Ian Anderson: Making the Rules and Breaking the Rules
No one could
ever accuse Ian Anderson of being at a loss for words. As one of rock music’s
most articulate spokesmen, Anderson has never hesitated to speak his mind both
powerfully and lyrically. His innate intelligence and wit, not to mention an
extremely musical mind, is the backbone of Jethro Tull, whose eclectic
sound remains unduplicated by any “son of” band to this day. Anderson has grown
older gracefully and is known not only as one of rock’s elder statesmen, but
also as a highly successful businessman in Great Britain.
With more
than a quarter century at the helm of Jethro Tull, Anderson has seen a lot of
things come and go in the music business, and with time comes perspective. As
economics have come to play an even greater role in the music business, many
artists never miss the chance to spew bile when discussing the industry. Not
Anderson. “Well, it’s a two-edged sword,” he counters. “I think, on the one
hand, it’s good for the record industry that it has become very business-like,
necessarily engaged with the realities of selling the product, so these days
record companies tend not to be run by frivolous, flighty personalities like
Richard Branson or Chris Blackwell; it tends to be run by hard and fast
business-type people who understand the job they’re doing and understand the
world that they’re working in. The downside, from the artist’s point of view,
is that things do come down to dollars and cents. At the end of the day, not
many artists are going to be encouraged to do things that don’t have an obvious
payoff. I still feel that the bleating, the moaning, the self-pitying of people
like George Michael are to be deplored, because the bottom line is that there
are record companies out there who will make the effort if they believe in the
artist if the artist gives them the sense of wanting to believe in them.
But if you go about your business with the sort of precious sense of, ‘I am the
pop star. I’m gonna do what I like and I’d also like a $20 million advance, by
the way, before I give you a record,’ you can’t really expect too much in the
way of sympathy or, ultimately, respect if you don’t deliver the goods. My
feeling is that you just have to understand that from the artist’s point of
view, it’s too easy to blame the record company and from the record company’s
point of view, it’s too easy to follow the lure of the greenback dollar. But
the mold is broken from time to time, and the mold is broken happily, because
out of it comes music that I think we’re all delighted to hear, which we all
recognize breaks the rules and, almost in spite of itself, happens to appeal to
a lot of people.”
Regarding
the current state of musical affairs, Anderson looks westward across the
Atlantic and sees interesting things afoot, singling out Pearl Jam and
Soundgarden for special praise. “I’m beginning to get that feeling from some of
the newest bands, who are mostly of North American origin, not British. I am
not enamored of the current state of UK pop and rock music, which I think is
insular, very inbred, and rather precious. It doesn’t really have the
earthiness of a lot of the American bands at the moment. American music, once
in a while, shows us all the way.”
A
conversation with Anderson brings with it a great deal of insight, candor,
self-deprecating wit and, perhaps more than anything, the feeling of one who is
still very much inspired to make music to maintain a creative edge.
With the
recent release of his solo instrumental album, Divinities: Twelve Dances
With God (Angel), the feeling is proven correct. As the album title
suggests, the work consists of 12 separate musical pieces, each focused upon
one of the world’s religions, both current and primitive, yet working together
to form a cohesive whole. This religious theme has found its way into much of
Anderson’s work; thinking back to the incendiary lyrics of “My God” and “Wind Up,”
I wondered if Anderson’s religious perspective had undergone a mellowing metamorphosis.
“Well, I don’t
think it’s really changed fundamentally,” he said. “It’s become a bit more
refined, a bit broader in terms of the detail and the awareness of religion in
its broadest sense. I think the main difference (with the new album) is I’m trying
to focus on the ‘up’ side of religion in the way in which it represents (to me)
something very unifying. There’s a unifying thing about religious belief that
we can all benefit from. I don’t think that anyone could argue that the God of
Islam, the God of Judaism, and the God of Christianity are different. We’re all
dating the same gal! That’s something that would do so much good for us to
teach our children. On Aqualung I was being a little negative about the
aspects of dogma and ritual as they affect religion, primarily in terms of
Catholicism. Here I’m trying to look at the positive side; I see (Catholicism)
as something that makes Italian footballers burst into tears on their mother’s
birthday.”
The origin
of Divinities is an interesting story in itself. It seems that Anderson had
been putting off overtures from Angel Records, EMI’s classical division, who
had requested to meet with the artist to discuss a project they had in mind.
Anderson takes it from here. “I put if off for about six months, then
eventually went to explain to then this sort of thing was not what I thought
they had in mind. Indeed, they didn’t want to do ‘Jethro Tull Meets the London
Symphony’ nor did they want Ian Anderson to attempt the impossible, which is
playing the flute to the melodies of Mozart. They wanted me tow rite some music
with the flute as the main instrumental voice, but for other orchestral instruments
(as well). I’m choosing these words carefully to avoid suggesting that they
wanted me to make a classical record. It made me a little nervous because it
wasn’t something I thought I had the skill to do.”
Elaborating
further while getting in a sly last word, Anderson explained, “I’m just an amateur
fooling at it; there are probably a bunch of second-year college students at
the Royal Academy of Music in London who could wipe the floor with me in terms
of orchestration and music writing, but they don’t have a record deal and I do!”
© Roy Abrams
2021
Originally published
in The Music Paper, September 1995
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