01	Spiral						03:53
	02	Dot Com						04:26
	03	AWOL						05:21
	04	Nothing @ All						00:56
	05	Wicked Windows						04:42
	06	Hunt By Numbers						04:02
	07	Hot Mango Flash						03:51
	08	El Nino						04:43
	09	Black Mamba						04:59
	10	Mango Surprise						01:16
	11	Bends Like A Willow						04:54
	12	Far Alaska						04:08
	13	The Dog-Ear Years						03:34
	14	A Gift Of Roses			(At the end of this track, a bonus from previous Ian solo album "Secret language of birds") I count the hours: you count the days. Together, we count the minutes in this Passion Play. Walk dusty miles. And I ride that train on a first class ticket, just to be with you again. Picking up tired feet. Back from a far horizon. Cleaned up and brushed down. Dressed to look the part. Fresh from God's garden, I bring a gift of roses: To stand in sweet spring water and press them to your heart. Like the Kipling cat, I walk alone - Never inviting trouble, never casting the stone. But this badge of honour is of tarnished tin. Light your guiding beacon to bring this fisher in.			09:37

Fuel 2000 Records
Year: 1999
Catalog Number: FLD-1043
Produced by: Ian Anderson
Engineered by: Ian Anderson

Jethro Tull:
Ian Anderson (vocals, flute, bamboo flute, bouzouki, acoustic guitar);
Martin Barre (electric and acoustic guitars);
Andrew Giddings (keyboards, accordion);
Doane Perry (drums, perc);
Jonathan Noyce (bass).

Najma Akhtar additional voice on "Dot Com"



~ J-Tull Dot Com ~


An introduction to "J-Tull Dot Com"

It took four years since "Roots To Branches" was released before the new album "J-Tull Dot Com" saw daylight in August 1999. The odd title, derived from the URL of The Official Jethro Tull Website, once again offers an example of how Jethro Tull always chooses it's own course and manages to include and use actual developments in society in their art.

But there is more to that. With this website the band chose deliberately for a way of informing fans and others who are interested by offering news regarding the band and their art directly and at first hand. One can read the latest news about the current leg of the tour and how the band is going on with their work of composing, rehearsing and recording. A novum regarding the new album is that everybody who has access to the internet can witness the creating process of writing, composing and recording: audiofiles can be downloaded of four songs at different phases of this process. They grant all of us so to say "a peek in the kitchen": making it possibles to get a notion of how the "broth" is composed. Once again Tull has set a standard.

The internet has become important for the band and they take it very seriously regarding all the work that is invested in their website, their serious attempt of informing their fans and the correspondence with fans by email. On the other hand for fans the internet has become an important medium to inform eachother, discuss about all kind of questions chat- or email-wise, exchange gig reviews and stay in contact with eachother. The importance of the internet and it's social and cultural relevance has not escaped Ian's attention and is reflected in the lyrics of this album as I will try to point out below.

Whereas the "Roots To Branches" album offers us an innovative and a bit awkward Tull, inspired by all kinds of ethnic musical influences, expressing all differents moods and feelings, the new album seems to be a compromise. At first hearing one may conclude, that Ian Anderson plays at safe by reintroducing the - let's say - seventies rock style that made Tull so popular, esp. in the USA and Germany. Sturdy songs and Martin's soaring guitar seem to form the main feautures of the album.

But listening more close other features strike the ear: the enchanting, supporting flute (instead of the very well known prominent flute solo's), elements from ethnic music so carefully used to create different and for Western ears sometimes unusual atmospheres, the choice of instruments, the combination of soft and hard parts within the songs, the beautiful and warm melodic lines and the delicate, refined combination of all these elements; these features make this album into another listening adventure.

Though the album critically speaking is not at all innovative, it is well-balanced and radiates a certain maturity that integrates the many different features that are so typical for "Tull-music" into one album. I dare to state here that Jethro Tull once again managed to transcend the limitations of the rock idiom and delivered a piece of art that meets standards set by themselves. I deliberately do not speak here of an "Ian Anderson album"; it is definitely a band's achievement: they play so tightly, use a variety of techniques, keep their musical balance so well and have all contributed to the recording of all these songs. Aside of the Tull members, the album also features Najma Akhtar from India, who added her lovely female vocal to the title song.

The album is entitled to attention and careful listening, but then again: good wine needs no bush. "J-tull Dot Com" is a milestone in Jethro Tull's development over the last three decades.

The disputed artwork of the booklet is again designed by Bog Zarkowski and the cover artwork features Ian's painting. After all, he started as a visual artist before switching onto music. It is a picture of an Egyptian god Chnum (Num, Chnumis, Chnubis - whichever name or transcription you prefer - meaning "spirit" or "breath", "spirit of God floating over the waters' surfaces"), later to be known as Amun ("the hidden one"), one of the eight bigger Egyptian gods (relevant to Zeus, Brahma or Wuotan = Odin).
"Amun was depicted in human form, with blue skin and either the head of a bearded man or a ram's head with curved horns. He wore a crown composed of a modius surmounted by two tall feather plumes. He was sometimes depicted in ithyphallic form with an oversized erect penis. His true appearance was considered beyond human understanding. He was said to be "hidden of aspect, mysterious of form", invisible yet omnipresent throughout the cosmos. Amun's sacred animals were the ram and the goose. His primary sanctuaries were at Karnak and Luxor near Thebes"**
The painting is based on a gargoyle-like sculpture by Ian's friend and former neighbour Michael Cooper. Now it stands by a pool in Ian's garden.

* Jan Voorbij, Ivory Rodriguez
** Source: Egyptian Gods & Legends: http://www.primenet.com/~wyvern/egyptgods.html


Annotations

Spiral

In a promotional audiofile, downloadable from the Fuel 2000 Records site, Ian tells us that "Spiral" is about the waking-up process in which we spiral out of the dream state into reality wondering which is the dream and what is reality. The lyrics open with a description of a 'dreamscape' wherein our narrator dwells and from which he has to leave as his sleep fades away. ("Thought it best, best that I should go"). He tends to waken up, but is confused ("Who's out there, can't hear you"), and realizes, that though he wants to go back to his sleep and his last dream, he reluctantly has to face the reality of the new day ("Time to make my peace with the dreary day"). In spite of the alarm-clock he sinks back into another dream, though it's not clear whether it's a dream, a memory of a situation our narrator went through, or a wish for sharing with a loved one ("Loaves and fishes at an empty tabele laid for two"). Note the biblical images in this stanza: "wine to water" and "loaves and fishes". But inevitably, the waking up takes place ("down the spiral, spinning madly"), leaving rags of yet another dream ("On a disneyesque adventure ride. I fly in colours from richer palettes. Famous artists running scared as worlds collide"). Or does the narrator say here that his dream world is so much richer in colours, images and sensations than those of everyday life?. Note that the waking up process is not described as spiralling up, but as spiralling down ("I'm falling" ... "down the spiral"), causing uncertainty about what is reality and which is the dream. This mixed-up state of mind when waking up is familiar to all of us I think.
* Jan Voorbij

Dot Com

On the promo CD, Ian introduces the song as follows:
"When we'd completed most of the recording for the new record, I almost joking suggested we name it after our recently set up website, J-Tull.com. Surprisingly this idea met with approval from the band members and the record company guys, so I thought, well let's make that official! But as always, being one for dotting the T's and crossing the I's...is that right? and finishing the parcel tied up with a nice red ribbon I wrote an additional song and called it simply 'Dot Com'. It features the sultry crooning of Najma Akhtar, one of India's best known female classical and pop vocalists, and it's an ode to the communication options of the Internet; two lovers in touch only via their corporate email accounts."
* Daniel C. Benchimo

This is the first Jethro Tull song that brings up the internet. It is about a far away beloved one, who apparently is very busy, always en route and probably has no time for our narrator. He misses her, longs for contact ("give a clue; leave a kind word") and hopes she will email him. The internet seems the only place where they can meet: "a domain where our cyber-souls might meet", albeit virtually; that is, if she does email him. In the context of this song, the line "And in case you wonder - I'll be yours" suggests the opposite: it is he who asks himself if she is still his......
* Jan Voorbij

AWOL

On his way to work, the narrator feels he does not to waste his time there and decides to take a day off: "Won't be in today to work for you" and "unfit today to work for you". It seems he doesn't like the work he's doing at all and has nothing to lose ("Of a sudden, seems I can barely face myself: no face to lose"). So he decides to take a day off work doing other pleasant things instead like going out with a girlfriend. But in the end, "this romantic interlude" has to be paid for by working overtime.
Like in "Dot Com" there is once again a reference to using the internet for contacting someone who can't be met easily: "E-mail that girl who's working nights".
The Trump Casino in Atlantic City, mentioned in this song, is one of the venues the band played during the US tour in 1999.
* Jan Voorbij

According to an on-line dictionary I checked, there is a british definition of Pontoon that equates to Blackjack, so I assume "Trump Casino calls Pontoon" sort of means "Trump Casino beckons me to play Blackjack". Pontoon is indeed a British variation of Blackjack. The difference being: When the player's total is the same as the banker the banker wins. A 5-card-trick, ie a hand of five cards is a winning hand. This means that Pontoon is more favourable to the casino than is Blackjack.
* Colin Wright

Wicked Windows

Ian's introduction to this song on the promotion CD:
"Funny how so many bad guys in history wore those little wire-rimmed spectacles; they lend an air of menace and cunning, disguised as frailty of diminished eyesight. You know, I bought of pair of reading glasses of that sort recently, and looked in the mirror and thought immediately, 'What Wicked Windows!' So, out came a song, sung in the first person and loosely based around the supposed character of one of history's all-time worst, whose name should be forgotten. Unless of course the harsh lesson still needs to be reread. See if you can figure out the villanous identity."
* Daniel C. Benchimol

In a not yet broadcasted documentary for the Czech TV Ian tells where he drew his inspiration from for this song. He bought a new pair of glasses (see the cover photo above) and when looking in the mirror thought himself looking like a knave. Hence the title "Wicked Windows". When watching his own face, he comes to realise that it reflects his life, his memories, his experiences, his history. In fact it features him and cannot be overlooked since his past is "upon my face, around and over".

There is one of Ian's well-known and cryptic double-entendres in the line
"Now and then: memories of men who loved me.
No stolen kiss - could match their march on hot coals for me".
Memories of beloved people matter more to him in the long run and spring to his mind more frequently than 'stolen kisses', perhaps symbolic for superficial contacts with people on the road and his business relations. But these 'hot coals' are also a reference to his own piercing brown eyes!

When reviewing his past he draws up the balance-sheet and concludes he layed out his own course, made unconventional and independent choices, set in situations he was confronted with:
"I have walked a line both faint and narrow, hard to follow.
Caught up in circumstance. Harsh truth for history to mellow".
I suspect, that Ian here refers to his music, his artistic choices, the people he chose to surround himself with (band members, business associates) and his economic enterprises like salmon farming. His many responsibilities and obligations seem to get most of his attention and he tends to make these into his life's priorities:
"Through my eyes: loyalties and obligation
magnified. Obedience: the better fellow".
The last verseline suggests implicitely a quality that somehow is in contradistiction to the 'self-willedness' described in the preceeding lines.

Then - delicately supported by the music - the mood in the refrain changes from pensive reminiscence to melancholy with a touch of bitterness. It seems to me that Ian implicitely states here that in spite of his obedience to loyalties and obligations and the independent line he walked, he didn't achieve anything remarkable yet: "Better not remember me. Don't miss my passing". The "fierce winter" in the next line might refer to the oblivion we fall into after dying. (I have not the foggiest idea about the meaning of the "soft wet surrender" and "the bad blood" in the lines that follow). He than remembers the time that he was carefree and happy, a time that seems to be all too far way now and for people knowing him hard to imagine: "I laughed like any child - although you might find that strange".

In the next stanza his somber thoughts are relativized. He there realizes that everybody has dark moments reviewing ones past ("the silent scrutinizing", "through wicked windows"). We aren't completely happy about the choices we made in our life's histories: hence "this vulnerable squinting". It seems to me, that the "wicked windows" in this verse have a different meaning and that judging ones life in the self-denying way as is done in the first stanza and the refrain as well leads to nowhere as it produces only painful feelings of bitterness, regret and guilt.
* Jan Voorbij

Given the overt reference to the 'net by virtue of the album's title, I expected to find further "computer" references in the lyrics, and supposed that they might plausibly be found in a song titled "Wicked Windows". Or was I projecting said expectations upon them?
Anyway, pursuing this trajectory, it seemed reasonable that the "windows framed in silver and hung in toughened glass" might well be of the virtual sort, and that visiting Tull-related sites, reading the Tull newsgroup, e-mail and so forth gave him a chance - indeed, often forced him - to "review my past". Might the "men who loved me" then be former cohorts, particularly band members, memories of whom are continually dredged up online, and to whom he now wished to immortalise his deepest appreciation, in song? Did they not "march on hot coals" for him? The oft-noted 'driven and demanding taskmaster' aspect of his personality might be acknowledged here while penning that, while he may have been "hard to follow", in his view "loyalty and obligation" are worthy ideals that justify the effort required. Later he refers to "bad blood running in close families", possibly reflecting further sentiments regarding band members and difficult relationships. And they're "still waiting" for certain explanations. (Aren't you, Barry?).

He finishes this passage by musing "I laughed like any child" and "Christmas was my favourite holiday", as if to demonstrate good humour about it all, in self-defense: "Hey, I may have acted like a child sometimes, but I ain't such a bad guy, really I'm not". The rest of the lyrics seem to verify this "Internet-centric" theme, or at least not to contradict it. "I know you're out there; so am I, hiding behind windows just like you." The lyric that piqued my interest most was "I offer you no more disguising", not so much because I really expect him to quit this incessant posturing and hiding behind words, but as a possible admission that he does it. As if we didn't know. And love him for it, to boot. Or does he refer here to *our* online "disguises"?

Finally, he sees the "same bad blood running in new families". Might that be us, his newfound online companions? Nah--we're nothing if not perpetually decent and respectful in our dealings with each other! Or might something be astir in the current lineup? Well, of course there is. Sometimes more or less occasionally than others. Whatever. The one thing I know for sure about this song, this album, and for that matter the entire body of JT works: We're all equally correct in our interpretations, all equally full of shit.
* Jim Hofweber

My immediate impressions of 'Wicked Windows' are:
(a) Catching a glimpse of family portraits, portraits that are "framed in silver and hung in toughened glass", toughened glass obviously a metaphor for one's life;
(b) The ongoing nastiness and unhappiness in that situation, a long history of it so that it is too diffcult to start fresh: "harsh truth for history to mellow";
(c) But sticking with it for the status quo and for appearance's sake: "loyalties and obligations"
(d) Being concerned or worried of the consequences should one make a move, therefore surrendering to the powers that be, pulling one's ears and tail in: "Obedience the better fellow";
(d) Surrounding one's self in a cold shell so as not to feel and therefore not to hurt: "Fierce winter fails to ruffle my icy sleep";
(e) The nasty and often ugly feelings in family situations: "Bad blood running in close families";
(f) The holiday season accentuating the negatives in the family: "Christmas was my favourite holiday" (The Christmas season brings home the harsh reality of
the lack of loved ones or unhappy family situations);
(g) Consoling one's self that others are unhappy in their families and being stuck, whether self or other imposed: "I am not alone in seeing the world through wicked windows";
(h) And the saga continues elsewhere, in one's own descendents, as well as elsewhere: "Same bad blood running in new families".
* Mary

I've noticed that the two analyses of "Wicked Windows" from j-tull dot com (as do the general overviews of the album in "A New Day") tend to assume that Ian is singing about himself. The quote from the promo CD suggests just the opposite. Once again Ian Anderson is very effectively demonstrating his ability to empathize with characters quite different from himself (such as the British soldier of "Mountain Men") and often unsympathetic by today's standards (as in "The Whaler's Dues") - in this case, and as Ian himself states, "one of history's all-time worst."
The lyrics suggest this is a military figure, an old soldier, an aged general perhaps, most explicitly in the line, "We never quite vanish", as in the saying "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away." Such a narrator would also explain the scornful "No wet soft surrender". The first few lines seem to me to be just an extended lyrical description of glasses (spectacles).
The lines "Now and then: memories of men who loved me. No stolen kiss - could match their march on hot coals for me" suggest to me a characterization of career military men whereby "male bonding" (to use a horrible contemporary term) and shared experience of soldiering is more valued than, say, romantic relationships with women. (For a study of more sinister versions of this attitude, see Klaus Theweleit's "Male Fantasies," a hefty study of proto-Nazi pre-Third Reich military literature and autobiography.)
I think this approach to the song makes the rest of the lyrics fairly clear - all that stuff about obligation and loyalty, and the desire for some degree of sympathy on the part of the narrator ("Christmas was my favorite holiday").

As to the identity of this villain, which Ian asks us to guess, I have no idea (though Himmler seems as good a guess as any). Since many Tull songs seem to focus on events contemporary with a song's writing (like all of "A"), I have to ask if Pinochet wears glasses. (Personally, if it weren't for all the military stuff in the song, I'd really like it to be Ian's take on John le Carre's George Smiley - Ian Anderson reads le Carre and likes spy stuff, after all. But I strongly suspect it's not.)
* Mark Best


Hunt By Numbers

This song is about Ian's cats. In the lyrics the moment is described when the cats are about to go out for their nightly hunting. The dark, almost brooding music evokes a threatening athmosphere. For information about Ian's hobby of breeding Bengal cats, see this illustrated interview.
* Jan Voorbij

Hot Mango Flush

Several people have noted the lyrics to "Hot Mango Flush" appear to have little rhyme or reason. Let me suggest this possible interpretation. There is a slightly Caribbean feel to some of the music. Both Martin and Ian spent several holidays in the Caribbean. That being the case the lyrics seem to suggest just an assortment of images, aromas, people as seen by Ian Anderson at some crowded outdoor market in a small tropical harbour town ("wood smoke, old fish, diesel harbour"), where locals and tourists fill the small streets and look for things they fancy ("The crowd moves like a flock of starlings"). The tropical heat, the colours, the constant moving of the crowd, the variety of aromas and the noise makes one think that "Down at the market all the world seems to simmer". These people all seem to be in a kind of holiday mood: "everybody's happy about something". The "ice cream hair" in the second verseline is a hairstyle from the 50's recently brought to life again in Florida and the Caribbean.

The absurdity of the lyrics may simply reflect the absurdity of what he saw. (Indeed, it need not be Caribbean. Take a look at just about any location where large numbers of people congregate and, with the right eye, one can see lots of strange images). Ian has used this technique of 'piling up' his impressions before in the lyrics of 'Mother Goose' from the Aqualung album. Both songs are so to say a 'painting in words'.

When it comes to the song title, I suppose "Hot Mango Flush" stands for the mix of all impressions on a tropical day in a Caribbean harbour town: the movements of the crowd and the mood(s) they are in, the multitude of sounds, colours and aromas, the simmering heat: it's all like a flush, really. An overwhelming experience. I think the retake, Mango Surprise, is a musical expression of this total of IMpressions.

The music was composed by Martin after Ian had written the lyrics as he simply did not quite figure out what to do with it.
* RB (USA), Jan Voorbij, Ivory Rodriguez

"Jive on the jukebox - Jack and Joker
split the night air with whoop and holler".
When heading to various tropical locales, on thing I have noticed is that, no matter how remote the locale, two songs are in the jukebox. The Rolling Stone's 'Jumping JACK Flash' and The Steve Miller Band's 'The JOKER'. These are 'standards' in a lot of bars and areas south of the border and in the island countries. Since these songs are 'old school' rock and roll (era early 70's) much of this is referred to as jive.
So, conceivably IA could be referring to the jukebox selection in the island locale, with the patrons drunk and yelling/singing along with these well known classics (as is pretty common in these situations).
* Rantz Hoseley

El Nino

Originally the name El Nino was used for the warm current in the Pacific near Ecuador and Peru, that arises around Christmas. El Nino is Spanish for 'little boy', in this case the "Christ-child". Today the name is only used for the years that the waters of the ocean are warmer than normal.
El Nino is like a season that comes at irregular intervals, mostly every four years, and stays for an unspecified period of time ("Bathing in uncertainty, another age seems to wing from T.V. screens in weather rage"). El Nino brings certain expected changes in climate and weather patterns. These changes, which begin in the tropical Pacific Ocean, have come to define El Nino. During an El Nino, the normally gusty trade winds along the equator in the Pacific fade ("Trade winds falter as if in dire consequence"). As the winds fade, a huge pool of warm water off the coast of Indonesia begins to flow eastward towards the Americas. This warm water heats and adds moisture to the air above it ("Blood-warm current sends to touch the skies"). This in turn alters storm tracks that blow across the United States and the world ("Cold thrust tongue extends its dark and watery touch"). The climate on large parts of the globe is affected, causing droughts, heavy rains, relative warm winters and several disasters like famine, forest-fires, inundations. Fish and seabirds die or migrate to other areas, causing economical problems ("Freezing fish to fry, fail to materialize"). The "little sister on another day" refers to the lesser known La Nina, considered as the "sister" of El Nino. La Nina features a set of anomalous climate conditions in the tropical Pacific, but with anomalously cool sea surface temperatures, strong east-to-west trade winds, exceptionally heavy rainfall in usually rainy areas near the western Pacific, and very dry weather in usually dry areas near the eastern Pacific. In many ways, the climate anomalies associated with La Nina are opposite those that characterize El Nino.
I think the subject of this song is men's dependence on nature. Implicitely Ian states here, that in spite of all our planning and organizing, our technical know-how, we are submitted to nature's whims that can't be bent to our will ("Wily child in mischief here to make his play"). Last year El Nino was widely covered in the media ("T.V. screens", "a headline feast", "opinion-forming headless beast") and connections were made with environmental pollution ("planet-warming"), esp. the emission of of carbon dioxide.
For more information on this natural phenomenon, maps, satellite photo's, statistics and other research, go to El Nino.Com, or to The El Nino Guide To Information of the World Meteorological Organization; for information on La Nina: La Nina And The Pacific North West.
* Jan Voorbij

Black Mamba


The Black Mamba is one of the most venomous snakes on earth.

The main subject of this song seems to be: temptation and the dangers that are behind it. To be more specific: the seductive thought of picking up a beautiful woman ("Hand in the snake pit - black mamba chase") in the knowledge that in the state of mind that is described ("Dark thoughts of the sleepless - hung out to dry") nothing good can come from this adventure. Hence the death related images in this song, e.g. "head on a plate" and the fear of getting totally absorbed: "Blindfold on the tightrope - whenever you call" ... "fixed stare grip", while in the same time that is exactly what "we" want: "Be my slippery slider, Black Mamba crawl over me". This contradicting emotions call up a tension in this song, which is reinforced by relating pleasure to pain: "Sweet venomous potion, held to my lip" and "Soft strike teasing. Dangerous bliss". Is Ian implicitely saying here, that this venom is not in what we desire, but in the desiring itself?
* Jan Voorbij

Mango Surprise

In fact an instrumental retake, however containing the spoken vocal line "Hot Mango Flush", based on the more Caribbean version of the above track's rhythmical pattern. I think that this retake is in fact a musical expression of this total of IMpressions as experienced and described in 'Hot Mango Flush'. I tend to regard this track as a bit of a musical joke.
* Ivory Rodriguez, Jan Voorbij

Bends Like A Willow

The album contains three beautiful love songs: 'Bends Like A Willow', 'The Dog-ear Years' and 'A Gift Of Roses'. The first two share a common theme: the narrator's relation with his beloved one that stayed intact over the years, in spite of his shortcomings ("my unfathomable failings"). Please note that these songs, as well as 'Wicked Windows', are about reflecting on one's life, which tends to happen more frequently when aging. They mirror his reminiscing, his self-reproach and bitterness, his feelings of tenderness and gratitude.

This tender song is an ode to the narrator's wife, who has been supporting him for a very long time with her love and warm attention. In this way she helps him to escape from his isolation, imprisoned as he is within himself ("I'm swept in the riptide, caught in a fish trap. Gift-wrapped in my soft self centre"), in his anger and bitterness ("When I'm caustic and cold"), his cynicism and the depressive state of mind he is in ("Summer sun leaves me as one who can only taste winter"), unable to break out all by himself. Not only does this woman have the strength to last, she also has the strength to help him grow:
"fill me up from the cup of love that's she drinking.
And I find, given time, I can bend like a willow".

She knows him all too well ("reading me clearly") and how to anticipate his dark feelings ("It's a sensitive passage she's sailing"), making room when he needs it ("Empty nest left pressed in the pillow. She can swift, she can sway and bend like a willow").
In the knowledge that she will not break - since she knows when to bend - he realizes how dear she is to him and it puts him in a grateful mood:
"She's a good, a good God-send: she can bend like a willow".
Note the Ian Anderson contractionT here: "good God" and "God-send"!

Finally note the imagery that is applied here: the images of shipping and navigation in the first stanza, of warfare in the third (a reference to the turmoil of an over-occupied life?) and of nature/seasons/weather as a red line throughout the whole lyric.
* Jan Voorbij

Far Alaska

This is another song about contradictions: the wish to travel:
"To far Alaska: down to Rio in the Carnival,
Norwegian fjords in the ever-light of Solstice call",
combating a fear of flying:
"A part of me might travel with you
in a freebie bucket seat for one
Business First - at last, forever
Hopeless thoughts of flying fun
Now get me out of here I cry in air rage psycho-doom
I'm only dream-arranging from the safety of my room.
I couldn't say if this song were autobiographical.
* Ian MacFarland

I think that this song is about the ease of modern travel allowing, maybe not the masses, but at least the middle class to achieve the adventures that were only dreamed about a generation ago. But, while the dream is achieved, the experience is blunted by modern accoutrements: "fantasies of foreign fields. Lofty spires all well appointed". The prohibitiveness of the cost of foreign travel is also diminished: "... off season special deals" . Nowhere is too remote to those with and willing to spend the funds: "To far Alaska: down to to Rio... Norwegian fjords."
The relative ease of modern travel is intertwined with an unease for routine air travel: "a freebie bucket seat for one". The uncomfortableness of air travel is also noted on The Dog Ear Years: "stale breath recycled in my face. Rattling through airways....", etc. There is an observation in the song about the recent phenomenon of air rage, which is connected to the massive volume of air travellers.
"Post me cards and tell me nicely Say you wish that I was here". A desire to still cling to the old custom of sending a post card, which is fading. It's to note the accomplishment of arriving at the destination and to remember friends and loved ones. Maybe a hangover from the days when travel abroad was both time consuming, very expensive, and often dangerous. (Note that periodic "post cards" have been posted at the j-tull dot com website during the current tour).
* Bob D.

The Dog-ear Years

Like 'Bends Like a Willow' this is another 'relation song' , once again with references to getting older ("Rusted and ropy. Dog-eared old copy.Vintage and classic, or just plain Jurassic: all words to describe me.") and to a relation that remained intact over the years and is like an anchor in the narrator's life: "Relaxed in the knowledge that happily present are all things to sustain me, nurture and claim me". The second verse might refer to the days of extensive touring, when our narrator is (or was) far away from home for months, missing his wife badly: "Rattling through airways - plastic on cold trays. Watching through windows, deep landscapes below (await) another time and space". The last verselines seem to be a warning not to hang on to old memories just for old times sake, but to go on: "Don't turn back. Don't linger. For God's sake keep moving". Is he addressing himself or us, the listeners?
* Jan Voorbij

A Gift Of Roses

After "Bends Like A Willow" and "The Dog-ear Years", this is the third love song of the album, that seems to be autobiographical. The narrator really looks forward to his home-coming and being reunited with his love. The song has a very festive atmosphere, thanks to Andy Giddings accordeon, calling up associations with cajun music.

The line "Like a Kipling cat I walk alone" is a reference to one of Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories", first published in 1902, titled: "The Cat That Walked By Himself". It also is Ian's own description of himself (at least as far as the creative process of songwriting is concerned: "...... and when the moon gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him. Then he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the Wet Wild Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone".
* Ivory Rodriguez, Jan Voorbij







Jethro Tull - J-Tull Dot Com
Format: CD
Record Label: Papillon Records
Catalogue #: BTFLYCD0001
Year of Release: 1999


A few days back this brand new preview copy of the new Jethro Tull album fell in my mailbox. Although I am very familiar with Tull's music the only 3 albums I own are the "oldies" Thick As A Brick and Aqualung (Who doesn't know these ones ??!!). The most recent Tull album I have is Crest Of A Knave. I think J-tull dot com is the best of both worlds; the progressive sounds of the 70' s albums and the modern rocky sounds of the 80's albums. Let's see what Jethro Tull brings us with the new album !

1. 'Spiral' (3:53 min) A heavy rocker that goes straight forward, it's a good opener. As Ian said, 'a song about waking up in the morning and thinking "what the f**k is going on ?"'. It has some nice flute work, but more as effects, playing only the riff. Also a nice b-part with organ and guitar.

2. 'Dot Com' (4:26 min) For the first time since a long time we hear someone others voice on a Tull album! It's Najma Akhtar from India that is singing background vocals in indian style during the verses, but she also sings background in the refrain. The song has a slight eastern style, but all you 'Roots To Branches' haters, don't be afraid, this is a nice popsong with a GREAT refrain. Ian is clearly playing wooden flutes.

3. 'AWOL' (5:21 min) Very nice flute opening with the hookline of the song. Has a good instrumental part and sometimes you already get that nineteenseventies progrock-feeling. Song finishes with a lenghty flute solo and instrumental part. Without doubt my favourite of the album !

4. 'Nothing @ All'(0:56 min) A little instrumental piece by Andrew Giddings.

5. 'Wicked Windows' (4:42 min) This song starts quite with a piano instrumental and the first verse. Bridge and chorus are rocking and there are some great instrumental passages in it. It's one of these Tull pieces that change from hard to soft during the different parts. While I find the slow passages not that interesting, the heavier instrumental parts are great and rocking, nice hookline.

6. 'Hunt By Numbers' (4:00 min) THIS IS IT! Riff rock at it's best! The song starts with a heavy guitar riff that goes trough the whole song, simple but great! This could also be a song by a progressive metal band ... Tull goes Iron maiden (if it was a bit faster)! Has a freaky flute part, that could have been even a bit more freakier ... Surely one of my favourites, but it has no 'typical' Tull sound. Kind of 'evil' feeling song, it's about Ian's cats.

7. 'Hot Mango Flush' (3:51 min) Strange intro, opens with progressive instrumental part, kind of acoustic, but really not quite. Then it goes into a cool guitar riff for the verse. Very nice short acoustic guitar solos and instrumental parts. The refrain is Ian speaking the title, some flute parts are seventies style with keyboards backing the riff. The style of singing the verses reminds me a bit to 'Wounded, Old & Treacherous'. 'hot mango flush' is a Martin Barre composition, at least one of his songs has made it onto a Tull album, unfortunately this is not the best part of the album ..

8. 'El Nino' (4:43 min) Opens in a slight eastern sound with a very dark feeling during the verse and then goes into a heavy guitar riff for the refrain. I don't have the time yet to catch all the lyrics (remember also that I'm not an English speaking person), but I'm pretty sure that the song is about the big storm 'el nino' and, well the music gives exactly that dark feeling that those heavy clouds and the storm is over you.

9. 'Black Mamba' (4:59 min) Nice riff that opens the song and goes through the verses, the end of the bridge has one flute line that remembers me to one Tull song, but I don't know which one at the moment. After several listenings, this song seems to becomes more and more the 'classic' Tull feeling, surely one of my favourites.

10. 'Mango Surprise' (1:16 min) The reprise of 'hot mango flush', a shortie that has Ian singing the title through the whole piece, crazy! Has a slight shuffled mambo feeling!

11. 'Bends Like A Willow' (4:54 min) A nice song, but it gives not that much to me like the other songs, while it has a good instrumental part. One of the weaker tracks which does not mean that it's a bad one! BUT it seems to be one of these songs that you can't quite work with after the first listening, while later you understand it better. The refrain is just beautiful, has also an interesting instrumental part.

12. 'Far Alaska' (4:08 min) Good rocker that opens with a nice flute riff. Verse has an acoustic guitar in it, while the chorus is more heavier, also the refrain and the bridge. The second verse is followed by a great extended instrumental heavy riff rock part with flute in it, as well as keyboard and guitar solos.

13. 'The Dog-Ear years' (3:34 min) I really don't know what to say about this song accept that there is a very nice vocal melody in the verse that is doubled by the guitar.

14. 'A Gift Of Roses' (9:37 min) Finally the Hohner-Akkordeon, played by Andy Giddings made it onto a Tull record! This song has a also some mandolines in it and a slight folky feeling, while it still isn't a quite one, not only because of Martin's great guitar work. Could be one of the newer songs by Fairport Convention, I mean this as a compliment. My CD of 'dot com' has a secret track, a while after the last song 'a gift of roses', Ian is speaking some words about the bonus track, which is the title track from his forthcoming solo work 'The Secret Language Of Birds'! This song is also on the album !

Well, finally, after 4 years waiting, the world will see a new album by one of the world's finest rock bands. As Ian Anderson said, 'it's a boys album', it has very dark and heavy songs like 'hunt by numbers' and 'el nino', but also these melodic riffs that we all love and know. There's a lot of great guitar work and you can clearly hear Martin's influences, if you know his solo works or compare to his 'new' guitar sound. While there's still some 'eastern' feeling in some songs, this is not a follow-up to 'Divinities' and 'Roots To Branches'. When I first heard that an indian woman would sing on the title track, I was a bit sceptical what kind of music that would be. Now I know that it was a good solution, the title track is a fine song that could make it into the charts. It has a unique sound that I never expected from Tull, a melody in the refrain that you don't get out of your head once you hear it (what makes it a 'hit'), but it's not one of these ones you're tired about after several listenings. The album shows where Tull are after more than 30 years: they're still fresh and discovering something new without forgetting their roots. After two weeks it's surely hard to say if this one will be a classic album and there will as much people be disappointed as be positively surprised, but that's what keeps things interesting. Anyway I like the album very much and think that is has been worth waiting that long time. Jethro Tull is Millenium Proof !!

Available worldwide from 23 August 1999 on RoadRunner Records. Thanks to Minke Weeda (RoadRunner Netherlands) for providing the preview copy !

Conclusion: 9 out of 10.
Dirk van den Hout

==================

Jethro Tull - J-Tull Dot Com

Released: 1999
Label: Roadrunner / Fuel 2000 (US)
Cat. No.: FLD 1043 (Fuel)
Total Time: 54:20


Review courtesy John "Bo Bo" Bollenberg, February 2000
Exactly one second. That is really all you need in order to know this concerns the brand-new Jethro Tull album. "Spiral" conjures both the unmistakable flute and voice of Ian Anderson out of your speakers. The new album Dot.com contains no fewer than fourteen new songs that all contain the typical Jethro Tull signature. Together with "old" mate Martin Barre and the new threefold Andrew Giddings, Doane Perry and Jonathan Noyce, Dot.com brings you the "self evident" feeling. The title song Dot.com contains a Celtic vibe resulting in more folk than rock. Nice is the extra voice of Najma Akhtar that gives it an extra exotic flavour. Wonderful flute playing (could we expect anything else?) alternating with brilliant keyboard sounds in "AWOL" even if the intro has been listening to Tubular Bells! One of the favourite recipes in the Jethro household is the heavy riff from Martin Barre, on top of which Anderson balances his flute playing, such as during "Hunt By Numbers." The lifelong friendship between Anderson and Barre also gives Ian the opportunity to step aside when necessary so that Barre can "shine" in his own right, such as during "El nino" where Barre can illustrate his talent on both acoustic and electric guitars.

Even when there are many millions of singers on this planet we can surely call the timbre of Anderson's voice unique and, like the wine, it gets better with age! Whilst the tone of that voice leans heavily towards folk music it is the combination with the omnipresent flute and the professional backing which creates a music as unique as you can get. I'm not a Jethro connoisseur who is able to whistle every tune the band has ever written but I can truly say Dot.com is one of the band's better releases. When you keep the CD playing after you listened to "A Gift Of Roses," you suddenly get to hear Anderson's voice informing us we are one of the few lucky people able to hear a preview of his soon to be released new solo album The Secret Language Of Birds. Mind you, you are not the only "lucky one" as every album has the same message, but it invites you to some "other" work. As long as the flute playing and the voice remain that unique, it remains damn difficult to draw a line between band and solo effort. Both of them are fantastic and prove once again that Jethro Tull is one of the most shining diamonds in the world of progressive rock. Shine on!

More about J-Tull Dot Com:

Track Listing: Spiral (3:50) / Dot Com (4:25) / AWOL (5:19) / Nothing @ All (0:56) / Wicked Windows (4:40) / Hunt By Numbers (4:00) / Hot Mango Flush (3:49) / El Nino (4:40) / Black Mamba (5:00) / Mango Surprise (1:14) / Bends Like A Willow (4:53) / Far Alaska (4:06) / The Dog-Ear Years (3:34) / A Gift of Roses (3:54)

Musicians:
Ian Anderson - flutes, bouzouki, acoustic guitar
Martin Barre - guitars
Andrew Giddings - Hammond organ, piano, accordian, keyboards
Doane Perry - drums and percussion
Jonathan Noyce - bass

Contact:


Website: www.j-tull.com
Note: will open new browser window




Jethro Tull - J-Tull Dot Com

Released: 1999
Label: Fuel 2000 (US) / Roadrunner
Cat. No.: FLD 1043
Total Time: 54:20


Reviewed by: Stephanie Sollow, August 1999
From the opening notes of J-Tull Dot Com, you know that this is Jethro Tull - and not just down to Ian Anderson's trilling flute. That heavy sound that is uniquely Tull (and Tull clones) burst through from the opening track, "Spiral." I was going to postulate that there were at least two themes running through this album, but in thinking about those two themes, and in formulating the paragraphs that would express those thoughts to you, I came across a variety of alternate interpretations. And such is the magic of Jethro Tull...nothing is so cut and dried that you can definitively say, "this song is about this, this is about that." Perhaps the best one can do is give generalities and leave it up to other listeners to form their own conclusions.

So, I won't attempt a lyrical breakdown, won't go song by song and say "this is about that." However, like many artists of late, including Rush (on Test For Echo and Shadow Gallery (Tyranny), our online world has become a topic for a song - here it's "Dot Com" It's not surprising that the view taken is often cynical, certainly Shadow Gallery's was, seeing the whole nature of the Internet being suspect. But here, the beautiful melody and Anderson's understated vocals underlie his cynical view of how we will conduct our interpersonal relations in the (all too near) future. Already those of us who have personal websites are quicker to give that than our names (I myself was once guilty of that). The internet and the World Wide Web have become pervasive in our society - but for the web, this site might not exist.

Nevertheless, in expressing this idea, Anderson and the rest of Tull, have given the track a very romantic feel, as if this could be a tender song about love, about romance found online: the chorus concludes with the line "I'll be yours -- yours, dot com."

In way, as I think, too, about Marillion's own recent "Answering Machine" (Radiation), the whole concept of being even more distant from each other while technology brings is so many more ways to communicate, and communicate more quickly and cheaply, is becoming equally pervasive. Commericals and adds are promoting the idea that person to person realtime communicate still has, and has better, value. So many companies are enabling person to person service calls even through their websites. Perhaps this balance will keep Anderson's (and others') "prophecies" from coming to be.

Okay, that said, what about the song itself? Even if it is thought provoking, is it any good? Yes, because the whole irony of soft, warm tones, romantic imagery against a idealogical backdrop of glass and plastic works.

Anderson does spend some time looking back, without rehashing past glories. This is perhaps most evident on "The Dog-Ear Years," but also appearant on "Wicked Windows." How much of either one is autobiographical is hard to say...I suspect more so in "Dog-Ear" but I'm not going to speculate.

Most of this album is low key, though it does rock in places, not with the same metal-like crunch of say "Brass Monkey" nor as hard rock as on their classic tracks. "Hunt By Numbers" comes close, and is the most like past Tull releases of the last decade or so (I've not given their previous release Roots To Branches enough spins to include that in my assessment).

Perhaps the track that stands out the most sonically is "Hot Mango Flush," one of the two tracks not written by Anderson; here it's Barre, in this almost totally acoustic, sassy little number. Guitar, of course, takes the lead. It seems to me to be so uncharaistic of Jethro Tull...actually, there are times where this made me think of Lou Reed, down to Anderson's mostly spoken delivery. Where most of the album is painted in warm colours, some wet, some dry, this is painted in bright fruit colors...you can almost see Carmen Miranda (is that an archaic reference?).

"El Nino" is a tangoistic, Spanish-styled tune, with a driving, rocking, searing guitar dominated chorus. This is "El Nino" as metaphor for the very thing El Nino represents...that change in weather that we have come to know so well...and maybe also the overhype that things are given...oh, I don't know. I could make a case here I'm sure for many things that Anderson might or might not mean...and even then I might be off the mark.

Jethro Tull this time out is, of course, Ian Anderson, whose flute seems much more up front than I recall, trilling beautfully, resonately; Martin Barre, guitars; Andrew Giddings, a variety of keys; Doane Perry, drums and percussion; and Jonathan Noyce, bass. One of the many, many highlights of this album is Andrew Giddings' with beautiful solo piano piece called "Nothing @ all" (the only other non-Anderson penned tune).

This may not be the best Tull release ever, and only when they've stopped recording can we truly make that assessment, but it is damn good. This is seasoned, measured rock from a band who is way beyond needing filler to flesh out a release...(though I wonder at the short reprise of "Hot Mango Flush" halfway through...well played and playful though it is). The Tull magic is still there and this is a strong contender for my favourite of the year.

This edition of the new album contains a bonus track, that I won't spoil for those who happen upon this same edition, except to say it previews Anderson's new solo release, due to be released next February, and it sounds great]

More about J-Tull Dot Com:

Track Listing: Spiral (3:50) / Dot Com (4:25) / AWOL (5:19) / Nothing @ All (0:56) / Wicked Windows (4:40) / Hunt By Numbers (4:00) / Hot Mango Flush (3:49) / El Nino (4:40) / Black Mamba (5:00) / Mango Surprise (1:14) / Bends Like A Willow (4:53) / Far Alaska (4:06) / The Dog-Ear Years (3:34) / A Gift of Roses (3:54)

Musicians:
Ian Anderson - flutes, bouzouki, acoustic guitar
Martin Barre - guitars
Andrew Giddings - Hammond organ, piano, accordian, keyboards
Doane Perry - drums and percussion
Jonathan Noyce - bass







The Secret Language Of Birds
(bonus track)

This sparkling wine is all but empty.
Too late for trains and no taxis.
I know the feeling. Seems all too contrived,
There was no master-plan, but the fact is:
you must stay with me
and learn the secret language of birds.

A tentative dawn about to be breaking
on a Rousseau garden with monkeys in hiding.
The truth of the matter, yet to be spoken
in words on which everything, everything's riding.
Now stay with me
and learn the secret language of birds.

Circled by swallows
in a world for the weary,
courted by warblers;
wicked and eloquent trilling.

Lie in the stillness, window cracked open.
Extended moments, hours for the taking.
Careless hair on the pillow, a bold brushstroke.
Painted verse with a chorus, a chorus in waiting.
Stay with me
and learn the secret language of birds.



Note: to promote this album Jethro Tull released an EP this month: "It All Trickles Down" in the UK only. The release is limited to 5000 copies only. It also features edited versions of "DotCom" and "Bends Like A Willow". Since it was recorded during the DotCom session I include the lyrics here:

It All Trickles Down

There's a dragon-tail swishing behind tonight.
Poison's rising. I'm up too tight.
I might not be responsible
for the things that I might do.

My tanks are full and my dogs are loose.
Bees in my bonnet. Stew in juice.
Saute-simmer, shallow-fry
when it all trickles down to you.
It all trickles down.
Yes it all trickles down.
Well it all trickles down,
from me to you.

My day was rough, don't care about yours.
I put muddy feet on your polished floor.
A goose to cook, a job that I'm
well qualified to do.
And it all trickles down.
Yes it all trickles down.
Well it all trickles down
from me to you.

Would be the one, would be the tea on toast.
Would be the Son, would be the Holy Ghost.
If this is not believable
then you've just had one too few.

Would be the mad Jack to your Queen of Spades.
A little Mac in your burger trade.
One dead-cert consequence --
it all trickles down to you.
And it all trickles down.
Yes it all trickles down.
Well it all trickles down
from me to you.

There's a dragon-tail swishing behind tonight.
Poison's rising. I'm up too tight.
I might not be responsible
for the things that I might do.

My tanks are full and my dogs are loose.
Bees in my bonnet. Stew in juice.
Saute-simmer, shallow-fry
when it all trickles down to you.
It all trickles down.
Yes it all trickles down.
Well it all trickles down,
from me to you.