An
introduction to "J-Tull Dot Com"
It took four years since "Roots To
Branches" was released before the new album
"J-Tull Dot Com" saw daylight in August 1999.
The odd title, derived from the URL of The Official
Jethro Tull Website, once again offers an example of how
Jethro Tull always chooses it's own course and manages to
include and use actual developments in society in their
art.
But there is more to that. With this
website the band chose deliberately for a way of
informing fans and others who are interested by offering
news regarding the band and their art directly and at
first hand. One can read the latest news about the
current leg of the tour and how the band is going on with
their work of composing, rehearsing and recording. A
novum regarding the new album is that everybody who has
access to the internet can witness the creating process
of writing, composing and recording: audiofiles can be
downloaded of four songs at different phases of this
process. They grant all of us so to say "a peek in
the kitchen": making it possibles to get a notion of
how the "broth" is composed. Once again Tull
has set a standard.
The internet has become important for the
band and they take it very seriously regarding all the
work that is invested in their website, their serious
attempt of informing their fans and the correspondence
with fans by email. On the other hand for fans the
internet has become an important medium to inform
eachother, discuss about all kind of questions chat- or
email-wise, exchange gig reviews and stay in contact with
eachother. The importance of the internet and it's social
and cultural relevance has not escaped Ian's attention
and is reflected in the lyrics of this album as I will
try to point out below.
Whereas the "Roots To Branches"
album offers us an innovative and a bit awkward Tull,
inspired by all kinds of ethnic musical influences,
expressing all differents moods and feelings, the new
album seems to be a compromise. At first hearing one may
conclude, that Ian Anderson plays at safe by
reintroducing the - let's say - seventies rock style that
made Tull so popular, esp. in the USA and Germany. Sturdy
songs and Martin's soaring guitar seem to form the main
feautures of the album.
But listening more close other features
strike the ear: the enchanting, supporting flute (instead
of the very well known prominent flute solo's), elements
from ethnic music so carefully used to create different
and for Western ears sometimes unusual atmospheres, the
choice of instruments, the combination of soft and hard
parts within the songs, the beautiful and warm melodic
lines and the delicate, refined combination of all these
elements; these features make this album into another
listening adventure.
Though the album critically speaking is
not at all innovative, it is well-balanced and radiates a
certain maturity that integrates the many different
features that are so typical for "Tull-music"
into one album. I dare to state here that Jethro Tull
once again managed to transcend the limitations of the
rock idiom and delivered a piece of art that meets
standards set by themselves. I deliberately do not speak
here of an "Ian Anderson album"; it is
definitely a band's achievement: they play so tightly,
use a variety of techniques, keep their musical balance
so well and have all contributed to the recording of all
these songs. Aside of the Tull members, the album also
features Najma Akhtar from India, who added her lovely
female vocal to the title song.
Najma Akhtar
The album is entitled to attention and
careful listening, but then again: good wine needs no
bush. "J-tull Dot Com" is a milestone in Jethro
Tull's development over the last three decades.
The disputed artwork of the booklet is
again designed by Bog Zarkowski and the cover artwork
features Ian's painting. After all, he started as a
visual artist before switching onto music. It is a
picture of an Egyptian god Chnum (Num, Chnumis, Chnubis -
whichever name or transcription you prefer - meaning
"spirit" or "breath", "spirit of
God floating over the waters' surfaces"), later to
be known as Amun ("the hidden one"), one of the
eight bigger Egyptian gods (relevant to Zeus, Brahma or
Wuotan = Odin).
"Amun was depicted in human form, with blue skin and
either the head of a bearded man or a ram's head with
curved horns. He wore a crown composed of a modius
surmounted by two tall feather plumes. He was sometimes
depicted in ithyphallic form with an oversized erect
penis. His true appearance was considered beyond human
understanding. He was said to be "hidden of aspect,
mysterious of form", invisible yet omnipresent
throughout the cosmos. Amun's sacred animals were the ram
and the goose. His primary sanctuaries were at Karnak and
Luxor near Thebes"**
The painting is based on a gargoyle-like sculpture by
Ian's friend and former neighbour Michael Cooper. Now it
stands by a pool in Ian's garden.
* Jan Voorbij, Ivory Rodriguez
** Source: Egyptian Gods & Legends:
http://www.primenet.com/~wyvern/egyptgods.html
This photograph from
the booklet of the "J-TULL DOT COM" album shows
the current line-up
of The Ray Davies Memorial Band, from left to right:
Baldrick Baldy Locks, Ferocious Furry Fingers (Ph.D.),
Dr. Julius Gegenstreber, the outrageous psychiatrist
(with 'wicked windows'), Bill the Base-Teaser, and
Rudolph the Roller, aka Bash-the-Beast-before-Breakfast.
Annotations
Spiral
In a promotional audiofile,
downloadable from the Fuel
2000 Records site, Ian tells us that
"Spiral" is about the waking-up process
in which we spiral out of the dream state into
reality wondering which is the dream and what is
reality. The lyrics open with a description of a
'dreamscape' wherein our narrator dwells and from
which he has to leave as his sleep fades away.
("Thought it best, best that I should
go"). He tends to waken up,
but is confused ("Who's out there, can't
hear you"), and realizes,
that though he wants to go back to his sleep and
his last dream, he reluctantly has to face the
reality of the new day ("Time to make my peace
with the dreary day"). In
spite of the alarm-clock he sinks back into
another dream, though it's not clear whether it's
a dream, a memory of a situation our narrator
went through, or a wish for sharing with a loved
one ("Loaves
and fishes at an empty tabele laid for two").
Note the biblical images in this stanza: "wine to water"
and "loaves and
fishes". But inevitably, the
waking up takes place ("down the spiral,
spinning madly"), leaving
rags of yet another dream ("On a disneyesque
adventure ride. I fly in colours from richer
palettes. Famous artists running scared as worlds
collide"). Or does the
narrator say here that his dream world is so much
richer in colours, images and sensations than
those of everyday life?. Note that the waking up
process is not described as spiralling up, but as
spiralling down ("I'm falling"
and "down the
spiral"), causing uncertainty
about what is reality and which is the dream.
This mixed-up state of mind when waking up is
familiar to all of us I think.
* Jan Voorbij
Dot Com
On the promo CD, Ian introduces
the song as follows:
"When we'd completed most of the recording
for the new record, I almost joking suggested we
name it after our recently set up website,
J-Tull.com. Surprisingly this idea met with
approval from the band members and the record
company guys, so I thought, well let's make that
official! But as always, being one for dotting
the T's and crossing the I's...is that right? and
finishing the parcel tied up with a nice red
ribbon I wrote an additional song and called it
simply 'Dot Com'. It features the sultry crooning
of Najma Akhtar, one of India's best known female
classical and pop vocalists, and it's an ode to
the communication options of the Internet; two
lovers in touch only via their corporate email
accounts."
* Daniël C. Benchimol
This is the first Jethro Tull
song that brings up the internet. It is about a
far away beloved one, who apparently is very
busy, always en route and probably has no time
for our narrator. He misses her, longs for
contact ("give
a clue; leave a kind word")
and hopes she will email him. The internet seems
the only place where they can meet: "a
domain where our cyber-souls might meet",
albeit virtually; that is, if she does
email him. In the context of this song, the line "And in case you wonder
- I'll be yours" suggests
the opposite: it is he who asks himself if she is
still his......
* Jan Voorbij
AWOL
On his way to work, the narrator
feels he does not to waste his time there and
decides to take a day off: "Won't be in today to
work for you" and "unfit today to work for
you". It seems he doesn't like
the work he's doing at all and has nothing to
lose ("Of
a sudden, seems I can barely face myself: no face
to lose"). So he decides to
take a day off work doing other pleasant things
instead like going out with a girlfriend. But in
the end, "this
romantic interlude" has to be
paid for by working overtime.
Like in "Dot Com" there
is once again a reference to using the internet
for contacting someone who can't be met easily: "E-mail
that girl who's working nights".
The Trump Casino
in Atlantic City, mentioned in this song, is one
of the venues the band will be playing during the
US tour in 1999.
* Jan Voorbij
Wicked Windows
Ian's introduction to this song
on the promotion CD:
"Funny how so many bad guys in history wore
those little wire-rimmed spectacles; they lend an
air of menace and cunning, disguised as frailty
of diminished eyesight. You know, I bought of
pair of reading glasses of that sort recently,
and looked in the mirror and thought immediately,
'What Wicked Windows!' So, out came a song, sung
in the first person and loosely based around the
supposed character of one of history's all-time
worst, whose name should be forgotten. Unless of
course the harsh lesson still needs to be reread.
See if you can figure out the villanous
identity." (Heinrich Himmler?-jv)
* Daniël C. Benchimol
In a not yet
broadcasted documentary for the Czech TV Ian
tells where he drew his inspiration from for this
song. He bought a new pair of glasses (see the
cover photo above) and when looking in the mirror
thought himself looking like a knave. Hence the
title "Wicked
Windows".
When watching his own face, he comes to realise
that it reflects his life, his memories, his
experiences, his history. In fact it features him
and cannot be overlooked since his past is "upon
my face, around and over".
There is one of
Ian's well-known and cryptic double-entendres in
the line
"Now and then: memories of men
who loved me.
No stolen kiss - could match their march on hot
coals for me".
Memories of beloved people matter more to him in
the long run and spring to his mind more
frequently than 'stolen kisses',
perhaps symbolic for superficial contacts with
people on the road and his business relations.
But these 'hot
coals' are also a reference
to his own piercing brown eyes!
When reviewing his
past he draws up the balance-sheet and concludes
he layed out his own course, made unconventional
and independent choices, set in situations he was
confronted with:
"I have walked a line both
faint and narrow, hard to follow.
Caught up in circumstance. Harsh truth for
history to mellow".
I suspect, that Ian here refers to his music, his
artistic choices, the people he chose to surround
himself with (band members, business associates)
and his economic enterprises like salmon farming.
His many responsibilities and obligations seem to
get most of his attention and he tends to make
these into his life's priorities:
"Through my eyes: loyalties and
obligation
magnified. Obedience: the better fellow".
The last verseline suggests implicitely a quality
that somehow is in contradistiction to the
'self-willedness' described in the preceeding
lines.
Then - delicately
supported by the music - the mood in the refrain
changes from pensive reminiscence to melancholy
with a touch of bitterness. It seems to me that
Ian implicitely states here that in spite of his
obedience to loyalties and obligations and the
independent line he walked, he didn't achieve
anything remarkable yet: "Better not
remember me. Don't miss my passing". The "fierce
winter" in
the next line might refer to the oblivion we fall
into after dying. (I have not the foggiest idea
about the meaning of the "soft wet
surrender" and "the bad
blood" in the lines
that follow). He than remembers the time that he
was carefree and happy, a time that seems to be
all too far way now and for people knowing him
hard to imagine: "I laughed like
any child - although you might find that
strange".
In the next stanza
his somber thoughts are relativized. He there
realizes that everybody has dark moments
reviewing ones past ("the silent
scrutinizing", "through
wicked windows"). We aren't completely happy about the
choices we made in our life's histories: hence "this
vulnerable squinting". It seems to me, that the "wicked
windows" in this
verse have a different meaning and that judging
ones life in the self-denying way as is done in
the first stanza and the refrain as well leads to
nowhere as it produces only painful feelings of
bitterness, regret and guilt.
* Jan Voorbij
Given the overt reference to the
'net by virtue of the album's title, I expected
to find further "computer" references
in the lyrics, and supposed that they might
plausibly be found in a song titled "Wicked Windows".
Or was I projecting said expectations upon them?
Anyway, pursuing this trajectory, it seemed
reasonable that the "windows
framed in silver and hung in toughened
glass" might well be of the virtual
sort, and that visiting Tull-related sites,
reading the Tull newsgroup, e-mail and so forth
gave him a chance - indeed, often forced him - to
"review my past".
Might the "men who
loved me" then be former cohorts,
particularly band members, memories of whom are
continually dredged up online, and to whom he now
wished to immortalise his deepest appreciation,
in song? Did they not "march
on hot coals" for him? The oft-noted
'driven and demanding taskmaster' aspect of his
personality might be acknowledged here while
penning that, while he may have been "hard to follow",
in his view "loyalty
and obligation" are worthy ideals
that justify the effort required. Later he refers
to "bad blood running
in close families", possibly
reflecting further sentiments regarding band
members and difficult relationships. And they're "still waiting"
for certain explanations. (Aren't you, Barry?).
He finishes this passage by
musing "I laughed like
any child" and "Christmas
was my favourite holiday", as if to
demonstrate good humour about it all, in
self-defense: "Hey, I may have acted like a
child sometimes, but I ain't such a bad guy,
really I'm not". The rest of the lyrics seem
to verify this "Internet-centric"
theme, or at least not to contradict it. "I
know you're out there; so am I, hiding behind
windows just like you." The lyric that
piqued my interest most was "I
offer you no more disguising", not so
much because I really expect him to quit this
incessant posturing and hiding behind words, but
as a possible admission that he does it. As if we
didn't know. And love him for it, to boot. Or
does he refer here to *our* online
"disguises"?
Finally, he sees the "same bad blood running in
new families". Might that be us, his
newfound online companions? Nah--we're nothing if
not perpetually decent and respectful in our
dealings with each other! Or might something be
astir in the current lineup? Well, of course
there is. Sometimes more or less occasionally
than others. Whatever. The one thing I know for
sure about this song, this album,
and for that matter the entire body of JT works:
We're all equally correct in our interpretations,
all equally full of shit.
* Jim Hofweber
My immediate impressions of
'Wicked Windows' are:
(a) Catching a glimpse of family portraits,
portraits that are "framed
in silver and hung in toughened glass",
toughened glass obviously a metaphor for one's
life;
(b) The ongoing nastiness and unhappiness in that
situation, a long history of it
so that it is too diffcult to start
fresh: "harsh truth
for history to mellow";
(c) But sticking with it for the status quo
and for appearance's sake: "loyalties and
obligations"
(d) Being concerned or worried of the
consequences should one make a move, therefore
surrendering to the powers that be, pulling one's
ears and tail in: "Obedience
the better fellow";
(d) Surrounding one's self in a cold shell so as
not to feel and therefore not to hurt: "Fierce winter fails to
ruffle my icy sleep";
(e) The nasty and often ugly feelings in family
situations: "Bad blood
running in close families";
(f) The holiday season accentuating the negatives
in the family: "Christmas
was my favourite holiday" (The
Christmas season brings home the harsh reality of
the lack of loved ones or unhappy family
situations);
(g) Consoling one's self that others are unhappy
in their families and being stuck, whether self
or other imposed: "I
am not alone in seeing the world through wicked
windows";
(h) And the saga continues elsewhere, in one's
own descendents, as well as elsewhere: "Same bad blood running in
new families".
* Mary
Continuation
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