01	Roots To Branches						05:12
	02	Rare And Precious Chain						03:34
	03	Out Of The Noise						03:25
	04	This Free Will						04:05
	05	Valley						06:08
	06	Dangerous Veils						05:35
	07	Beside Myself						05:50
	08	Wounded, Old And Treacherous						07:50
	09	At Last Forever						07:55
	10	Stuck In The August Rain						04:06
	11	Another Harry's Bar						06:22

1995

Ian Anderson - Flute, bamboo flutes, vocals, acoustic guitar
Martin Barre - Electric guitar
Doane Perry - Percussion
Dave Peg - Bass guitar
Steve Bailey - Bass guitar
Andrew Giddings - Keyboards

An introduction to "Roots To Branches"

The year 1995 saw the release of one of the best and most innovative albums since "Under Wraps": "Roots To Branches". The album, though sounding familiar being a Tull album, was nothing like the band had ever done before. It is in my opinion the richest and most mature album the band ever released, should be considered already as one of the classics and those who might have considered the "25 year box set" as a farewell present were proven to be wrong: Jethro Tull is still "there". One gets the impression as if all the albums made before were all building stones that eventually led to the conception of this one. In "Roots To Branches" it all comes together: integrated, well-balanced, well-arranged.

The maturity and the "full flavour"of the album is due to several features that interact. First of all it contains 11 songs, all different in mood and tempi, phrasing, melody lines and use of instruments. Jazz-lovers will undoubtedly notice the revisited gentle change-ups that features the early seventies albums. Once again Ian shows his versatility as a musician.
Secondly, a new feature is introduced: most of the songs contain elements derived from the music from the Arab countries. A fine example is the song "Rare And Precious Chain" that tends to be experienced as an Arab song in a rock setting! Not only do these ethnic influences make Jethro Tull sound like they never did before, they also intrigue the listener, thus making this album into a listening adventure. Furthermore: Ian's flute-playing is superb, very intense and creative, perhaps because he trained himself in applying the appropreate fingering while preparing for the "Divinities" album, incited in those days to do so by his daughter Gael who was leaning to play the flute at school. He takes the instrument almost beyond its technical limitations, thus enabling him to express whatever he wants to. The song "Valley" shows us Ian at his best in this respect.
A third important factor for the success of "Roots To Branches" and the subsequent tour is that the musicians really come together as a band. The delicacy and originality that features the way the web of each song is woven displays their professionality. (A studio bassist named Steve Bailey played on most of the tracks. Dave Pegg handled "Out of the Noise", "Dangerous Veils" and "Another Harry's Bar" Ian used a keyboard bass on "This Free Will" and "Rare and Precious Chain". Jonathan joined the band just before the tour started.)
And last but not least: the lyrics to the songs of this album are subtle, warm and phrased beautifully, showing a maturity that equals the music itself. We will investigate this lyrics here below.

The overall mood of the album makes it like Benefit, Heavy Horses, Broadsword, and Rock Island before, one of the so-called "dark albums". Though not as commercial or accessible as most of their earlier albums both the album and the subsequent tours were quite successful.
* Jan Voorbij


Annotations

Roots To Branches

Several songs from the Aqualung album (1971) contain Ian's critique on organised religion, esp. institutions like the Church Of England. In this song Ian focusses on another side-effect of religion: namely, the phenomenon that the original concepts of the great prophets of religion ("roots") are deformed ("branches") and used for other purposes, sometimes even to an extent where they are completely opposing their original ideas:
"Words get written. Words get twisted.
Old meanings move in the drift of time."
To stress this verse, Ian applies the well chosen image of statues weathering over time: "See gentle shadows change the features of the faces cut in unmoving stone".

In the second stanza we see how the "spokesmen" of these religions, the "home-spun fancy weavers and naked half-believers", do not just pass on the original ideas to the believers, but manipulate them, adding their own content and intentions to serve other - often political or economical - purposes.
"True disciples carrying that message
to colour just a little with their personal touch."
This is how fanatism is born and cultivated, leading to intollerance and eventually hate, bloodshed and war:
"Crusades and creeds descend like fiery flakes of snow."
To be more specific: the originally tollerant and mild ideas of Jesus and Mohammed thus eventually led to Crusade and Jihad. Hence the verseline "Bad mouth on a prayer day, hope no one's listening"; in other words: let's hope no one listens to this blasphemous sermons that evoke intollerance.
We should bear in mind that this song was written in December 1994, when war had been raging for over a decade in Yugoslavia; a war in which religion - in combination with ethnic differences - played a very dubious role.

Then, in the last stanza, when Ian focusses on the role of God, his humour is present in the verselines:
"I hope the old man's got his face on.
He'd better be some quick change artist": whether called Jahweh, God or Allah, He'd better quickly adapt to those who call on him and play the part they want Him to, since all these different religions claim Him to be on their side. Is he pittying God for His role here? Or is this stanza an implicit plea for more unified beliefs and tollerance? Or both perhaps?
* Jan Voorbij



Rare And Precious Chain

This song seems to be about love and commitment - and the responsability and understanding that must follow these through. The narrator dedicates it specifically to his loved one, to remind her of their relationship (the "rare and precious chain") and what it means to him. This "rare and precious chain" can only be called true love, because it is both rare and precious to each other's hearts. It is unescapable from, once two souls are binded ("shackled tight...", "...it all comes back to you"), but there are some aspects to consider in a relationship: their own faults and problems that get in the way ("[...] No excuses for the word-weary. No excuses for who I am. [...]"); it is, however, a couple's responsability to overcome these personal barriers, because the value of their love is too great ("It's a rare and precious chain. Around your neck I place it, place it once again."), which brings us to the beginning: understanding and warm tenderness. The song's atmosphere seems to reflect these factors, and it is really effective for that matter. The "forgotten rooms, dark catacombs" that the lyrics mention are, in my opinion, one's personal ghosts and inner troubled traumas - almost forgotten, but that surface every now and then. It is a couple's responsibilty to help each other overcome these problems, for "they all come back" to them. The verse/chorus tone variation seems to talk exactly about this: how these exterior problems tend to infiltrate on their own little world, and they sometimes fight over it ("No engagement rules, to leave you forsaken."), but cannot stop being who they are; they must accept it, for the sake of their love ("No excuses for who I am"). The "Rare and Precious Chain" seems to be an allegory: usually, gifts like rings and necklaces are offered between lovers, when they want to physically mark their love with earthly symbols. So, in a way, Ian tries to connect these symbols of promises and deep yearnings, with the feeling itself.
* Alberto Ferreira

Ian's been known to pen a 'kinky' lyric now and then -- e.g. that little ditty about a whip-bearing Hunting Girl -- and Rare And Precious Chain can certainly be read the same way. The references to chains, red lights, tiny beads of sweat, diamond chokers, forgotten rooms and black catacombs, the pervasive imagery of binding and shackling, mingled with a sweet sort of pain ("love's bite"), topped off by the defiant "no excuses for who I am", all point rather strongly to an S&M subtext.
* Steven Sullivan


Out Of The Noise

A humorous song about the struggle for life of a dog in the city, as Ian explained on stage: "This is a piece of music about a little dog running across the road and not being run over by a very large truck. I was in a good mood the day I wrote that song. It could have been a different day. I might have written this song so he got ssswwwsssh, but he made it. It was a lucky day for that little dog".
The verseline "Some towns I know, he could end up in a restaurant - wrong side of a table for two" refers to Asian countries were dogs are considered a delicatesse.
As for the meaning of this song -- could it be allegorious for the rat race in modern western society?
* Jan Voorbij


This Free Will

This song seems to deal with free will versus destiny/fate. The narrator runs from time to time into the woman he has been loving ever since they were children: "I know we were children then, but you can almost remember my name". Every time this happens it seems as if it was meant to be: "It's been a long time coming, babe", as if it was inevitable and not at all by coincidence. He is not sure whether this happens by his own choice, or that fate drives him to her: "Shaking my faith in this free will".
* Jan Voorbij


Valley

"Valley", one of the most remarkable and delicate songs of the album, tends to be a reprise of the title track, in the sense that the same subject is considered from a different angle. A working-out, perhaps, of what was stated in "Roots To Branches". It deals once again with intollerance among people who live together and dislike eachother just for being different. It shows where this intollerance eventually leads to.

"Valley" was conceived when war in Bosnia raged in the mid-nineties and reached its peak back then. The media daily covered this war: the hostilities and the burned down villages, people on the run for a safe haven, the speeches of war-mongerers like Karazic and Milosovic etc. A war, that for outsiders was so hard to follow, letalone to understand.

Groups of people who had been getting along reasonably well for decades, got entangled in all kinds of conflicts. Religious and ethnic differences, political and economical interests, nationalism - within villages and cities, even within families - divided people:
"Some bad people living further down the valley,
Not easy for us to do good trade.
We got snowmelt, snowmelt sweet water;
they got that valley road that they made"
and caused the start of a war that in fact had been going on for centuries, tearing the nation apart. In this tense situation it only takes a tiny spark to start a big fire.
Though they are aware of the sufferings, esp. since they know eachother well living so close together ("In the long red, red valley people living here too long "... "people dying here too long"), the hate is passed on from one generation to another and for some reason these groups do not overcome their prejudices regarding 'the others': "In the long red, red valley they only sing the valley song" and ".... they only know the valley song"."Red" might be a reference to the bloodshed.

The absurdity of the situation is masterfully illustrated in the chorus:
"Holding hands on the hillside.
Showing love to your brother -
your sister and your mother -
but we hate those people in the valley."
And then, totally unexpected, the narrator takes us back to the basics. He calls on Moses, the great visionary Hebrew prophet who according to the legend received the Ten Commandments from God, that still are to be considered as a vital fundament of moral values in Western culture:
"Has anybody seen Moses?
Get him off that mountain.
Bring back the tablets of stone",
in other words: let's get back to the 'untwisted words' from the title track, live up to it and do not harm anyone: ".... leave the other man's wife alone". (Note: regarding the context this is no allusion to adultery). Finally, this stanza contains a sneer towards the clergy and their dubious role in this conflict: "It's a wise, wise prophet who keeps his own council". Up to now the Serbian orthodox church still supports Milosovic....
* Jan Voorbij


Dangerous Veils

Considering the overall context of this album, I suppose the subject matter of this beautiful rock song is distrust between people from different cultures, that so easily leads to intollerance, making contact and understanding impossible: "Duet impossible to harmonize". The story is placed in the setting of some Middle Eastern country: "Desert candle in a tented space".

Our western narrator watches a veiled belly dancer and is captivated by "those mysterious eyes". At the same time he realises, that making contact with her is simply not done: "Sister, silent to the likes of me", locked in as she is in her religion, culture, environment: "Words and tradition bind her in their spell". Hence the references to Allah and Mohammed in the verselines: "Name of the Father ringing in her head - Thinking over what the Prophet said". Any attempt in that respect would provoke "stiff (or) fierce reaction", him being considered as an infidel, and on top of that: a male person... He remains the ultimate stranger and is detested for HIS background: "..... though you might hate me just the same". The narrator does not get further than paying his respects to her: "I tip my hat to her propriety". Implicitely the songs expresses a feeling of sadness: even if they would have liked to, these people simply could not have reached eachother.
* Jan Voorbij


Beside Myself

In February 1994 Jethro Tull performed for the first time in the Indian cities Bombay, Bangalore and Madras. A year later, in February 1995, Ian spent a fruitful vacation in Goa, India: from these visits he drew the inspiration to write a series of "India-oriented" songs. "Beside Myself" from this album, the instrumental piece "In The Times Of India (Bombay Valentine)" from the Divinities album, "Sanctuary" and "A Better Moon" from The Secret Language Of Birds album. Most of these songs have a sad undertone, giving word and feel to the sometimes horrifying things he saw there.
Apart from that, he discovered the bamboo flute that he applied on these four albums in addition to the standard silver flute and he learned himself the apropreate fingering, thus improving his technique of flute playing which was necessary for being able to play the classical oriented pieces of Divinities.

In an interview Ian explained that he wrote this moving and intense song when he became aware of the enormous contrast between luxurious hotels where he stayed and the horrible situation in which thousands of children have to maintain themselves: "Out in the middle distance, several tragedies are playing". On stage in Tel Aviv (Nov. 12 2000) he explained that the inspiration for this song came from a little girl - eight years old - working at a place down Falkland Street in Bombay "where anything goes, anything your heart desires or your lower body craves like a little girl, a little boy, old hag, old man, donkey, sheep or goat". ( This subject reoccurs in "Sanctuary" on "The Secret Language Of Birs", Anderson's third solo album).

No one seems to care about these children ("Cities like these have no shame"). To survive they have but a few options, "messing down in the streets ....": theft, ("I saw you taking money in the shadows - in the shadows by the stations there"), prostitution (see "Sanctuary") or toiling in all kinds of sweat shops ("that work paint..."). His observations bring about mixed feelings. On one hand it puzzles him, makes him feel shocked and depressed: "I'm beside myself" (...) "Between the guilt and charity - I feel the wimp inside of me" and he realises that this misery is endless: "still more tragedies are playing". On the other hand he experiences deep sympathy for these children's ability to maintain themselves: "I'm so proud of you - Swimming up from the deep blue" and wishes them the future every child should be entitled to: "I'll wish you up a silver train to carry you to school, bring you home again".
* Jan Voorbij


Wounded, Old And Treacherous

"There was a time when love was the law.
There was a time for the tooth and the claw."
There are a couple of echoes in these lines: the idea of Nature being 'red in tooth and claw' comes from the poet Tennyson:

Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,
Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies,
Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,

Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law --
Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek'd against his creed --

('In Memoriam A.H.A.' section LVI)

Lines 6 and 7, above, would seem to be the direct source for this lyric. There is however another possibility: one of the main credos of Aleister Crowley's occult school is as follows:
Love is the law, love under will.
* Andy Jackson



At Last, Forever

This delicate song is about dying before ones domestic partner, a last goodbye. Our narrator assures his love that the approaching death cannot make an end to the bond between them: "Not in this lifetime, babe, but we'll cling together: some kind of heaven written in your face" and that he will stay close to her: "I'm not intending to go far away. I'm just slipping through to the back room, I'll leave you messages almost every day".
* Jan Voorbij


Stuck In The August Rain

Looking at the content of this love song, there is a strong resemblance with "Bends Like A Willow" from the J-TullDot Com album. The narrator is home and finally able to spend time with his loved one ("The cover's on, the coast is clear. We're all battened down, only us here"), but cannot get rid of his feelings of gloom, the state of mild depression he finds himself in ("But I'm still stuck in the August rain; stuck out in the cloudburst once again" and "Single-minded in my gloom. I appear to revel in this darkened room"). She however knows how to deal with the situation: "She walks between the lines and she can read my signs".

I suppose there is an autobiographical element in these two songs. Imagine coming home after months of a hectic life on the road, touring and performing and being responsible for everything concerning the band: it might take some time then before one regains the peace of mind that is needed to open up. After all: do we not all feel the same after a long period of very hard work?
* Jan Voorbij



Another Harry's Bar

"Now when Harry was a young man,
Harry was so debonair.
He walked a bouncy step in his shiny shoes.
And when Harry was a young man, well,
Harry could walk on air.
He mixed a mean cocktail
and he talked you through the late news.
You want to hear some great news?
Harry's still here."
In the quote above, "Harry" is Anderson's muse, that young brash naive spirit that took on the Anglican church at twenty-four. To every critic and disillusioned former fan who ever said that he hasn't written anything great since his early thirties, or that he's gone soft, the fifty-two-year-old Anderson is saying, "I've still got it."
* Ian MacFarland




* Note: According to Greg Russo there were five more tracks recorded for "Roots To Branches", that didn't make it to the album.(G. Russo: "Flying Colours, the Jethro Tull reference manual", Floral Park, NY, 2000 ; p. 167, 256)




c Jan Voorbij / 1998-2002

Last modified: December 23 - 2000



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


Roots to Branches
Date of Release Sep 12, 1995

AMG EXPERT REVIEW: The latest Tull studio album has its good moments, mostly shadows of earlier work. All of the songs here have more of a mood of urgency than some of Tull's other recent albums, and a few even have memorable melodies - the title tune, "At Last, Forever" (which sounds like a Thick as a Brick outtake), "Rare and Precious Chain," "Dangerous Veils," and "Valley," which recall the best moments of Ian Anderson's mid-1970's work. There are also attempts to revive the band's one-time fixation on jazz influences (the opening of "Wounded, Old and Treacherous"), although this sort of thing came off better on This Was. Anderson's flute occasionally takes flight, Martin Barre's guitar still wails on the breaks, and Doane Perry (drums), Dave Pegg (bass) and Steve Bailey (bass) make up a decent rhythm section. Not nearly as strong as Catfish Rising, but better than anything else since Heavy Horses. - Bruce Eder

1. Roots to Branches (Anderson) - 5:12
2. Rare and Precious Chain (Anderson) - 3:34
3. Out of the Noise (Anderson) - 3:24
4. This Free Will (Anderson) - 4:04
5. Valley (Anderson) - 6:08
6. Dangerous Veils (Anderson) - 5:33
7. Beside Myself (Anderson) - 5:49
8. Wounded, Old and Treacherous (Anderson) - 7:50
9. At Last, Forever (Anderson) - 7:55
10. Stuck in the August Rain (Anderson) - 4:06
11. Another Harry's Bar (Anderson) - 6:22


Ian Anderson - Guitar (Acoustic), Flute, Composer, Vocals, Flute (Wood), Producer, Engineer, Bamboo Flute
Dave Pegg - Guitar (Bass)
Martin Barre - Guitar (Electric)
Steve Bailey - Guitar (Bass)
Chris Blair - Mastering, Production Mastering
Andy Giddings - Keyboards, Engineer
Doane Perry - Drums

1995 Chrysalis 6109
1995 CD Chrysalis 6109
1995 CD Capitol 35418
1995 CD Capitol 35418
1995 CS Capitol 35418


Member: їSheriffJohnBrown?
Date: 12/10/2004
Format: CD (Album)

In 1995, Jethro Tull released their last quality original album. Here we witness their sound coming full circle from their blues days, to their prog-folk period, through the Celtic period, the electronic period, coming back to blues (Catfish Rising) and going back to prog-folk on Roots to Branches.

The title track is killer---it features the most advanced flute playing we have ever heard from Ian Anderson, the bulk of the music being written around catchy flute lines and melodies. The song starts with a hard guitar sound from Martin Barrй, characteristic of Tull's "Steel Monkey" days. The song quickly progresses into some of the catchy melodies and lyrics Tull is known for. It's actually sort of the "Farm on the Freeway" of the record. From there the music moves on to the elegant "Rare and Precious Chain", an extremely catchy tune with a Celtic ring. "Out of the Noise" is a song whose ridiculousness takes a while to get used to---it's about a stray dog---it's just so stupid you wonder if they're serious or not. Once you warm up to it, the music is great.

"This Free Will" is another great song, featuring excellent melodies (centered around Anderson's fantastic flutemanship) and as usual great playing from Barrй. Also, you will have begun to notice Tull replacement members Doane Perry on skins and Dave Pegg on bass. The fourth generation Tull rhythm section really holds its own weight, and in all respects, much of the band's weight.

"Valley" preserves the pattern of great songs so far, being perhaps the greatest tune of the record. Here we are greeted with one of Anderson's long-missed acoustic arrangements that colored albums like Minstrel in the Gallery and Aqualung, that we have not seen since Heavy Horses in 1978. This record gives a good dose of these arrangements, as well as the trademark Tull irreverence that pops up now and then (just about every track) and lots of great flute. This is also characterized on "Dangerous Veils" as well, another great song.

Another great Anderson acoustic awaits us on "Beside Myself" where Anderson reflects on world poverty. We can also hear Andrew Giddings on piano in the background. Through the rest of the record, it's like he's not there at all, except to provide cheesy background noises.

"Wounded, Old, and Treacherous" has that Dire Straits feel that characterized "She Said She Was a Dancer" and "Budapest" on 1987's Crest of a Knave. It also contains some tasteful flute instrumental sections (really dig that flute!). Another Anderson acoustic comes your way on "At Last, Forever", which has a Minstrel feel to it---though it doesn't quite settle into that groove.

The last two tracks sound painfully like filler and are songs I personally don't care for.

As far as the production, this is the worst I've ever heard from Abbey Road studios. The rhythm section that plays so well is almost muted out from the mix---like it's washed out. The drums are over-compressed, making for a cheesy, fabricated 80's sound in the mid 90's. The bass has a terrible sound and is way too low in the mix. The keys are distractingly cheesy. The mids are too low and the highs are too high. The low-end is virtually non-existent. But...

...the music is great. Every Tull fan should own this album. It may be hard to find because it is out of print, but it can be found at used record stores.

8/10