On Jethro Tull

So we had a group lunch at work. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, get some free food, everybody gossips, get back to work.

Well, during the gossip session, my Elder Millennial Friend (henceforth EMF) made a joke about Jethro Tull and rock and roll with flutes in it and my Junior Millennial Friend expressed surprise that such an attempt had been made.

And so I felt the need to defend Jethro Tull to the EMF and the JMF. I explained that the albums were strong albums and the flute solos were complex and fun and Jethro Tull was Prog Rock and, well, I didn’t get very far.

So, that night, I found myself with a few minutes to spare and so I wrote an email to these guys with links to youtube videos and pointers to when the solos started. The email I sent follows:

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One of the things about “Prog” was the pretension that rock and roll could be complex and musical and rich and deep the way that Classical was.

It’s not just a melody and a hook. It can have deep themes and do stuff that Bach would find interesting! So the argument went.

Jethro Tull said “you know… a flute can kick butt too.”

Here’s arguably the best known flute solo from “Locomotive Breath” (starts at 2:45):

The entire Aqualung is really good. Back in the day, we’d just sit around and listen to albums on a Friday night (no dates!) and we’d talk about music. Aqualung was an awesome album all around.

The song “My God” has what might be the best solo (starts at 3:25 and be sure to catch the “yeah” at 3:39):

Now the main thing that you might say looking at the times is “hey, most of the music I listen to doesn’t even last 3 and a half minutes! What’s this crap about that’s where the *SOLO* starts?

Yeah, well, one of the things “Prog” did was write longer songs.

Now, part of the whole thing was also pushing limits and being edgy and, in the 1970s, this meant some light blasphemy (you may have noticed some in My God) but Hymn 43 is probably the song you either want to listen to or avoid due to the content. (It may have been my favorite Tull song at one point…)

Well, after Aqualung came out, all of the Serious Critics praised the album talking about how it was a high-minded concept album critiquing social policy, interpersonal dynamics, and religion.

And Ian Anderson got ticked off about that. “IT’S NOT A CONCEPT ALBUM!!!”

And he said “Okay, fine. You want a concept album? *THIS* is a concept album!”

Thick as a Brick is 43:50. It is one song. “Wait… didn’t it come out on vinyl?”, you may ask. “Why, yes. It did. That means you had to flip the record halfway through the song.”

They did the favor of slowing the song down and fading out a bit… to fade back in at the beginning of side 2. It’s a really good album.

Anyway. If you ever find yourself wanting to listen to some rock and roll that was trying to do something groundbreaking and pretentious and crap, Jethro Tull is really good.

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The next week, I found myself over at the other building with those guys again and asked “did you get my email?” and EMF said “Yeah, I listened to a couple of the songs… the flute solo was interesting because it was a flute solo, but I didn’t think that the songs were particularly notable beyond the flute thing. Otherwise, the song was a 1970s song that could appear in any 1970s-themed show or movie. Like Boogie Nights.”

My JMF said “Man, I just opened that email and saw a wall of text. I’ll read it later.”

My EMF laughed and said “Yeah, you should have made a meme!”

So I made this and sent it to them:

EMF cracked up and JMF said “See? That gets your point across.”

Anyway, all that to say: Kids these days.