Last night, my friend Walter and I drove for an hour and a half South to the Mizner Park Amphitheather in Boca Raton (FL) to finally see Jethro Tull in concert. They were amazing! Andrew Giddings is an excellent pianist/sythesizer/accordionist, Doane Perry is an amazing drummer, and Martin Barre had some awesome guitar solos, but it was definately Ian Anderson and (special guest!) Lucia Micarelli that made the performance what it was - not to forget Johnathon Noyce, the bass guitarist.
Among the most notable songs of the 2.5 hour concert are:
Mother Goose
Locomotive Breath (amazing!)
Up to me
Hymn 43
Aqualung
Crosseyed Mary
Lucia Micarelli’s renditions of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, with an eccentric and surprisingly energetic sixty-year-old Ian Anderson fluting away along side, were incredible, and received perhaps the loudest applause - before the encore, anyway! Andrew Giddings stretched his arms, cracked his fingers, fixed his collar, made a point to fix his hair (lack of), and started off slowly…Ian’s whimsical notes joined his synthesizer/keyboard, and the all time loser went headlong to his death.
I recently(ish) got back into [THREAD=30009]Tull[/THREAD].
I saw them at Madison Square Garden back during the Minstrel in the Gallery tour.
Before the 2004 election Jethro Tull music was banned from a local radio station in my neck of the woods after Ian Anderson made some disparaging remarks about the president.
I saw them do the Thick as a Brick Tour, and Aqualung Tour, and others in the 70s.
JETHRO TULL - Wind-Up Lyrics
When I was young and they packed me off to school
and taught me how not to play the game,
I didn’t mind if they groomed me for success,
or if they said that I was a fool.
So I left there in the morning
with their GOD tucked underneath my arm –
their half-assed smiles and the book of rules.
So I asked this GOD a question
and by way of firm reply,
He said – I’m not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.
So to my old headmaster (and to anyone who cares):
before I’m through I’d like to say my prayers –
I don’t believe you:
you had the whole damn thing all wrong –
He’s not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.
Well you can excomunicate me on my way to Sunday school
and have all the bishops harmonize these lines –
how do you dare tell me that I’m my Father’s son
when that was just an accident of Birth.
I’d rather look around me – compose a better song
`cos that’s the honest measure of my worth.
In your pomp and all your glory you’re a poorer man than me,
as you lick the boots of death born out of fear.
I don’t believe you:
you had the whole damn thing all wrong –
He’s not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.
A very nice review indeed.
I’m jealous.
They came out to South Africa a couple of years back and I managed to miss the concert.
It’s a debillitatingly sad, disturbingly short story.
I have never heard of jethro tull into I got the schedule for the latest shows at the mendel center mainstage(my home town symphony theater place)and on it was Jethro Tull, so i had the oppurtunity to see him, but i had never heard of him so i didn’t, i saw lewis black and it was indeed a good choice i laughed the whole night at lewis
You are the GOD of everything – He’s inside you and me.
[threadjack] WOW! Podzol: Are you REALLY a soil scientist?! Isn’t there a more technical term, like dirtologist or something? When you get a chance, PM me the latest big news in soil science. What’s your opinion on compost? Or mulching in the winter time? Should I rake off the mulch in the spring? Are the colors in the mulch really harmless to plants? Why does mulch only come in red, black and natural? How thick of mulch do you recomend for winter? By the spring, most of the mulch is gone, into the soil I suppose. Does that change the soil pH? Should I add anything to the soil to counteract this mulch effect? Do you have a website?
Jethro Tull - My God – Lyrics (Aqualung)
People – what have you done –
locked Him in His golden cage.
Made Him bend to your religion –
Him resurrected from the grave.
He is the GOD of nothing –
if that’s all that you can see.
You are the GOD of everything –
He’s inside you and me.
Everyone that attended the concert also got a free copy of Aqualung Live which includes
--The Songs
1. Aqualung
2. Crosseyed Mary
3. Cheap day return
4. Mother Goose
5. Wond'ring around
6. Up to me
7. My God
8. Hymn 43
9. Slipstream
10. Locomotive Breath
11. Wind-up
--Patter, banter, and bunkum
12. Riffs - another monkey
13. Rocording the original
14. Choosing my words with care
15. Hummmmm 43
16. A different kettle of very different fish
17. But is it any good?
Ian explains how he got into a little bit of trouble for offending people on track 14.
Here’s a picture of the shirt that I got (for $30! jeez, but I had to) front back
You may notice that it says October 25th for Boca Raton, but it wasn’t until last night, November 29th, that they actually played. Thanks Hurricane Wilma!
Ian Anderson opened the show by saying “I hate it when I arrive late for work…especially six fecking weeks late!”
Thats his English accent, but I’m sure you know what he really said…he was much more profane than I was anticipating, but who really feckin’ cares?
Wow. Rock, rock on. Those first two tracks on Aqualung have to be two of the greatest rock songs ever recorded (man, the flute intro to Cross-eyed Mary… oh, so good). You lucky dog. How come JT won’t come to my home town?
Y’know, I’m going to go listen to Aqualung right now!
I unicycled up this really steep hill to hear Jethro Tull outside in Oregon about three or so years ago. I didn’t have tickets or anything, we just heard him outside the fence. The hill was so steep that at the top-most part I had to dismount. Interesting coincidence.
I’m jealous…I WISH that was the tour I saw them on. But TAAB was the album that got me into them, and by then, they weren’t touring on it any more. I saw them on Songs From The Wood, which was probably 77 because I could drive but wasn’t gradjeeated yet. They played TAAB, but by then it was an abreviated version…TAAB meets Strunk & White’s Rule 17.
But the rest of the concert seems a bit hazy now in my memory. I think I caught something at that concert.
I saw them in chicago a couple of times in the 90s, at the Chicago Theater, first row balcony. A great place to be. Excellent acoustics and sightlines, cozy. I first saw them a few weeks after MTV had bestowed Tull with the first-ever MTV Heavy Metal Award for Aqualung. Ian seemed amused.
Too Much Fun, and i got goosebumps during cross eyed mary.
I dont’ do a lot of concerts, but the only other band i enjoyed more than Tull was my all time fave rave’s, the B-52’s, the best party band in the history of ever.
Wow! These dinosaurs are still alive? Do they all need walkers and oxygen? Which one is Jethro?
Actually, I’ve always been a fan. They made truly great music. I’d love a chance to see them since I never got to back in the day. Did anyone ever really understand their lyrics though? Oh yeah, does Ian still play standing on one leg?
Not only was Ian playing on one leg, but he was kicking with the raised one, and orchestrating with his hands and flute! It was fun just watching him ‘conduct’ the band while he wasn’t playing - he was perfectly on time with everything.
My friend’s dad said that Ian did a backflip off a speaker onto the stage at the last Jethro Tull concert that he went to! But that was 20ish years ago.
