The Pink Floyd album that changed Ian Anderson’s life
As two leading lights in the world of progressive rock, it’s not surprising that Jethro Tull were inspired by Pink Floyd. After forming in 1965, Pink Floyd dominated the London scene, offering something new and experimental to the rock crowd. Two years later, in 1967, Jethro Tull popped up in Blackpool, bringing the same expansive energy to the north. So when Ian Anderson, the band’s vocalist, reflected on the most influential albums of his lifetime, it’s no wonder that a Pink Floyd record is in there.
What constitutes a progressive rock band is hard to pin down. By its very nature, the style defies style. Acts that adopted the label were essentially tossing out the rule book and marching forward into the future by doing whatever they wanted and creating their own unique recipe for a new sound. For Jethro Tull, that involved a mix of classic rock and roll, jazz, blues and even folk elements, with each new album adding extra sounds and influences into the pot.
For Pink Floyd, their ingredients changed year on year as the band evolved. When they first began and Syd Barrett was at the helm, leading the group with his unique songwriting style and his own mix of inspirations, their sound was more psychedelic. Later, once Barrett was fired from the group, and Roger Waters and David Gilmour were captaining the ship, that sound became more cinematic and epic, ridding of some of the more trippy elements to take listeners on a full sonic odyssey across their albums that was less of an acid trip and more of a whole dystopian view of the world.
However, for Anderson, one album will always stand out as the most influential in his life. While countless fans would probably pick out The Dark Side Of The Moon or The Wall as two incredibly adventurous offerings from the band, Anderson will always have a soft side for their early works.
In conversation with Louder Sound, he picked out The Piper at the Gates of Dawn as one of the most important albums in his life. As the band’s debut album, it was their opening remarks to the world and the introduction of Syd Barrett as a songwriter long before Pink Floyd took the form the world would later know them best as.
But for Anderson, this record right here was something special. Released in 1967 when rock and roll was still leading the way, hearing this was a revelation as he claims it even beats out The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. “For me, the Pink Floyd album had more meaning. The Beatles were a pop group, so I thought their stuff was a bit contrived, a bit twee,” he said.
In particular, what he loved about this album was Barrett. “I liked the singer-songwriter element to Floyd more. Syd Barrett’s songs were strange and funny, and they perfectly complemented the radical, druggy instrumental stuff the band did,” he said, seeing that early lineup as the perfect combination and a vital inspiration for his own career to come.
