Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stumptown]

I've just downloaded tons of this band's music and I have to admit (maybe I don't have the proper drugs) I cannot get what they are about. What the hell do all those babbling lyrics mean? And what's up with that friggin flute? I thought King Crimson was bad, but Locomotive Breath? What is this crap?

[swetepete]

yeah, but check out the dude's flute stance; it's, like, so, medieval...it makes me wanna smear flowers and dung into my long greasy hippy hair and bop around Stonehenge with a magic flute stuck up my butt.

Aw, I'm getting all homesick now! DAMN YOU JETHRO TULL!!!!

[oneofthesarahs]

I have mad respect for Jethro Tull. Any rock band that can have a frontman playing the goddamned flute and still manage to be popular(ish), deserve all the success they may reap.

Long live Jethro Tull.

[hairy sue]

smoke some weed

[twg]

[Woland]

The Jethros are an acquired taste. Give it some time. The lyrics are often not the strongest part of what they do, I agree; listen for the music which is often quite complex compared to the usual pop/rock fare.

[jaganath69]

[Big_Bird]

[JongnoGuru]

My grandmother claims to have been a huge fan of their music, but she can't make heads or tails of the lyrics. Because they're obscure and caked with pseudo-intellectual psychobabble & hippy-generation counterculture claptrap? I asked. No, because they're all in English.

She did reveal some little-known facts about the early history of the band. Seems they weren't really a musical group at all, but originally a research team dedicated to inventing the seed-drill. One of the early prototypes of the seed-drill could be used as an instrument and came to be known as a flute. The research team then stopped farting around with farming and started playing Prog Rock. Who knew!

Before eventually sticking with Jethro Tull, the band were known by many names such as The Jethro Tull Experience, The Farmers, Tuul, Ultima T�ll, Amon T��l II and Sugababes. Specializing in playing the flute (and because compact discs wouldn't be invented for a long, long time yet) Jethro Tull became a unique live-experience.

Agriculturalists at heart, the band grew cannabis on a large scale and distributed it as "merchandise". This was their only way to make money and keep on touring. However, the band would not use any other illegal substances. Except for LSD.

The band was also highly influenced by the hilarious hayseed antics of the Jethro Bodine character on the U.S. television comedy, "The Beaver Lee Hillbillies," to whom they wrote a tribute called "Driving Song".

Their original line-up was as follows...

Jethro Tull: Vocals, Flute
Ian Anderson: Flute, Soprano Saxflute
Martin Purr�: Flute
Jonathan Noise: Drums.....naah, just kiddin': Flute
Andrew Sossity: Keyboard, Flute
Gerald Bostock: Flute, Brick
Karl Marx: Communism and Flute
Oscar Engels: Flute support
Ron Burgundy: Flute support
Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond-Hammond-Hammond Weintraub: Samples of Flutes
Geoffery Mellotron-Mellotron: Synthesized Flute
Dee Palmer: Old Transvestite on Classical Flute

uh-huh.

[Big_Bird]

Thanks for that site, Guru. Quite amusing.

And you forgot to mention that I once made an appearance with them:

[JongnoGuru]

[Big_Bird]

This thread inspired me to listen to Tull for a couple of hours. I copied each link as I went.

One of my favourite love songs...ever: Wond'ring Aloud

And here are a few of the more accessible pieces for those who might like an introduction:

Rare and Precious Chain
Life's a Long Song
With You There to Help Me
Songs From the Wood
Witches Promise
Aqualung

For fans of J S Bach, here's a jazzed up version of a piece he wrote for the flute: Bourree
(While you listen you can marvel at Anderson doing his trademark one-legged flute playing!)
And here is their rendition of one of Bach's violin concertos

For those who like a bit of Jazz, here they are with Fela Kuti

For those who like an Elizabethan influence Velvet Green
(complete with bawdy lyrics..."never a care...with your legs in the air...:")

For those more familiar with Led Zeppelin, here is there cover of a Led Zep number: Kashmir

And here is Anderson cavorting in a loin cloth.

[Hanson]

Didn't the drummer have a sex-change operation and become "Maureen" or something?

[JongnoGuru]

[Hanson]