A (album)

Infobox Album | Name = A
Type = Album
Artist = Jethro Tull


Released = August 29, 1980 (UK)
September 1, 1980 (US)
Recorded = 1980 at Maison Rouge Mobile and Maison Rouge Studios in Fulham, London (UK)
Genre = Electronic rock
Progressive rock
Synthpop
Length = 42:48
Label = Island Records (UK)
Chrysalis Records (US)
Producer = Ian Anderson,
Robin Black
Reviews =
* Allmusic rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?P=amg&sql=10:8e63mpe39f7o link]
* George Starostin rating|5|10 (overall rating: 8/15) [http://starling.rinet.ru/music/tull.htm#A link]
Last album = "Stormwatch"
(1979)
This album = "A"
(1980)
Next album = "Broadsword and the Beast"
(1982)

"A" is an album by Jethro Tull. It was released on August 29, 1980 in the U.K. and September 1 of the same year in the United States. The album was recorded in the summer of 1980 using Maison Rouge Mobile and Maison Rouge Studios in Fulham, London. Eddie Jobson guested on the album, playing keyboards and electric violin. The album was produced by Ian Anderson and Robin Black.

Overview

"A" was recorded as an intended Ian Anderson solo album before Tull's record label, Chrysalis, asked that it become credited to the group to help the label get through overall slow record sales. This is the reason for the album's title, as the tapes were marked "A" for "Anderson". It is noted for its more synthesizer-based sound, a fact which creates controversy among many of the band's fans. On the other hand, it features a folk-influenced piece "The Pine Marten's Jig".

"A" features a dramatically different lineup of Tull from the band's previous album, Stormwatch. Former keyboardist John Evan, organist David Palmer, and drummer Barriemore Barlow were all de facto fired from the group, and former bassist John Glascock died soon after the recording of Stormwatch. The only members of Tull to appear on both Stormwatch and "A" are Ian Anderson and Martin Barre. This is also the bassist Dave Pegg's first appearance on a Tull record but he became a member of the band already in 1979, replacing John Glascock on tour. Conflicting reasons have been given for the lineup change. Anderson has stated that he wanted to take the band in a different direction from the folk rock and progressive rock of the 1970s. ["A New Day Yesterday: The 25th Anniversary Collection, 1969-1994"] Barriemore Barlow was unhappy with the direction the band was taking and later stated that he would have left anyway. However, biographer David Rees reports in Minstrel in the Gallery that Anderson had never intended to replace the 'classic' Tull lineup with the musicians who recorded "A", but was forced by Chrysalis Records which had decided to release his 'solo' album under the name Jethro Tull.. cite book | title=Minstrels in the Gallery | year=1998 | author=David Rees | pages= 224] This claim was further evidenced by Anderson's note in the 2003 re-release of the album.

Track listing

# "Crossfire" – 3:55
# "Fylingdale Flyer" – 4:35
# "Working John, Working Joe" – 5:04
# "Black Sunday" – 6:35
# "Protect and Survive" – 3:36
# "Batteries Not Included" – 3:52
# "Uniform" – 3:34
# "4.W.D. (Low Ratio)" – 3:42
# "The Pine Marten's Jig" – 3:28
# "And Further On" – 4:21

The 2004 remastered 2-disc edition includes Slipstream as a bonus DVD. This is the only official release of "Slipstream" on DVD.

Introduction by Ian Anderson

In 1980 Anderson wrote an introduction by each song:

* With the song Crossfire I had the title with some idea about the lyrics and we were actually rehearsing the track when my wife Shona came rushing in and said that the Iranian Embassy in London had been besieged. We all stopped rehearsing and came to watch it on the television. Then the next morning before the others arrived for rehearsal I wrote all the lyrics. So although it was kind of aimed in that direction anyway, when this particular thing happened on the news I filled in the missing words.
* Fylingdale Flyer was also provided by a news story about the last time the Americans had a slight hitch with one of their early warning systems and they thought the Russians had provoked an attack. It’s sung from the point of view of those guys at the Fylingdale Early Warning Station in Yorkshire. They think, well there’s a missile coming across but it is only half way to America, we’ve still got a bit of time left to work out whether it’s serious or not and "time for a last game of bowls" which is just what Sir Francis Drake did in 1588 when he was told that the Spanish Armada has been sighted off Plymouth Hoe!
* Working John, Working Joe is one of the songs that’s about 2 or 3 years old and which was written at the time when a lot of flak was being thrown at the middle class by the Unions. This is a slightly tongue-in-cheek song suggesting that the chap who is the white collar worker, a director of a company, has the same hard slog day to day as the chap on the shop floor. He may drive to work, but he gets stuck in traffic jams just the same, and the price he has to pay for his greater degree of wealth is ulcers and heart disease.
* I wrote the lyrics to Black Sunday just before I went on tour, which is the sort of sound it has, although I tried to write it in the kind of way that anybody would feel if they were going off to work and always wondering if, when they come back, they will find things the way they left them. It is just full of the kind of images that I see when I travel.
* Protect And Survive is a title taken from the Government pamphlet of the same name which, in the event of a nuclear attack, gives a very skeletal rundown on what to do. It is a slightly tongue-in-cheek dig at the Government for not having given us enough information and for treating us in a very down-market way. The sentiments of the song are not necessarily my own, but the way I would expect the average person to react upon reading that sort of pamphlet, especially in the aftermath of a nuclear attack.
* Batteries Not Included is a bit macabre really. A child wakes up on Christmas morning to find this fabulous mechanical toy at the bottom of his bed, but it doesn’t work because the batteries were not included. During the period of time that he is assessing its lack of life as being due to that fact, he identifies with the toy so strongly that when his parents wake up they find he has become like the toy and he’s switched off as well. On this track my son Jamie makes his recording debut.
* The song Uniform is again a slightly tongue-in-cheek comment on the fact that we all dress up, we all undertake roles in society according to the clothes we wear. There are not many people who tend to express their individuality in terms of dress: they tend to conform to various social groupings, and they are severely in uniforms just as much as a soldier or a policeman.
* 4.W.D. (Low Ratio) is just about having an affinity for four-wheel drive vehicles. I thought it nice to have a song about that, and it’s spelt that way to avoid confusion with another song on the same subject which is nothing like ours musically.
* The Pine Marten’s Jig is a traditional sounding piece of music, but it employs a lot of fairly tricky little time signature pieces, and the instrumentation – mandolins and violin – although fairly traditional, here have an end result of being quite an electric thing.
* And Further On is one of those ambiguous, wistful things that have a private and personal connotation for the author, but broad enough imagery, hopefully, to work in different ways for different listeners. To specifically explain my understanding of the lyric would be to rob the individual of his right to a personal interpretation! I suppose it really serves as a musical and lyrical postscript to the rest of the songs on the album.

Credits

* Ian Anderson – flute, Vocals
* Martin Barre – electric guitar
* Mark Craney – drums
* Dave Pegg – bass
* Eddie Jobson – keyboards, electric violin

References

External links

*
* (Bonus DVD)