Jethro Tull’s second LP reached No. 1 in the United Kingdom

(No. 29 in a continuing series on artists who should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but are not)

By Phill Marder

Their hit singles are almost non-existent. Yet most fans of popular music during the Rock era are familiar with many of their songs. In fact, many know many by heart.

In the 1970s, they were one of the most popular bands on the planet, selling out albums and concerts around the world. On the Billboard album charts, they rank 20th on the list of best sellers in the ’70s. Of the 19 artists above them, just Barbra Streisand, Chicago and John Denver have failed to gain entry into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In fact, of the 10 ranked below them, just one – Grand Funk Railroad – has yet to be inducted.

Like Grand Funk, Jethro Tull, our topic for this week, was/is immensely popular with the listening audience. But, not surprisingly, most critics had/have little good to say about Ian Anderson (lead vocals and flute) and Martin Barre (lead guitar) and their varying supporting cast, and, at present at least, this seems to weigh heavily on a band’s chances of entering the “hallowed” Hall.

Still, when a band puts up numbers the likes of Jethro Tull and does it for over 40 years, it’s time for Anderson, Barre and company (band members over the years number into the 20s), to receive their just due.

Tull first made its presence felt in United Kingdom concert appearances as the ’60s drew to a close. With the band playing what was then described as a mixture of blues and jazz behind the madman antics of their front man, British audiences responded by sending their initial LP, 1968’s “This Was,” into the top 10, while U.S. record buyers ran it to No. 62, a more than respectable showing for a new group without a hit.

The following year, Tull broke the British singles market with two top 10 hits, “Living In The Past” and “Sweet Dream,” and the “Stand Up” LP, though it didn’t include either hit, became the group’s only No. 1 long-player in the UK. It was far from their lone UK success, though. “Stand Up” also broke the band in Norway, starting a string of six straight Top 10 LPs there.

And while “This Was” had opened the American door for Tull, “Stand Up” pushed them right through, reaching No. 20. Album No. 3, “Benefit,” did even better in the States, just missing the top 10. It didn’t follow “Stand Up” to the top in the UK, but it didn’t miss by much, peaking at No. 3.

Remaining a favorite concert attraction and having established a constant presence on flourishing FM progressive rock radio, Tull had become one of the most popular bands in the world by the time they released their first true blockbuster – “Aqualung.” The title cut and “Locomotive Breath” became radio staples and the album became a classic, hitting the top 10 in the US and UK. Even Rolling Stone praised the album’s “fine musicianship” and considered it “serious and intelligent,” eventually ranking it No. 337 on its list of 500 all-time best albums. Guitarist magazine listed Barre’s guitar solo on the title track on their list of “20 greatest guitar solos of all time.”

How do they come up with these lists? Well, they get a group of “experts” to choose them, Rob Sheffield for one. Sheffield calls Charlie Watts the greatest drummer in rock & roll history, so perhaps these lists should be taken with a shaker of salt…assuming you haven’t lost it.

It was nice to see “Aqualung” fairly well received in the media, but Anderson was displeased the album had been pegged as a concept work. In response, he promised, “If the critics want a concept album we’ll give the mother of all concept albums and we’ll make it so bombastic and so over the top…” That they did, the entire album being one 45-minute song. Anderson later claimed the resulting “Thick As A Brick” was a spoof of progressive rock albums. Whatever it was, it worked, becoming Tull’s first No. 1 album stateside and reaching No. 5 in Britain. The sarcastic and humorous newspaper cover didn’t help endear Tull to its critics.

The next “new” release, “A Passion Play,” also hit the top of the United States chart and the next, “War Child,” just missed, stopping at No. 2.

But get this, the same two – Mark Coleman and Ernesto Lechner – that ripped Rush in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, wrote this in that same “esteemed” publication…“The immediate success of Aqualung spurred Anderson to indulge his artistic whims, resulting in two challenging, wildly experimental, and occasionally obtuse theatrical concept albums: Thick As A Brick and Passion Play. After that strategy backfired, Jethro Tull returned to traditional song structure on War Child and the acoustic-flavored Minstrel In The Gallery.”

Backfired? BACKFIRED? How does consecutive No. 1 albums qualify as strategy backfiring? Maybe Anderson intended to produce two duds? That’s like saying the Phillies acquired Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt and the moves backfired as they won the next two World Series. We all should have such career backfires.

Recovering from that “slump,” Tull continued to release best-selling works, four more LPs hitting the US top 20 before closing its most productive decade with “Stormwatch,” which peaked at No. 22. In the spirit of a true super group, Jethro Tull continued to release new material as the years passed, charting six US albums in the 1980s, four reaching the UK top 20, including “Tne Broadsword And The Beast,” which also climbed to No. 19 in the US, and four more best-sellers in the ‘90s.

In 1987, Tull, always hard to classify, found out just what category it fit when “Crest Of A Knave” won the Grammy for “best hard rock/metal performance vocal or instrumental” beating out Metallica and Jane’s Addiction in what Entertainment Weekly called one of the 10 biggest upsets in Grammy history. Hard rock? Heavy metal? Anderson, Barre and company didn’t even go to the award show figuring there was no way they would win. Later, their label, Chrysalis, took out an advertisement informing the public – tongue in cheek, of course – that “the flute is a heavy metal instrument.”

Anderson, Barre and cohorts still tour worldwide, live albums being the result the last few years. A live performance at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony would be most deserving.

On April 12th Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson will be taking part in a duet with US astronaut Colonel Catherine Coleman to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight in 1961.

While Anderson will be live on stage in Perm, Russia, Coleman will be in orbit in the International Space Station as she contributes to Ian’s truly out of this world concert.

Coleman’s part of the performance will be screened by video link to the audience in Perm from somewhere in the galaxy as part of this “space” gig.

The pair will be playing an excerpt from “Bouree” on Tull’s “Stand Up” album (at left).

Coleman has been practicing her Ian Anderson trade mark of playing the flute while standing (or in her case floating) on one leg. For 3 months, Anderson’s flute accompanied Cady Coleman and her own flute in orbit allowing her to perfect her Anderson stance ahead of the duet.

In the meantime, Jethro Tull is celebrating the 40th anniversary of “Aqualung” with a North American tour in June

The group features longtime members Ian Anderson (flute, vocals, acoustic guitar) and Martin Barre (guitars), Doane Perry (drums), as well as David Goodier (bass) and pianist John O’Hara.  The latter two joined in 2006 after working with Ian on some of his solo projects.

The group will be performing the Aqualung album in its entirety plus a range of their other favorites from the last 42 years.

In 2011, Tull will also tour in Australia, Ireland, and Germany. And Ian Anderson will perform solo shows in Germany, Spain, Cyprus, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, Czech Republic, the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Finland finishing with his customary charity Christmas concerts at three UK cathedrals.

Jethro Tull North American tour:
June 8: Red Rock Amphitheater, Morrison, CO
June 10: Comerica Theatre, Phoenix, AZ
June 11: The Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
June 12: TBA, Valley Center, CA
June 13: The Grove, Anaheim, CA
June 14: TBA, Saratoga, CA
June 16: Cuthbert Amphitheater, Eugene, OR
June 17: McMenamins Edgefield Concerts On The Lawn, Troutdale, OR
June 18: TBA, Woodinville, WA
June 19: Centre for the Performing Arts, Vancouver, BC
June 21: Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton, AB
June 22: Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Calgary, AB
June 23: Casino Regina, Regina, SK
June 25: Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
June 26: Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL
June 27: Rosemont Theatre, Rosemont, IL

JIMI HENDRIX’S performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight festival came just a month before his untimely death. Courtesy Laurens Van Houten/Frank White Photo Agency

By Dave Thompson

With the exception of Woodstock, the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival is the most visible classic concert ever held. Full performances by many of the week-long event’s performers are now readily available on DVD… Jimi Hendrix, Leonard Cohen, The Who (a career-best outing), Miles Davis, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, Free and, most recently, The Moody Blues among them; while director Murray Lerner’s cameras were also responsible for a two-hour-plus documentary of the entire event, “Message to Love.” Taken together, they add up to an essential souvenir of a truly legendary event.

Located just off the south coast of England, the Isle of Wight was no stranger to festivals. Events had been staged there in 1968 and 1969, although the 1970 event was to be the biggest of them all — in fact, at the time, it was the largest festival ever staged. Running from Aug. 26-31, 1970, at Afton Down, the attendance has been estimated at anywhere between 600,000 and 800,000 people.

The fact that many of these visitors entered the grounds for free, breaking down the fences around the festival, was material only to the venue’s organizers, Fiery Creations. But Ron Foulks (one half, with brother Raymond, of that team) was adamant. “This is the last festival. Enough is enough. It began as a beautiful dream but it has got out of control and become a monster.”
The Isle of Wight’s residents agreed with him. Reeling from an unprecedented invasion of long-haired pop fans, it would be 2002 before the authorities again opened up their island to a pop festival.

Putting the festival wheels in motion in the first place, Fiery Creations knew they had a hard act to follow. The previous year, Bob Dylan broke a three-year concert silence to play the festival, and when the first plans were laid, it was hoped that The Beatles might be tempted to break their own live embargo to perform.

Of course they wouldn’t — the band broke up in February 1970. But Jimi Hendrix made a fabulous substitute, and with him on board, other artists were quick to add their own cachet to the bill. (See the sidebar for the list of performers.)

“Message To Love” paints a very thorough portrait of the festival itself, both the good (the majority of the featured performers) and the ugly. We see the audience booing Kris Kristofferson after his performance was reduced to sludge by sound difficulties; The Doors performing in near darkness after Jim Morrison refused to allow spotlights on the stage; and, most memorably of all, promoter Gary Farr attempting to restore order by taking the stage and howling the audience down. “We put this festival on, you bastards, with a lot of love! We worked for one year for you pigs! And you wanna tear down our walls and you wanna destroy it? Well, you go to hell!”

by Michael Popke — David Letterman (David Letterman!) recently announced that he is starting a record label. Worldwide Pants, the television and film production company owned by the late-night talk-show host, has formed Clear Entertainment/C.E. Music and signed the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based pop-punk band Runner Runner. These guys look like David Cook and Will Ferrell wannabes, but the two infectious songs posted on their MySpace page hint that Letterman has a sweet ear — or at least Letterman’s “people” do — for radio-friendly ditties that the kids will like.

Still, couldn’t Letterman, who turned 63 earlier this month, throw his clout behind older progressive-rock artists? How cool would it be if, in the wake of InsideOut Music losing its American arm last year, Letterman had gone after deals with American prog bands from that label’s roster including Spock’s Beard, Symphony X, Enchant and Tiles? It would be like “The Colbert Report”  sponsoring the U.S. Speedskating team. Sort of.

Don’t forget, Letterman is the guy who, upon hearing “The Calling” from Yes’ 1994 Talk album, invited the band to perform on his show. (Of course, he apparently thought Yes was a “new band” at the time, but still…) Letterman also has hosted Peter Gabriel, Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason over the years.  He even had heavy prog-metalheads Mastodon on in 2009, even though he admitted on camera that the violence-prone band “frightened” him (view below).