The singer Ian Anderson one of the most important in pop music
A lot of what Ian Anderson made with Jethro Tull went well beyond the idea of progressive rock.
Although they are celebrated as one of the originators of the genre and could make some of the greatest music anyone had ever thought of, there was always going to be a part of them that fought against being put in a box like that. They were their own unique entity, and if the crowd labelled them as such, that didn’t stop Anderson from toying with the idea of what he could get away with on record.
Thick as a Brick was always supposed to be an excuse to take the piss out of the standard rock and roll concept album, but even when they were working outside their comfort zone, Anderson still found ways to make everything make sense. No one would have thought that they could have got away with a flute version of Bach’s Bouree or manage to steal the first-ever heavy metal Grammy award away from Metallica, but when looking at their history, it’s nice to see Anderson being willing to change things up.
But he was also quick to point out when he thought that some records were far from his favourites, and his taste was far more eclectic than what was on the charts. The biggest names in prog rock may have been listening to Brian Wilson’s productions with The Beach Boys and being completely spellbound by what they heard, but Anderson didn’t have a problem saying that they never resonated with him that much.
And if he already had a few complaints about what every other rock and roll fan was saying about Wilson, he was also more than happy to rip apart Morrissey as well. While it’s pretty easy to poke fun at ‘The Moz’ now for being one of the more insufferable frontmen of the modern age, it’s not like Anderson could deny what he did for all those indie kids that first picked up The Queen is Dead.
Aside from his disagreement with his political views, Anderson felt that what Morrissey was doing was going to be significant, saying, “Not only have I been listening to the music of Morrissey and the Smiths during the last three days intensively and reading Morrissey’s autobiography. But completely coming around to the idea that he is one of the more important singers of popular music in the period of time that I’ve been engaged with it.”
Granted, it’s not like it’s hard to defend a lot of what Morrissey did in The Smiths, either. Compared to some of his more embarrassing moments, hearing him sing with such gripping emotion on every one of their 1980s hits is still one of the best sounds to come out of the 1980s, and when paired with Johnny Marr’s guitar on tunes like ‘This Charming Man’, there’s nothing else that could touch it.
Even if the band never recorded a single track after ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’, their legacy would still be secure. It’s not the most daunting song ever made or anything, but the way that Morrissey is able to set up a scene of driving in a car through town and the undying love he feels for his other half is some of the most poetic turns of phrase to come from underground music.
So while Anderson was probably not going to be writing with the same sense of Shakespearean references as Morrissey did, it’s easy to see why he found so much in common with him. Both of them were willing to dream bigger than the genres that they were put into, and while it didn’t exactly work every single time, it was better for them to keep their muse moving than fall into a holding pattern.
