Jethro Tull

English progressive rock giants Jethro Tull are a unique phenomenon in popular music history. Their mix of heavy rock, flute-led folk melodies, blues licks, surreal, impossibly dense lyrics, and overall profundity defies easy analysis, yet in their 1970s heyday, they garnered a massive level of commercial success, notching a string of gold and platinum records and securing their place within the classic rock canon with releases like Aqualung (1971), Thick as a Brick (1972), and A Passion Play (1973). Even as critics cooled on them, Tull remained popular through later phases with their folk-rock records of the late '70s, the electronic experimentation of the early '80s, and eventually a Grammy Award-winning return to hard rock with 1987's Crest of a Knave. Led by enigmatic frontman Ian Anderson -- a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and rock's premier flutist -- Tull carried their unique amalgam with varying degrees of success into the 21st century with a 2003 Christmas album and a barrage of compilations and anniversary releases. Aside from Anderson, guitarist Martin Barre was the only other longtime member involved in most of the band's lineups and when the two parted ways in 2011, the group went on hiatus. After reviving a new version of Tull to commemorate their 50th anniversary in 2018, Anderson took the band back into the studio for a pair of late-period albums, 2022's The Zealot Gene and 2023's RökFlöte.

Jethro Tull's roots lay in the British blues boom of the late '60s. Anderson's family moved from Edinburgh to Blackpool in 1960 where he met future bandmates bassist Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond (later, simply Hammond) and keyboardist John Evans. Along with a guitarist named Michael Stephens, their first band was called the Blades -- named after James Bond's club -- who played a mix of jazzy blues and soulful dance music on the Northern club circuit. In 1965, they changed their name to the John Evan Band (Evan having dropped the "s" in his name at Hammond's suggestion) and later the John Evan Smash. By the end of 1967, Glenn Cornick had replaced Hammond on bass and the group moved to Luton in order to be closer to the center of the music scene in London. The band began to fall apart when Anderson and Cornick met guitarist/singer Mick Abrahams and drummer Clive Bunker, who had previously played together in the Toggery Five and were now members of a local blues band called McGregor's Engine.

In December of 1967, the four of them agreed to form a new group and began playing two nights a week, trying out different names, including Navy Blue and Bag of Blues. One of the names, Jethro Tull, was borrowed from an 18th century farmer/inventor and proved popular enough to stick. In early 1968, they cut a pop-folk single called "Sunshine Day," which MGM Records released under the misprinted name Jethro Toe. While the single went nowhere, the band managed to land a residency at the Marquee Club in London, where they began to attract attention. By this point Anderson had begun playing the flute, a unique, though divisive element among blues purists. Likewise, his on-stage antics -- jumping around in a ragged overcoat and standing on one leg while playing the flute -- and his use of folk sources as well as blues and jazz set Tull apart from their contemporaries. It also created something of a power struggle between Anderson and Abrahams, a hardcore blues enthusiast who idolized British blues godfather Alexis Korner. In June 1968 Jethro Tull opened for Pink Floyd at the first free rock festival in London's Hyde Park, and in August they were the hit of the Sunbury Jazz & Blues Festival in Sunbury-on-Thames. Within a month, the band had signed to Island Records which released their debut album, This Was, in November. By this time, Anderson was the dominant member of the group on-stage, and at the end of the month Abrahams left to form a new band, Blodwyn Pig. Tull went through two hastily recruited and rejected replacements, future Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi (who was in Tull for a week, just long enough to show up for their appearance on the Rolling Stones' Rock 'N Roll Circus extravaganza), and Davy O'List, former guitarist with the Nice. Finally, Martin Barre, a former architecture student, became the band's new guitarist.

In May 1969, following tours with Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, Tull scored a number three U.K. hit with "Living in the Past." The single served as Barre's first recording with the group and they subsequently made their Top of the Pops debut. Released in July of that year, their second album, Stand Up, topped the U.K. charts and made it to number 20 in the U.S., effectively launching their mainstream career. With all of its material (except "Bourée," which was composed by Johann Sebastian Bach) written by Anderson, it marked a move away from Tull's blues origins, taking a more eclectic approach that also included orchestrations by future member David Palmer. Meanwhile, "Sweet Dream," issued in November, rose to number seven in England, and was the group's first release on Chrysalis, the new label formed by band managers Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. Their next single, "The Witch's Promise" reached number four in England in January of 1970. Released a few months later, Tull's third album, Benefit, marked their last look back at the blues, and was the first to feature John Evan, Anderson's longtime friend and former bandmate, on piano and organ. Benefit reached the number three spot in England, and ascended to number 11 in the U.S. Songs like "Teacher" and "Sossity; You're a Woman," formed a key part of Tull's stage repertory as they transitioned into a major touring draw on both sides of the Atlantic.

At the end of 1970, Cornick left the group and was replaced on bass by another of Anderson's former bandmates, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond. Early the following year, they began working on what would prove to be, for many fans, their magnum opus, Aqualung. Anderson's writing had been moving in a more serious direction since the group's second album, but it was with Aqualung that he found the lyrical voice he'd been seeking. Released in March 1971 and split into two halves (subtitled Aqualung and My God), it introduced the progressive element -- along with searing hard rock passages and acoustic folk influences -- that would define much of Tull's early-'70s output. Its standouts included the hard-driving title cut and "Locomotive Breath" along with the folky "Mother Goose." The album's opinions on organized religion and themes of alienation struck a chord with listeners in the U.K. and in the U.S., where it became their first to achieve gold certification.

Not long after its release, Bunker was replaced on drums by yet another of Anderson's pre-Tull associates, Barriemore Barlow, who made his debut on 1972's Thick as a Brick. Irritated by critics who insisted on calling Aqualung a concept album (it was not), Anderson countered with Thick as a Brick, a parody of the concept album consisting of a single 43-minute track. Loaded with surreal imagery, Monty Python-inspired humor, and social commentary, it topped the charts in the U.S, Canada, and Australia, while reaching number five in the U.K. With Tull's heightened fame came rising demand for their work and Chrysalis responded with Living in the Past, a double-album anthology culled from their various singles, EPs, early albums, and a Carnegie Hall show. A double-album project of new material was attempted at Château d'Hérouville, a French studio then popular with the Rolling Stones and Elton John, but they soon abandoned the sessions and recorded their next LP, 1973's A Passion Play, in England. Like Thick as a Brick, it was conceived as a single-track concept album steeped in fantasy and religious imagery, and included a spoken word story narrated by Hammond called "The Hare That Lost His Spectacles." Despite critical backlash for its obscure lyrical references and excessive length, the album again reached number one in America (yielding a number eight single edited from the extended piece) and number 13 in England. As Jethro Tull's sold-out American tour commenced, the negative reviews increased with critics lambasting the band for their long (two-and-a-half hours) and overwrought stage shows, to the point that a frustrated Anderson soon shut himself away from the press entirely. The lack of positive press did little to deter fans from supporting their seventh album, War Child, which reached number two in the U.S. and went platinum. Conceived as part of a film project that never materialized, War Child was released in November 1974 and marked the group's return to conventional-length songs, and spawned a charting hit in "Bungle in the Jungle." That same year, Anderson produced Now We Are Six, the sixth album by U.K. folk-rock group and Chrysalis labelmates Steeleye Span. The English folk-rock scene would prove to be an influence on his own writing, especially in the latter years of the decade. The next Tull album, 1975's Minstrel in the Gallery took cues from Elizabethan minstrelsy, pairing rock and English folk in an eclectic way that harkened back to Aqualung. At this point the band's American success still outweighed their popularity at home, though they were trending downward on both charts.

The Jethro Tull lineup had been remarkably stable ever since Clive Bunker's post-Aqualung exit, remaining constant across four albums in as many years. In January of 1976, however, Hammond left the band to pursue a career in art. His replacement, John Glascock, joined in time for the recording of 1976's Too Old to Rock 'n Roll, Too Young to Die, an album made up partly of songs from an unproduced play proposed by Anderson and Palmer. The group later did an ITV special built around the album's songs, and the title track featured guest vocals from Steeleye Span frontwoman Maddy Prior. After achieving a moderate hit in late 1976 with the Christmas-themed EP Ring Out, Solstice Bells, Tull moved into their folk-rock phase with 1977's Songs from the Wood. More artistically unified and successful than their previous two releases, it reflected Anderson's passion for English folk songs. To celebrate its release, they undertook their first British tour in nearly three years. In May of that year, longtime collaborator and orchestrator David Palmer joined as a full-time member, playing keyboards. 1978's Heavy Horses continued in the folk-rock vein and was Anderson's most personal work in several years, its title track expressing his regret over the disappearance of England's huge shire horses as casualties of modernization. Later in the year, Tull's first full-length concert album, the double-LP Bursting Out: Jethro Tull Live, was released to modest success, accompanied by a tour of the United States and an international television broadcast from Madison Square Garden. 1979 proved to be both pivotal and tragic for the group. On November 17, bassist John Glascock died from complications of heart surgery, barely a month after the release of their 12th album Stormwatch. Longtime Fairport Convention bassist Dave Pegg stepped in to fill his shoes, but after the album's tour, there was something of a mass exodus, with Palmer, Evan, and Barlow all leaving the band.

The '80s began with Anderson attempting his first solo record. Backed by Barre, Pegg, and Mark Craney on drums, with multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson on violin, the ensuing album, A, saw release in September, though at the behest of Chrysalis, it was credited to Jethro Tull rather than Anderson. The new version of Tull toured in support of the album, which was more electronic and synth-driven than anything they'd previously made. Jobson left once the tour was over, and it was with yet another new lineup -- including Barre, Pegg, Fairport/Fotheringay alumnus Gerry Conway (drums) and Peter-John Vettesse (keyboards) -- that The Broadsword and the Beast was recorded in 1982. Although this album had many songs based on folk melodies, it again relied increasingly on the use of synthesizers. (Gerry Conway left the band in the mid-'80s, but would occasionally sit in with them later on; he died on March 29, 2024, aged 76.) In 1983, Anderson finally made his first official solo album, Walk Into Light, which took him more fully into electronic mode. Following its lackluster performance, Anderson revived Jethro Tull for 1984's Under Wraps. The album's poor chart performance was partly a consequence of Anderson's developing a throat infection that forced the postponement of much of their planned tour. Still battling intermittent throat issues, Anderson and the group appeared on a German television special in March of 1985 and participated in a presentation of their work by the London Symphony Orchestra. To make up for the shortfall of new releases, Chrysalis released another compilation, Original Masters, a collection of highlights of the group's work, in late 1985 followed a year later by the orchestral A Classic Case: The London Symphony Orchestra Plays the Music of Jethro Tull.

With the 1987 release of their next album, Crest of a Knave, the band's fortunes began to shift. It performed surprisingly well on the charts, reaching number 19 in England and number 32 in America with the support of a world tour. Moreover, Crest of a Knave became something of a watershed in Tull's later history, though few would have guessed it at the time of its release. Bearing the sonic hallmarks of the era, the album was a mix of slickly produced hard and soft rock with plenty of synthesizers and occasional folk-rock touches. The following year, Tull toured the United States as part of their 20th anniversary celebration which also included the release of a career-spanning 65-song box set, 20 Years of Jethro Tull. In a surprise upset at the 1989 Grammy Awards, Tull beat out the heavily favored Metallica, winning Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance for Crest of a Knave. Capitalizing on their revival, they delivered the similarly styled Rock Island later that year which reached a healthy number 18 in England while peaking at 56 in America, despite a six-week U.S. tour to support the album.

Tull kicked off the next decade with 1991's Catfish Rising, followed a year later by And a Little Light Music, an acoustic live album that tapped into the then-prevalent unplugged fad. Despite declining numbers, the band continued playing to good-sized houses when they toured, and their catalog as a whole performed extremely well. In 1993, they celebrated their quarter-century mark with another anthology, the four-disc 25th Anniversary Box Set, which featured remixed versions of their hits, live shows from across their history, and a handful of new songs. Meanwhile, Anderson continued to write and record music apart from the group on occasion, most notably Divinities: Twelve Dances with God, a classically oriented solo album on EMI's classical imprint Angel Records. Moving into a more globally inspired phase, Tull issued Roots to Branches in 1995. Its fusion of rock and jazz with Arabic and Indian influences sat well with critics and they continued in this mode on 1999's similarly themed J-Tull.Dot.Com, their 20th studio outing. On the latter album, Pegg was replaced by incoming bassist Jonathan Noyce and both albums featured keyboardist Andrew Giddings.

In 2002, a one-off reunion of the band's original 1968 lineup (Anderson, Abrahams, Cornick, and Bunker) took place at a pub in England and was filmed for the DVD release Living with the Past. A year later, the contemporary Tull lineup (Anderson, Barre, Noyce, Giddings, and Perry) recorded what would be their final release together, The Jethro Tull Christmas Album. A collection of holiday songs both old and new, it turned out to be the group's biggest seller since Crest of a Knave, though it would also be their last studio album for nearly two decades. Meanwhile, Anderson continued to play live, both on his own and with the latter-day lineup who toured the entire Aqualung album in 2004 and released the concert album Aqualung Live. They also dug into the vaults and released Nothing Is Easy: Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 as well as the live compilation The Best of Acoustic Jethro Tull. Finally, in 2011, the long-lasting partnership of Anderson and Barre was severed and the two went their separate ways.

Barre put together his own touring group, Martin Barre's New Day, while Anderson forged ahead as a solo artist, though he never strayed far from the Tull oeuvre. His first project was an ambitious 2012 sequel to Thick as a Brick, simply titled Thick as a Brick 2. It was followed in 2014 by another Thick as a Brick-related collection of new material, Homo Erraticus. He also toured a new project, Jethro Tull: The Rock Opera, that involved reworked older songs along with new material written about the band's namesake, agriculturist Jethro Tull. In 2018, another milestone anniversary was honored with the compilation 50 for 50, which celebrated the group's 50th anniversary. Anderson continued to flirt with a possible Tull reunion, and at the end of 2019, he announced a U.K. tour titled The Prog Years, which was attributed to Ian Anderson & the Jethro Tull Band. The plans were subsequently canceled in early 2020 at the start of the global pandemic lockdowns. During this period, Anderson continued to record new material, which in 2022 was revealed to be The Zealot Gene, an album credited to Jethro Tull. Their first album of all-new material since 1999's J-Tull.Dot.Com, it saw Anderson joined by guitarist Florian Opahle, bassist David Goodier, keyboardist John O'Hara, and drummer Scott Hammond. A follow-up, RökFlöte, arrived one year later with mostly the same lineup, minus Opahle, who had been replaced by guitarist Joe Parrish-James. ~ Bruce Eder & Timothy Monger, Rovi