Jethro Tull in
concert during the current tour.
This photo was taken in San Diego, October 5 1999.
Courtesy: Dennis Crothers.
Annotations
Hunt By Numbers
This song is about Ian's cats. In
the lyrics the moment is described when the cats
are about to go out for their nightly hunting.
The dark, almost brooding music evokes a
threatening athmosphere. For information about
Ian's hobby of breeding Bengal cats, see this
illustrated interview.
* Jan Voorbij
Hot Mango Flush
Several people have noted the lyrics
to "Hot Mango Flush" appear to have
little rhyme or reason. Let me suggest this
possible interpretation. There is a slightly
Caribbean feel to some of the music. Both Martin
and Ian spent several holidays in the Caribbean.
That being the case the lyrics seem to suggest
just an assortment of images, aromas, people as
seen by Ian Anderson at some crowded outdoor
market in a small tropical harbour town ("wood smoke, old fish,
diesel harbour"), where
locals and tourists fill the small streets and
look for things they fancy ("The
crowd moves like a flock of starlings"). The
tropical heat, the colours, the constant moving
of the crowd, the variety of aromas and the noise
makes one think that "Down
at the market all the world seems to simmer". These
people all seem to be in a kind of holiday mood: "everybody's happy about
something". The "ice cream hair" in the
second verseline is a hairstyle from the 50's
recently brought to life again in Florida and the
Caribbean.
The absurdity of the lyrics may
simply reflect the absurdity of what he
saw. (Indeed, it need not be
Caribbean. Take a look at just about any
location where large numbers of people congregate
and, with the right eye, one can see lots of
strange images). Ian has used this technique of
'piling up' his impressions before in the lyrics
of 'Mother
Goose' from the Aqualung album. Both songs
are so to say a 'painting in words'.
When it comes to the song title, I
suppose "Hot Mango Flush" stands for
the mix of all impressions on a tropical day in a
Caribbean harbour town: the movements of the
crowd and the mood(s) they are in, the multitude
of sounds, colours and aromas, the simmering
heat: it's all like a flush, really. An
overwhelming experience. I think the retake,
Mango Surprise, is a musical expression of this
total of IMpressions.
"Jive on
the jukebox - Jack and Joker
split the night air with whoop and holler".
When heading to various tropical locales, on
thing I have noticed is that, no matter how
remote the locale, two songs are in the
jukebox. The Rolling Stone's 'Jumping JACK
Flash' and The Steve Miller Band's 'The
JOKER'. These are 'standards' in a lot of
bars and areas south of the border and in the
island countries. Since these songs are
'old school' rock and roll (era early 70's) much
of this is referred to as jive.
So, conceivably IA could be referring to the
jukebox selection in the island locale, with the
patrons drunk and yelling/singing along with
these well known classics (as is pretty common in
these situations).
* Rantz Hoseley
El Niño
- Originally
the name El Niño was used for the warm current
in the Pacific near Ecuador and Peru, that arises
around Christmas. El Ninõ is Spanish for 'little
boy', in this case the "Christ-child". Today the
name is only used for the years that the waters
of the ocean are warmer than normal.
- El
Niño is like a season that comes at irregular
intervals, mostly every four years, and stays for
an unspecified period of time ("Bathing in uncertainty,
another age seems to wing from T.V. screens in
weather rage"). El Niño
brings certain expected changes in climate and
weather patterns. These changes, which begin in
the tropical Pacific Ocean, have come to define
El Niño. During an El Niño, the normally gusty
trade winds along the equator in the Pacific fade
("Trade winds
falter as if in dire consequence"). As the
winds fade, a huge pool of warm water off the
coast of Indonesia begins to flow eastward
towards the Americas. This warm water heats and
adds moisture to the air above it ("Blood-warm current sends
to touch the skies"). This in
turn alters storm tracks that blow across the
United States and the world ("Cold thrust tongue
extends its dark and watery touch"). The
climate on large parts of the globe is affected,
causing droughts, heavy rains, relative warm
winters and several disasters like famine,
forest-fires, inundations. Fish and seabirds die
or migrate to other areas, causing economical
problems ("Freezing
fish to fry, fail to materialize"). The "little sister on another
day" refers to the lesser known
La Niña, considered as the "sister" of
El Niño. La Niña features a set of anomalous
climate conditions in the tropical Pacific, but
with anomalously cool sea surface temperatures,
strong east-to-west trade winds, exceptionally
heavy rainfall in usually rainy areas near the
western Pacific, and very dry weather in usually
dry areas near the eastern Pacific. In many ways,
the climate anomalies associated with La Niña
are opposite those that characterize El Niño.
Black Mamba
The Black Mamba is one of the most
venomous snakes on earth.
Mango Surprise
In fact an instrumental retake,
however containing the spoken vocal line
"Hot Mango Flush", based on the more
Caribbean version of the above track's rhythmical
pattern. I think that this retake is in fact a
musical expression of this total of IMpressions
as experienced and described in 'Hot Mango
Flush'. I tend to regard this track as a bit of a
musical joke.
* Ivory Rodriguez, Jan Voorbij
Bends Like A Willow
The album contains three beautiful
love songs: 'Bends Like A Willow', 'The Dog-ear
Years' and 'A Gift Of Roses'. The first two share
a common theme: the narrator's relation with his
beloved one that stayed intact over the years, in
spite of his shortcomings ("my unfathomable
failings"). Please
note that these songs, as well as 'Wicked
Windows', are about reflecting on one's life,
which tends to happen more frequently when aging.
They mirror his reminiscing, his self-reproach
and bitterness, his feelings of tenderness and
gratitude.
Far Alaska
I think that this song is about the
ease of modern travel allowing, maybe not the
masses, but at least the middle class to achieve
the adventures that were only dreamed about a
generation ago. But, while the dream is achieved,
the experience is blunted by modern
accoutrements: "fantasies
of foreign fields. Lofty spires all well
appointed". The
prohibitiveness of the cost of foreign travel is
also diminished: "...
off season special deals" . Nowhere
is too remote to those with and willing to spend
the funds: "To far Alaska: down to to
Rio... Norwegian fjords."
The relative ease of modern travel is intertwined
with an unease for routine air travel: "a
freebie bucket seat for one". The
uncomfortableness of air travel is also noted on
The Dog Ear Years: "stale breath
recycled in my face. Rattling through
airways....", etc. There is an
observation in the song about the recent
phenomenon of air rage, which is connected to the
massive volume of air travellers.
"Post me cards and
tell me nicely Say you wish that I was here". A desire
to still cling to the old custom of sending a
post card, which is fading. It's to note the
accomplishment of arriving at the destination and
to remember friends and loved ones. Maybe a
hangover from the days when travel abroad was
both time consuming, very expensive, and often
dangerous. (Note that periodic "post
cards" have been posted at the j-tull dot
com website during the current tour).
* Bob D.
The Dog-ear Years
A Gift Of Roses
After "Bends Like A
Willow" and "The Dog-ear Years",
this is the third love song of the album, that
seems to be autobiographical. The narrator really
looks forward to his home-coming and being
reunited with his love. The song has a very
festive atmosphere, thanks to Andy Giddings
accordeon, calling up associations with cajun
music.
The line "Like
a Kipling cat I walk alone" is a
reference to one of Rudyard Kipling's "Just
So Stories", first published in 1902,
titled: "The
Cat That Walked By Himself". It also
is Ian's own description of himself (at least as
far as the creative process of songwriting is
concerned: "...... and when the moon
gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks
by himself, and all places are alike to him. Then
he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the Wet
Wild Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his
wild tail and walking by his wild lone".
* Ivory Rodriguez, Jan Voorbij
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