An
introduction to "A"
In 1980 the "A"
album was released. It made clear how Jethro Tull moved
away from from the folky sound of the previous three
albums. In fact "A" saw the most radical change
of sound and musical direction since Mick Abrahams left
the band in 1968. In 1980 Chrysalis approached Ian
Anderson with a view to releasing an album of his solo
acoustic songs from previous Tull records. Ian thought it
would be better if he went and recorded a solo album
instead. It was something the fans had always wanted. So
Ian started to record his solo project, but retained the
services of Martin Barre on guitar and Dave Pegg on bass,
although a member of the group since the Stormwatch tour,
hadn't yet recorded with them.
Wanting a keyboard-based
album, Ian contacted Eddie Jobson, who played with Roxy
Music and Frank Zappa before. With his band UK he had
recently supported Tull. His friend Mark Craney was
brought in to play drums, and they recorded a set of
Ian's songs in a matter of weeks. When they had finished,
it was clear that what they had recorded could not
reasonably described as a solo album from Ian, and
eventually it was decided that "A"should be the
new jethro Tull LP - and so, in effect, Barrie Barlow,
John Evans and David Palmer were no longer in the band.
Hardly surprising then
that "A" evoked mixed reactions from Tull fans.
Ian has commented that "it should not really have
come out as a Jethro Tull album. Of course I do not
dismiss it: as a record it is fine, but I have never
thought it fits in with the other albums as a whole. But
then it is clearly very much a group album, certainly not
a solo set." The album sounds from time to time very
'electronically', since keyboards and electric violin
play an important role in most of the songs and Ian would
explore this further on his solo album "Walk Into
Light", released two years later.
While recording the tracks
for the solo album in the studio the tape boxes were
simply marked "A" for Anderson. The title
stuck.
* "20 Years Of Jethro
Tull"- album booklet
Eddie Jobson playing his
electric violin during the "A" tour.
Annotations
Crossfire
- With the song Crossfire I had the title with some
idea about the lyrics and we were actually
rehearsing that track when my wife Shona came
rushing in and said that the Iranian embassy in
London had been besieged. We all stopped
rehearsing and came to watch it on the
television. Then the next morning before the
others arrived for rehearsal I wrote all the
lyrics. So although it was kind of aimed in that
direction anyway, when this particular thing
happened on the news I filled in the missing
words. It is essentially a song sung from the
point of view of constable Trevor Locke, who was
actually in the embassy while it was all going
on, and I think it's as simple as that you know,
current news story.
* Ian Anderson in "Jethro
Tull In Concert, Official Program A-Tour"
Fylingdale
Flyer
- ..... was also provided by a news story about the
last timethe Americans had a slight hitch with
one of their early warning systems and they
thought the Russians had provoked an attack. It's
sung from the point of view of those guys at the
Fylingdale Early Warning Station in Yorkshire.
They think, well there is a missile coming across
but it's only halfway to America. We've still got
a bit of time left to work out wether it's
serious or not and "time for a last game of
bowls" which is just what Sir francis drake
did in 1588 when he was told that the Spanish
Armada has been sighted off Plymouth Hoe!
* Ian Anderson in "Jethro
Tull In Concert, Official Program A-Tour"
Working
John - Working Joe
- .... was written at the time when a lot of flack
was being thrown at the middle class by the
unions. The song suggests that the chap who is
the white collar worker, a director of a company,
has the same hard slog day to day as the chap on
the shop floor. He may drive to work in his Rolls
Royce every day, but he gets stuck in traffic
jams just the same and he lives further out of
town and it's just as much a hassle, and the
price he has to pay for his greater degree of
wealth is ulcers and heart disease.
* Ian Anderson in "Jethro
Tull In Concert, Official Program A-Tour"
Black
Sunday
- I wrote the lyrics to Black Sunday just before I
went on tour, which is the sort of sound it has
although I tried to write it in the kind of way
that anybody would feel if they are having to go
off to work and always wondering if, when they
come back, they will find things the way they
left them. It is just full of the kind of images
that I see when I travel.
* Ian Anderson in "Jethro
Tull In Concert, Official Program A-Tour"
Protect
And Survive
- The title is taken from the British Government
pamphlet of the same name which, in the event of
a nuclear attack, gives a very skeletal rundown
on what to do. It is a slightly tongue-in-cheek
dig at the Government for not having given the
people enough information and for treating us in
a very down-market way. The content of the
pamphlet is really minimal and assumes that
everyone is a complete moron - it also contains a
substantial amount of mis-information. The
sentiments of the song are not necessarily my
own, but the way what I would expect an average
person to react upon reading that sort of
pamphlet, especially in the aftermath of a
nuclear attack.
* Ian Anderson in "Jethro
Tull In Concert, Official Program A-Tour"
- I hope you don't mind but I've
added a couple of links to your Jethro Tull web
site from my "Protect and Survive" web
site which is about the UK government leaflet
that influenced Jethro Tull to write the track
Protect and Survive. The integral text of this
leaflet can be found on my web site. http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/atomic/
* George Coney, Chorlton,
Manchester, email: george@cybertrn.demon.co.uk
Batteries
Not Included
- ..... is a bit macabre really. A
child wakes up at Christmas morning to find this
fabulous mechanical toy at the bottom of his bed,
but it doesn't work because the batteries were
not included. During the period of time that he
is assessing its lack of life as being due to
that he identifies with the toy so strongly that
when his parents wake up they find he has become
like the toy and he's switched off as well. On
this track my son Jamie makes his recording
debut.
* Ian Anderson in "Jethro
Tull In Concert, Official Program A-Tour"
Uniform
- The song Uniform is again a
slightly tongue-in-cheek comment on the fact that
we all dress up, we all undertake roles in
society according to the clothes we wear. There
are not many people who tend to express their
individuality in terms of dress; they tend to
conform to various social groupings, and they are
severely in uniforms just as much as a soldier or
a policeman.
* Ian Anderson in "Jethro
Tull In Concert, Official Program A-Tour"
4.W.D.
(Low Ratio)
- ..... is just about having an
affinity for four-wheel drive vehicles. I thought
it nice to have a song about that, and it's spelt
that way to avoid confusion with another song on
the same subject which is nothing like ours
musically.
* Ian Anderson in "Jethro
Tull In Concert, Official Program A-Tour"
The
Pine Marten's Jig
- A traditional sopunding piece of
music, but it is a lot more involved. It's very
electric and therefore very 20th century. It
employs a lot of fairly trickly little time
signature pieces, and the instrumentation,
mandolins and violin, although very traditional
here, have an end result of being quite an
electric thing.
* Ian Anderson in "Jethro
Tull In Concert, Official Program A-Tour"
And
Further On
- This song is one of the most
ambiguous, wistful things that have a private and
personal connotation for the author, but a broad
enough imagery, hopefully, to work in different
ways for different listeners. To specifically
explain my understanding of the lyric would be to
rob the individual of his right to a personal
interpretation! I suppose it really serves as a
musical and lyrical postscript to the rest of the
songs on the album.
* Ian Anderson in "Jethro
Tull In Concert, Official Program A-Tour"
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