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My eye often caught those olive green posters with the simple inscription "Jethro Tull", but I thought it was yet another "tribute band": there are so many around that sometimes it feels like being in the full '70s. Then, when you least expect it, a segment on the regional news, and there he is, the real Pifferaio Magico, the true one, soon to be in my area enchanting theaters and stadiums, defying his sixty years, perhaps even invigorated after Live8, a true triumph of musical gerontocracy.
Ian Anderson and the others have not yet stopped delighting the ears of connoisseurs with their very own progressive rock, based on the extraordinary versatility of an instrument more typical of classical music than rock: the flute. Jethro Tull for many means "Aqualung", their universally recognized masterpiece. But not the only one: already in this excellent "Stand Up" (1969) Ian Anderson's flute proves capable of delivering the most diverse sensations: from the wonderful pastoral idyll of "Reasons For Waiting" to the snake charmer oriental tones in "Fat Man", from the faintly Andean breaths in "A New Day Yesterday" to the medieval reminiscences of the beautiful "Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square", whose only flaw is being too short.
However, focusing all the attention on the flute would be a big mistake: if the Pifferaio Magico can express all his imagination, it’s also thanks to a robust sound base that counterbalances the natural lightness of the wind instrument. Clive Bunker (drums), Glen Cornick (bass), and Martin Barre (electric guitar) might not be names to shout about, but together they provide Jethro Tull with that unmistakable slightly jazzy sound, rich in folk elements, which is the natural ground for Anderson's flights. Thus, it shouldn't surprise if powerful rock like "A New Day Yesterday", with its hypnotic bass line, or "Nothing Is Easy", with its sudden accelerations and decelerations marked by the drums, let alone the complex "For A Thousand Mothers", decidedly leaning towards hard sounds, are already interesting in themselves, regardless of the class touch of the flute. And so the exotic charm of "Fat Man" derives mainly from the liveliness of various percussions and knick-knacks, including even a balalaika. "We Used To Know" is already a wonderful acoustic ballad in itself, upon which Ian Anderson then crafts his refined designs.
In short, as they say, there's a lot of substance, in the sense of solidity: a nice full sound and quite a bit of compositional creativity. And where the inventiveness of Anderson & Co. does not reach, they resort to that inexhaustible source named Bach (not coincidentally "stream" in German). Hence appears a curious name among the titles: "Bourée". From the early 1700s to the present, it has lost an 'r', but it's precisely her: the Bourrée from the Suite for Lute BWV 996 by Johann Sebastian Bach, usually played on the guitar nowadays, considering only Branduardi and a few other minstrels have the lute. Usually, classics enthusiasts like me abhor the reproduction of "their" music in rock version, even if technically well done as in the case of Emerson Lake & Palmer, but here the Jethro Tull have performed a miracle, respecting the original without just copying it. To do this, they behaved like jazz musicians: the beautiful riff serves as a base from which to launch into imaginative and intelligent variations featuring Anderson's flute, truly enchanting here. The return to Bach's theme happens when all trace of it may have been lost: it's the beauty of variations, and it's an additional sign of the seriousness and preparation of these musicians. The Bachian "Bourée" is the cherry on top of an already high-quality record.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 A New Day Yesterday (04:09)
My first and last time with you
And we had some fun.
Went walking through the trees, yeah!
And then I kissed you once.
Oh I want to see you soon
But I wonder how.
It was a new day yesterday
But it's an old day now.
Spent a long time looking
For a game to play.
My luck should be so bad now
To turn out this way.
Oh I had to leave today
Just when I thought I'd found you.
It was a new day yesterday
But it's an old day now.
04 Back to the Family (03:49)
My telephone wakes me in the morning --
Have to get up to answer the call.
So I think I'll go back to the family
Where no one can ring me at all.
Living this life has its problems
So I think that I'll give it a break.
Oh, I'm going back to the family
'cos I've had about all I can take.
Master's in the counting house
Counting all his money.
Sister's sitting by the mirror --
She thinks her hair looks funny.
And here am I thinking to myself
Just wond'ring what things to do.
I think I enjoyed all my problems
Where I did not get nothing for free.
Oh, I'm going back to the family --
Doing nothing is bothering me.
I'll get a train back to the city
That soft life is getting me down.
There's more fun away from the family
Get some action when I pull into town.
Everything I do is wrong,
What the hell was I thinking?
Phone keeps ringing all day long
I got no time for thinking.
And every day has the same old way
Of giving me too much to do.
05 Look Into the Sun (04:21)
Took a sad song of one sweet evening
I smiled and quickly turned away.
It's not easy singing sad songs
But still the easiest way I have to say.
So when you look into the sun
And see the things we haven't done --
Oh was it better then to run
Than to spend the summer crying.
Now summer cannot come anyway.
I had waited for time to change her.
The only change that came was over me.
She pretended not to want love --
I hope she was only fooling me.
So when you look into the sun
Look for the pleasures nearly won.
Or was it better then to run
Than to spend the summer singing.
And summer could have come in a day.
So if you hear my sad song singing
Remember who and what you nearly had.
It's not easy singing sad songs
When you can sing the song to make me glad.
So when you look into the sun
And see the words you could have sung:
It's not too late, only begun,
We can still make summer.
Yes, summer always comes anyway.
So when you look into the sun
And see the words you could have sung:
It's not too late, only begun.
Look into the sun.
06 Nothing Is Easy (04:24)
Nothing is easy.
Though time gets you worrying
My friend, it's OK.
Just take your life easy
And stop all that hurrying,
Be happy my way.
When tension starts mounting
And you've lost count
Of the pennies you've missed,
Just try hard and see why they're not worrying me,
They're last on my list.
Nothing's easy.
Nothing is easy, you'll find
That the squeeze won't turn out so bad.
Your fingers may freeze, worse things happen at sea,
There's good times to be had.
So if you're alone and you're down to the bone,
Just give us a play.
You'll smile in a while and discover
That I'll get you happy my way
Nothing's easy.
07 Fat Man (02:52)
Don't want to be a fat man
People would think that I was just good fun, man
Would rather be a thin man
I am so glad to go on being one, man
Too much to carry around with you
No chance of finding a woman, who
Will love you in the morning and all the nighttime too
Don't want to be a fat man
Have not the patience to ignore all that
Hate to admit to myself
I thought my problems came from being fat
Won't waste my time feeling sorry for him
I've seen the other side to being thin
Roll us both down a mountain and I'm sure the fat man would win
08 We Used to Know (03:59)
Whenever I get to feel this way,
Try to find new words to say,
I think about the bad old days
We used to know.
Nights of winter turn me cold
Fears of dying, getting old.
We ran the race and the race was won
By running slowly.
Could be soon we'll cease to sound,
Slowly upstairs, faster down.
Then to revisit stony grounds,
We used to know.
Remembering mornings, shillings spent,
Made no sense to leave the bed.
The bad old days they came and went
Giving way to fruitful years.
Saving up the birds in hand
While in the bush the others land.
Take what we can before the man
Says it's time to go.
Each to his own way I'll go mine.
Best of luck in what you find.
But for your own sake remember times
We used to know.
09 Reasons for Waiting (04:06)
What a sight for my eyes
To see you in sleep.
Could it stop the sun rise
Hearing you weep?
You're not seen, you're not heard
But I stand by my word.
Came a thousand miles
Just to catch you while you're smiling.
What a day for laughter
And walking at night.
Me following after, your hand holding tight.
And the memory stays clear with the song that you hear.
If I can but make
The words awake the feeling.
What a reason for waiting
And dreaming of dreams.
So here's hoping you've faith in impossible schemes,
That are born in the sigh of the wind blowing by
While the dimming light brings the end to a night of loving.
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Other reviews
By fedecure
Stand Up remains a little gem, and the cover of Bach’s Bouree is unforgettable.
Cornick is excellent, Anderson and Barre find their meeting point right away.
