Ian Anderson to release sequel to TAAB, April 2012

The 2.0 mix is a reference disc for how a rock album (or any album) should sound. Sounds amazing cranked in the car.

 

Ian Anderson on Thick as a Brick 2 By Bill Baker
Hitting the Bricks: Ian Anderson on Thick as a Brick 2, Part One
http://www.themortonreport.com/ente...-ian-anderson-on-thick-as-a-brick-2-part-one/
At Home on the Highway: Ian Anderson on Thick as a Brick 2, Part Two
http://www.themortonreport.com/ente...y-ian-anderson-on-thick-as-a-brick2-part-two/
Sex, Politics, and Death: Ian Anderson on Thick as a Brick 2, Part Three
http://www.themortonreport.com/ente...ian-anderson-on-thick-as-a-brick2-part-three/

 

Jethro Tull gets thicker on "Brick 2"
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/25/us-jethrotull-idUSBRE83O16F20120425

By Iain Blair

LOS ANGELES | Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:56pm EDT

(Reuters) - One thing that never really dies is a truly progressive rock album. A case in point is Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick," originally released in 1972, before disco, punk and rap.

Back then, "Brick" was significant for its 44-minute song created around the idea it was an epic poem written by a boy. Now, Jethro Tull's singer, flautist and frontman Ian Anderson is commemorating the album's 40th anniversary with a followup to the original, "Thick As a Brick 2," and a tour.

As a sign that "Brick" still continues to lure fans, the new record recently entered U.S. charts at No.55, Anderson's highest debut in 25 years. The Jethro Tull frontman, now 64-years-old, recently spoke with Reuters about his new album, tour and the ever-changing music scene.

Q: Is it true you were asked many times to do a follow-up to "Thick As A Brick" but always avoided it?

A: "Yes, my attitude has always been unwaveringly ‘no,' as I don't want to go back in some nostalgic way to rekindle the music. But last year I started to think about what might have become of the fictitious child poet, Gerald Bostock, who wrote the lyrics for the original album, and what might have happened to the St. Cleve Chronicle, the 16-page newspaper which formed the packaging. And that inspired this whole idea of what might have happened to Gerald 40 years later. So I wrote down a number of possibilities, and saw that instead of just exploring one, it gave me a chance to examine a number of those life-changing moments that happen to us all."

Q: How personal are the lyrics?

A: "It always contains elements of personal experience and some elements of other people's experiences. So, it's bringing together a number of issues that aren't just about looking back, but are also relevant to younger people who're going to have to start making decisions in their own lives."

Q: Musically and stylistically the new album really picks up where "Thick As A Brick" left off. Did you feel any pressure to go for a more contemporary sound?

A: "No, in terms of instrumentation I deliberately wanted to stay with the instruments that were then, and are now, the archetypal ones of rock - the Les Paul guitar, which is like a Stradivarius, the Fender Jazz bass, the Hammond organ, the flute. These are the tools of my trade, so I wanted to keep the same sonic palette I had on the original album and stay away from conspicuous synthesizers and digital instruments. And artistically and musically it's fun to make a few references - a nod and a wink - to earlier musical ideas and motifs. Beethoven and Mozart did it for a living, and so do I. It gives context and continuity."

Q: How's the new tour going so far?

A: "Great. We're doing the UK first, and we're doing 'Brick' 1 and 2 played live, with a 20-minute intermission, for the first time ever."

Q: What's been the biggest surprise?

A: (Laughs) "That we can all actually remember it. If we were reading it from a score with a conductor to prompt and help you like classical musicians, it'd be far easier. But we have to memorize and play it all and virtually no one has more than a few bars where they're not playing. So it's very intense. But enjoyably intense. It's certainly not Tantric sex. It's full-on and it seems like the show's over in a flash."

Q: You've never stopped touring, either with Tull or by yourself. You must love it?

A: "I met an American astronaut recently who was about to return to a five-month mission on the International Space Station, and she responded the way I feel about touring - 'I don't want to come back,' she said.

"It's the same thing. You've trained all your life to do it, and she knew this was her last mission, and she was filled with a profound sense of sadness and loss. And that's how I feel as I get into my last years of being a touring musician."

Q: "The music industry's changed so much since you began in the ‘60s. What's your take on it today?"

A: "It's much more competitive and over-subscribed in terms of participants and wannabe-participants. But we also have a lot more choice and it fits the age. We eat fast food and snack, and it's the same with music. I don't think we sit down and listen to music the way we used to. We tend to snack on it while we're multi-tasking and on the move. So we hear more music than ever before. I'm not sure that we actually listen to it. But the access is unparalleled in terms of ease and cheapness."

(Reporting by Iain Blair; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
Music

 

What Gerald did next - Thursday, April 26, 2012
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Gerald-did/story-15918754-detail/story.html
If you ever wondered what had happened to precocious ten-year-old Gerald Bostock, wonder no more. The trials and tribulations of the St Cleve schoolboy formed the basis of Jethro Tull's progressive rock album Thick As A Brick back in 1972.

The album, encased in the pages of local newspaper with a headline story about Gerald being disqualified from a poetry competition, was full of lyrics allegedly written by the fictional boy.

Forty years on, West Country based Jethro Tull prepare to return to the character, now 50-years-old, with an anniversary tour that will come to Bristol's Colston Hall later this month.

The band's founder Ian Anderson says: "With Thick As A Brick I was setting out to parody progressive rock. It was a time of bands like Yes, Genesis and King Crimson and while they have musicality and are very detailed in arrangement, they were becoming increasingly self-indulgent and pretentious. I thought it would be fun to do something in that genre. It is extreme prog rock, a deliberate spoof."

So with a large dose of surreal British humour, Jethro Tull unleashed Gerald Bostock into the world.

"It's a comedic mash-up that covers some darker points," Ian says. "It looks like fun and games but there is a lot of dark stuff reflected in it, too.

"Now, 40 years later, we've released the sequel. I thought about Gerald and the things that could have happened to him and the album explores those lyrically and musically.

"As we baby boomers look back on our own lives, we must often feel an occasional 'what if' moment. Might we, like Gerald, have become instead preacher, soldier, down-and- out, shopkeeper or finance tycoon?

"We've made changes to update it, for example instead of the St Cleve newspaper it's St Cleeve.com, but it's very much about now, not then."

But if the lyrics have been updated to imagine Gerald's fate, the sound of the album has not altered.

"The sonic palate is still the same," says the man who brought flute playing to rock music.

"We still have the Hammond organ, plenty of glockenspiel, the Gibson guitars. It's the same colours in the paintbox. There is a nod and a wink to the music of 1972. There are little 'remember-mes', three- note phrases that crop up now and again. Some people will get it and others will miss it. In the same way Mozart was a master at linking in elements of his earlier work, I've tried to do the same – although I'm a grubby little upstart rather than a grand musical composer.

"Actually, one of the only things that hasn't changed across the whole album is the futility of war. In 1972 the Americans were a year away from pulling out of Vietnam and we know what happened then. Here we are a year away from pulling troops out of Afghanistan. Sadly, some things don't change."

Back in 1972, the album was a world-wide success and took the number one spot on the American Billboard chart – and excerpts from the piece have regularly featured in Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson live shows since.

Ian says: "I would have been very surprised and extremely disappointed if it had been a total flop. I was just trying to do my best job at the time.

"As with everything I have done since I prepare myself for failure and sometimes I get what I prepare for. With this album, if half of all the Jethro Tull fans liked it I would consider that a major achievement because of the numbers that would involve."

A large number of the band's fan base, are, like the artists themselves, based in the West Country, and Ian remembers the first time he performed at the Colston Hall.

He says: "It was in 1969 and we had just the basics on stage, a few Marshall Cabinets and that was it. You can't change the acoustics in the Colston Hall – it can be jarring if it's too loud and unforgiving if you make the wrong decisions.

"In the last 20 years technology and the equipment has moved on apace and people expect to see and hear the sound better than they ever could before. We won't have the excuses we had before if it doesn't sound good this time."

Joining Ian on stage will be fellow musicians John O'Hara on keyboards, David Goodier on bass, Florian Opahle on guitar, and Scott Hammond on drums.

Ian adds: "I live in the South West, just about, and three of the band are Bristol boys and doing a lot in the city when they're not performing with me. I've worked with them for ten years."

Ryan O'Donnell also joins the band on stage performing and singing as part of the new theatrical presentation involving videos and character actors – again, in a nod to the amateur dramatics of 1972.

Jethro Tull play Colston Hall on Saturday, April 28, at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £25.50-£28.50. Tel 0117 922 3686

 

http://www.relix.com/reviews/shows/2012/04/25/ian-anderson-at-liverpool-philharmonic-hall
thanks to nags
http://thejethrotullboard.proboards...display&board=albums&thread=2846&page=9#24007
"Let’s be honest – those that love the modern classic Tull line up (diehard fans will know what that means) don’t want to admit that the players Anderson chose for this solo project — guitarist Florian Opahle, bassist David Goodier, drummer Scott Hammond and keyboardist John O’Hara — are musical virtuosos. Clearly, they are as evidenced by their masterful interpretation of the intricate music of TAAB and TAABII and the additional flourishes including solos with nods to the audience."

 

TAAB2 currently at number one in the Rock Radio chart in the US.

Ian Anderson at The Hexagon
By Linda Fort
April 26, 2012
Read more: http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/entertainment/music/s/2112748_ian_anderson_at_the_hexagon
Legendary rock flautist Ian Anderson normally wakes up at about 6am, but the rigours of his present tour means he is sleeping until later.

From his hotel room in Sheffield, he said: “I didn’t wake up until 7.30 this morning and I thought, I must be really tired.”

Tired or not, a call just an hour later brought forth a stream of erudition from the musician who is currently in the middle of his 19-date Thick as Brick 40th anniversary tour.

The concept album was based on a poem written by a fictitious 10-year-old boy poet called Gerald Bostock – really Anderson himself – illustrated by an imaginary local newspaper called the St Cleve Chronicle.

Anderson explained that he had been asked to revisit the Thick as Brick album endlessly by “fans, well wishers and people in the music business” and had always dismissed the idea.

“I'm simply not interested in nostalgia and repeating the past.”

However when the discussion turned to what Gerald Bostock might be doing now, he became intrigued.

The result is a new album exploring Gerald’s career and a website – www.stcleve.com – to amuse fans with the goings on in the three fabled parishes of St Cleve, Linwell and Little Cruddock.


...He said: “There are only about 16 bars during the whole performance when I am not actually playing something.”

The musical instruments from the first album feature in the second one – but not the musicians.

“Three of the original band members just don’t play music any more for various reasons so it was not possible to magic that back again,” he said.

However the musicians taking part are those who have toured with Anderson, either with the band Jethro Tull or backing him on his solo tours over the years.

He said: “I didn’t want the new album to be a parody of original. I just wouldn’t find that interesting.

“And I can only write as Ian Anderson, the musician that I am now, not the Ian Anderson of 1972.”

However there is plenty of parody on the website where Anderson has exercised his sense of humour to amuse the fans.

But do the fans like the new music? He said: “I don't give a s*** whether anyone likes it or not – that is not why I did it. Of course it is very nice to hear if people do enjoy it.”

However, he was quick to point out that the album was currently at number one in the Rock Radio chart in the US.

“Whether that translates into sales remains to be seen,” he added.

He has no plans to retire – “people in my business usually have to be dragged kicking and screaming from the stage”.

And did he enjoy recording the new album? Like the colonoscopy he had last year – “only in retrospect”.

Ian Anderson and his band will be at The Hexagon in Reading on Thursday, May 3.

Tickets start at £25.50. To book call the box office on (0118) 960 6060 or visit www.readingarts.com

 

'Thick as a Brick 2' capitalizes on old magic to create new sound By ANDREW CONLOGUE Published April 27, 2012
http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/inde..._capitalizes_on_old_magic_to_create_new_sound
Exactly 40 years have passed since Jethro Tull’s over-the-top prog rock concept album Thick As A Brick was released. The album’s fictional narrator, a young English boy named Gerald Bostock, has grown old since then. So what happened to him in all this time, anyway? Any number of things can happen in a lifetime. The possibilities are basically endless.

That is the deceptively simple premise of the classic’s follow-up, Thick As A Brick 2. Credited to Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull’s frontman (purists are sadly missing Martin Barre, the band’s brilliant guitarist), Thick As A Brick 2 nevertheless harks back to the band’s roots in the wild excesses of the ‘70s. It’s big, it’s beautiful, and it’s downright batty when it wants to be.

Though the album is split into 17 different tracks, it is really best listened to as a single chunk, like its predecessor.

Lyrically, the listener follows the life of Bostock through its what-ifs, maybes and might-have-beens. Did he grow up to be a banker? A soldier? Maybe a televangelist, or a delusional bum? Or perhaps, worst of all, he grew into a soul-crushingly ordinary man, whose life slips away while he isn’t looking? The listener certainly doesn’t know, but drifting along through the glorious murk of Anderson’s words (some of which he speaks instead of sings) is half the fun.

The other half, of course, is the music. As with its predecessor, there are parts that feel like the backing tracks to children’s book readings. Mostly, these accompany Anderson’s forays into spoken poetry, which are enjoyable for some, but, understandably, not for everyone.

Detractors rest assured, though, that these strange interludes are setups for some heavy and pristine rock.

Tracks like “Banker Bets, Banker Wins,” “Shunt and Shuffle,” and “Kismet in Suburbia” can stand up against any of the hard rock offerings in Tull’s history. Tying the two together are folkish, dreamy sequences, the quintessential example of which is “A Change of Horses.”

If you want to rock from start to finish you’ll get a little bored. But if you don’t mind some calm waters between the rapids, the interplay between the two is flawless.

If you happen to be a fan of Jethro Tull or prog rock in general, trust that you have only to acquire this magical album to be nothing but happy for 53 minutes. Anderson has obviously aged, just as his fictional protagonist has, but there’s plenty of life and more cleverness yet in this old fox.

If you’re new to this scene but are brave enough to leave the commercial mainstream, give Thick As A Brick 2 a try. You may walk away hating it, but you’ll have a hard time claiming that it’s anything but a pure original.

And for any listener, but especially fans, the last 30 seconds are perhaps the best part of the album. You might hate yourself for thinking it, but you’ll find yourself admitting that there was no other way for Thick As A Brick 2 to end. Give it a listen to see what I mean.

 

Ian Anderson, Hammersmith Apollo
Flute-wielding prog-rocker is still proudly living in the past
by Russ CoffeySaturday, 28 April 2012
http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/ian-anderson-hammersmith-apollo
This may be the Thick as a Brick 2 tour, but it’s also the 44th year of Ian Anderson’s performing career, mainly as Jethro Tull's front man. In that role he's variously been a bluesman, a rocker and a folkie. But when it came to Tull’s 1972 Thick as a Brick, Anderson dubbed it a "progressive rock satire". Tongue-in-cheek as it might have been, it was also 100 percent prog. Yet, like much of Tull’s back catalogue, it continues to influence a new generation. The question the crowd at Hammersmith were asking last night was this: at 64, could Anderson still pull it off?

The answer in part is given by the new album. Here Anderson muses on the fate of child-prodigy fictional "author" of TaaB, Gerald Bostock. As much as anything, Anderson simply used the 40th anniversary of TaaB to give him an excuse to write and perform another Tull-style record. And yet, without the help of his old conspirators, the singer-cum-flautist ended up with something many felt sounded a little soft. Still, there are almost as many who feel that the original only showed its true classic colours, live. Could the same be so for its successor? Boldly, last night, Anderson played the two back to back.

As in the Seventies, plentiful gooning around was present from the get-go. A video of Anderson as Bostock’s therapist started the evening. Thereafter sections were “interrupted” by mobile phone calls and at one point, audience members were invited up to take part in a proctology exam cum prostate-awareness skit. But although Anderson loves to monkey about, he’d actually originally introduced humour into these shows to stop earnest fans trying to take the piece too seriously.

Now, however, it seems to demand a little more veneration. Performed to the ageing-rocker faithful at the Apollo, it felt like a period piece of musical theatre, with overblown instrumental passages only adding to the sense of drama. The biggest change was the presence of actor Ryan O’Donnell on stage, dressed as the “young master” and helping Anderson out with half of TaaB’s difficult vocals. O’Donnell’s impression of Anderson’s younger voice was so uncanny that, until he appeared from behind a curtain to join the main man in his trademark one-legged flamingo pose (see main image), most had assumed the second voice they’d been hearing was from a tape.

And relieved of full singing duties, a svelte Anderson clad in a bandana and waistcoat stalked the stage punctuating Florian Ophale’s virtuoso guitar lines with gypsy-jazz flute motifs. At various points he strapped a dwarf acoustic guitar to himself, and performed the famous title-theme section with his cracked minstrel voice full of pathos.

The sound created by Anderson’s new band really puts a coat of polish on the old album. It was thicker and more evocative than anything you could imagine from a Jethro Tull line-up today. And that’s how they succeeded in lifting the much slighter TaaB 2 such that it now felt like an extension of the first. On record the music seems dated, the lyrics positively antique. But in context and with a harder sound it made considerably more sense. Even Anderson singing “Barren Madge prepares hot dinner/ Fray Bentos pie: always a winner,” only seemed slightly preposterous.

For almost two hours Anderson led a rip-roaring celebration of one of the most defiantly unfashionable phenomena in modern music. No one cared that even the new material still looked back 40 years. Anderson has been looking backwards all his life. At the age of 21 he sung about “Living in the Past". And now, 43 years later, he’s still defying the lyrics of his album Too Old to Rock’n’Roll, Too Young to Die.

 

Isn´t it a wonder? TAAB 2 generally gets very good reviews (Classic rock, Billboard etc.).

However. This is the most thrilling Ian/Jethro release in 33 years (at least).

//björn

 

I picked up the cd. I like it, though to be honest I think it's a bit tepid and lighter than I expected it to be. Have given it three good listens. I'm glad I got it and like it more than I expected to.

 

Bad reviews? See Canadian reviews;

http://jethrotull.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1835&page=1
Read more: http://top100canadianblog.blogspot.ca/2012/04/music-review-of-day-jethro-tulls-ian.html
Honestly, the only thing I like here is that instead of a newspaper, the CD booklet is made to look like a news website. That's the only update Anderson got right.


Canada continues the bombing of the St. Cleve Chronicle & Linwell Advertiser's foundations. I dare not cut&paste this damning document.
THICK AS A BRICK 2 – It ain’t no Jethro Tull
http://www.musicjunkies.ca/?p=695
A failure, but not a lost cause. Some of the decisions are puzzling, but a little of the music stands up. Thick As A Brick 2 won’t make anyone’s best-of lists (but now that I’ve said it Brick 2 will probably win a Grammy) but it won’t be the final nail in the coffin either. Take it for what it’s worth.


IAN ANDERSON: TAAB2 (EMI) April 23, 2012.
http://blogs.theprovince.com/2012/04/23/ian-anderson-taab2-emi/
Anderson is the leader of whatever constitutes Jethro Tull, which, 40 years ago, recorded the progressive-rock concept album, Thick As A Brick. This is the belated (and, according to Anderson, reluctantly made) sequel. There are a few strains of the original on TAAB2 to provide a link, but not many. Anderson uses the opportunity to reflect on the growth into adulthood of his central character, Gerald Bostock, but it is as much a taking stock of how Anderson sits now as well as the many changes in Jethro Tull that have left him the sole founding member. TAAB2 has provided more focus and purpose than Tull albums have had in the past few years (or decades) as it is story-driven and effectively recaptures a sound. C plus.

 

Rolling Stone - Backstage with Ian Anderson
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=7670518&postcount=52

 

I'm FINALLY warming to TAAB2 ...

 

May 12, 2012 at 1:00 am
Music review: Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, "Thick as a Brick 2"
By John Timpane Philadelphia Inquirer
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120512/ENT04/205120302#ixzz1uf0my05E

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, "Thick as a Brick 2" (Chrysalis)

OK, it won me over. After several listenings, some alongside Jethro Tull's original, famous/notorious 1972 smash "Thick as a Brick" (40 years old this year), I gotta tell ya and no kiddin': This is a fine album, more than worthy of its namesake.

"TAAB2" revisits Gerald Bostock, the little boy who supposedly wrote the impenetrable lyrics for the original "TAAB." The sequel is a direct, coherent, sustained meditation on a worthwhile theme: fate, and possible lives taken or not. The tracks are uniformly interesting and moving, with (or despite?) Anderson's trademark neck-breaking segues among folk, heavy rock, ballad, and Asian modalism.

None of the other old Tulls are here, but Anderson has assembled a team of blindingly talented players. The music is tight, biting, live-in-studio (as the original was!), and Anderson is a better flutist than ever. And lyricist.

Wait for the package, coming later this year, of "TAAB2" with "TAAB" — but know this is one of Anderson/Tull's better albums, all sneering energy and humane concern. Highpoint: the exquisite, unearthly "Changing Horses," among his best single tracks ever. GRADE: B+

 

Read more:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_1...n-anderson-makes-sequel-to-jethro-tull-album/

Hey, boy with the personal stereo: nothing `tween the ears but that hard rock sound.
Playing to your empty room, empty guitar tune,
No use waiting for that C.B.S. to come around.
'cause all roads out of here, seem to lead right back to your Rock Island. - Ian Anderson

 

Bygones will not be bygones
http://oxfordstudent.com/2012/05/31/bygones-will-not-be-bygones/
Posted on 31 May 2012.

Ophelia Stimpson speaks to Ian Anderson, lead singer of Jethro Tull and veteran musician…

‘Ian Anderson. Now he’ll be an interesting bloke to talk to.’ So said some of the more mature regulars at the pub when I told them I’d been offered an interview with the charismatic frontman of Jethro Tull. As far as I knew, he was ‘that one’ who successfully managed to incorporate the flute into rock music, with an appearance which wouldn’t look out of place if he were playing some sort of Keith Richard’s-esque cameo in Pirates of the Caribbean. So I gathered that there’d be a fair bit to him, but that was as far as it went. Apparently, though, if you don’t know about Ian Anderson then you ought to; in retrospect of the interview, I can vouch for this.

It was in 1972 that Jethro Tull released Thick as a Brick (TAAB) – a concept album based on the fictitious schoolboy Gerald Bostock which humorously records his day-to-day shenanigans in one continuous 44-minute burst of progressive rock. And now, 40 years on, Anderson has returned with his creation of Thick as a Brick 2, which in a nutshell delves back into the concept of Gerald Bostock who would now be aged 50. So what’s changed? The first TAAB instantly became a number one Billboard Chart album; is it really worth trying to recapture Gerald’s fictional life so rooted in its context of 1972?

It was at the end of 2010 that Anderson was experiencing a sort of ‘private meltdown’ as regards to the resurrection of Gerald Bostock. Having been asked to create a follow up album on numerous occasions, and having rejected all previous approaches, Anderson finally felt it was time to resurrect the character which generated much of the acclaim still associated with his career today. But how to make it relevant? It perhaps takes less effort than one would think, hints Anderson – imagining how a life has developed over the course of a few decades is perhaps, in fact, perfectly natural. “As we baby-boomers look back on our own lives, we must often feel an occasional ‘what-if’ moment. Might we, like Gerald, have become instead preacher, soldier, down-and-out, shopkeeper or finance tycoon?,”

That’s all very well for our parents, I said, because they can map their own ‘what-if’ moments against the release of the original TAAB album. How can we young’uns relate to this sort of thing when we’re yet to know where our paths will take us? ‘Well, it can do you a lot of good, in fact’, says Ian. ‘Kids these days are bombarded with huge decisions at a very young age – all you need do is pick your A-level choices and already you’re sort of narrowing life down. The sooner you start to realise that, the sooner you can keep your options open or establish your preferences.’ This all sounds suspiciously similar to the speech from my 6th form open day. ‘I’m not trying to preach, and I’m not aiming my music at the youth alone. The point of this record is not to feed you a quaint little tale of a fictional person, the point is exactly to make many different people think.’

I said I found Ian’s reference to ‘thinking’ quite interesting; you can argue significant degrees of mental engagement seem like a foreign concept in today’s Top 40, where messages can be, well, insultingly literal. Ian picked up on this; “people don’t deserve to be spoon-fed – we’re an intellectual species, and if we dumb down music or any kind of art we become numb. You’re probably thinking “who is this silly old codger, making us think about stuff”, but someone needs to provide the antidote to all things ‘X factor’. None of us are stupid; I’ve had letters from prisoners in the USA telling me about how a certain nuance in my music has brought about a change in their intellectual outlook. If I can make people boxed into the label of ‘convict’ expand their mental horizons, I must be getting something right.”

The conversation then flowed by seamless association to the subject of challenge. Anderson’s career has spanned a generous 40 years thus far and it is by no means waning. “I think the important thing is to keep your mind open and active at any age. I don’t read music but I’ve played my flute with symphony orchestras in my time – I’d never be able to interpret music in the same way as traditionally professional flautists, but likewise they’d struggle to apply an intricate flute solo to a piece of rock music. When I meet such musicians, it is always fascinating to test each other and see what we can get out of it.”

I wondered about Ian’s thoughts on those making music from downloadable computer software in our current era of music. “I’m not refuting the fact that it takes talent to produce something good from computers. But the thing is, kids today grow up with computers – you lose that magic of taking the time to explore a new instrument. Computers are good because they creatively involve people, and creativity is always good, but I’m suspicious of music being made by people from software which has been assembled by someone else – it seems to me generic, and not music in real time.” There’s a lot to be said for listening to people like Ian Anderson – it’s easy to remain unaware and consign them to the passages of previous decades when actually their music is a lifetime craft. Anderson is an artisan, quietly and humbly producing a sound where he has paid strong attention to quality. He is not a part of history, but a stalwart of the present day.

 

I just got around to reading the Goldmine story on the split. The most forthcoming I've seen Martin be about it, and it doesn't exactly paint Ian in the most favorable light.

I wonder whether it was strictly Ian's ego (his Roger Waters moment, as he put it), or whether there was some financial consideration in not doing TAAB 2 as a Tull project. I.e., without label backing, this would be an entirely self funded project. Ian indicated as much when he pointed out that Martin would not have been fronting any of his own $ for the project.

Regardless, it seemed pretty clear that Martin and Donne were pretty stung by the sudden announcement. Kind of like "A" all over again.

 

Which issue has the interview? Sounds like a must read.........

 

Thanks.
Cheers!

Yes, expound.

 

Late May. The one with the Moody Blues on the cover.

 

Is it available online? Here in the Spanish backwoods I can't find that magazine...

 

Doubt it, but here's their web cite. http://www.goldminemag.com/

 

http://www.mid-day.com/lifestyle/20...s-a-brick-2-Jethro-Tulls-Ian-Anderson-EMI.htm
Album review:Thick as a brick 2
This is an album that bears careful listening to, lyric sheet in hand

June 05, 2012

Mumbai
Lindsay Pereira


Thick As A Brick 2
Artist: Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson
Label: EMI
Price: Rs 395
Rating: ***

Around four decades ago, Ian Anderson of rock veterans Jethro Tull, came up with a concept album. It was the thing to do at the time primarily because — unlike today’s audiences and their attention spans akin to goldfish — listeners were able and willing to invest a certain amount of time on concept albums. So, Tull gave them Thick As a Brick, an epic poem supposedly written by an eight year-old called Gerald Bostock.

Thick As a Brick 2: Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock? revisits the life and times of that mythical schoolboy who is, supposedly, now a 48-year-old with a lot on his mind. It’s an ambitious thing to do, not simply because the words ‘concept album’ will compel most teenagers to run in the opposite direction, but also because fans don’t take kindly to bands messing with a classic. Finally, there’s that tricky production issue — how does one revisit the prog-rock sound of a 40 year-old album without sounding like an idiot in 2012?

Well, he pulls it off, in a little over 50 minutes. ‘Take me on the ghost train,’ he sings on opener From A Pebble Thrown. ‘20p and there you are. Scary in the tunnel night, white knuckle fingers on the safety bar, which way to blue skies? Phantoms pop from cupboard doors, mocking, manic laughter shrieks, dark promises of blood and gore.’ It’s vintage Anderson, starting from where he left off in 1972 when he wrote: ‘Your sperm’s in the gutter, your love’s in the sink.’

As the album progresses, Anderson lets Gerald Bostock live the life of soldier, banker, homeless man and ordinary guy. Lattes make an appearance, as do mortgages and Starbucks muffins. This is an album that bears careful listening to, lyric sheet in hand. And yes, that legendary flute does make its presence felt too.


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June 7, 2012 A guide to the best (and a bit of the worst) of prog rock
http://www.avclub.com/articles/a-guide-to-the-best-and-a-bit-of-the-worst-of-prog,79776/
The concept album quickly became prog’s liberator and its jailor. While the movement strove to free itself from the single-oriented mindset of pop and treat the LP as a cohesive work of musical narrative, many prog bands wound up becoming equally constrained by the unwieldy format. Case in point: Jethro Tull. The band’s flute-adorned, folk-leaning prog is put to its limit on 1972’s Thick As A Brick, an album comprising a single, 44-minute song. Ironically, an edited segment of Thick As A Brick gained major airplay on radio and became one of the group’s biggest hits. That Jethro Tull made the album partly as a parody of prog—and specifically of ELP—only made it conceptually muddier.

 

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2643868881.html

High Beam has it but you have to sign up to get it....

 

Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre takes high road on TAAB2 rift

Read more: http://www.goldminemag.com/article/jethro-tull-guitarist-martin-barre-takes-high-road-on-taab2-rift
GM: Is it going to feel funny to turn to your left onstage and not see Ian?

MB: No, it’s not.

GM: You’ve played with him for so long. What has it been? About 150 years, right?

MB: Yeah. About that long.

GM: Give or take a few decades. Hey, I gotta tell ya, I’ve been a longtime fan of Jethro Tull, and you, specifically. I’ve always thought you’ve been one of the most overlooked and underrated guitarists in rock music. I put you on a pedestal. I’ve been in your audiences, thrilling to your guitar solos for decades. I must say, the Tull fans who I know are up in arms over the fact that you and [drummer] Doane [Perry] aren’t on this Ian Anderson “Thick As A Brick 2” project. So let me ask you point-blank: What the f**k, man?

MB: Yeah, well, it’s not something I really want to talk about. I think the fact of the matter is, I know nothing about it. When Ian announced on the American tour last year that he didn’t want to do any more Jethro Tull shows, Doane and I had no idea that he was planning to do “Thick As A Brick 2.” This was all stuff he had planned before he had told us anything. He told us nothing, yet, obviously, he had thought this through for a long time. It is what it is. Everybody has to draw their own conclusions.

My focus now is to carry on the name and the music of Jethro Tull in the tradition that I love and was mostly involved with: the earlier days. I’ve got nothing more to say about it. I could say this, that or the other, but what will happen will happen, and it’s fine. Everybody has a right to do what they want to do in life. It’s very easy for others to be critical of decisions and directions musicians want to go in. It’s not for me to say. I’m more interested in me and going in the direction that I want to go. And it’s opened up a huge area for me. And vocally, Ian can’t really go there anymore. He’s looking at more flute playing. Actually, I don’t know what he’s looking at, but it’s not the heavy Jethro Tull that I want to represent. That’s all my territory. And I shall embrace it with open arms.

GM: To be perfectly frank, I found it painful to be in his audience with him trying to approximate his once-great vocals.

MB: It’s a terrible thing. I don’t want to talk about that. I listen to the early Tull tracks, and Ian’s performance is just stunning. It really is. He had such a great voice. That’s not a nice thing to happen. It’s something he has to deal with, and, luckily, something I don’t have to deal with, because I wouldn’t know what to do. It’s a tragedy.

GM: Tony Bennett sings better at 85 than he did at 45. He’s a freak of nature.

MB: Some guys do. They have better training or look after their voice more. Same as me looking after my hands. I have to exercise and take cod liver oil and all these sorts of pills that are supposed to keep arthritis away. Hopefully, it will. Being a musician is a long-term investment, be it a vocalist or instrumentalist. You have to look after your body and your mind.

GM: Well, it’s just unconscionable for Ian to not inform you of this. I’m outraged. Tull fans are outraged. He reportedly said it was a scheduling conflict.

MB: That’s not true. Sometimes it’s convenient and more pleasant to perceive a different reality than the one that really exists. I’m very positive about everything right now. I’m happier with the people I’m working with. I don’t have a problem with what’s happening. It will all level out. People will like what they like. The difficult corner, though, [with Ian’s project] is that everybody needs to know exactly what’s happening. There’s an element of being misled by not saying anything. The fact that it’s advertised the way it is in some countries certainly doesn’t suggest anything. It also doesn’t explain that Doane and I are not part of it, so the presumption could be that we are there. That bothers me. It’s on my website. It’s a big mistake. If he’s made one mistake, it’s that he hasn’t made it absolutely clear who is in the band, because people don’t go to see Ian. They go to see Ian and the band. And I think it’s quite important to know who’s in the band! It’s a shame. It’ll reflect badly on them.

GM: I knew you would bounce back, but I feel bad for Doane. Why wouldn’t he want Doane? Has Doane spoken to you about it?

MB: We speak. I’m a third of the way through a book. It won’t be this year because I’ve been recording and trying to get all these gigs together but, one day, all those questions will be answered. There are reasons. To be honest, there’s reasons for everything. And I’m fairly sure I know what they are. Nothing is being said. Ian just got Doane and I in a room and said he didn’t want to play in Jethro Tull anymore. But that doesn’t make any sense at all. So you have to sort of look beyond it.

GM: So what did Doane say?

MB: I think you’d have to talk to him. Doane’s a very soft, mellow person. He knows what’s going on. He has other work. Doane has health problems with his shoulder. He’s recording with other artists in Los Angeles. Doane will always work, because he’s such an amazing drummer and has a great network of friends. And he’ll work with me at some point. I’ve also spoken to other guys, like Barrie Barlow, on the possibility of putting together a Jethro Tull band for America, which would have some interesting people in it, like maybe Clive Bunker. I quite fancy the idea of having the lineup of Jethro Tull from a long time ago performing again. It would be hard to get some guys, I know. John Evan lives in Australia. It wouldn’t be an easy task, but it would be good fun trying. It’s a big responsibility, and I would want to get it right. I wouldn’t want to come across with a band that was anything less than 100 percent of what the fans would want and what I would want. I feel in the latter years of Tull, we were so sidetracked by doing such big shows that the production was nonexistent. We kept doing the same show! You can’t do that. I want to get back to doing something really fresh. I’ve always felt reinvesting in a project is the best thing you can do, whereas Jethro Tull has done the opposite. Nothing was put back in. It’s been all take and no give. The shows were bland. Nothing changed. When you get a bit of success, you should take some of that and put it back into the show to make it a better show, rather than just take the money.

GM: After Ian got you and Doane in that room, is that when you decided you had to look after yourself, so you made your “Legends Of Rock” and Martin Barre’s New Day plans?

MB: Oh yeah. I mean, the minute he said it, I knew I had to do it. And I wanted to do it. I’ve done solo things before, but this is full on. I didn’t find the facts of what I had to do a problem. I just found the way it happened a problem. People are such strange creatures.