An
introduction to "A Minstrel In The Gallery"
The successful Warchild tour of 1975 was
briefly interrupted for two months to record 'The
Minstrel In The Gallery'. It was recorded in Monte Carlo
in the band's newly purchased mobile studio. According to
Rees (1; 68) the songs were written by Ian Anderson
around Chrismas 1975 during a month of isolation, in
contradistinction to all previous Tull albums. Ian
recalls that "Technically, it was a very good album,
one of the better ones. We managed to get a great sound,
having had the luxury of being able to set up the studio
exactly the way we wanted it. But again, it's a bit
humourless, a bit too introverted. It didn't have the
input from the band that the three previous albums had. I
think the band was suffering at the time of 'Minstrel'
(...) The band was still playing well, but it lacked real
harmony" (1; 68-69).
We have seen how with 'Warchild' Ian
Anderson continued to elaborate his ideas on human
nature. On this album however, 'Minstrel In The Gallery',
we see the wit who has slyly commented upon modern
society and human nature turned on itself. The resulting
material was a wonderful, versatile collection of deeply
personal reflections, of anger and sadness. At the time
he was divorcing his first wife Jennie. Anderson has
remarked that he thought the album became "too
introspective". The mood of the album is captured
quite well by a photo on the album's inner sleeve. It
shows Anderson seated with his guitar on a balconey.
Because the photo was taken at a low angle, the railing
looks like prison bars. Anderson himself looks quite
drained and somber with bags under his eyes.
In spite of Ian's recollections and
self-critique the album received a warm welcome by the
fans, regarding it as one of the finest Tull-albums. It
seems that the different types of Tull-fans were catered
for, since the album contained rocksongs, acoustic songs,
classical elements (David Palmer's string arrangements)
and Ian's famous mix of rock and acoustics within songs
like 'Black Satin Dancer' and the title track. It even
contained a mini-concept in the tradition of 'Thick As A
Brick' and 'A Passion Play': 'Baker Street Muse'! And for
the poetry-lovers among the fans: once again refractory
and imaginative lyrics were offered, as well as tender
and simple ones ('Mother England', 'Requiem', 'Grace').
* John Benninghouse, Jan Voorbij
Annotations
Minstrel In The Gallery
In the title track Anderson seems
to be refering to himself as a minstrel who plies
his trade in recording studions and theaters
rather than in courts of kings. Even if the
critics didn't care for him and his music, the
loyalty of the fans has been unswerving: "Then
he called the band down to the stage and he
looked at all the friends he'd made."
* John Benninghouse
It's interesting
to see how Ian describes in this song what a
minstrel is actually doing in performing his art
and what it does to himself in the end. At the
start of his performance the minstrel looks down
upon his audience, looks them in their eyes,
observes them and gauges the atmosphere. Then he
chooses a suitable song full of humour, critique
and innuendoes. He waits to make sure it has
effect on the audience and watches how it takes
place. Then the effect is worded in: "he
polarized (...),he
titillated (...), he
pacified (...)".
The minstrel not only looks down in a literal sense (being on stage). In
fact he does not like what he sees at all: the
description of people in his audience, both their
behaviour and the condition they are in, is far
from flattering: old men's cackle (...),
factory-cheatres salaried and collar-scrubbing
(...), hands still rubbing on the parts they
never mention (...), overfed (...), family-scared
and women-haters, etc.
Once he becomes aware of this, he realizes that
he in fact does not differ from them in any way. Now
that is has become clear that he is no better or
worse, it is not up to him to criticize: "And
he threw away his looking-glass, saw his face in
everyone".
Since this album is so introvert, I wonder if
this portrays Ian's reflections on his art, his
stage personae, his severe criticizing lyrics of
the previous three albums and the Château
d'Isastre tapes. Is there a glimpse of feelings
of uncertainty (partly caused by being subdued to
severe hammering himself for e.g. 'A Passion
Play'), of being confused as how to go on and
give new form, meaning and content to his art?
* Jan Voorbij
The album and
track title is a literal reference to the
recording location. The studio was placed in a
gallery, as pictured on the back of the album. In
a literally sense the band members were 'minstrels in
the gallery'.
Since Anderson did all the songwriting and
recorded most of the album, there is a singular
minstrel in the title. It seems that Ian for the
next tour exchanged his court jester stage
persona for that of the minstrel.
* Jan Voorbij
Cold Wind To Valhalla
The song contains
several pagan connotations and offers a foretaste
of things to come on later albums.In this case
Ian derives elements from Norse/Germanic
mythology. The Valhalla was the elysium of heroes, fallen in
battle. The souls of these heroes were collected
and brought to the Valhalla by the Valkyries, which in Old Norse means 'chooser of
slain'. These Valkyries (compare the German
Walküre) were war-godesses and "Thor's
trusty hand-maidens", who under his command directed the
battles and selected the warriors, who were to
fall in battle. Thor was the god of thunder, the
son of Odin (Wodan) - the main god of the
Germanic nations - and his wife Frigga. The verse
lines "We're getting
a bit short on heroes lately" and "Valkyrie
maidens ride empty handed on the cold wind to
Valhalla" might contain a bit of Ian's tongue in
cheek criticism: are they returning empty handed
because there are no more true heroes to be
found?
* Jan Voorbij
Black Satin Dancer
After 'Cold Wind
To Valhalla' come three songs that, however
obliquely, express Ian's troubled life. 'Black
Satin Dancer' would seem to be a tribute to his
ex wife and the better days they shared. In it is
a line that seems quite familiar: compare "In
all your giving, given is the answer" of this song to "and it's only
the giving that makes you what you are" from 'Wond'ring Aloud'.
* John Benninghouse
Requiem
- By the time this album was
recorded Ian was going through divorce. He and
his first wife Jennie broke up. This beautiful
acoustic song is a requiem for a relation that
came to an end. In the first verse he draws
images from nature as metaphores to describe how
tender, vulnerable creatures cannot cope with
'nature's violence'. Both the blown away bird and the sun burned butterfly symbolize the tender relation that
could not sustain life's pressure. The second
verse describes the definite parting and the
grief that goes with it - masterfully worded
between the lines. The last verseline "Well I saw a
bird today, I looked aside and walked away along
the strand" is a
reprise, but here the bird stands for another
woman he meets. He keeps his distance, afraid to
get hurt again ("it's the same old story").
* Jan Voorbij
One
White Duck / 0/10 = Nothing At All
- A traditional wall ornament in northern England
is/was a set of three porcelain flying ducks,
each smaller than the last. They tend to signify
a well-established, settled household. If only
one remains, "one
white duck on your wall",
the suggestion is that the household or marriage
is has broken up; hence this song. Whether
the white duck is the only duck left, or the pale
outline where a duck has been removed from the
wall, is something to consider.
* Neil R.Thomason
- I have always associated the
verseline "So fly away,
Peter, and fly away, Paul" with a song by Peter, Paul and Mary
from around 1970: "I'm leaving on a jet
plane, don't know when I'll be back again",
which expresses similar feelings.
* Jan Voorbij
- There's a children's finger game in England. I
can't remember exactly how it's played, but two
fingers represent two birds called Peter and
Paul, and "fly away Peter, fly away
Paul" is one of the lines in the verse:
"Two little dickie-birds sitting on a wall,
One named Peter, one named Paul ..".
*Leigh Ann Hussey
Baker
Street Muse
- The self-deprecating elements in
the lyrics of 'One White Duck' tend to spill over
in the song at hand, which in fact is a
collection of connected songs, a 16 minute
mini-epic. According to Rees, the song suite was
based on Ian's time spent living in the Baker
Street area of London, with several allusions to
his pursuit of a lady, who later became his wife
(1; 69). We see here how Ian picks all kinds of
images and impressions from what he sees in the
streets and uses them to express or illustrate
his own emotional condition, in a picturesque way
that reminds us of the imagery of 'Mother Goose'
and other songs from the 'Aqualung' album.
* Jan Voorbij
Grace
- Here are Ian's comments about 'Grace', from
'Mintrel In The Gallery': "My big private
goal, my actual composing ideal, is to write a
30-second piece that just totally evokes
something. Everyone will say, 'I know just
what he means.' That's my sort of private
thing. I don't get caught up in that too
often, just once in a while. There's a song
on 'Minstrel In The Gallery' called
'Grace'. It's just a 40-second
piece. I literally woke up one morning and
looked out the window and just sang words that
perfectly evoked for me a feeling, and put it to
a sort of quartet arrangement for strings. For me
it evoked something that I think countless people
will sort of share in and understand. The only
twist is in the words:
"Hello sun,
Hello bird,
Hello my lady
Hello breakfast,"
and the next line: "May I buy you again
tomorrow?" And 'May I buy you'
is so ambiguous, whether it applies to the $2.50
breakfast at the airport or the whole thing. I
mean, we all pay for this in one way or another.
That ambiguity is a consciously put-in thing, but
it's not something that anybody will really pick
up on, though some people obviously will.
The last line doesn't even need to be there for
most people. It's there as an extra twist, an
amusement. It's there if you happen to feel, like
I do, a certain cynicism about all your pleasures
in life. Because I wake up some mornings
and the sun is shining and the birds are
twittering and I feel like going out and
strangling the little bastards."
* Neil R.Thomason (from
"The Codpiece Chronicles", March 11,
1976) 1.
Works cited: 1. David Rees: Minstrels In The
Gallery, A History Of Jethro Tull, Wembley, 1998;
2.John Benninghouse: Songs From The Wood, The
music and lyrics of Ian Anderson", 1994.
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