An introduction to "A"
In 1980 the "A" album was
released. It made clear how Jethro Tull moved away
from from the folky sound of the previous three
albums. In fact "A" saw the most radical
change of sound and musical direction since Mick
Abrahams left the band in 1968. It also was the first
album to appear after the big split: the departure of
John Evans, Barrie Barlow, David Palmer and - alas -
the sudden decease of John Glasscock. In 1980
Chrysalis approached Ian Anderson with a view to
releasing an album of his solo acoustic songs from
previous Tull records. Ian thought it would be better
if he went and recorded a solo album instead. It was
something the fans had always wanted. So Ian started
to record his solo project, but retained the services
of Martin Barre on guitar and Dave Pegg on bass,
although a member of the group since the Stormwatch
tour, hadn't yet recorded with them.
Wanting a keyboard-based album, Ian
contacted Eddie Jobson, who played with Roxy Music
and Frank Zappa before. With his band UK he had
recently supported Tull. His friend Mark Craney was
brought in to play drums, and they recorded a set of
Ian's songs in a matter of weeks. When they had
finished, it was clear that what they had recorded
could not reasonably described as a solo album from
Ian, and eventually it was decided that
"A"should be the new jethro Tull LP - and
so, in effect, Barrie Barlow, John Evans and David
Palmer were no longer in the band.
Hardly surprising then that
"A" evoked mixed reactions from Tull fans.
Ian has commented that "it should not really
have come out as a Jethro Tull album. Of course I do
not dismiss it: as a record it is fine, but I have
never thought it fits in with the other albums as a
whole. But then it is clearly very much a group
album, certainly not a solo set." The album
sounds from time to time very 'electronically', since
keyboards and electric violin play an important role
in most of the songs and Ian would explore this
further on his solo album "Walk Into
Light", released two years later.
While recording the tracks for the solo
album in the studio the tape boxes were simply marked
"A" for Anderson. The title stuck.
*
"20 Years Of Jethro Tull"- album booklet
Eddie Jobson playing his electric
violin during the "A" tour.
Annotations
Crossfire
- With
the song Crossfire I had the title with some
idea about the lyrics and we were actually
rehearsing that track when my wife Shona came
rushing in and said that the Iranian embassy
in London had been besieged. We all stopped
rehearsing and came to watch it on the
television. Then the next morning before the
others arrived for rehearsal I wrote all the
lyrics. So although it was kind of aimed in
that direction anyway, when this particular
thing happened on the news I filled in the
missing words. It is essentially a song sung
from the point of view of constable Trevor
Locke, who was actually in the embassy while
it was all going on, and I think it's as
simple as that you know, current news story.
* Ian Anderson in
"Jethro Tull In Concert, Official
Program A-Tour"
- The
line "I've been waiting for
our friends to come, Like spiders down ropes
to free fall" refers
to special airborne forces, who are
transported by helicopters. These troops
release themselves from their helicopter
quickly by means of a cable right in the
middle of a critical situation.
A "Browning" is an
automatic pistol, named after its American
inventor.
* Jan Voorbij
Fylingdale Flyer
- .....
was also provided by a news story about the
last timethe Americans had a slight hitch
with one of their early warning systems and
they thought the Russians had provoked an
attack. It's sung from the point of view of
those guys at the Fylingdale Early Warning
Station in Yorkshire. They think, well there
is a missile coming across but it's only
halfway to America. We've still got a bit of
time left to work out wether it's serious or
not and "time for a last game of
bowls" which is just what Sir Francis
Drake did in 1588 when he was told that the
Spanish Armada has been sighted off Plymouth
Hoe!
* Ian Anderson in
"Jethro Tull In Concert, Official
Program A-Tour"
Working John - Working Joe
- ....
was written at the time when a lot of flack
was being thrown at the middle class by the
unions. The song suggests that the chap who
is the white collar worker, a director of a
company, has the same hard slog day to day as
the chap on the shop floor. He may drive to
work in his Rolls Royce every day, but he
gets stuck in traffic jams just the same and
he lives further out of town and it's just as
much a hassle, and the price he has to pay
for his greater degree of wealth is ulcers
and heart disease.
* Ian Anderson in
"Jethro Tull In Concert, Official
Program A-Tour"
- 'Working
John - Working Joe' is about the capitalism
of the Thatcher government - the switch from
an allegedly 'caring' society pre-1979 to the
'every man for himself' ethic developing in
the 1980s.
* Neil R. Thomason
Black Sunday
- I
wrote the lyrics to Black Sunday just before
I went on tour, which is the sort of sound it
has although I tried to write it in the kind
of way that anybody would feel if they are
having to go off to work and always wondering
if, when they come back, they will find
things the way they left them. It is just
full of the kind of images that I see when I
travel.
* Ian Anderson in
"Jethro Tull In Concert, Official
Program A-Tour"
Protect And Survive
- The
title is taken from the British Government
pamphlet of the same name which, in the event
of a nuclear attack, gives a very skeletal
rundown on what to do. It is a slightly
tongue-in-cheek dig at the Government for not
having given the people enough information
and for treating us in a very down-market
way. The content of the pamphlet is really
minimal and assumes that everyone is a
complete moron - it also contains a
substantial amount of mis-information. The
sentiments of the song are not necessarily my
own, but the way what I would expect an
average person to react upon reading that
sort of pamphlet, especially in the aftermath
of a nuclear attack.
* Ian Anderson in
"Jethro Tull In Concert, Official
Program A-Tour"
- My
"Protect and Survive" web site is
about the UK government leaflet that
influenced Jethro Tull to write the track
Protect and Survive. The integral text of
this leaflet can be found on my web
site.
* George Coney, Chorlton,
Manchester
- The
Electro Magnetic pulse ("E.M.P.") is the
electro-magnetic wave happens just after a
nuclear explosion taking out every electric
device.
* Jan Voorbij
Batteries Not Included
- .....
is a bit macabre really. A child wakes up at
Christmas morning to find this fabulous
mechanical toy at the bottom of his bed, but
it doesn't work because the batteries were
not included. During the period of time that
he is assessing its lack of life as being due
to that he identifies with the toy so
strongly that when his parents wake up they
find he has become like the toy and he's
switched off as well. On this track my son
Jamie makes his recording debut.
* Ian Anderson in
"Jethro Tull In Concert, Official
Program A-Tour"
Uniform
- The
song Uniform is again a slightly
tongue-in-cheek comment on the fact that we
all dress up, we all undertake roles in
society according to the clothes we wear.
There are not many people who tend to express
their individuality in terms of dress; they
tend to conform to various social groupings,
and they are severely in uniforms just as
much as a soldier or a policeman.
* Ian Anderson in
"Jethro Tull In Concert, Official
Program A-Tour"
4.W.D. (Low Ratio)
- .....
is just about having an affinity for
four-wheel drive vehicles. I thought it nice
to have a song about that, and it's spelt
that way to avoid confusion with another song
on the same subject which is nothing like
ours musically.
* Ian Anderson in
"Jethro Tull In Concert, Official
Program A-Tour"
The Pine Marten's Jig
- A
traditional sopunding piece of music, but it
is a lot more involved. It's very electric
and therefore very 20th century. It employs a
lot of fairly trickly little time signature
pieces, and the instrumentation, mandolins
and violin, although very traditional here,
have an end result of being quite an electric
thing.
* Ian Anderson in
"Jethro Tull In Concert, Official
Program A-Tour"
And Further On
- This
song is one of the most ambiguous, wistful
things that have a private and personal
connotation for the author, but a broad
enough imagery, hopefully, to work in
different ways for different listeners. To
specifically explain my understanding of the
lyric would be to rob the individual of his
right to a personal interpretation! I suppose
it really serves as a musical and lyrical
postscript to the rest of the songs on the
album.
* Ian Anderson in
"Jethro Tull In Concert, Official
Program A-Tour"
The "A" tour programme
(1981).
By kind permission of Pete McHugh
(Electrocutas
- The Jethro Tull Archive).
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Introduction 