The 1993 song Ian Anderson wishes he had written: “The biggest compliment”
Ian Anderson is one of the leading lights in progressive rock, so when he talks about the song he wishes he’d written, it would probably be expected that it would be something cooler, something more left-field or something truly innovative. But in reality, it’s a song far sillier.
That choice is revealing because Anderson has never been a songwriter who chased obvious hits. Throughout Jethro Tull’s career, he built a reputation on eccentric concepts, literary references and unconventional arrangements, making his admiration for a larger-than-life Meat Loaf anthem all the more unexpected.
Anderson’s band, Jethro Tull, are a fascinating phenomenon. Forming in Blackpool, they were essentially going head to head with Pink Floyd as two leaders of the prog-rock moment. Both bands were defying any and all rules of rock and roll. While the late 1960s was the height of counterculture and the height of the ‘rockstar’ with frontmen like Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison dominating with their suave sex appeal, Anderson was up on stage playing flute and thrashing about like a sort of mad orchestra conductor.
They were doing something different, and that seemed powered by nothing more than Anderson’s creative mind. While Pink Floyd are often brought up as their most obvious comparative, both bands, really, were peerless. They were walking their own paths to whatever idea it brought them next, not caring at all about commercial success. But when talking about one song he wishes he’d written, his answer exists on the complete opposite end of the spectrum – a Meatloaf track.
Yet great songwriting has a way of transcending genre boundaries. Even artists known for sophisticated or experimental music can find themselves captivated by a straightforward song if its lyrical idea or emotional impact strikes the right chord.
It’s just as surprising to Anderson as it is to anyone else. “Ever since I’d been aware of Mr Meat I’d not been a fan at all,” he told The Quietus. He continued, “I thought he was bombastic, loud, churlish, arrogant – there was nothing about him that appealed to me, including his overtly showbizzy operatic voice.” So, really, Anderson would go as far as to say he was perhaps even a Meatloaf hater until one song changed that.
When looking for songs to play on a radio show, specifically a song that “told authentic observational tales”, his wife alerted him to this one. He recalled, “my wife called to me from the other side of the office saying, ‘life is a lemon and I want my money back’. I said I was terribly sorry to hear this, and she said, ‘no, the Meat Loaf song, ‘Life Is A Lemon (And I Want My Money Back)’’”.
Suddenly, he was open to it all, willing to give Meatloaf the time of day. Sometimes, one song is all it takes to open up a person’s eyes to something they’d previously shrugged off. In Anderson’s case, it was this song off the 1993 album Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell.
“I think it’s a great song, and it just happens to be on this album,” he said, still somewhat dubious as he added, “I’m not saying I enjoy the whole album or most of Meat Loaf’s work, but that is a very good track.” But, this one track really struck him as an example of great songwriting that he wished he’d pulled off instead. “As soon as I heard it I told my wife, ‘Damn, I wish I’d written that,’ which is probably the biggest compliment anyone in my position can pay to somebody else,” he said, joking “In fact, I think that should be the epitaph on my gravestone.”
For Anderson, the appeal of ‘Life Is A Lemon (And I Want My Money Back)’ wasn’t about technical complexity or progressive ambition. It was the brilliance of a simple, memorable idea executed perfectly. Coming from a songwriter renowned for taking the road less travelled, that admiration serves as a reminder that great songs can emerge from the most unlikely places.
