Since a run through the radio dial never fails to turn up a song that has been played continuously for at least 25 years -think Zeppelin, Floyd- it is very easy to forget that there was a time when Rock and Roll didn't sound very different from R & B, or even Country -think Elvis. The truth is that the 60's and 70's rockers were carving musical landscapes out of very thin air. The intense creativity of that time feeds directly into the groundbreaking efforts of contemporary World, Jam, and Progressive music. As new generations discover the music that their granola-eating ancestors got off on, new musicians launch themselves on the uncharted boundaries of eclectic music.
A brief look at the diverse influences of Jethro Tull sheds light on the unprecedented fascination that 70's Rock still commands. Drawing inspiration from the Blues and -of all things- medieval music, then tossing in a heavy peppering of Hard Rock, a sound like no other emerged. Ian Anderson, a uniquely flute-touting front man, leapt about the stage in lederhosen to create a spectacle that could only capture the imagination.
With over 30 CD's in print, and record sales exceeding 40,000,000 copies, many bands would be willing to sit back and grow fat on the royalty checks. However, not satisfied with being on the Classic Rock short list with standbys like "Aqualung" and "Cross-Eyed Mary," the group never ceased to embark on new projects.
The recent release of the live DVD and CD project, "Living With the Past" brings an imposing legacy of music into a format that highlights the band's current skill at devouring songs both old and new with equal finesse.
I recently spoke with Ian Anderson about the DVD and his upcoming concert at the Showroom at Turning Stone.
Tim Parker: With 35 years of material to cover in a DVD, most bands would do anything but an all-live project. What led you to such an ambitious undertaking?
Ian Anderson: I was getting a lot of interest from various producers, especially over in America, who wanted Jethro Tull to do a live show and put it out on the DVD Market, but I didn't just want to do a live concert, top to tail, put it in a box and off you go. To capture a live show is almost impossible. We recorded a concert in London which was the bulk of the performance and then we added a few more ingredients from some songs that we did at a reunion of the original 1968 lineup and a couple of things with a string quartet, and some interview material and some other bits and pieces to just make something I hope would be a little more rounded, a little more varied than just a live concert. It wasn't an attempt to capture the all-time greatest Jethro Tull concert ever. As soon as you start recording a live show, it's the unwritten rule that the night you record will not be as good as the night before, or the night after.
TVP: Given the depth and complexity of the material that you perform, how to you keep the band so precise? Is there a lot of intense rehearsing going on?
I.A.: We haven't played together for four weeks, and its more than two weeks since I've been on stage before an audience. All though it doesn't seem too long, and the bulk of it you remember -it comes flooding back to you rather quickly- there are lot of elements. You really do need to just pick up some of the detail again, and certain areas of improvisation- you need to be able to get your head into the right place to start and finish them because it's the dovetailing improvisational elements with the more organized, arranged parts, you really have to get the beginnings and ends sorted out in your head. A lot of that I really do need to run through. I usually spend five to seven days prior to a tour doing a couple of hours each day of just playing that music. And that I find very necessary. After two or three weeks of not doing a show there's some serious work to be done, a bit like an athlete training.
TVP: Bassist Jonathan Noyce stated that playing the music is like an extreme sport, that it requires a great deal of concentration and determination. A lot of what Tull fans have come to expect is that kind of proficiency.
IA: That is true, but it's not about being a machine. Its not like being in a symphony orchestra and having to play everything note perfect every night. It's more of a careful blend between the heart and the mind. Its not just playing the right notes, its how you play them, and its also about the considerable scope that all the musicians have for improvisation. You can just get up and wing it, but that's not quite good enough.
Improvisation doesn't come from nowhere. It still comes from some, albeit very fast, very furious compositional skills. You have a nanosecond to decide about the next note. You have to come up with improvisations that make sense in the context of the music that you're playing. That does require work, but at the end of the day it's not about becoming a perfect machine, and it never will be. There's always looseness about it and a bit of give and take from all the musicians to each other.
TVP: A lot of the bands that are playing progressive music have a "More complex than thou" attitude, indulging in complexity for its own sake.
IA:. It is often the case that people just do disappear up their own backsides in terms of creating complex and intricate pieces of work that ultimately aren't going anywhere. I think that's almost so obvious that you would hope that most people would have a built-in self regulator that would stop them doing it, but I'm sure there have been times when we've been as guilty of it as others. Out of sheer enthusiasm you get a little bit carried away with something and you don't realize that what to you may sound fairly straightforward to the more average ear may sound as oblique or dense as anything from the more avant guarde classical composers. Most of us have a general agreement that we want to hear a good tune. We want to hear something that's got some kind of relevance, some kind of familiarity, but its finding the right balance between providing elements that are within peoples comfort zone but at the same time giving it a little twist that makes it a little more challenging and a little bit more vital, a little bit more original, a little bit more special. That's what the good moments are about, a song that's done right, when you think you've managed to combine those elements.
TVP: You're moving into new territory with your solo work "Divinities" and "The Secret Language of Birds," drawing in more Eastern and more Celtic influence. But if you look at something like "Hunt by Numbers" on the J-Tull.com album that style merges into a purely rock format. How do you keep all these influences in balance and maintain the authentic Tull sound?
IA: If you think of it as being like a chef in the kitchen, you can go to the spice shelf and the deep freeze and pull out all kinds of ingredients and stick them together and it may just be an unpalatable mess. You have to find things that compliment each other, you have to find the right flavors, the right colors, the right textures and you have to put those things together and blend them and coax them into something that is a satisfying and pleasing mixture. That's what making eclectic music is all about. You have to do it with some subtlety and some editorial skill so you don't end up with ugly joins between one influence, one prime part of the equation and another. Its nice to be able to feel that you can exercise some taste in the way you do it and hopefully get it right more often than you get it wrong. Having said that, I'm sure I got it wrong lots of times, its just there are certain songs where I'm pretty convinced I got it right. Those are the ones I enjoy today particularly to play in live concert.
TVP: Have your creative processes changed a lot as the technology has evolved?
IA: To look back on contemporary technology from the early eighties to today, things have gotten a lot easier, a lot faster, a lot better sounding, but essentially we're dealing with the same kind of technology. I still have equipment in my studios that is from the early eighties, still in general use. It still works! Not that I would use it to master an album on, but I have a digital tape recorder which is often used as a backup or something to copy onto, and its probably 1987 vintage.
We're still dealing with the same kind of computers we've known for quite a few years now, they're just faster, bigger hard disks, do things in a bit more detailed way, but essentially Apple Macs are Apple Macs and PCs are still PCs. Things are not moving with the pace of change that many of us thought they would. How long is it since a man walked on the moon? Jumbo jets have been flying for thirty years. Things haven't changed as much as many of us thought they would. And music certainly is no exception. There's a different gloss on it, a different suit of cloths, different haircut, but its pretty much the same old stuff. Its very easy to believe when you listen to the lyrics of pop and rock music that there's not a lot different going on out there apart from-you might argue- the sentiments and language of wrap music which has brought something into the equation that wasn't there before. Whether you like it or not is a different matter.
TVP: I have in my possession a Jethro Tull songbook from 1971. The introduction points out that you knocked the Rolling Stones out of the #2 position after The Beatles as the most popular band in the U.K.
IA: That's just some newspaper or magazine doing its usual self-important reader's poll or something. You have to take those things with a pinch of salt.
TVP: Did memories of that period come to mind when you recorded with the original 1968 lineup for the DVD?
IA: Not really. We just got together to play 3 songs, We hadn't played together for 34 years. It was a quick run through and then roll the cameras. I wanted to grab this performance while it was still relatively fragile and there was a little tension in it because it would be all too easy to just over-rehearse something for the cameras. It's really important to have a little bit of tension there. I certainly wasn't thinking in any nostalgic way about any of the original band members or the things going on at the time, I was more interested in trying to remember the right notes to play, as indeed I'm sure my three friends were.
TVP: Now that Mick Jagger has been knighted, do you think you're next in line?
IA: I think there's absolutely no chance whatsoever. First of all, it mostly happens to people who are already well-known figures. There are indeed awards given to public servants who are absolutely not know by most folks like nursed in hospitals, health care workers, people just doing good work. There are a certain number of those people who do get, not knighted, but given some award by the Queen for services.
But in the case of someone like Mick Jagger, he's obviously one of those very few persistent leading figures in the world of rock and pop music and the fact that Elton John and Paul McCartney had been awarded such things it seemed not unreasonable that Mick Jagger should be treated similarly. But remembering all these guys have had their scuffles with authority, drug busts, lots of sexual shenanigans on the part of Elton John and Mick Jagger anyway, there's a degree of raciness almost. You've got to be VH1 Behind the Music material to qualify for a knighthood these days, as well as to qualify for being on VH1. And I think on any of those counts I wouldn't get close to it because I haven't done any good works, nor have I been conspicuous on a public platform the way that Mick Jagger has. I think it's an absolute dead certainty I will manage to live out my life without being recognized in that sort of way at all. And indeed I would feel completely embarrassed and would have a great sense of being the wrong guy if anybody did say, "Look, um your name's being considered and how would you accept the award and how would you feel about it?" which is of course what happens. They don't want to give awards to people who won't show up, not after John Lennon gave his back. I think I'd be very uncomfortable about such a thing. There are certain qualifications and I don't think I would have them, both good and bad qualifications if you see what I mean, so I'm not really expecting anything like that at all.
Mick Jagger on the other hand, was. He was by all accounts pretty pissed off that some other folks, Sir Cliff Richards, Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, did. I think Mick Jagger was getting pretty pissed off, "Hey, what happened to me?" Well, a lot of people would be saying "What Happened to Charlie, where's Sir Charlie and Sir Keith. Why Mick Jagger and not the other guys? He's after all just one of the band, judging by the lack of the success of his recent solo album, I would have thought he'd be extremely grateful to be part of the band.
TVP: Is there anything unusual we can expect at your upcoming tour?
IA: With Jethro Tull, by and large what is different is on a fairly subtle level. I don't think we're there to suddenly say "Surprise surprise, we're going to show you our new Hip Hop Symphonic Album." People might be a little disappointed.

In addition to heading up Jethro Tull for the last 35 years, and the extensive touring and recording that entails, Ian Anderson frequently performs with orchestras, and owns and operates a salmon farm in Scotland.