Posted on 02/03/2012 12:26:42 PM PST by InvisibleChurch
On April 3, Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson will release Thick As A Brick 2, the followup to 1972′s beloved prog opus Thick As A Brick (an album comprised of two long, interconnected songs). In this extensive interview, rock’s most famous flautist talks to American Songwriter about the sequel’s genesis, its parallels to the original, his distinctive vocal style, and whether or not he believes he can win another Grammy.
With the recent Aqualung reissue and now Thick As A Brick 2, this a pretty exciting time to be a Jethro Tull fan.
It’s a really exciting time for me too. Aqualung and Thick As A Brick are two of my favorite records for the simple reason that from an artistic and a personal songwriting point of view, they’re very different in terms of their musical and lyrical content. They both represent a period when I got brave enough to take a few risks with different topics, different subjects, and different ways of writing music.
So the two albums are very dear to me in sort of artistic sense. I have studiously avoided, over the years, to recreate Thick As A Brick, either in terms of playing it all on stage, or venturing down that slightly more prog-rock course of musical endeavor.
And I was pretty much maintaining that position until sometime late in 2010, when I met up with an old acquaintance by the name of Derek Shulman. He used to be the singer of the band Gentle Giant, a prog-rock band that had quite a bit of success in the late ’70s.
(Excerpt) Read more at americansongwriter.com ...
A “sequel” 40 years later?!
Gee Ian, Really don’t mind if you sit this one out.
I was at the debut stage performance of Thick As A Brick! That was the second and final time I saw Jethro Tull. Best two concerts I ever attended!
He didn’t deserve the Grammy he won. The only reason JT won is because the judges didn’t know what they were doing. Heavy Metal was a style of music they had no experience with or Metallica would have been the easy winner. In fact JT was so convinced they didn’t have a chance that none of the band members even bothered to show up for the Grammys.
Loutallica is STILL p!ssed off about it. Hee Hee!
He did an “out of this world” duet with Cady Coleman while she was aboard the ISS. It was pretty good. Not being a professional musician, Cady held her own with Ian. They should do a duet now that she’s back on Earth.
Brick 2??
Why not Stand Up 2, This Was 2 or Benefit 2...
...Those were much less pretentious and musically better.
Alice Cooper has done 3 more Stephen albums since Welcome to my Nightmare, all of them pretty good though I’ve never been totally sold on Stephen being redeemed at the end of Temptation. Nothing wrong with revisiting old characters if you’ve got some good stuff for them to do.
Because Gerald Bostock didn’t write any songs on them.
Would be kind of cool to get Mick back for another blues album though. Love Martin but Tull the blues band had a lot of potential.
Give the old dude a break.
This is the first album they’ve put out in a decade.
Too bad it was a retread.
[after “Rupi’s Dance” and “The Secret Language Of Birds” even *I* tuned out and let’s not even mention the “WTFWT?” J-Tull.com album]
Salamander
[born of a sun-kissed flame]
Good grief. Why? Is there some rule that people should just go away and stop creating after the public has discarded them?
I’m sorry but the look on Alice’s face when he read the results was worth it, IMO....;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaodlYmleeQ
Benefit is one of his greatest but least appreciated albums.
“With You There To Help Me” is magnificent.
Done live, it’s even more amazing.
Roots To Branches and Catfish Rising are my other two ‘obscure’ faves.
I sure hope he finds out where the hell Biggles was.
Let me bring you love from the field
Poppies red and roses filled with summer rain
??? ‘Standup’ and ‘Benefit” truly deserved to win. His old stuff was as good as anyone’s in the late ‘60s.
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