JETHRO TULL
Jethro Tull were a British rock group, formed in Luton, Bedfordshire, in December 1967. Initially playing blues rock, the band’s sound soon incorporated elements of British folk music and hard rock to forge a progressive rock signature. The band was led by vocalist/flautist/guitarist Ian Anderson, and have included other significant members such as guitarist Martin Barre, keyboardist John Evan, drummers Doane Perry and Barriemore Barlow, and bassist Dave Pegg. Jethro Tull have sold over 60 million albums worldwide, with 11 gold and five platinum albums among them. They have been described by Rolling Stone as “one of the most commercially successful and eccentric progressive rock bands”. (More from Wikipedia)
King Crimson’s woodwind man, Ian McDonald eventually co-founded Foreigner, a highly successful though completely different band. For decades, I confused McDonald with about the only other prominent woodwind player in rock and roll, Jethro Tull front man and flautist Ian Anderson.
Even progressive rock bands whose albums sold well from the beginning often didn’t reach their creative peak for awhile. The magnum opus for Emerson, Lake and Palmer, “Karn Evil 9” was on their fifth album, Brain Salad Surgery. Jethro Tull’s classic album Aqualung was their fourth album. This also applies for several rock bands of the same time period that do not truly fit the progressive rock category. It was Queen’s fourth album, A Night at the Opera that included their unforgettable “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Canadian hard rockers Rush came up with 2112 as their fourth album (that title is exactly 100 years from now, as it happens). The Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd’s space-rock masterpiece that took up near permanent residency on the Billboard album charts – was the band’s eighth album. With Trillion though, the band was never given the opportunity to develop an audience or to refine their sound.
(October 2012)
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Under the artist name Mick Farren and Jack Lancaster, 1995 brought yet another side of Mick with The Deathray Tapes, a live performance consisting mostly of spoken-word material – but this is no 1960’s flower-child poetry reading. Lancaster had co-founded Blodwyn Pig with ex-Jethro Tull guitarist Mick Abrahams in 1968; the eclectic band here includes Wayne Kramer and Andy Colquhoun, and actor Brad Dourif plays didgeridoo (!) on one song.
(March 2014/1)
