Several
years ago, some musician friends of mine were playing
a club date on the road somewhere in the Midwest.
Between songs, someone in the audience shouted,
"Hey! Play some Jethro Tull!" The keyboard
player replied that the lead singer would do his best
Ian Anderson imitation, but the voice shouted back,
"No, not Ian Anderson...Jethro Tull!" We've
recalled this incident with amusement from time to
time, for it underscores the fact that many casual
fans confuse Ian Anderson, the band leader, with
Jethro Tull, the band. Although the name has caused
some confusion, Jethro Tull is a well-known group,
and I am happy to see that the all-important early
albums are still popular (most record stores carry
the LPs, and the first five albums are available on
CD), yet I feel that many listeners overlook some of
the fundamental components of a group's sound.
Like
many rock bands of its era, Jethro Tull featured a
single lead vocalist backed by an instrumental
ensemble of guitar-bass-drums and sometimes keyboard.
Ian Anderson's flute is widely regarded as the
element that made the band unique, and rightly so,
but other instruments played important roles, too. In
this article, I will discuss the importance of the
steel-stringed acoustic guitar. Not only does Ian
Anderson have a colorful playing style, his extensive
use of the instrument is a major component of the
early Jethro Tull sound.
By way
of a general introduction, it is worth noting that
acoustic instruments, in general, are prominent in
Jethro Tull recordings. In addition to the flute and
guitar, we can hear the grand piano, mandolin,
balalaika, harmonica, saxophone, horn and string
sections, and a variety of percussion instruments.
The extensive use of such traditional instruments is
noteworthy because the other progressive rock bands
of the late 60s and early 70s were implementing and
emphasizing two aspects of electronic technology: 1)
high energy amplification and effects pedals, and 2)
portable synthesizers. On one hand you could find
heavy rock bands using distorted solid-body guitars,
blended with thunderous percussion and screaming
vocals; on the other hand you could mark the
emergence of keyboardists (as opposed to pianists or
organists) in groups capable of sounding like
orchestras. In relation to these trends, it is fair
to say that Jethro Tull was and is a Blues-influenced
heavy band, but it didn't rely entirely on intensity
and distortion, and in its formative years it was not
a synthesizer group at all.
With
this in mind, let us turn our attention to the main
subject. Unlike the flute, which is a prominent part
of the ensemble from the very beginning, the acoustic
guitar gradually rises to a position of importance.
The following list shows the number of songs in which
it appears on the first four albums:
- This
Was (1968) acoustic guitar not used
- Stand
Up (1969) 3 out of 10 songs
- Benefit
(1970) 5 out of 10 songs
- Aqualung
(1971) 9 out of 11 songs
The
statistics only begin to tell the story because the
instrument is used in a more substantial way
beginning with Aqualung. Several songs contain two
highly contrasting sections: one makes use of the
full rock band, and the other features only a solo
voice with guitar (and sometimes piano). Anderson's
guitar works beautifully to maintain continuity
during the shift between sections, and it expresses a
feeling of solitude and simplicity that would be
difficult to elicit from an electronic instrument.
Let me clarify this concept of contrast by using as
an example the title track, which is in sonata-
alllegro form (Exposition-Theme and
Variation-Recapitulation) rather than typical song
form. The subject of the song is the character,
Aqualung. In Part I, we see him as a dark, disturbing
figure lurking on the fringes of society. In a
snarling voice, Ian Anderson sings, "Snot
running down his nose...eyeing little girls with bad
intent." The musical backing to these words is
appropriately agitating and intense. The distorted
electric guitar plays an extended riff in parallel
major thirds, supported by bass and piano also
working in parallel motion. The drummer adds to the
tension with cymbal crashes.
The
tumultuous opening section ends abruptly, and in its
place we hear the singer's soft, distant voice,
accompanied by a lone acoustic guitar. Now, in Part
II, Aqualung appears in a different light, not as an
ugly, malevolent tramp, but as a homeless,
unfortunate old man: "Sun streaking cold, an old
man wand'ring lonely." The sympathetic treatment
of the character continues as other instruments
appear in the accompaniment. A short transitional
section with instrumental breaks begins with the
words, "Do you still remeber December's foggy
freeze?" The entire middle section is repeated,
but this time with the variation of a rock
arrangement, followed by an electric guitar lead. The
acoustic guitar and solo voice appear again briefly.
Then suddenly, the electric guitar plays the opening
theme, and the full band plays the Recapitulation,
Part III. The use of the acoustic guitar for dramatic
contrast is a device much in evidence throughout the
Aqualung album and Thick As A Brick.
Having
looked at the role of the acoustic guitar in
Jethro Tull music, I would now like to describe
Anderson's style of playing. It seems
appropriate in an analysis of this nature to present
some brief examples of guitar passages in order to
clarify the points I make. Since the sheet music for
rock songs is generally no more than an arrangement
for solo piano, I have found it necessary to write
out my own transcriptions of guitar parts. Note that
the regular music notation is paired with a six-lined
guitar tablature staff: the music staff indicates the
duration and pitch of a note or chord, while the
tablature stuaff shows where the notes are played on
a guitar fingerboard. Each line represents a string,
with the first string (the highest in pitch) at the
top and the sixth string (the lowest) at the bottom.
A number on a line indicates which fret is held down
on that string. "O" indicates open string;
"H" and "S" are for left-hand
finger movements, a hammer-on and slide,
respectively. Note also that Ian Anderson frequently
plays with a capo, and in the first two selections, I
have transposed down a step-and-a-half from the
actual key so that what appears to be an open string
note on both staffs is actually the capo'd third
fret.
Like
many other rock artists, Ian Anderson at times uses a
simple strumming pattern on the acoustic guitar to
fill out the arrangement of a song dominated by
electric instruments. A strummed acoustic guitar
provides a pleasant percussive quality that an
electric guitar lacks. You can hear this effect on
"We Used to Know" from the Stand
Up
album and "With You There to Help Me" and
"Nothing to Say" on Benefit.
More
often than not, Anderson goes beyond simple
strumming. He seems inclined to make use of the
guitar's unique properties, responding creatively to
the natural movement of fingers on strings and frets.
One example of this tendency is the technique of
lifting off or adding fingers to open position chords
during the course of a strumming pattern. Many
guitarists do the same thing, forming suspended 2nds
and 4ths out of major chords, but Anderson takes the
idea further, lifting off two or more fingers on
occasion to form embellishment that would likely not
occur to musicians improvising on other instruments,
such as keyboards. The entrance of the acoustic
guitar in the middle section of "Aqualung"
provides an example. In six out of eight measures,
there is some movement, normally affecting the third
of the chord. The A chord of the fourth measure,
however, is subjected to whole tone alterations of an
entire triad: A, C#, and E.
You
can observe the same technique in the Bridge section
of the "Thich as a Brick" excerpt. The
embellishments of the D chord in the third and fourth
measures form a melodic line identical to that of the
vocal, so it is tempting to speculate that the former
inspired the latter.
Another
stylistic tendency which illustrates Anderson's
adaptation to the instrument is in his formation of
chords, usually arpeggios, that combine open strings
and notes fingered up the neck beyond the fourth
fret. For the sake of convenience, many guitarists
will rely almost exclusively on either open chords
played in the first position or moveable position
(bar) chords that make no use of open strings. But
this simplified approach limits the combinations of
notes a guitarist can use, and, to some extent, it
restricts the order of appearance of notes as they
are played with a strum or arpeggio pattern. A chord
which mixes middle-position fretted notes with open
strings overcomes these limitations. In addition, the
instrument will deliver a particularly spacious
sound, partially because the range of notes is
extended, and also because open strings vibrate more
freely than held ones, and the combination of the two
types creates a natural "phasing" effect.
As you look at my guitar transcriptions and listen to
the recordings, pay particular attention to line one,
measure three of "Thick as a Brick" and the
first measures of lines two and three of "My
God" to get an idea of this technique's
effectiveness. Listen, as well, to Emerson, Lake and
Palmer's "From the Beginning" and the
ending of Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle."
There is one stylistic tendency that appears most
often in Anderson's guitar work. He integrates strums
with arpeggios, single note runs, riffs, and harmonic
figures to create complex yet flowing accompaniment
parts to vocal lines. It is impossible to describe
this as an exact technique because of the many
variations Anderson employs, but when you listen to
the guitar on "Wond'ring Aloud" on Aqualung
or "Just Trying to Be" on Living in the
Past, you will notice that a continual pattern is
never established: the accompaniment is a mixture of
unlike elements. You will hear strumming, but rarely
by itself. The first two measures of "Thick as a
Brick" provide an example of arpeggios mixed
with strums. This short section appears in the
Introduction, Verse, and Bridge of the album's first
musical segment, and it also serves as a connecting
motif for the entire work. Another strum arpeggio
combination is at the beginning of the Verse.
If you
listen carefully to "Look Into the Sun" on
Stand Up, you'll hear paired, successive octaves at
the end of cadences, which I think of as a form of
musical punctuation. Octaves frequently appear in
Anderson's playing, but nowhere more notably than in
the introduction of "My God" on Aqualung,
where they are the foundation of a musical idea. I
have omitted time signatures and tempo markings from
the transcription because their inclusion would make
the music unnecessarily difficult to read. The bar
lines represent logical divisions between groups of
notes, and up to the 6/4 measure at the end of line
three, all of the note values are relative to major
tempo changes.
Anderson
uses alternating octaves, offset at intervals by the
G to A hammer-on, to build tension up to a point of
climax. The tension results from an increase in tempo
and this division of octave series into progressively
shorter units, as indicated below:
- Section
I octave units: 5,4,3,2,2,2,2,2,2
- Section
II octave units: 3,3,3,2,2,2,2,2
The
buildup of Section II is abbreviated, but the climax
in the form of an arpeggio is extended. In both
sections, a held ending chord appears after the
arpeggio to dissipate the tension. The chord ending
Section II is less resolved than its counterpart, and
it directs the listener forward to the Transition,
which connects the Introduction to the body of the
song.
"My
God" develops through the first verse and bridge
with Anderson's solo voice backed only by acoustic
guitar and piano. The full band enters in the middle
of the next verse with a remarkable effect: once
again, we hear the juxtaposition of acoustic and
electric accompaniment sections.
Many
are the pleasant hours I have spent listening to the
recordings of Jethro Tull. I hope that this brief
article will help you, the reader, to uncover a few
of the many treasures in that body of work, and, most
certainly, there are more to be found.
©
1997 by IASPM/USA
Introduction 