Jethro Tull "J-Tull Dot Com"

On episode 6 of Past Prime, Matty & Steve gather their
twenty-sided dice and Ren Faire costumes to revisit Jethro Tull's
1999 album slash website advertisement, "J-Tull Dot Com." Nearly
thirty years after "Aqualung" and over a decade after the Heavy
Metal Grammy winning, "Crest of a Knave," Ian Anderson and
company returned with what would become the final Tull studio
album. Our co-hosts try to unpack a band that has been
simultaneously more enduring, more successful and weirder than
any Rock band in music history. Over fifty years, Jethro Tull
released several number one albums, many top ten albums and
outsold Yes and Genesis combined. In search and in honor of the
band's legacy, Matty and Steve try to find some middle-aged
connection with Anderson's "Prog Flute Bangers" from 1999.
Underneath the trill of the woodwind and the flash of Martin
Lancelot (really his middle name) Barre's guitar, they discover a
very literate songwriter, with indisputable vision and craft. As
to what it all means and whether he is sincerely singing about
woodland creatures, fjords and semi-feral cats, however, is
beyond Matty & Steve's comprehension. They discuss whether
any musician has ever "owned" an instrument the way Anderson owns
the flute. They wonder what other bands are most likely to be
played at Renaissance Fairs. Matty confesses that, as a teen, he
assumed Jethro Tull was a man's name and that he was some sort of
rail-riding, hobo genius. Steve, meanwhile was forever saddened
by his experience seeing Tull live in upstate New York in the
early 1990s, in a one eighth full arena. In their middle-aged
search, the hosts find some grace and affection but very little
insight into the meaning of Tull.


To read more about Jethro Tull's "J-Tull Dot Com" check out the
full essay at Past Prime.