Jethro Tull - War Child
On October 14, 1974, "Jethro Tull" released their seventh studio album, "War Child".
After two monumental and ambitious concept albums in which a single continuous piece occupied both sides of the record – 1972's masterful "Thick as a Brick" and 1973's complex and theatrical "A Passion Play" – Ian Anderson and his "Jethro Tull" bandmates found themselves under heavy attack from music critics, especially in the British press. The harsh reviews of "A Passion Play" (itself born from the "Château d'Hérouville" recordings in France) led the band to temporarily announce a break from UK touring, but also prompted Anderson to make a sharp artistic U-turn.
Rather than another epic 45-minute work, Ian Anderson decided to return to the format of shorter, tighter and more accessible songs of 3 to 5 minutes on "War Child", some of which were even written with the conscious intention of creating compact songs that could be played on the radio, without sacrificing the sophistication, orchestral arrangements and sharp cynicism that characterize "Jethro Tull".
In fact, "War Child" was originally planned as a multimedia project no less ambitious than its predecessors: a soundtrack for a full-length fantasy-surrealist film, for which Anderson wrote a detailed script. The plot told the story of a young girl who is killed in a car accident and arrives in the afterlife, where she meets bizarre allegorical characters, including God, who is portrayed as a shrewd Scottish hotel manager, and Lucifer, who spins her around. The legendary Monty Python actor, John Cleese, was even recruited as a humor consultant for the script, and the band's financial manager was appointed as director. However, the film studios refused to finance the expensive production, the film project was shelved, and Anderson took the orchestral materials and songs recorded at Morgan Studios in London and distilled them into a ten-song rock album.
The band's lineup on the album, considered by many to be the classic golden age of "Jethro Tull", collaborated alongside Anderson (vocals, flute, acoustic guitar and saxophone) with virtuoso guitarist Martin Barre, keyboardist John Evan, bassist and childhood friend Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond and phenomenal drummer Barriemore Barlow, alongside the brilliant orchestral arrangements of David Palmer (later Dee Palmer), who gave the album a rich symphonic volume with strings and wind instruments.
The album opens with the title song "War Child", which immediately puts you in the cinematic atmosphere of the shelved project with war sound effects and footsteps, before the flute, saxophone and theatrical rhythm take over. It is immediately followed by the rhythmic "Queen and Country" and the charming "Ladies", which showcases "Jethro Tull"s unique combination of acoustic British folk, mandolins and elegant string arrangements.
One of the progressive highlights of the first side is "Back-Door Angels", a piece full of dynamic turns, sharp rhythmic transitions by Barriemore Barlow and heavy riffs by Martin Barre, which proves that even in a five-minute frame the band compresses the musical richness of an entire symphony. The first side is closed with "Sealion", an energetic and sweeping song led by Anderson's saxophone and John Evan's bouncy piano playing.
The second side of the record opens with one of the band's greatest and most beloved classics – "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day". Originally recorded during the 1973 French sessions, the song opens with Anderson's acoustic guitar, accordion, and intimate humming, before opening into a moving folk-rock celebration with a philosophical and ecological message about humanity skating on thin ice.
It's immediately followed by the album's biggest hit in the States – "Bungle in the Jungle". The catchy, groovy song, which combines a rich string arrangement with analogies from the animal world and the human jungle, catapulted the album to No. 2 on the US Billboard chart and became one of the band's most prominent hallmarks on US radio in the 1970s.
Immediately after this radio hit, Anderson delivers the album's deadliest sting: "Only Solitaire". In just a minute and a half of acoustic time, Anderson directly addresses the music critics who killed "A Passion Play" (and especially "Melody Maker" music critic Chris Walsh) and shoots them with sharp arrows for criticizing artists who take risks in the arena from the stands.
The two tracks that close the album – the festive "The Third Hoorah" with its Scottish march and simulated bagpipes, and the powerful "Two Fingers" – close a fascinating historical circle. "Two Fingers" is actually a rich, orchestrated reworking of the song "Lick Your Fingers Clean," originally recorded in 1970 during the sessions for the masterpiece "Aqualung" and then left off the album.
The iconic album cover also has an amusing story: in the composite photograph of Melbourne (Congo), the Australian city is photographed at night in negative color, and the band members, crew members, friends and Anderson's then-wife, Jenny Franks, appear reflected on the image - with the figure of a girl wrapped in the British flag (the "War Child") standing in the center.
Although at the time there were those who saw "War Child" as a lighter album after the prog giants that preceded it, the test of time proves that this is one of the most diverse, enjoyable and polished albums in the "Jethro Tull" catalog - the perfect connecting link between the progressive theatricality of the early 70s and the masterful folk-rock works that would come later in the decade.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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