MY DAD PAINTED THE ICONIC COVER FOR JETHRO TULL’S ‘AQUALUNG,’ AND IT’S HAUNTED HIM EVER SINCE

(via The Outline) by Robert Silverman

Sometimes, my father, Burton Silverman, age 89, has trouble remembering certain things. He worries about this. My mother, a psychologist, 79, worries even more, parsing his speech patterns and emails for any clinical signs of cognitive impairment. He always hand waves away these concerns, partly for our benefit and partly because there is little to be done.

But as some details — the name of a former friend, where he last stashed his wallet — seem to fall just beyond his fingertips, dad’s focus has turned towards something less definable: his career. More to the point, the end of a career that has seen him become one of the more prominent realist painters of his time. And yet, for all the artwork he’s created, the accolades and awards, it bothers him, in a way he can’t really express and may not want to recognize, that one of the first lines in his obituary will mention a “throwaway gig,” from the winter of 1970: the artwork for Jethro Tull’s best-known and best-selling album, Aqualung

Read more: The painter behind Jethro Tull’s Aqualung cover is still haunted by its success | The Outline

Video of the Week: Classical Flutist Reacts to Jethro Tull

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKSrq_qjB_Y

Songs You May Have Missed #406

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Ian Anderson: “Calliandra Shade (The Cappuccino Song)” (2003)

Although Jethro Tull albums are written chiefly if not solely by Ian Anderson, his solo stuff tends to be a complete contrast. 2003’s Rupi’s Dance, as well as The Secret Language of Birds of three years earlier, appear to be more of an outlet for the laid-back, more acoustic work Anderson seems to increasingly enjoy recording and performing these days.

“Calliandra Shade”, as the album’s first track, is a perfect declaration of intent for such a pastoral record. It’s a song too inconsequential, too casual for a Tull album, and a perfect slice of Ian’s other side. Here he simply invites you to join him at his favorite table at an outdoor café, sip a designer coffee and enjoy the warm sunshine and loose conversation. It’s deliberately about nothing–the anti-Jethro Tull song. And it’s delightful.

I sit in judgment on the market square
I have my favorite table and I have my chair
Natives are friendly and the sun flies high
All kinds of crazy waiters, they go drifting by

Hours last forever in the Calliandra shade
Conversation going nowhere and yet everywhere
Kick off those sad shoes and let the bare toes tingle
Slip off that shoulder strapless and the thick black hair

Come, sit with me and take decaf designer coffee
Come, laugh and listen as the ragamuffin children play
Lame dog and a black cat, now they shuffle in the shadows
You got cappuccino lip on a short skirt day

Electric afternoon and shrill cellphones are mating
Lame dog is dreaming, dreaming of a better life
Where bed is fluffy pillows, table scraps are fillet mignon
Flicked indiscreetly by the lazy waiter’s knife

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/06/04/songs-you-may-have-missed-118/

Songs You May Have Missed #118

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Ian Anderson: “Eurology” (Live) (2005)

The cheekily-titled “Eurology” is one of the tastiest things Jethro Tull’s mad flautist has come up with in recent years. And the live version is a wee bit livelier than the studio.

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/05/02/songs-you-may-have-missed-406/

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