WAIM #113: Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

Ian Anderson is nothing short of a legend. As the visionary flutist, frontman behind the famed English band, Jethro Tull, Anderson has been making groundbreaking music for six full decades. Jethro Tull first emerged on to the UK pop scene in the mid-to-late 1960s as part of the enormous wave of bands seeking to find fame in the wake of the massive success of the Beatles and the Stones. Throughout a winding, explorative career, Jethro Tull has amassed one of the most unique and varied catalogs in the annals of rock history.Growing up in Scotland and Northern England in the years immediately following World War Two, Anderson’s childhood was littered with the after effects of the world’s deadliest ever conflict. As a youngster, Anderson soaked up the cultural impact of the war through comics and cartoons. Later, in his teenage years, he would come to learn about the horrific treatment of minorities in America through the records he would soak up that came into his port city from across the pond.Energized by a young, vibrant Elvis Presley, Anderson dove headlong into the world of music.At first, he used the blues as a way to understand the possibilities of music, and then was gobsmacked by a pair of seminal psych records from the summer of 1967.In that same summer of 1967, Jethro Tull were part of a seminal moment in English music history. Along with The Pink Floyd, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Roy Harper, Jethro Tull would play the very first iteration of the Hyde Park Summer Concert Series in London. This famed concert series has been home to some of the most legendary acts in rock history, and Jethro Tull was there to Christen the event on its opening night.Ian Anderson describes his life in music as a sort of expeditionary force that is at sea on a perilous, artistic voyage. There is something almost perfect about the nautical analogy of deep exploration through the wilds of a writer’s own imagination and talents. To paraphrase our recent guest Josh Ritter, each record is like a postcard back home from that exploration. Anderson, for his part, has been sailing these creative seas for some sixty years now and shows no signs of slowing down.Here is a riveting, and relatively short conversation with a man that can only be described as a true legend.Cheers,Matty C Get full access to What Am I Making at whatamimaking.substack.com/subscribe