riff, Aqualung’s friend is a crone, probably a prostitute who does ‘good’ for the poor, so she is known as the Robin Hood of Highgate. Mary has sex with rich men to extort money from them and give it to the poor: Cross-eyed Mary isn’t interested in kids, she prefers to mess with dirty old men, and is very attracted to Aqualung, Mary is someone who gives it away for a penny, someone who only steals from the rich like the Robin Hood of Highgate. His services are always good, because he helps the poor get by
Locomotives Breath (1971)
The album “Aqualung” was initially going to be titled “My God” and was centered around religion and the meaning of existence. Then all the songs with this theme were gathered on the second side to make room for Aqualung’s misadventures. “Locomotive Breath” is a cynical portrait of life that goes as fast as a train and is equated to the frantic running of a locomotive. In the panting madness that advances like the breathing of a locomotive, man runs, the most loser of all time, who goes straight towards death. He feels the pistons scraping and the steam hitting his forehead, but not the train it will stop because old Charlie must have stolen the knob. There’s no way to slow down, and he sees his children getting off at the various stations one after the other and maybe his wife in bed with his best friend. Well, I guess God stole the knob.
Wind Up (1971)
Anderson lashes out against society and religion with such violence that it is enough to read the text: QWhen I was little they painted me up and sent me to school, where they taught me how not to live, and it didn’t matter if they told me I was an idiot; so one day I left with their God tucked under my arm, their idiotic smiles and the rule book. Then I asked this God a question and he, with a dry answer, told me: ‘Friend, look, I’m not someone you can wind up every Sunday’. So I would like to say to my old principal: you have misunderstood everything and you have not understood anything about the whole damn thing.
My God (1971)
Anderson is not criticizing God at all, but the dogmatic conception of God imposed by the Church, whatever it is: the imposition of a chosen image prevents man from developing his own conception of divinity. It caused a sensation at the time, but he explained it himself in an interview: “‘My God’ is not a song against God or against the idea of God, but it is against the ecclesiastical hierarchy: a criticism against the God they have chosen to worship. And against the fact that children are educated to follow the same God as their parents.”
Thick as a brick (1972)
Regardless of the splendid music played in an excellent manner, this is not a song, but a work full of meanings and sub-meanings, very complex to translate and interpret. Born as a parody of the concept albums and prog that were so fashionable at the time, “Thick as a brick” is a brilliant idea by Anderson: it would be a poem written by an 11 year old child (!), Gerald Bostock, who wins a literary prize that was later revoked due to a swear word contained in the text. The poem is published in a 12-page newspaper, which is the packaging for the record. The child prodigy lucidly examines delicate issues: the society that suffocates individuality, manipulating a human being according to its own needs, to keep alive ‘that’ specially created system which ‘must’ last at all costs. Therefore we are labeled, classified or marginalized only to serve the purposes of those in government. Politics, religion, adolescence, sex, love, the army, family, old age… in short, there is something for everyone. And to think that the album begins with a laconic “we really don’t care if you skip this one”. Meanwhile the flute flutters…
A Passion Play (1973)
It’s Jethro’s most prog album. While not comparable to “Thick as a brick” in terms of music, from a lyrical point of view it is equally valid: it is a serious concept, the story of a man named Ronnie Pilgrim, and it begins… with his death. It is an “Interpretation of the Passion” which addresses themes such as the struggle between good and evil, religion, morality. As in a Dantean journey, after passing away we find ourselves in Limbo with a series of eventualities, choices and hypotheses; then you go through Heaven and Hell from which you reach new subsequent levels, complete with rebirth and final return from the afterlife. Today they would make it into a successful video game!
Only Solitaire (1974)
Delightful acoustic sketch, corrosive and self-deprecating, in which Anderson reflects on his condition as an atypical rock star, because he is a hygienist and against drugs. And he makes fun of himself: Tired of the tortured-minded attitude, he is an actor who spews chilling and spineless lyrics, with critics swooping down on him to tell him he is boring. And really, who the hell could he be if he’s never had an STD and doesn’t even sit on toilet bowls? He must be very smart to assume that dignified air and bless us all with his oratory skills and his pathetic antics. Every evening it always does the same show; and then it must just be a game of chess that he is playing. The answer: Look, you’re wrong, this is solitaire.
Heavy Horses (1978)
In 1978, “Anderson’s fairy tales” changed focus, turning to a series of animals bent at the service of man in the rural world; here the ‘heavy’ horses are the draft horses that work tirelessly in the fields pulling the plough. They are very useful beings yet often derided for their size, and will soon be abandoned and made obsolete by the arrival of agricultural machinery: Paws with iron hooves lightly trample the dust on an October evening, the swollen and sweaty veins stand out in front of the plow. With his immense chest aging, the last in line turns over the clods in the subsoil with the flies pounced on his nostrils. But there isn’t much work to do anymore, the tractor is coming. Let me find you a filly for your proud stallion seed to keep the breed alive; one day, when the oil tycoons are left high and dry and the nights are colder, everyone will beg for your gentle might. The invasion of modern life on humans and animals.
Jack-in-the-Green (1977)
After the freezing winter, nature awakens: Jack-in-the-Green is an associated English folk figure on the first day of May. In ancient folklore, on this day of the year there was the custom of decorate a man with the likeness of a tree: he had to wear a heavy one wooden structure decorated with branches, flowers and green leaves, to lead a noisy procession of minstrels, musicians and dancers, and greet the arrival of spring: Have you seen Jack-in-the-Green? With his long tail he sits under a tree in his velvet dress, drinks the sweet dew that dawn gives him from an empty acorn and bangs his stick on the ground to signal to the snowdrop that it is time to emerge. Jack-In-The-Green, please help me get through my winter’s night.
Dun Ringill (Stormwatch, 1979)
In an album focused on the controversial and always precarious relationship between Man and Nature and on the environmental disasters caused in the name of the oil economy and the god of money, “Dun Ringill” stands out, dedicated to an ancient stone fortress built on the heights of the Isle of Skye, where Anderson lived: From the top of a house that is in heaven, higher than all imagination, I invoke the hours of twilight. And late at night we will meet at Dun Ringill, and we will see the ancient gods play until strength comes to us thanks to the waves that come together in slight disharmony.
