An introduction to "J-Tull Dot
Com"
It took four years since "Roots To
Branches" was released before the new album
"J-Tull Dot Com" saw daylight in August 1999.
The odd title, derived from the URL of The Official
Jethro Tull Website, once again offers an example of how
Jethro Tull always chooses it's own course and manages to
include and use actual developments in society in their
art.
But there is more to that. With this website
the band chose deliberately for a way of informing fans
and others who are interested by offering news regarding
the band and their art directly and at first hand. One
can read the latest news about the current leg of the
tour and how the band is going on with their work of
composing, rehearsing and recording. A novum regarding
the new album is that everybody who has access to the
internet can witness the creating process of writing,
composing and recording: audiofiles can be downloaded of
four songs at different phases of this process. They
grant all of us so to say "a peek in the
kitchen": making it possibles to get a notion of how
the "broth" is composed. Once again Tull has
set a standard.
The internet has become important for the
band and they take it very seriously regarding all the
work that is invested in their website, their serious
attempt of informing their fans and the correspondence
with fans by email. On the other hand for fans the
internet has become an important medium to inform
eachother, discuss about all kind of questions chat- or
email-wise, exchange gig reviews and stay in contact with
eachother. The importance of the internet and it's social
and cultural relevance has not escaped Ian's attention
and is reflected in the lyrics of this album as I will
try to point out below.
Whereas the "Roots To Branches"
album offers us an innovative and a bit awkward Tull,
inspired by all kinds of ethnic musical influences,
expressing all differents moods and feelings, the new
album seems to be a compromise. At first hearing one may
conclude, that Ian Anderson plays at safe by
reintroducing the - let's say - seventies rock style that
made Tull so popular, esp. in the USA and Germany. Sturdy
songs and Martin's soaring guitar seem to form the main
feautures of the album.
But listening more close other features
strike the ear: the enchanting, supporting flute (instead
of the very well known prominent flute solo's), elements
from ethnic music so carefully used to create different
and for Western ears sometimes unusual atmospheres, the
choice of instruments, the combination of soft and hard
parts within the songs, the beautiful and warm melodic
lines and the delicate, refined combination of all these
elements; these features make this album into another
listening adventure.
Though the album critically speaking is not
at all innovative, it is well-balanced and radiates a
certain maturity that integrates the many different
features that are so typical for "Tull-music"
into one album. I dare to state here that Jethro Tull
once again managed to transcend the limitations of the
rock idiom and delivered a piece of art that meets
standards set by themselves. I deliberately do not speak
here of an "Ian Anderson album"; it is
definitely a band's achievement: they play so tightly,
use a variety of techniques, keep their musical balance
so well and have all contributed to the recording of all
these songs. Aside of the Tull members, the album also
features Najma Akhtar from India, who added her lovely
female vocal to the title song.
Najma Akhtar
The album is entitled to attention and
careful listening, but then again: good wine needs no
bush. "J-tull Dot Com" is a milestone in Jethro
Tull's development over the last three decades.
The disputed artwork of the booklet is again
designed by Bog Zarkowski and the cover artwork features
Ian's painting. After all, he started as a visual artist
before switching onto music. It is a picture of an
Egyptian god Chnum (Num, Chnumis, Chnubis - whichever
name or transcription you prefer - meaning
"spirit" or "breath", "spirit of
God floating over the waters' surfaces"), later to
be known as Amun ("the hidden one"), one of the
eight bigger Egyptian gods (relevant to Zeus, Brahma or
Wuotan = Odin).
"Amun was depicted in human form, with blue skin and
either the head of a bearded man or a ram's head with
curved horns. He wore a crown composed of a modius
surmounted by two tall feather plumes. He was sometimes
depicted in ithyphallic form with an oversized erect
penis. His true appearance was considered beyond human
understanding. He was said to be "hidden of aspect,
mysterious of form", invisible yet omnipresent
throughout the cosmos. Amun's sacred animals were the ram
and the goose. His primary sanctuaries were at Karnak and
Luxor near Thebes"**
The painting is based on a gargoyle-like sculpture by
Ian's friend and former neighbour Michael Cooper. Now it
stands by a pool in Ian's garden.
*
Jan Voorbij, Ivory Rodriguez
** Source: Egyptian Gods & Legends:
http://www.primenet.com/~wyvern/egyptgods.html
This photograph from the booklet of the
"J-TULL DOT COM" album shows the current
line-up.
Annotations
Spiral
In a promotional audiofile,
downloadable from the Fuel 2000
Records site, Ian tells us that
"Spiral" is about the waking-up process
in which we spiral out of the dream state into
reality wondering which is the dream and what is
reality. The lyrics open with a description of a
'dreamscape' wherein our narrator dwells and from
which he has to leave as his sleep fades away. ("Thought
it best, best that I should go"). He tends
to waken up, but is confused ("Who's
out there, can't hear you"), and
realizes, that though he wants to go back to his
sleep and his last dream, he reluctantly has to
face the reality of the new day ("Time to make my peace
with the dreary day"). In spite
of the alarm-clock he sinks back into another
dream, though it's not clear whether it's a
dream, a memory of a situation our narrator went
through, or a wish for sharing with a loved one ("Loaves and fishes at an
empty tabele laid for two"). Note the
biblical images in this stanza: "wine to
water" and "loaves and
fishes". But inevitably, the waking up
takes place ("down
the spiral, spinning madly"), leaving
rags of yet another dream ("On
a disneyesque adventure ride. I fly in colours
from richer palettes. Famous artists running
scared as worlds collide"). Or does
the narrator say here that his dream world is so
much richer in colours, images and sensations
than those of everyday life?. Note that the
waking up process is not described as spiralling
up, but as spiralling down ("I'm falling" ... "down
the spiral"), causing
uncertainty about what is reality and which is
the dream. This mixed-up state of mind when
waking up is familiar to all of us I think.
* Jan Voorbij
Dot Com
On the promo CD, Ian introduces the
song as follows:
"When we'd completed most of the recording
for the new record, I almost joking suggested we
name it after our recently set up website,
J-Tull.com. Surprisingly this idea met with
approval from the band members and the record
company guys, so I thought, well let's make that
official! But as always, being one for dotting
the T's and crossing the I's...is that right? and
finishing the parcel tied up with a nice red
ribbon I wrote an additional song and called it
simply 'Dot Com'. It features the sultry crooning
of Najma Akhtar, one of India's best known female
classical and pop vocalists, and it's an ode to
the communication options of the Internet; two
lovers in touch only via their corporate email
accounts."
* Daniël C. Benchimo
This is the first Jethro Tull song
that brings up the internet. It is about a far
away beloved one, who apparently is very busy,
always en route and probably has no time for our
narrator. He misses her, longs for contact ("give a clue; leave a kind
word") and hopes she will email
him. The internet seems the only place where they
can meet: "a
domain where our cyber-souls might meet", albeit
virtually; that is, if she does email
him. In the context of this song, the line "And in case you wonder -
I'll be yours" suggests
the opposite: it is he who asks himself if she is
still his......
* Jan Voorbij
AWOL
On his way to work, the narrator
feels he does not to waste his time there and
decides to take a day off: "Won't
be in today to work for you" and "unfit
today to work for you". It seems he
doesn't like the work he's doing at all and has
nothing to lose ("Of
a sudden, seems I can barely face myself: no face
to lose"). So he
decides to take a day off work doing other
pleasant things instead like going out with a
girlfriend. But in the end, "this
romantic interlude" has to be paid for
by working overtime.
Like in "Dot Com" there is once again a
reference to using the internet for contacting
someone who can't be met easily: "E-mail that girl who's
working nights".
The Trump Casino in
Atlantic City, mentioned in this song, is one of
the venues the band played during the US tour in
1999.
* Jan Voorbij
According to an on-line dictionary I
checked, there is a british definition of Pontoon
that equates to Blackjack, so I assume "Trump
Casino calls Pontoon" sort of
means "Trump Casino beckons me to play
Blackjack". Pontoon is indeed a British
variation of Blackjack. The difference being:
When the player's total is the same as the banker
the banker wins. A 5-card-trick, ie a hand of
five cards is a winning hand. This means that
Pontoon is more favourable to the casino than is
Blackjack.
* Colin Wright
Wicked Windows
Ian's introduction to this song on
the promotion CD:
"Funny how so many bad guys in history wore
those little wire-rimmed spectacles; they lend an
air of menace and cunning, disguised as frailty
of diminished eyesight. You know, I bought of
pair of reading glasses of that sort recently,
and looked in the mirror and thought immediately,
'What Wicked Windows!' So, out came a song, sung
in the first person and loosely based around the
supposed character of one of history's all-time
worst, whose name should be forgotten. Unless of
course the harsh lesson still needs to be reread.
See if you can figure out the villanous
identity."
* Daniël C. Benchimol
In a not yet broadcasted documentary
for the Czech TV Ian tells where he drew his
inspiration from for this song. He bought a new
pair of glasses (see the cover photo above) and
when looking in the mirror thought himself
looking like a knave. Hence the title "Wicked
Windows". When
watching his own face, he comes to realise that
it reflects his life, his memories, his
experiences, his history. In fact it features him
and cannot be overlooked since his past is "upon my face, around and
over".
There is one of Ian's well-known and
cryptic double-entendres in the line
"Now and then:
memories of men who loved me.
No stolen kiss - could match their march on hot
coals for me".
Memories of beloved people matter more to him in
the long run and spring to his mind more
frequently than 'stolen kisses', perhaps symbolic
for superficial contacts with people on the road
and his business relations. But these 'hot coals'
are also a reference to his own piercing brown
eyes!
When reviewing his past he draws up
the balance-sheet and concludes he layed out his
own course, made unconventional and independent
choices, set in situations he was confronted
with:
"I have walked a
line both faint and narrow, hard to follow.
Caught up in circumstance. Harsh truth for
history to mellow".
I suspect, that Ian here refers to
his music, his artistic choices, the people he
chose to surround himself with (band members,
business associates) and his economic enterprises
like salmon farming. His many responsibilities
and obligations seem to get most of his attention
and he tends to make these into his life's
priorities:
"Through my eyes:
loyalties and obligation
magnified. Obedience: the better fellow".
The last verseline suggests
implicitely a quality that somehow is in
contradistiction to the 'self-willedness'
described in the preceeding lines.
Then - delicately supported by the
music - the mood in the refrain changes from
pensive reminiscence to melancholy with a touch
of bitterness. It seems to me that Ian
implicitely states here that in spite of his
obedience to loyalties and obligations and the
independent line he walked, he didn't achieve
anything remarkable yet: "Better
not remember me. Don't miss my passing". The "fierce winter" in the
next line might refer to the oblivion we fall
into after dying. (I have not the foggiest idea
about the meaning of the "soft wet
surrender" and "the bad blood" in
the lines that follow). He than remembers the
time that he was carefree and happy, a time that
seems to be all too far way now and for people
knowing him hard to imagine: "I laughed like any child -
although you might find that strange".
In the next stanza his somber
thoughts are relativized. He there realizes that
everybody has dark moments reviewing ones past ("the silent
scrutinizing", "through wicked
windows"). We aren't
completely happy about the choices we made in our
life's histories: hence "this vulnerable
squinting". It seems
to me, that the "wicked windows"
in this verse have a different meaning and that
judging ones life in the self-denying way as is
done in the first stanza and the refrain as well
leads to nowhere as it produces only painful
feelings of bitterness, regret and guilt.
* Jan Voorbij
Given the overt reference to the
'net by virtue of the album's title, I expected
to find further "computer" references
in the lyrics, and supposed that they might
plausibly be found in a song titled "Wicked
Windows". Or was I projecting said
expectations upon them?
Anyway, pursuing this trajectory, it seemed
reasonable that the "windows framed in
silver and hung in toughened glass" might well
be of the virtual sort, and that visiting
Tull-related sites, reading the Tull newsgroup,
e-mail and so forth gave him a chance - indeed,
often forced him - to "review my past".
Might the "men who loved me" then be
former cohorts, particularly band members,
memories of whom are continually dredged up
online, and to whom he now wished to immortalise
his deepest appreciation, in song? Did they not "march
on hot coals" for him?
The oft-noted 'driven and demanding taskmaster'
aspect of his personality might be acknowledged
here while penning that, while he may have been
"hard to follow", in his view
"loyalty and obligation" are worthy
ideals that justify the effort required. Later he
refers to "bad blood running in close
families", possibly reflecting further
sentiments regarding band members and difficult
relationships. And they're "still
waiting" for certain explanations. (Aren't
you, Barry?).
He finishes this passage by musing "I
laughed like any child" and "Christmas
was my favourite holiday", as if to
demonstrate good humour about it all, in
self-defense: "Hey, I may have acted like a
child sometimes, but I ain't such a bad guy,
really I'm not". The rest of the lyrics seem
to verify this "Internet-centric"
theme, or at least not to contradict it. "I
know you're out there; so am I, hiding behind
windows just like you." The lyric that
piqued my interest most was "I offer you no
more disguising", not so much because I
really expect him to quit this incessant
posturing and hiding behind words, but as a
possible admission that he does it. As if we
didn't know. And love him for it, to boot. Or
does he refer here to *our* online
"disguises"?
Finally, he sees the "same
bad blood running in new families". Might
that be us, his newfound online companions?
Nah--we're nothing if not perpetually decent and
respectful in our dealings with each other! Or
might something be astir in the current lineup?
Well, of course there is. Sometimes more or less
occasionally than others. Whatever. The one thing
I know for sure about this song, this album, and
for that matter the entire body of JT works:
We're all equally correct in our interpretations,
all equally full of shit.
* Jim Hofweber
My immediate impressions of 'Wicked
Windows' are:
(a) Catching a glimpse of family portraits,
portraits that are "framed in silver and
hung in toughened glass", toughened glass
obviously a metaphor for one's life;
(b) The ongoing nastiness and unhappiness in that
situation, a long history of it
so that it is too diffcult to start
fresh: "harsh truth for history to
mellow";
(c) But sticking with it for the status quo
and for appearance's sake: "loyalties
and obligations"
(d) Being concerned or worried of the
consequences should one make a move, therefore
surrendering to the powers that be, pulling one's
ears and tail in: "Obedience the better
fellow";
(d) Surrounding one's self in a cold shell so as
not to feel and therefore not to hurt:
"Fierce winter fails to ruffle my icy
sleep";
(e) The nasty and often ugly feelings in family
situations: "Bad blood running in close
families";
(f) The holiday season accentuating the negatives
in the family: "Christmas was my favourite
holiday" (The Christmas season brings home
the harsh reality of
the lack of loved ones or unhappy family
situations);
(g) Consoling one's self that others are unhappy
in their families and being stuck, whether self
or other imposed: "I am not alone in seeing
the world through wicked windows";
(h) And the saga continues elsewhere, in one's
own descendents, as well as elsewhere: "Same
bad blood running in new families".
* Mary
I've noticed that the two analyses
of "Wicked Windows" from j-tull dot com
(as do the general overviews of the album in
"A New Day") tend to assume that Ian is
singing about himself. The quote from the promo
CD suggests just the opposite. Once again Ian
Anderson is very effectively demonstrating his
ability to empathize with characters quite
different from himself (such as the British
soldier of "Mountain Men") and often
unsympathetic by today's standards (as in
"The Whaler's Dues") - in this case,
and as Ian himself states, "one of history's
all-time worst."
The lyrics suggest this is a military figure, an
old soldier, an aged general perhaps, most
explicitly in the line, "We
never quite vanish", as in the
saying "Old soldiers never die; they just
fade away." Such a narrator would also
explain the scornful "No wet soft
surrender". The first few lines seem
to me to be just an extended lyrical description
of glasses (spectacles).
The lines "Now and then: memories of
men who loved me. No stolen kiss - could
match their march on hot coals for me" suggest to
me a characterization of career military men
whereby "male bonding" (to use a
horrible contemporary term) and shared experience
of soldiering is more valued than, say, romantic
relationships with women. (For a study of more
sinister versions of this attitude, see Klaus
Theweleit's "Male Fantasies," a hefty
study of proto-Nazi pre-Third Reich military
literature and autobiography.)
I think this approach to the song makes the rest
of the lyrics fairly clear - all that stuff about
obligation and loyalty, and the desire for some
degree of sympathy on the part of the narrator ("Christmas
was my favorite holiday").
As to the identity of this villain, which Ian
asks us to guess, I have no idea (though Himmler
seems as good a guess as any). Since many Tull
songs seem to focus on events contemporary with a
song's writing (like all of "A"), I
have to ask if Pinochet wears glasses.
(Personally, if it weren't for all the military
stuff in the song, I'd really like it to be Ian's
take on John le Carre's George Smiley - Ian
Anderson reads le Carre and likes spy stuff,
after all. But I strongly suspect it's not.)
* Mark Best
The "J-Tull Dot Com" tour
programme (1999).
By kind permission of Pete McHugh.
(Electrocutas -
The Jethro Tull Archive)
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