JETHRO TULL

The Ballad Of Jethro Tull Rocket 88

GREAT ANECDOTES, QUIRKY DETAILS… BUT ANALYSIS-FREE.

Thick-as-a-brick oral history is a plushly packaged treat.

Billed as their first ever official illustrated history, The Ballad Of Jethro Tull is a sumptuously presented hardback volume packed with striking, often unseen photography as befits a band who at the height of their success were as much about visual as musical entertainment. As this book reminds us, Tull were absolutely massive in the first half of the 70s, second only to Led Zeppelin as a live attraction in the US – and their commitment to putting on a show was a major factor in their popularity. But as to why their music was so popular… that seems to be a harder story to tell.

Part of the reason for this is because The Ballad… is constructed purely as an oral history. Compiled by writer Mark Blake, who also conducted many of the interviews, it’s essentially a rolling tapestry of quotations from band members and management – which makes for some great anecdotes and lots of quirky detail, but means that there’s zero authorial insight or analysis. While many fans may like this approach, trusting them to interpret the text at face value, it’s sometimes frustrating that certain topics aren’t dug into deeper.

Ian Anderson is of course the driving force behind both the band and this book, and so his voice and perspective is the dominant narrative here (Martin Barre is noticeably absent). Anderson is a man with a reputation for being, in his own words, a gentlemanly autocrat, but he also emerges as a highly intelligent and highly motivated artist, an explosive performer determined to prove himself yet entirely uninterested in the more hedonistic aspects of the rock’n’roll lifestyle: “20,000 [people] at Madison Square Garden is enough human company” is a key quote. Clues as to where Tull’s often extraordinary music came from are harder to define – Anderson admits that early exposure to Yes, King Crimson and The Nice gave him the confidence to be more adventurous, but Tull remain strangely insulated from the contemporary rock scene.

However, this is by no means an overly earnest book, with the surreal circus of Tull on tour providing numerous war stories: escaping from the police under a blanket in the back of a station wagon after a riot at Red Rocks; forcing a nearnaked Terry Ellis to go on stage with signs around his neck to explain Thick As A Brick to Japanese audiences; being pissed on by the crowd at Shea Stadium…

The Ballad Of Jethro Tull is a beautifully packaged treat for long-time Tull fans, but may prove a little opaque for those not already familiar with the band’s history.