The show that made Ian Anderson want to “walk away” from Jethro Tull
The rock and roll lifestyle is not really meant to be a full-time gig for most people. If we put the mythmaking of sex and drugs aside, there’s already problems that come with people trying to tour for the rest of their days, and that kind of machine-like structure was never going to sit well with sonic craftsmen like Ian Anderson.
That being said, Anderson was always one of the finest performers that the prog-rock scene had to their name. While Peter Gabriel did have him beat in the wardrobe department whenever Genesis came onstage, Anderson was always engaging to see whenever he walked out with the prog legends, especially with his leg lifted high off the ground as he dominated every flute solo that he could muster. But as with all famous bands, attention can be a double-edged sword as well.
Because while Aqualung was a progressive masterpiece in many respects, Anderson was never that comfortable being put in the same conversations as the Emerson, Lake and Palmers of the world. What they had been doing was something totally different, but if the rest of the world insisted on making them a true prog-rock outfit, Thick as a Brick was their way at beating all of their competition at their own game. After all, what could be more ambitious than an album of one massive song that told a story for 40 minutes?
It was an ambitious undertaking for any band to try out, but the biggest hurdle really comes with the album itself: how the hell do you play this live? While the band did eventually have a truncated version that they would perform whenever they played their later shows, they were more than capable of making each part of the track work, even down to the strange interludes on the album, like having a newsman coming out onstage midway through the performance.
But whereas most people were happy to see their favourite group playing this kind of grand masterpiece, Anderson had a touch-and-go relationship with the crowd. They could be respectful when they wanted to, but since this was the era when bands like Led Zeppelin were starting frenzies at their shows, Anderson remembered certain crowds only getting in the way of their performances.
And since he had put his blood, sweat and tears into every note on the album, the frontman started to think that he made a mistake being in a touring rock outfit, saying, “In 1972, at the end of an American tour for Thick As A Brick, I had a firm resolve to walk away from Jethro Tull and playing live music. It was a feeling of betrayal – these people buy your record and then come to a concert and whistle and hoot and screech and generally do everything possible to stop you hearing what you’re playing!”
Then again, it’s hard not to feel the pain that Anderson was talking about. Roger Waters would run into the same problem a few years down the line when he spit at a fan while on tour because he was having issues onstage, and while Anderson didn’t necessarily need to make their version of The Wall or anything, it’s easy to see why anyone shouting for them to play ‘Aqualung’ was going to be disconcerting.
But as they soldiered on, the whole outlook on the live performance was completely upended. There are still plenty of people who are willing to cause havoc whenever they go to a rock and roll show, but the true reward for playing live is making sure that those few people paying attention will be able to appreciate it when they nail a certain section or have enough stamina to make it through a massive solo.
