As a way of not only commemorating the music of legendary British band Jethro Tull, but also to solidify his own legacy as an integral part of the iconic band’s history and ongoing popularity, the group’s long-time guitarist/songwriter Martin Barre has released a new double album of delightfully unique and compelling versions of classic Tull songs from throughout the band’s 20 album vault.
50 Years of Jethro Tull came out in the early fall and is a vibrant and dynamic reimagining of Jethro Tull songs, as interpreted though the visionary lens of Barre and his superlative band.
Barre spent the vast majority of his professional musical life as the guitar voice and co-songwriter for Jethro Tull, contributing his signature style and sound to every album from its second album Stand Up, through 19 more, his tenure ending when the band dissolved in 2012. He had released a handful of solo albums while still in Tull in the 1990s, but once the band came to a conclusion (a peremptory one in his opinion and in the opinion of many die-hard fans) he escalated his solo work, putting together a killer band, and becoming very productive and prolific in the studio, release five albums since then, including the critically acclaimed Roads Less Travelled in 2018.
50 Years of Jethro Tull sees Barre and his band revisiting some classic Jethro Tull songs, including a few gems from the vault, and deep tracks that deserve to be revived, dusted off and brought back to the masses of music lovers. A treat for long-time fans and a wonderfully compelling introduction to Tull’s music for the uninitiated 50 years of Jethro Tull is broken into two LPs/CDs, with one featuring full electric band performances, while the second CD is highlighted by their elegant and evocative acoustic interpretations of that side of Tull’s musical personality.
It has to be said that the amount of effort Barre and his band put into the project, including the selection of songs, reinterpreting and rearranging some methodically and meticulously is the most significant, most unique and most fan friendly ‘product’ released to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary, which was in 2017.
There is also a companion DVD, featuring a live 50th Anniversary show featuring the Martin Barre Band.
“The DVD is an extension of the original project, because there are four bonus tracks on the CD that are live from our big Jethro Tull 50th Anniversary Tour. It’s really like a wonderful Christmas present for the fans, if you will. As for how this all came together, it’s a bit of a long story. There was a less extensive version of this album that I was selling just at gigs on the 50th Anniversary tour. It wasn’t available except if somebody came to see us play and it was on the merchandise table. So, I sold out a few copies of that, which was sort of a limited edition,” Barre explained from his home in the UK.
“Then I got a very nice offer from a record label called The Music Store and they knew that I had been selling it in small numbers at the gigs and they said that they would like to release it worldwide and that it would be nice to add some tracks to it to make it a bit different [four tracks were added to the ‘electric’ CD]. And that’s what happened, and I am really pleased with it. And I think the concept because it was my 50th anniversary in the band in 2019, so it’s nice to have that celebration and a sort of thank you to the fans.
“I knew what I did had to be special because it was a special anniversary, and I don’t like things just repackaged. Even in the early days of Tull when you used to put out a ‘Best Of’ album, I sort of disowned them. I know the record labels did that to sort of keep product in the marketplace, but I just thought they are just repackaging old tracks. It was just a cheap shot, so there’s no way I was going to do something like that. I mean, mentioning no names, but there were sorts of anniversary compilations out there and I saw one and I thought, ‘really, it’s cheap and lazy,’ and it really annoyed me. I thought it was really thoughtless and effortless.”
As for the track selection, Barre said much of it came from the pleasure he has in playing these songs himself and how well they sound with his own band, which includes bassist Alan Thomson, guitarist/vocals Dan Crisp, drummer Darby Todd, as well as female backing/lead vocalists Ali Humphries and Becca Langsford. As well on the 50th anniversary tour, he was joined on stage by former Tull bandmates Clive Bunker and Dee Palmer, as well as keyboard whiz Adam Wakeman, son of Yes legend Rick Wakeman.
“I wanted the songs to sound different. I wanted to do songs that I really like, that hadn’t been heard for a long time, or that people were less aware of, because at the end of the day, I don’t want it to be predictable and obvious. I didn’t include Aqualung on there for that reason, and for Locomotive Breath, I enjoyed having a completely different take on it – just to have some fun and make it new and vibrant, and hopefully something the fans will enjoy,” he explained.
“And I wanted the songs to be performed by the Martin Barre Band. We’ve been around for about eight years, but the last four years has been the same lineup and they’re great. They’re a great band, and I can say that because I am not including me. They play Tull’s music better than anybody ever has, in my opinion. So, I had to have them on this record. It was much, much more important than even thoughts of having guest stars appear on some of the songs. I thought, ‘this is my band, my friends, the people I like, the people I work and play music with.’ So, it’s a very personal CD for me in that regard. I feel that I have a unique musical voice, I feel that I want to play music. Tull has lots of great music and a lot of great songs and I have the ability, through the girl singers and the guys in the band, to really freshen up the repertoire and make it more dynamic and more powerful. I wouldn’t do it if it didn’t really excite me. I just wouldn’t. It’s not in my character to do something that’s not 100 per cent and more musically, on stage and on record.
“I truly believe this, and the fans support me, that it’s a great band. It’s a great tragedy that Tull doesn’t exist. It’s one of the worst mistakes that was ever made in the administration of the brand Jethro Tull. It should be out there playing huge tours with great music, great musicians, me and [founder, vocalist, flautist] Ian [Anderson], great production, doing what we always did. But, a really bad business decision, and I have to say that it was Ian who made it so that there is no Jethro Tull. Ian’s band? I don’t know what they do, and I am sure they are brilliant at what they do, but the sound is not Jethro Tull. And even Ian said without me there wouldn’t be a Jethro Tull and I have to say for myself, that without Ian, I am not Jethro Tull either, which is pretty obvious. So, we’re in a situation where there is no authentic Jethro Tull in any form, whether it’s in name or musically or personality wise. It’s gone, it’s finished. But I am not going to let it disappear. I think the heritage of the band is important, and luckily I am a part of that because of the guitar playing; I played all those tracks in Tull history and I really feel that I want to keep it going. It’s part of my passion, in parallel to my own music, because I still love writing music and that’s certainly of equal importance, if not just a little bit more.”
The discussion continued to delve into the mystique of Jethro Tull, and how a band that was so iconoclastic, so diverse and genre defying throughout it’s career managed to survive and thrive in a business that demands categorization and stratification. You were expected to pick a creative lane and woe betide the band or artist who strays too far into another lane.
“You can’t put what we did in Tull in a bottle and say, ‘this is the formula. This is how we did it, and you can buy it for 10 dollars, and you can do it too.’ We never thought along those lines. We just followed the music wherever we wanted it to go, wherever it took us. And there were things that we did that were awful and things that we did that were great. There were strong albums that the fans loved, there’s a couple of albums the fans hated. But we have had such a great fanbase that they allowed us that flexibility, and that’s what carried us through. I think the fans enabled us to carry on, rather than the music of the band, because one bad album in other circumstances would be the end of us,” Barre said.
“And it wasn’t always the same quality of work. I mean, I listen to things and I cringe for various reasons. But it’s all part of the history of any band – there’s highs and there’s lows. But there’s no way that you can do an album like Aqualung and then go out the next year and say, ‘let’s do Aqualung 2.’ It would have been a disaster because you have to move on. And we were improving as players, we were listening to new music and broadening our horizons every year, every album. So, we had to take all of that inspiration on board, wherever it took us, for good or for bad. Record labels today wouldn’t be interested at all. I don’t think record labels look at long term investments at all anymore. And to be honest, I can understand why they think that way. As for Tull, I don’t know if we were before our time, or were we lucky? I don’t know. We were different, and Ian’s image on stage and that sort of brand, the sort of crazy guy on one leg was surely a part of our success because it got us talked about. It got our foot in the door. People would see a picture of us and want to know more about it.
“There were a lot of elements involved in our success and our longevity. One was that the record label basically left us alone. They only once tried to interfere, and it was a disaster. They got a hot shot producer in from L.A. who we did not get on with at all, and we parted company with him and went on to make the album without anybody from outside producing it. The record label had it in their heads that you needed a hot shot producer, and you needed a formula, and we were never formulaic – ever. Again, we never analyzed it. I think we were stubborn, resolute, obstinate, different sometimes just for the same of it, sometimes because we hated everything else.”
Barre said he is already writing a follow up to Roads Less Travelled but is hoping that touring on some level will return in 2021, because he still wants to tour that 2018 album.
“I want to sort of revisit Roads Less Travelled. I mean, it came out and we started playing it, and then this whole 50 years of Tull thing came into play, and I guess I am guilty of saying yes to all that because promoters loved the idea. At the time, it was definitely the right thing to do, to celebrate Jethro Tull but unfortunately it sort of cut short the attention for Roads Less Travelled,” he said.
“I would like to get back out and play some more of that album. However, next year, if the worst happens and things get really pushed back into the latter part of the year, which I tend to think is going to be the case, well then I will have written loads of music. I am constantly putting ideas down, so maybe next year I will start thinking about another solo album. As always, I am going to make it the best one I can ever do – even though it will never be that. But I enjoy doing it so much, I almost have to hold myself back from getting stuck into it because I need to give everything else a bit of breathing space.
“I have never got out of bed and not wanted to play my guitar. I’ll have a cup of coffee first, but I can come down at 7 a.m. and pick up the guitar and enjoy playing, and it’s the same throughout the day and evening. I have always had that motivation to play. And I’ve also got the bass clarinet I am working on, I’ve got my flute, I’ve got my mandolins and mandolas that are on the periphery of what I do with music. It’s ridiculous, but I am happy that I’ve got that passion within me. And, again, I can’t question it or figure it out. I am just grateful that it’s there.”
For more information on 50 Years of Jethro Tull, Roads Less Travelled or anything else related to Martin Barre, visitor www.facebook.com/officialmartinbarre.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for nearly 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
