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“The girl, seeing me nervous, asked if I would like a cup of tea, but I was too shaken by what was happening and, not without regrets, I refused. Outside, the cannon shots made the window panes tremble and the sirens screamed continuously; she, feeling sorry, wanted to comfort me: she took the violin, placed it under her rosy cheek, and began to play. Suddenly, it was as if the shootings and explosions were confined outside, and around me, there existed only her and that melody: I was mesmerized watching her slender fingers and her smooth hair move alongside her gentle shoulders. To this day, I have not forgotten those notes…”
Now, asking for forgiveness for this nonsense above, a survivor of quite another review not at all discarded, I would move on to talk about that “WarChild” which was released in nineteen seventy-four and, in some ways, was the turning-point album…
For Jethro Tull, the brief and intense progressive era had ended, although many characteristics of that period would return to dominate in subsequent works. The year before, “A Passion Play” had brought the band to the peak of the emotional climb undertaken since its inception, and it marked the beginning of the definitive crisis in their relationship with the critics; Ian Anderson experienced a deep disillusionment towards society and decided to take another path with the band, almost to be followed solo. Ian was undergoing a metamorphosis, increasingly donning the role of a jester, the minstrel who says what he pleases through music. This would become evident to anyone with the next year's album, explicit from the title (“Minstrel In The Gallery”) and cover.
In a way, a prelude to this mentality is found in the opening of the magnificent “Thick As A Brick”: I really don’t care if you don’t want to listen to me!! Personally, I liked “Warchild” immediately, a more complex work than believed, and a concept that has nothing to envy from many other contemporary works. Furthermore, the great instrumental variety (the violins, the saxophone again as in the fantastic predecessor, a punchy piano, the accordion, the orchestral contributions) adds further depth to the work. The themes are those that will often characterize the years to come; Ian addresses them without false modesty, as always. The flutist wanted to speak of war and did so through the eyes of a child soldier in the title track: dance, war child, night and day, forget the pains and fully enjoy the pleasures of life… The song is a determined ballad, with an inexorable progression, culminating in a beautiful theme for saxophone and orchestra. But war does not arise alone, and then come the attacks on those who are responsible for it throughout the centuries, the high political and institutional ranks. Examples are “Queen And Country” and the delicate “Ladies”, bitter reflections on the society of the past and present, between corrupt aristocracy and prostitutes. And still, “Bungle In The Jungle” (a great success in the U.S.A., despite being perhaps the least significant episode of the album musically), in which the comparison is to a rather savage world, where the strong and clever win. And then “Sea Lion”, a very Tull-like track, a reflection on the spectacle often seen as merely a veil concealing the reality of things (“Watch how we balance the World on the tip of our nose, like sea lions at a carnival…”).
And more than society, religion, already criticized in the past (the hard “Back-door Angels”, with Martin Barre in great prominence: the lyrics are cryptic as always, especially here, but the image of the back-door Angels is quite evocative…). And if “The Third Hoorah” is a nice reprise of the title track in a very “scottish” key, “Only Solitaire” is the acoustic gem of the moment, further testimony to the phase Anderson has embarked upon. In all this emerges a gem, a track among the best ever written by Anderson: “Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day”… the accordion accompanies Ian in a perfect melody, I remember my eyes wide open when I heard it for the first time. Chilling!! The album closes with “Two Fingers”, a sort of sermon that echoes the role of “Wind Up” in “Aqualung”. A very beautiful song, characterized by a very fluid arrangement, it stands out for its text rich in metaphors and more: emblematic is the line that, translated very freely, says: “When you die, and become dust, make sure you leave your underpants to someone you trust”.
In conclusion, “War Child” is an excellent album, certainly not a masterpiece, perhaps penalized by being released between two fantastic works by the Tull (a fate somewhat similar to that of two other albums, “Benefit” and “Too Old To Rock’n’Roll: Too Young To Die!”, the second of which certainly not as bad as believed, on the contrary…). It's a solid work, despite a rather long gestation (some songs were written as early as '71, the very "Two Fingers" was excluded from "Aqualung" and subsequently adapted): a truly enjoyable LP, with at least a couple of beautiful tracks, excellent arrangements (again, the great work of David Palmer) and the classic themes of Jethro Tull stronger than ever. And the transition to the Muse of Baker Street is very brief!! Skating away…
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 War Child (04:34)
I'll take you down to that bright city mile ---
there to powder your sweet face and paint on a smile,
that will show all of the pleasures and none of the pain,
when you join my explosion
and play with my games.
WarChild dance the days, and dance the nights away.
No unconditional surrender; no armistice day ---
each night I'll die in my contentment and lie in your grave.
While you bring me water and I give you wine ---
let me dance in your tea-cup and you shall swim in mine.
WarChild dance the days, and dance the nights away.
Open your windows and I'll walk through your doors.
Let me live in your country --- let me sleep by your shores.
WarChild dance the days, and dance the nights away.
02 Queen and Country (03:01)
The wind is on the river, and the tide has turned too late,
So we're sailing for another shore where some other ladies wait,
To throw us silken whispers, catch us by the anchor chains,
But we all laugh so politely, and we sail on just the same.
For Queen and Country in the long dying day,
And it's been this way for five long years, since we signed our souls away.
We bring back gold and ivory, rings of diamonds, strings of pearls
Make presents to the government so they can have their social whirl
With Queen and Country in the long dying day.
And it's been this way for five long years, since we signed our souls away.
They build schools and they build factories with the spoils of battles won.
And we remain their pretty sailor boys, hold our heads up to the gun
Of Queen and Country in the long dying day.
And it's been this way for five long years, since we signed our souls away.
03 Ladies (03:19)
Ladies of leisure,
With their eyes on the back roads.
All looking for strangers,
To whom they extend welcomes
With a smile and a glimpse of
Pink knees and elbows;
Of satin and velvet
Good ladies, good fortune.
Ladies.
They sing of their heroes:
Of solitary soldiers
Invested in good health
And manner most charming.
Whose favors are numbered
(none the less well intended)
By hours in a minute;
By those ladies who bless them.
Ladies.
05 Sealion (03:37)
Over the mountains, and under the sky
Riding dirty gray horses, go you and I.
Mating with chance, copulating with mirth
The sad-glad paymasters (for what it's worth).
The ice-cream castles are refrigerated;
The super-marketeers are on parade.
There's a golden handshake hanging round your neck,
As you light your cigarette on the burning deck.
And you balance your world on the tip of your nose
Like a Sealion with a ball, at the carnival.
You wear a shiny skin and a funny hat
The Almighty Animal Trainer lets it go at that.
You bark ever-so-slightly at the Trainer's gun,
With you whiskers melting in the noon-day sun.
You flip and you flop under the Big White Top
Where the long-legged ring-mistress starts and stops.
But you know, after all, the act is wearing thin
As the crowd grows uneasy and the boos begin.
But you balance your world on the tip of your nose
You're a Sealion with a ball at the carnival.
Just a trace of pride upon our fixed grins
For there is no business like the show we're in.
There is no reason, no rhyme, no right
To leave the circus 'til we've said good-night.
The same performance, in the same old way;
It's the same old story to this Passion Play.
So we'll shoot the moon, and hope to call the tune
And make no pin cushion of this big balloon.
Look how we balance the world on the tips of our noses,
Like Sealions with a ball at the carnival.
07 Bungle in the Jungle (03:37)
Walking through forests of palm tree apartments
Scoff at the monkeys who live in their dark tents
Down by the waterhole, drunk every Friday
Eating their nuts, saving their raisins for Sunday
Lions and tigers who wait in the shadows
They're fast but they're lazy, and sleep in green meadows
Well, let's bungle in the jungle
Well, that's all right by me, yes
Well, I'm a tiger when I want love
And I'm a snake if we disagree
Just say a word and the boys will be right there
With claws at your back to send a chill through the night air
Is it so frightening to have me at your shoulder?
Thunder and lightning couldn't be bolder
I'll write on your tombstone, I thank you for dinner
This game that we animals play is a winner
Well, let's bungle in the jungle
Well, that's all right by me, yes
I'm a tiger when I want love
I'm a snake if we disagree
The rivers are full of crocodile nasties
And he who made kittens put snakes in the grass, he's
A lover of life, but a player of pawns
Yes, the king on his sunset lies waiting for dawn
To light up his jungle as play is resumed
The monkeys seem willing to strike up the tune
Well, let's bungle in the jungle
Well, that's all right by me, yes
I'm a tiger when I want love
And I'm a snake when we disagree
Yes, let's bungle in the jungle
Well, that's all right by me, yes
Well, I'm a tiger when I want love
I'm a snake when we disagree
Well, let's bungle in the jungle
Well, that's all right by me, yes
I'm a tiger when I want love
08 Only Solitaire (01:29)
Brain-storming habit-forming battle-warning weary
Winsome actor spewing spineless chilling lines ---
The critics falling over to tell themselves he's boring
And really not an awful lot of fun.
Well who the hell can he be when he's never had V.D.,
And he doesn't even sit on toilet seats?
Court-jesting, never-resting
He must be very cunning
To assume an air of dignity
And bless us all with his oratory prowess,
His lame-brained antics and his jumping in the air.
And every night his act's the same
And so it must be all a game of chess he's playing
"But you're wrong, Steve: you see, it's only solitaire."
09 The Third Hoorah (04:51)
Hoorah!
WarChild, dance the days and nights away
Sweet child, how do you do today?
When your back's to the wall,
And your luck is your all,
Then side with whoever you may.
Seek that which within lies waiting to begin
The fight of your life that is everyday.
Dance with the WarChild
Hoorah.
WarChild, dance the days and nights away
Sweet child, how do you do today?
In the heart of your heart, there's the tiniest part
Of an urge to live to the death
With a sword on your hip and a cry on your lips
To strike life in the inner child's breast.
Dance with the WarChild
Hoorah.
WarChild, dance the days and nights away
Sweet child, how do you do today?
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Other reviews
By v8interceptor
I don’t exaggerate when I say this is more Jethro Tull than Songs From The Wood, but the band refrains from instrumental interludes to maybe avoid the usual rifts with the press.
With these pieces included and confirming Back Door Angel, Sealion, Queen Country, now we’d be talking about an album that kicks ass.
By sergio60
You can feel the entire sense of discomfort that pervades the album.
Despite being an epic flop, it managed to sell a lot, especially in the U.S.A.
