While my Aunt Pat had given me “Meet the Beatles” as a youth when it was first released, and my father bought me the Moody Blues’ “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour” after a post office picnic mishap and for my love of the “The Story in Your Eyes” single, the first album that I purchased for myself was Jethro Tull’s “Warchild”. Tull was my favorite rock band in freshman year in high school long before my obsession with Yes, and then Neil Young, took hold. I first saw the band at Madison Square Garden when opening act Livingston Taylor was famously chased off the stage by thrown objects from an impatient Jethro Tull crowd. More recently on the Thick as a Brick 2 tour, Anderson had a young protege handling much of the vocals that evening which left me thinking his voice might have been shot. On this latest “Seven Decades” tour, Anderson snd the band defied expectations and blew me away with an energetic multimedia extravaganza.. Ian Anderson sounded and looked great, bouncing around the Beacon stage like a performer half his age. He was not content with just playing “the hits” (although they did end the show with “Aqualung” and “Locomotive Breathe”) but they did pull out many more obscure tunes from the group’s extraordinary catalog and with numerous flute solos interspersed through the performance. The show started promptly at 8, with an intermission during which the bathroom lines for this nature audience far exceeded the beer lines. Jethro Tull is amazingly on a lengthy tour with Ian Anderson proving, once again, that he is a true original and one of the all time great rock and rollers.

Jethro Tull should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; let’s get them in while they are still around to enjoy the recognition and the ceremony.

Jack-in-the-Green

Rock on!

GQ