Ian Anderson always thought Elton John sounded ridiculous: “He just puts on this silly voice”
There was no real reference point for what Ian Anderson was doing when he first got together with Jethro Tull.
Many artists have tried their best to give the audience music that they had never heard before, but even in the age when prog rock was one of the biggest genres in the world, no one could really put their finger on the kind of music that Anderson was working towards whenever he got up on one leg and started rocking the flute solos. There were pieces of rock and roll history scattered throughout every song, but there were also pieces that Anderson wanted to avoid as well.
But when looking at the band’s first few albums, you would have sworn that they were pulling at their sound on every single track to see what direction they wanted to go in. No one else would have thought to be their own rendition of Bach’s ‘Bouree’ into one of their tunes, but it was a lot more interesting for them to go in a classical direction than to go down the typical route of playing blues rock.
Because while bands like Cream were one of the most accomplished acts in England, Anderson knew better than to try to outmatch Eric Clapton. No one was reaching that level of musical precision, but when looking at the other bands on the charts, he couldn’t help but feel strange whenever he heard new singers coming out of the woodwork. There were definitely musicians willing to push the envelope, but it did feel like some British invasion bands were losing their patriotic sound.
Not every band needed to necessarily sound British when they first came out, but Anderson did find it strange when listening to people like Elton John changing their voices to suit whatever song they were singing. John did have a fairly flexible voice compared to everyone else, but listening to him speak in real life, Anderson thought it was laughable to see him delve into an Americanised version of his voice whenever he sang.
While someone like Mick Jagger had done the same thing whenever he sang, Anderson felt it was far more egregious seeing John do it, saying, “Mick Jagger sings in a sort of weirdly fake American accent, and they were a blues-R&B band in their early days. And so there’s a lot of Americana in The Stones’ music. And there are other people who also sing in ridiculous American accents like Elton John. It doesn’t sound that way at all when he speaks, he just puts on this silly voice to sing it.”
Granted, it’s not like John doesn’t have his moments where you can hear his natural voice seep through. Even though there are many times when he had to stretch himself, there’s no doubt that you’re hearing his natural voice whenever he sings some of those heartbreaking ballads like ‘Your Song’ or ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’, even if he does throw in some blues notes here and there.
And, really, a lot of the time when John sings with a bit more American gusto is about serving the song. It’s no secret that he and Bernie Taupin were a big fan of Westerns when they were growing up, so when they were making tunes in that vein like ‘Roy Rogers’, it made more sense for them to mimic the cadence that they heard in old John Wayne movies the same way that they probably would have done when they were copying him as kids.
So while Anderson might have been proud to use his natural voice whenever he sang, it sometimes pays to sound a little bit ridiculous from time to time. It’s not always the most natural thing for people to hear if they’re just listening to your speaking voice, but any artist is going to want to wear all of their influences on their sleeve, even if it does mean getting a little bit more playful with their voice.
