Interview with Ian Anderson in the Guardian - Progressive Rock Music Forum

There's a long interview with Ian Anderson in today's Guardian that is worth reading:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jan/28/jethro-tulls-ian-anderson-dressing-up-was-fun-but-my-codpiece-was-distinctly-unfragrant

'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'

Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom

Hi,

Strange for me, that he would talk about his codpiece instead of the new material ... perhaps the idea came from an interviewer that was not interested in the new material and could only say some generic this and that, and not get to specifics of the new material beyond some very uninteresting bits and pieces, that everyone else out there is also doing!

Ian did speak some about it, although I did not feel that his details were beyond just generic. He might have not wanted to say much, and take away the "discovery" by all his fans!

Edited by moshkito - January 29 2022 at 08:07

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com

I don't know where to ask this question-- ---Tull is prog Folk? And why isn't Lindisfare on this site? Isn't it prog folk?

twosteves wrote:

I don't know where to ask this question-- ---Tull is prog Folk? And why isn't Lindisfare on this site? Isn't it prog folk?

were Lindisfare ever suggested, discussed, evaluated for inclusion? If they were not, then feel free to suggest them.

Were they rejected? If yes, then the prog-folk team did not think they were prog-folk.

richardh wrote:

...

Using the band moniker again is clearly a commercial decision and funnily enough he is not challenged on that at all!

Hi,

And I don't think the interviewer knew enough to challenge him and call his bluff. Ian is much more intelligent and able to converse, but the questions posed ... did not ask Ian much of anything to say, to the point where the codpiece is more of a discussion than the new material ... that's just bizarre, and all it tells me is that the new material is not as important as the codpiece was! Tongue

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com

richardh wrote:

Yeah nothing that detailed or truly interesting and the word 'generic' crops up a lot. Anderson even calls The Who 'generic' which is distinctly strange and very aloof of him as he tends to often come across as. Tull are about as generic as anything in prog never steering that far from the tried and tested. I may check out the latest album but I don't have high hopes for it. Using the band moniker again is clearly a commercial decision and funnily enough he is not challenged on that at all!

I'm not a huge Tull fan though I love a few of their albums, but they seem anything but generic to me, between the vocals (which it has taken decades for me to tolerate), the flutes, and the acoustic dimensions I think they are quite unique. I'll agree they might not be as complex as the ELPs, Yes's and VDGG's of the world but that doesn't make them generic. I do disagree with the Who being generic even though, again, they aren't among my favourite groups. They seem pretty distinctive to me

Too much of the interview is living in the past. Let the new album speak for itself, for better or worse. It is the music that matters, not the codpiece.

The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"