AS Škrba once said, „if you should not have a complete Jethro, then I don't know who'd be _allowed_ to have it“. Because I have always been a staunch jethroer, I simply love complicated and off kilter music, and Ian Anderson made that from square almost one.
For me it began, actually, with „Aqualung“, which I borrowed from Pop, and „Ponoćni rok“ (midnight rock) where Sloba Konj(ović, konj being a horse) played it whole, and soon after the „Thick as a brick“ (should be prick, as english language doesn't have a kurac*), and continued by Rudolf sending it to me and next the „Passion“ to Veca and Sneca, then me bying „Aqualang“ and „Benefit“ in february 1976 when I visited him, then with my gradual cooling off of it in the eighties and later, counting on maybe getting used to the change of style later and... eventually no, the last album I wished to keep is something from 1995. And just a couple of songs from it, the rest of it simply isn't him anymore.
Though Ian was definititely among the craziest on that scene in those first years, he never devastated a hotel room, didn't take drugs, didn't chase groupies, he was simply a serious man with rich imagination and insane ideas, which he put to work just as seriously. Of private follies he had motorbikes, horses and a few beers, nothing horrible. The trouble is that it ran fine all the time - if Jethro could fill stadiums for almost forty years, it doesn't translate into astronomic sales of new albums, which means just that the band could make a decent living and finance further work indefinitely. Unfortunately, the work somehow includes writing new songs, which is where he ran out of things to say long ago, and out of voice too, it broke at some time in eighties, when he overforced it during a tour.
Back to the first sentence - should I have a complete Jethro? Perhaps I should be allowed to have it, but I don't need all of it anymore. When I decided in mid 2024 that the number of hours left to me for listening to music is finite and almost countable, I went on purging the playlist with a somewhat different method. Lots of songs which were previously labeled as „ummm... doesn't get into my ear yet, but maybe on seventh listening“ were beyond that seventh listening and still didn't get in, so adieu, no eighth chance, these are my ears, there's no justice, just my remaining time, g'bye, you're off my disk.
Where the whole opus of Jethro Tull since about 1996 until today fell victim of the purge, and since eighties it's sporadic, I'd keep two or three songs from an album, or none in some cases (v. 19-VIII-2024.). Of older stuff, I guess most stays as long as I do.
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* word meaning primarily and unambiguosly a penis, but in native language, not latin, and not being a word with some other primary meaning, doing double job
13-I-2025 - 12-III-2026