Every Moment Has A Song

(via Louder) by James McNair

Not ones for living in the past, Jethro Tull are back with their 24th album – and third in three years – Curious Ruminant. It finds frontman Ian Anderson embracing his love of sci-fi and issuing a warning about climate change. He tells Prog about building on the band’s legacy, hamming it up for the crowd and making sure all the semiquavers are in the right place.

Twenty minutes into his scheduled 9am Zoom interview with Prog, Ian Anderson has yet to appear. This is very unlike him and there is speculation about his whereabouts. Is he feeding his chickens? His pigs? Has he become absorbed in some music at his home studio? It’s a safe bet Jethro’s Tull’s venerable leader is up and doing something, because even now – or maybe especially now, given time’s year-stealing march – indolence is not this driven, 77-year-old flautist’s way.

Suddenly Anderson appears on screen, apologising that he has only just learned of a Google spreadsheet apprising him of the day’s many tasks. It turns out he’s been up since 6.30am (“A late start”) and has already replied to Derek Shulman of Gentle Giant’s email requesting a quote of endorsement for an upcoming memoir.

“I thought, ‘Okay, another end-of-life story,’” says Tull’s frontman, “but it’s what we do when we get older, right? You want to leave a legacy that isn’t just carved on your tombstone, but also carved in your own memory before it’s too late.”

After 24 studio albums and almost 60 years with Jethro Tull, Anderson’s legacy looks safe even before you factor in his not inconsiderable solo output. The band’s latest LP Curious Ruminant fulfils the contractual stipulations of their three-album deal with German prog label InsideOutMusic – but unlike 2022’s The Zealot Gene and 2023’s RökFlöte, it’s not a concept album; and it feels weightier, closer to home…

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/ian-anderson-jethro-tull-one-060300357.html

As the pioneering prog rockers celebrate their 50th anniversary with a tour and new box set, their leader reflects on the tracks that defined them

(via Rolling Stone) by Kory Grow

For Ian Anderson – prog rocker extraordinaire and the world’s best one-legged-stance flautist, bar none – a half-century career in music is no remarkable feat. “It’s not any particularly novel or unusual occurrence,” the Jethro Tull leader says nonchalantly through his dry British accent. “This year marks the anniversary of many other bands who did things around the same period of time. King Crimson started in 1968. So did Yes, Rush and Deep Purple. And of course it’s Led Zeppelin’s 50th anniversary too. So there we go.”

But what he fails to acknowledge is that none of those bands, no matter how out-there they got, were able to blend their hard-rock aspirations with the same levels of pomp, guile or unapologetic pretension as Jethro Tull. None scored FM-radio gold singing lyrics like “Lend me your ear while I call you a fool” (“The Witch’s Promise”) or by writing a 44-minute, tongue-in-cheek prog-rock song (“Thick as a Brick,” presented in two parts on the original LP and packaged in a fake newspaper) or by playing frilly flute solos over Renaissance-inspired folk-rock (“Songs From the Wood”).

In their 50 years, Jethro Tull have notched an astounding 15 gold or platinum albums in the U.S., as well as two Number One LPs. Their most famous song, “Aqualung,” has a guitar riff that’s as cutting and memorable as “Iron Man” and “Smoke on the Water,” and their music has influenced Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Porcupine Tree, Pearl Jam and Nick Cave, among others. Yet the band has not yet been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the only time it has won a Grammy was in the Hard Rock/Metal category – a concept that seemed so preposterous to Anderson that he didn’t bother to show up…

Read more: Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson: My Life in 10 Songs – Rolling Stone