An introduction to
"Stormwatch"
In
1978 Ian started writing songs for a new album that
can be considered as the third one in a trilogy about
the relation human and nature. This environmental
theme, portraying a way of life that Ian sees as full
of meaning with a sense of community and respect for
nature, was very prominent on "Songs From The Wood" and explored
further on "Heavy Horses".
In a
BBC-documentary, the band band can be seen rehearsing
and performing "Dark Ages", a song from
"Stormwatch" which was released in 1979.
Ian explains how the song is about his idea that
humanity was in the late 1970's entering something
akin to the Dark Ages of several hundred years ago.
This is mainly the result of destruction of the
environment. So the album title comes from Ian's idea
that he is watching a storm coming, that will put
mankind into a kind of winter in which the
environment will be destroyed. One could say that
both lyrics and album cover contain a warning for
what is going to happen to the world if modern
society doesn't change it's manic strive for economic
growth at the expense of nature and environment.
The "Stormwatch" tour
programme (1979).
By kind permission of Pete McHugh
(Electrocutas
- The Jethro Tull Archive).
The
album cover shows Anderson bundled up in coat and
mittens holding a set of binoculars. In the lenses of
the binoculars are images of oil rigs and lightning
bolts. The green and brown imagery of the previous
two album covers has been replaced by blue, gray and
black. The band logo takes the form of a digital
readout like that of an alarm clock. The album
presents itself in a very contemporary vein.
Nonetheless it is easy to see it as the last in a
trilogy. It doesn't look to nature or the past for a
better way of life but instead calls for action in
the present to save nature lest humanity suffer a
terrible fate. This is illustrated on the back of the
album cover. It portrays a coastal area with oil
refineries on land and oil rigs off in the sea. The
whole area is covered with massive amounts of snow
while a gigantic polar bear rampages along the coast.
In the clear sky are several birds, the constellation
of Orion (the name of one of the songs) and an angel,
presumably representing Gabriel who has come to blow
his horn signalling the Apocalypse. (Unfortunately,
the angel's face is obscured by a bar code.)
Ian Anderson and Barriemore Barlow
during the Stormwatch tour. You will find more on George
Cassuto's Jethro Tull Stormwatch Tour Pics Page
(Thank you George for lending me this one).
Annotations
North Sea Oil
- The
album begins with "North Sea Oil",
which describes the greed which fuels the
petroleum industry: "Riggers rig and diggers dig
their shallow grave, but we'll be saved and
what we crave is North Sea Oil" and
the dangers of pollution for the environment.
However most North Sea oil is transported by
pipeline, with few pollution incidents. The
only significant spill in the last 30 years
of petroleum extraction occurred over 10
years after the song was written. In terms of
affecting the Scottish environment, it's
mainly been in industrialising rural
areas. The Shetland Isles are almost
unspoilt, apart from the massive oil refinery
at Sullem Voe. Oil rigs were constructed in
the Scottish lochs and bays for years,
ruining the views. The deep waters around
Skye were used this way (see 'Broadford
Bazaar'), which might have been Ian's
inspiration. A significant point in
understanding the song is the way the British
government has made use of the oilfield
resource. They could have promoted slower,
steady extraction, covering Britain's energy
costs and trade balance for decades, maybe
longer. Instead, they went for all-out,
intense development with immediate profits -
which won't last. I suspect Ian disapproves.
I have no political bias in saying that;
governments of all parties have behaved the
same way.
It might be worth
explaining the spoken lines in 'North Sea
Oil. As the album credits say, Francis Wilson
was (is?) a TV weather presenter. In addition
to speaking the intro to 'Dun Ringill', he
gives a weather forecast between verses in
'North Sea Oil':
"Viking, Forties,
Fisher: north-west, backing west, four to
five. Dogger, German Bight: north-west, five
or six, occasionally gale eight".
The slightly odd names aren't just random
words. The seas around Britain are split into
about thirty named 'sea areas', to facilitate
navigation and, indeed, weather forecasting,
as this map of the UK
Shipping Forecast Areas shows:
A gale off the Skye coast, therefore, would
be announced as occuring in sea area
'Hebrides', and ships would know to take
extra care. In the 'North Sea Oil' example,
Viking, Forties & Fisher are the offshore
areas in the middle of the North Sea, in a
triangle drawn between the Scotland-England
border, Bergen in Norway, and Esbjerg in
Denmark. Dogger and German Bight account for
the southern North Sea, south from Dogger and
Fisher to a line drawn roughly
Norwich-Amsterdam.
The numbers in the forecast are wind
strengths, according to the Beaufort Scale (1
is a barely noticeable breeze, 12 is a
hurricane). So German Bight can expect a
moderately strong wind blowing from the
north-west, which will occasionally reach the
more severe gale eight. So this weather
forecast covers wind across the whole North
Sea, excepting the Norwegian coast and that
of mainland Britain. A full forecast would
also mention precipitation (rain or snow),
plus visibility. A perhaps trivial detail is
that this format of forecast is used by the
BBC (radio) shipping forecast, not TV
forecasts and certainly not by Thames TV, the
company then employing Francis Wilson. It's
quite likely that Wilson never read a
shipping forecast for 'real'!
* Neil R. Thomason
 
Orion
- In
this song Ian seems to plea for help from the
heavens: "Orion, light your lights:
come guard the open spaces from the black
horizon to the pillow where I lie." This
reminds of the appeal in
"Weathercock" from the Heavy Horses
album: "Good morning weathercock:
make this day bright. Put us in touch with
your fair winds. (...) Point the way to
better days we can share with you".
Even though the album is, as Anderson himself
described it, "more socially
oriëntated", nature is still used to
great effect.
As a result of his
nightly excursions, Kevin Thurstom made this observation: Most
of the year we can see Orion and at this time of year he
rises in the east and follows a path similar to what the sun
does. One thing
I discovered is that there is a constellation that follows
Orion across the
sky which is known as the dog constellation (or Canis majoris).
Despite the
fact that Orion is one of the brightest constellations in the
sky (including
the famous Betelgeuse), Canis majoris contains the brightest
star in our
sky, Sirius. Thus the lyric that
"your
faithful dog shines brighter than
it's lord and master". The constellation
Orion also has a star sequence that
represents his sword, thus
"your
jeweled sword twinkles".
*
Kevin Thurston
Home
Dark Ages
- The
term "Dark Ages" refers
to the Middle Ages in England, esp. the era
of the Anglo-French war (1350 - 1450), that
almost ruined both countries. This was a
century of cultural and intellectual
darkness. French historians use a similar
term for this era.
* Jan Voorbij
The "Dark
Ages" refer to the collapse
of civilisation in Europe, following the fall
of the Western half of the Roman Empire in AD
476, due to the repeated invasions of the
barbarians. It is characterised by these
repeated invasions during the following 600
years (initially by Goths, Saxons, Vandals,
and then later on by the Vikings), and it
lasted until the start of the Middle Ages in
1066. It is referred to as the dark ages,
because the light of civilisation went out,
and all of the advances made under the Romans
slowly were lost (general literacy, plumbing,
etc).
* Alex Canduci
- I
just wanted to inform you that in a bootleg
entitled "Songs from the Wooden
Gramophone" and dating from the
"Songs from the Wood" Tour, I have
two versions of the song "Dark
Ages", where Ian sings a stanza which is
not on the studio recording. As I am not
English but French, there are some words for
which I am not sure, but it goes something
like that (that stanza in the beginning,
following the one with the television that
dies and no-one stops to cry) :
"And the gloom in the
valley
Grows brighter as the town
Lends us light most royally
And the houses all burn down."
In the studio audio clip from the BBC Arena
documentary, the line is "lends us light
most royally" -- but in the live version
which ends the documentary, it's "lends
her light most royally".
* Fred (from France); Andy
Jackson
Warm Sporran
- The
first half of the album ends with an
instrumental piece. It would seem that
Anderson is seeking shelter from the storm
about to begin.
- A
sporran is a Scottish sort of purse, worn on
a belt around the waist (when wearing kilt
etc.), hanging at roughly crotch level. Those
of a lewd turn of mind may make the obvious
extrapolation. ;)
* Leigh Ann Hussey
Something Is On The Move
Old Ghosts
Dun Ringill
The remnants of the broch at Dun
Ringill.
- There
is a place called Dunringill. It
lies on the shores of Loch Slapin, Isle of
Skye, which form part of the Strathaird
estate once owned by Ian Anderson - now owned
by the John Muir Trust which is a
conservation body. The ruins of Castle
Ringill, 900 years ago the seat of the Clan
Fingon, are just a few hundred yards away
from the house Anderson once lived in. An
attractive and secluded spot.
* Graeme Robertson, Habitat
Scotland, Hazelmount, Heron
Place, Portree, Isle of Skye, IV51 9EU,
Scotland UK,
(* Maps: http://uk.multimap.com/)
- "We'll wait in stone
circles" . Two
examples of stone circles, built in the
neolithic era. Both are situated on the Isle
of Lewis, Outer Hebrides near Stornoway.
There a many of these stone circles on the
British and Irish isles. Scientists have
developed several theories about these
monuments considering them as places for
worship and ceremony, burial and devotion,
calendars etc.These photographs were made by
© Diego Meozzi ( dmeozzi@micronet.it ).
* Jan Voorbij
Flying Dutchman
- The
last song with lyrics is "Flying
Dutchman". The title refers to a
legendary Dutch ship whose captain is doomed
to sail the seas until the Day of Judgment.
For those who don't follow Anderson's course
of action, an unhappy life awaits:
"So come all you lovers of
the good life
on your supermarket run....
look around you, can you see?
Staring ghostly in the mirror--
it's the Dutchman you will be
...floating slowly out to sea
in a misty misery".
-
- Writing
these lyrics Ian must have been inspired by
the fact that in the years after 1975 (end of
the Vietnam war) a lot of Vietnamese people
unsuccesfully tried to find a new home
elsewhere: ''Wee girl in a
straw hat: from far east warring" . They
fled their country by boat, most of the time
only to discover that most of the countries
refused to accept them as refugees. In this
sense it's still a song of present
interest. In the first part of the song the
Flying Dutchman is metaphorical for the
poor people on the boats that can't find a
safe haven, in the last stanza it's the
people who are responsible for it that could
become the Flying Dutchman themselves. It's
like a mirror (that they are "staring
ghostly" at and
thus "from") I think Ian
wants to tell that the people in
the rich western countries ("on
your supermarket run" and "your
children playing in the sun")
should change their attitude towards
(political) refugees. He is warning us, "lovers
of the good life"
that, if we don't change "it's
the Dutchman you will be, floating slowly out
to sea in a misty misery".
"Not fishers of
men" may be referring to
the bible. Jesus' disciples were
fishermen before they started to follow him
and somewhere in the bible (so I'm told, but
I don't know exactly where) Jesus refers to
them as 'fishers of men'.
* Fred Greve
Elegy
- The
album ends with a David Palmer instrumental,
"Elegy". Here ends our trilogy. The
appropriation of images from folklore and
nature, which were present before, come to a
climax here. The conflict between urban and
rural, past and present is made clear. And
Ian Anderson predicts dire consequences if
our present course of greed and environmental
destruction is continued.
- Some
comments on 'Elegy' - the song, written by
David Palmer, is actually about the death of
his father. It even has lyrics, which Palmer
himself sung on an album he recorded sometime
back in the earlier 90's. These notes were
taken from a "A New Day" from some
time back. But I feel that most fans,
including myself, have associated this song
with the passing of John. Also, John Glascock
fell very ill during the recording of
Stormwatch but he did not die until three
weeks after the albums release, which is why
no mention of his death makes it to the
cover.
* Matt Willis
- According
to David Rees 'Elegy' was the only surviving
piece of music from ''The Waters Edge',
originally titled "The Siren Song".
The Scottish Ballet, directed by Ian's
brother Robin Anderson, had asked Ian to
write an orchestral, classical piece of
ballet music and he turned to David Palmer
for assistance. Martin Barre also
collaborated, albeit to a much lesser extent.
The piece dealt with the myths and legends of
the ancient kingdom of Scotland. ''The Waters
Edge' was performed in Glasgow and Edinburg
and unfortunately was never properly recorded.
-
- Elegy
was recently performed by David Palmer at the
Itullian Convention, June 30 2001. The lyrics
cannot always be clearly heard but this is
what they are as far as I can make them out
(thank you Elwyn):
-
- "As
the dealer laid his final card aginst my
upturned four
The nightmare game burst into flames And I
ran towards the door
I climbed the ten tread staircase and started
to descend
but for me there was no exit its beginning
was its end
And a group of grasping lawyers passed as I
paused to catch my breath
Life is trecherously deprived but you can
rely on death
And then a choir of contra tenors sang the
credo from a mass
As I gazed upon this motley scene ...through
a piece of darkened glass
I saw the hunter and the hunted The coarses
and the Hare
So I pranced and danced with muddied feet To
a hunting fluted aire The clan and one lone
Ricky built a mansion in this bar
but blood ran from the mortar said the black
bowler from afar
some lawyers and a statesman drove past in
stately cars
but a black crow rode his mascot as they
headed for the dance
as a choir of tenors joined the dancers on
the grass
I saw it all before my eyes through that
piece of darkened glass
Then a bass man with a broken string took his
life into his hands
I watched him walk right through the wall as
he crumbled into sand Though I tried to stop
this madness the dealer let him past.
All I could do was stand and stare yeah
through that piece of darkened glass
And I'll never know the reason of the meaning
of this play
but men and bits of paper just like dust have
blown away
They can cling to their sad story of what
wealth and power gave
when they find the path of glory beneath that
true (...?)
* Jan Voorbij
- Aldo Tagliaferro,
president of Itullians, The Italian Jethro Tull Fan Club has
additional information: "If you're interested in adding the real lyrics to Elegy, here they are. I found only recently that you added the words of the DP version (included in the live cd "A night with Jethro Tull") and noticed that they differ from the
original. As you know I'm translating each Tull album with full notes and explanations for our subscribers."
Note: In the lyrics below Maggy is DP first wife. It's the story of the death of poor John Glascock. The Dealer (=Leader) is Ian. The clown is John Evans, the "lone bricky" DP himself (or herself) as referred to in the SFTW program. General tone and a few quotes from Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. The upturned four refers to tarots, it's Death.
ELEGY
As the Dealer laid his final card
against my upturned four
that night Maggie burst into flame
and I ran towards the door
I climbed the ten-tread staircase
and started to descend
but for me there was no exit
its beginning was its end
and a group of grasping liers
passed as I paused to catch my breath
"life is treacherous" the leader cried
but you can rely on death
and a choir of counter-tenors
sang the credo from a Mass
as I gazed upon this motley scene
through a piece of darkened glass
I saw the hunter and the hunted
the coursers and the hare
join hands in dance with muddy feet
to a haunting fluted air
the clown and one lone bricky
built a mansion in his mire
but blood ran from the water
set the blackball earth on fire
some bankers and a statesmen
will pass in stately cars
but the black crow rode his mascot
as they headed for the dark
and a choir of counter-tenors
join the dancers on the grass
and I saw it all before my eyes
through this piece of darkened glass
Then a bassman with a broken string
took his life into his hands
I watched him walk right through the wall
as he crumbled into sand
though I tried to stop this madness
the Dealer let him pass
all I could do was turn and stare
through that piece of darkened glass
and I'll never know the reason
or the meaning of this play
those men and bits of paper
just like dust have blown away
but I can't forget the faces
of the dancers on the grass
as I gaze upon that motley scene
through that piece of darkened glass.
-
- * Aldo
Tagliaferro
|
Introduction 
