Lighter Side Of Tull 1992

[tootull]

November 2, 1992

Having recently followed in the fashionable footsteps of Eric
Clapton, Paul McCartney, and Mariah Carey by releasing an acoustic
album of older material, Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson has a few
things he'd like to get off his chest about this whole "unplugged"
craze.
"In the first or second year of MTV's existence, "the group's
45 year-old singer/flautist said recently from London, "we went
into the MTV studios in New York and played a set of live acoustic
music. And the MTV people said, "Wow, this is great. No one's
ever done this before." "Well," we said "next time we're around,
we'll come by and do it again."
"Now we wryly note that when we were doing an acoustic promo tour
last year in America, the record company called up MTV and said
"How about Jethro Tull for your UNPLUGGED program?"
"But MTV seemed to have forgotten that we were the people who
STARTED all that," says Anderson, his voice rising slightly in
indignation "They said (putting on a vacuous American accent),
"No, we don't really think they fit our demographic."
Anderson's revenge is A Little Light Music, a live album
featuring acoustic versions of such Tull classics as Living In
The Past, Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll and Locomotive Breath.

What about the ultimate Tull song, Aqualung?
"Believe me, we tried," laughs Anderson. "we worked on it as an
acoustic number for a very long time but in the end it was like
trying to play Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on the glockenspiel"

"That's the great thing," he says. "I get to do both {acoustic and
electric). I get to do wistful, romantic, sensitive things and
engage the engaging eyes of some beautiful 17-year old girl in
the audience. Then, in the next song, I get to jump around, make
my eyes bulge out, and frighten the shit out of her."
Anderson likens the whole experience of attending a rock
concert to going out for a good meal. "It costs about the same
amount of money, it takes about the same amount of time, and
you're probably going to take your best girl and have her
by your side since you don't have to worry about her getting
killed at a Jethro Tull show.
In fact, in most of the places we play these days, I can
look right across every row and say "boy, girl, boy, girl, boy,
girl," just like at a civilized dinner party.
"So, if you come to see Jethro Tull, you're coming to a
civilized dinner party. You just get to stand up and rock 'n'
roll during the pudding course."

Toronto Sun -John Sakamoto - 1992

[Nonfatman]

Funny stuff, John, especially his comments about "beautiful 17 year old girls" in the audience. He definitely seems to have a fascination with young girls! (Budapest, White Innocence, Cross-eyed Mary, the hot young violinists/violists, certain jokes I recall him making on the Rubbing Elbows tour, etc. ,etc.)

That was even more evident at around that time, when he had gotten into great physical shape and was writing songs such as Piece of Cake and Gold-Tipped Boots, about male sexual rejuvenation and vigor. Come to think of it, so much of Catfish was sexual, don't you think? Tall Thin Girl, Roll Yer Own, Sleeping with the Dog, Still Loving You Tonight, Night in the Wilderness etc. Without question the most sexual Tull album.

Plus, as I have related in other threads, when my friend Mike and I first met Ian backstage after the Catfish show in Nassau Coliseum, he was talking to a bevy of great looking young women, who were flocking around him in the backstage corridor.

I wonder what was behind all that middle-aged randiness. I do remember him saying once that the motivation for him hiring a trainer and becoming so buff was some "unkind remarks" that Shona had made about his increasing girth. I sympathize with that, because lately I have been subjected to the same kind of thing myself!

Jeff

[LJG]

I saw one of their shows in Toronto that year. Loved it.