Thick As A Brick

THE TULL TALE IS NOW A HEFTY TOME MARK BLAKE REPORTS

JETHRO TULL’s 50-year journey is the subject of a new book out in November. The Ballad Of Jethro Tull, the official illustrated oral history, features extensive contributions from Ian Anderson and many previously unseen images from the singer’s personal archive.

Anderson invited ex-members of Jethro Tull to contribute, and the book includes words from Clive Bunker, Mick Abrahams, Jeffrey Hammond, Dee Palmer, John Evans and Chrysalis Records founders Terry Ellis and Chris Wright, among others.

“There were many wonderful details and recollections from the others interviewed,” says Anderson. “I didn’t touch anyone else’s contributions. Some of them may have shown a bit of diplomatic restraint – and with an unguarded Twitter tongue, things might have taken a different course – but I found it highly entertaining. Reading it all, I had lucid moments of clarity, combined with, What the hell!? I don’t remember wearing that extraordinary outfit.”

The Ballad Of Jethro Tull is available as a Classic Edition and a limited-run Signature Edition, signed by Anderson and containing two bespoke art prints and a 7-inch single featuring the songs Marmion and The Ballad Of Jethro Tull, exclusive to the book.

Marmion is an extract from Sir Walter Scott’s 1808 poem Marmion: A Tale Of Flodden Field. “It’s set to an improvised organ backdrop by [current Anderson/Tull keyboard player] John O’Hara,” says Anderson, “and extols the Christmas spirit of feasting and joining together across the social divides.” The Ballad Of Jethro Tull is “written in a companion style to the Walter Scott piece,” adds Anderson, with “references to the people, the times and places along the way.”

The Ballad Of Jethro Tull is published by Rocket 88 Books in November 2019.