An
introduction to "Warchild"
The 'Warchild' album was released in 1974
and was the result of a filmproject. The basic theme of
the film would have been: the possible choices to be
faced after death and was in that sense a continuation of
the so heavily criticized 'A Passion Play'. Rees (10, p.
64) states, that the main characters in the abandoned
film "were to have been the not insignificant
personifications of God and The Devil, with the possible
controversial premise that somehow their two roles might
be interchangeable!", or, as Ian Anderson has put
it: "I was trying to say that it's not necessarily
always the case that God is good and the Devil is bad.
God was not averse to turning people into pillars of
salt, whereas the Devil has often given people a good
time, with the odd Pagan festival here and there! I'm not
a Satanist or anything like that, but it seemed like an
interesting concept for a film. The album dealt with
similar ideas, but without the film to back it up it
seemed sensible to wash over the concept and let the
music stand on it's own. The music was initially built
around the film, so the songs had to be constructed in
more orthodox lenghts as opposed to the lengthy Passion
Play structure" (10, p. 64). "The overall theme
of 'Warchild' is that all of us have a very aggressive
instinct which is something we're occasionally able to
use for the betterment of ourselves. At other times,
aggression at its worst is used as a very destructive
element. When it's not at its worst it remains merely
comical. I don't think that aggression is such an evil
thing."(11).
(From: Circus Raves
Magazine, vol. 1# 9, November 1974.
The integral text of this article can be found on Dave Gerber's site. Thanks Dave!)
David Palmer had written orchestral music
for a film of which parts were recorded but got
unfortunately lost in the BBC-studios. Martin Barre wrote
some acoustic material. John Cleese was attracted as
'humor advisor', Sir Frederick Ashton for the
choreography and Bryan Forbes as director. However there
were severe problem getting the financial means together
and when the American film industry was approached for
financial support they made so many severe conditions,
that Ian - partly because the new American tour was about
to start - called the project off. Warchild originally
was meant as a soundtrack album. The album was a return
to the single song format. Two songs were added from the
aborted Château d'Herouville sessions: 'Only Solitaire'
and 'Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day'.
The album itself was very well sold and
got a reasonable press reaction. The Warchild tour was
very succesfull and continued through most of 1975. A
single was drawn from the album, 'Bungle In The Jungle',
which became to Ian's surprise a big hit in the USA!
A concert poster
from the WarChild tour announcing Jethro Tull's gig at
the Los Angeles Forum. John Glasscock's band Carmen was
the supporting act.
John would join Jethro Tull as a bass player one year
later.
In the introduction to the 'Aqualung' we
described contradictional elements in Ian's music and
stage presentation. Among other things we have seen his
first original compositions as acoustic-oriented music,
and the possibility of his themes deriving meaning from
historical context. We have seen his sardonic humor
combined with serious, sometimes even moralizing
statements (both in plain and in symbolic verselines). At
this point in his artistic development he is both
entertainer and critic - both insightful and tastelessly
vulgar. And he claims that his stage presence is his
physical manifestation of all of this. Is it possible to
link all aspects of his music? Is it possible to place
all aspects of performance and composition into one
framework that will reconcile the contradictions? And can
a framework be found to place the music in a historical
context? I think the answer is found in Ian's
re-invention of the 'minstrel-like' jester, that comes to
the fore in his lyrics, in his music (esp. in the
acoustic, ballad-like songs) and in his stage persona as
well.
The figure of the minstrel as he is
commonly shown is misleading. The languid lute-player in
the Swan Lake suit was not the representative of his
craft in the fourteenth century; rather we should think
of the sly jester of, say, Shakespeare plays, sardonic,
irreverent, plebeian-oriented, outrageously subversive
(Lloyd, 111). The evolution of the image of the minstrel
in the music and in the stage antics of Jethro Tull is
essential to placing the music into the kind of
historical context that will allow insight into its
apparent paradoxes. 'Warchild' was the first album to
consciously make the connection between Tull and the
court jester.
Ian recognized this album as marking the
time when the band "came together" in terms of
sound, and also in terms of the relationship between the
live show and the music (Anderson 7-8). Hardy sums this
up rather succinctly: "In 1974 the group returned to
performing their peculiar brand of rock, theater, and
puerile comedy" (237). But this time around, the
stage show was brighter and happier, and the band members
were dressed in colorful costumes (with Ian's costume
lurking ever closer to the mideval) (Sims 12). Anderson
describes the lyrics to Warchild as suggestive and not
definitive. He also reasserts that his process of
creation is an exploratory process of self-awareness and
self-evaluation. Having recently emerged from the
successes of two U.S. number 1 albums, (the second of
which, Passion Play, received more than its share of
criticism) he was disillusioned about the life of the
rock star. In watching his band spend their newfound
wealth, (most bought houses in the country or cars) he
asserts that he was reminded of "all the things [I]
despise about all the other rock performers" (Sims,
12). The lyrics on this album not only present the
oblique cultural criticisms of the laughing jester, but
there also is the first evidence of the bemoaning of the
lack of a sense of history and place in the modern world.
Annotations
WarChild
WarChild seems to be an anti-war
song. The word WarChild seems to bemoan the fact
that such young men are taken away to die in
battle. The song sarcastically glosses over war
with phrases like "bright city mile",
(lit up by explosions) "all of the pleasure and
none of the pain", "dance
the days and dance the nights away",
(sure, war is all fun & games) and "let
me dance in your teacup and you shall swim in
mine", (as though they still
stop for tea during war -- see also the sound
effect in the beginning: "would you like a cup of
tea, dear?"). The
comical (to me anyway) explosion sound effects
behind the music heighten the sarcasm of the
premise. The final verse seems to say that even
though we mean well defending a country at war,
we overdo it ("open your windows and
I'll walk through your doors")
and then overstay our welcome ("let me live in your
country, let me sleep on your shores").
This may have been a criticism of America's
participation in Vietnam, but I don't know if Ian
was concerned with that at all -- he was more
concerned with England, in general.
* Ian MacFarland
Queen And Country
Ever since 'Thick
As A Brick', we see how in the lyrics of Ian
Anderson more and more historical references,
images and notions are applied. In 'Queen And
Country' he uses the image of sailors who sail
the seas to obtain "gold and
ivory, rings of diamonds, strings of pearls". The verselines "for
Queen and Country" and "it's been this
way for five long years since we signed our souls
away" suggest
that these men signed a Royal Navy contract. I
suspect, that the historical image Ian applies
here is that of the Elizabethan era, when the
Royal Navy, under the command of Sir Walter
Raleigh, raided the coasts of Central and South
America, committing piracy esp. in the Caribbean
and establishing strongholds. These precolonial
expeditions would over time lead to what was
later to be called The British Empire. At first
these actions were aimed at weakening the
hegemony of the Spanish fleet in in this part of
the world and were very lucrative since the
Spanish fleet transported large amounts of gold
and silver that was stolen from Inca's, Aztecs
and other Indian nations to Spain.
The whole song is
written from the sailors' point of view. They
have little to choose since they "signed
their souls away" "for five long
years" at least.
Temptations and amusement have to wait, duty
comes first: "but we all
laugh so politely and we sail on just the
same". In the
words of the sailors the establishment is
criticised: "with the
spoils of battles won" the government and others "can
have their social whirl"and finance their policy: "they
build schools and they build factories". The sailors take all the risks ("hold
our heads up to the gun") during "the long dying
day" (there
is a double entendre here: 'dying' refers to the
nearing end of the day but also to the loss of
men). They face harsh conditions aboard and do
the dirty work that the establishment profits
from and as long as they do so they "remain
their pretty sailor boys".
* Jan Voorbij
I think there might be a bit more
to this song. There seems to be a little parallel
between these sailors and a band on the road.
'It's been this way for five long years, since we
signed our souls away'. When Ian wrote this song
Jethro Tull had been touring for about five
years. 'Schools and factories' were being built
with their tax money, while the band were abroad
for Queen and country. As many other fellow rock
stars they were advised to live in exile and
settle on the continent to avoid the British
taxman. Eventually they missed their Mum's jam
sarnies so dearly that they ran back to Mother
England, even if it meant they had to brake off
their recordings in the 'Chateau d'Isaster'. This
took place shortly before the War Child project,
so I thought there might be a little link here.
What do you think, could it be that the sailors
serve as a metaphor for the band on tour?
* Jeroen Louis
Sealion
One historical template that Ian
invokes in his critique of American culture is
that of carnival. In 'Time Passages', George
Lipsitz explains that there are certain forms
through which popular culture can express a
common memory, attain a sense of history, and
rework their traditions. Carnival is one of those
forms (see Lipsitz 14). The carnival is
characterized by: passions of plenitude, revelry,
free speaking, hearty laughter and most
importantly, the inversion of the social world
and the overturning of convention and propriety
(15). In carnival, there is a valorization of the
street as the place for creativity and society,
and there is a sense of "prestige from
below" (Lipsitz 16). Lipsitz is also
concerned with use of the historical templates in
pop culture as possible tools for the attainment
of hegemony (16). Ian Anderson clearly expresses
his opinion on this in the song 'Sea Lion' from
Warchild. 'Aqualung' and 'Cross-Eyed Mary' have
already made clear Ian's attitudes toward life in
the street: he has portrayed it as brutish and
vulgar.
In 'Sea Lion', Ian calls upon
images of the carnival. "You balance the world
on the tip of your nose, Like a SeaLion with a
ball, at the carnival." and "You
flip and you flop under the Big White Top".
These invoke some impression of the common
characteristics of carnival. There is merriment
and revelry: "You
wear a shiny skin and a funny hat."
But there is a constant reminder of the presence
of authority: "The Almighty
Animal-Trainer lets it go at that."
And of course the carnival can't last forever,
because "you
know, after all, the act is wearing thin, As the
crowd grows uneasy and the boos begin."
There is a possible reference to the reversal of
the social hierarchy and search for hegemony in
the line "So
we'll shoot the moon, and hope to call the
tune." Shooting the moon, in
Hearts, at least, means accumulating all the
losing cards in your hand. Any one of the cards
individually is a loser, but when all of them
come together in one hand their value is reversed
and they become a winning hand. A dangerous
proposition, but with the proper luck and skill,
it's possible to win the biggest by losing the
biggest. So the line could possibly imply a
search for hegemony (in "calling the
tune") by reversing the social order
("shooting the moon"). He comments on
the fragility of the illusion by following with "And
make no pin cushion of this big balloon."
The true message of the song is disdainful and
mocking. He is invoking the image of the carnival
only to ridicule the hopes of
hegemony-through-carnival.
Ian MacFarland comes up with a
totally different explanation and considers the
song as a metaphor for the Soviet Union:
I have been mulling over is
"SeaLion". It seems to me that it
is about a socialist society, most likely the
USSR as it was back then. The first verse is
about the rise of socialism in Russia, and those
who rode the wave. Socialism started with Engels
and Marx in Germany, and for the Europeans who
latched onto their ideas it was only a quick hop "over the
mountains" on their humble "dirty gray horses"
to Russia. But it's all a charade, they're "sad-glad
paymasters", they're having fun
and making money to boot. They live in luxury ("ice-cream castles")
and are in fact masters of capitalism: they make
money ("the super-marketeers
on parade"; supermarkets are the
epitome of capitalism, bigger and cheaper). They
make big deals ("golden
handshake") but it hangs around
their neck like an albatross, marking them as
frauds as they exploit the people for their own
agendas ("light
your cigarettes on the burning deck").
But it's an unstable situation; they may be
lighting their cigarettes, but the deck they're
on is burning. It's so unstable it may as well be
balanced on the tip of the nose. The rulers are
merely SeaLions.
The second verse is about the people. They simply
flop around like morons, being trained to accept
the life you have been given, even though its a
tough life ("whiskers
melting in the noon-day sun").
Notice the leader is a ring mistress, as Russia
is the motherland. But the situation is unstable:
they bark ever-so-slightly
at the trainer'gun, and the act is wearing thin,
as
the crowd is growing uneasy and booing.
The stability may as well be balanced
on the nose. Notice one basic tenet of socialism
holds true: both ruler and subject are merely
SeaLions.
The third verse is about the rulers again.
They're proud of how efficiently they've deceived
the people. Their story is a Passion Play:
they've come in as Messiahs for the people and
"saved" them, but it is, after all, a
play, a show put on for the people. They shoot the moon, win by
losing (as we've seen, in Russia everyone
loses and that's how they're equal; except for
the rulers of course!) and call
the tune, call the shots. But the
situation is only as stable as a balloon pincushion, balanced on
the nose. The rulers are still just
SeaLions.
* Ian MacFarland
(Continuation)
* Judson C.Caswell
(SCC, vol. 4, issue 32, December 1993) ; adaptation and
additional information Jan Voorbij and John Benninghouse;
Works Cited:1. Anderson, Ian. "Trouser Press
Magazine." Autodiscography, (Oct. 1982), 1-13.; 2.
Densflow, Robin. "Rolling Stone." Jethro Tull's
Ian Anderson Plans a Movie; He'll Play God, (11/8/73), 14
; 3. Hardy, Phil and Dave Laing Ed. Encyclopedia of Rock,
New York: Schirmer Books, 1987; 4. Lewis, Grover.
"Rolling Stone." Hopping, Grimacing, Twitching,
Gasping, Lurching, Rolling, Paradiddling, Flinging,
Gnawing and Gibbering with Jethro Tull. (7/22/71), 24-27;
5. Lipsitz, George. Time Passages. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1990 ; 6. Lloyd, A.L. Folk
Song in England. New York: International Publishers, 1967
; 7. Sims, Judith. "Rolling Stone." Tull on
Top: Ian Anderson Speaks His Mind, (3/27/75), 12; 8.
Stewart, Bob. Pagan Imagery in English Folksong. N.J.:
Humanities Press Inc. 1977. 9. Torres, Ben Fong.
"Rolling Stone." Jethro Tull and His Fabulous
Tool, (4/19/69); 10. Rees, David. Minstrels In The
Gallery, A History Of Jethro Tull, Firefly Publ.,
Wembley, 1998, 62-67. 11. Gaines, Steve. "Circus
Rraves Magazine", Nov. 1974.
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