The one “stinker” song Ian Anderson called the worst: “A real turkey”
Ian Anderson tended to have a very specific definition for what he wanted out of his sound every single time he played.
He never strayed away from making the occasional classically tinged tune, but the lion’s share of what he did in Jethro Tull always came back to making something that was a bit more eclectic than what the rest of the prog world was doing. A lot of their albums were pure spectacles to behold, but in between the classics were more than a few albums that Anderson felt were best left forgotten.
When looking through any band’s discography, nothing is ever going to be perfect. Jethro Tull had already been one of the more interesting groups to come out of the 1970s, but there are more than a few times when their ingenious ideas would become a bit too pretentious for anyone to really take seriously anymore. There was a lot of room for them to grow, but sometimes that meant going in the wrong direction from time to time.
It’s already strange enough to see them getting into the digital world when making some of their later albums, but even when they tried something new, they even managed to get more praise than they deserved. Crest of a Knave is a decent record, but the idea of it winning the first metal award at the Grammys over Metallica is still one of the more hilarious blunders that the ceremony has ever made.
But Anderson never apologised for following his heart. No one should have been afraid to make the music that spoke to them whenever they made a record. That’s what made Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play sound as great as they did, but when you look at the way that he put together his songs, nothing seemed to dampen his creativity more than going into the studio to record songs because he had to.
Music was never meant to be that kind of job, and while Anderson was willing to put in the hours to make his own songs great, the idea of making a tune solely to make money wasn’t how he operated. He wanted Tull to be an album-based band, but when looking at the kinds of obligations that they had when putting together their greatest-hits album, Anderson felt that the song ‘Singing All Day’ was one of the biggest casualties of his career.
The song itself is completely fine, but considering it had sat on a shelf for years before the label forced them to put it out, it wasn’t like Anderson was thrilled, saying, “The song ‘Singing All Day’ is a stinker. A throwaway track that we immediately sidelined until we were desperate for some material for a compilation album we had to make under contract with Warner Brothers. It came from the bottom of the barrel. A real turkey.”
And it’s easy to hear that in his performance as well. There aren’t many pieces of the song that are outright terrible, but considering how even some of the band’s most complex albums could have a little bit of charm to them, this just feels like the kind of song that was meant to be forgotten in between the sessions for better albums.
Anderson wasn’t setting out to make something terrible by any means, but when you look at the kinds of projects that he held close to his heart, ‘Singing All Day’ is a clear example of what not to do to one of your artists. It’s one thing to ask for that one more song, but if someone doesn’t have that much gas left in the tank to begin with, whatever they give you later is most likely going to be shit.
