After numerous requests I have finnaly put together the complete Mark Goodman/Ian Anderson interview from Music Television 1982 . This from a 32 yr old 1st generation VHS. Only a few short segmants ever aired.
Fantastic interview. A young Mark Goodman shows how it’s done. He really did his homework to create a very interesting interview with intellectual Ian Anderson. He is not your typical rock and roller. Very refreshing.
and yet he doesn't know what a slipstream is or the definition of an aqualung lol IA uses words from a language that an interviewer should familiarize himself before looking like an idiot at an interview. Same with previous albums and band members.
Mark Goodman did an excellent job. He'd really done his homework, knew his subject and asked interesting questions - and he responded to Ian's replies intelligently. He allowed him to talk about his work in detail. Its so interesting to listen to a guy who's music I've enjoyed for 40 years. I don't think it would be possible to have a long and rambling interview like this on MTV or another music channel today.
I've met him twice, once on stage on the Rubbing Elbows tour, both times very brief, but I had the sense he was very precise and demanding and the resulting musicianship and breath of work is incredible, Been a big TULL fan since since 1969, too many concert shirts in the closet to count, and in my opinion you are the finest drummer the band has had the privilege to play with.
It's amazing(ly sad) how much MTV has changed. This was when MTV was still a baby -- a baby who cared _a lot_ about music. I remember seeing the occasional interview like this. The VJs clearly were music fans. Those days are long gone. 😔
Peter Jackson removed 3 chapters of Fellowship of tge Ring, 1. The Old Forest, 2. Tom Bombadil 3. Fog on the Borrow Downs, Peter said those chapters were irrelevant from the journey of the ring
I saw Jethro Tull seven times before the end of '79. I was and am a huge fan. He's about the music, plain and simple. Music over lyrics over sexdrugsrockandroll. His arrangements are superb. You can hear everyone from Brahms to Metallica in his work.
@@SouthCircinus So Tull a huge influence on Iron Maiden, Maiden a huge influence on Metallica. I hear Tull type breaks and riffs in Metallica’s attempt at music.
Ian never had a better, or more musically sympathetic, set of supporting musicians, than the band members he had between 1969-79. Which is why that period was, in my opinion, the best in Tull's recording career.
Great stuff! I have to wonder how much of this kind of thing in laying around in vaults somewhere, never having seen the light of day, while much of MTV's garbage in still in circulation. What a shame. Thanks for posting this interview. Ian is a genius and a true artist. A dying breed. Broadsword is a fantastic album as well. Cheerio!
Interesting comments about his son: “I’d be worried if he wanted to become a musician”. Whoops! James is now a musician (often found drumming for his dad).
Awesome interview. I couldn't help but notice Mark Goodman says "We here at MTV have a great stock in video and the future of it..." Yet 30 years later, unless you're awake at 4am, you'd have no idea the M stood for Music.
Yes, Mark Goodman is a really, really shitty interviewer in terms of energy, but he knows his Tull and asks good questions and has good follow up...Ian is a sharp guy.
surfcollector Sorry, but Mark is an OK interviewer, it's just that Ian is full of his own pomposity... and what's with the pipe ? Does he think he's Sherlock Holmes ?
Peter Marshall Your featherweight opinion is a by-product of your myopic view of the world due to being an american, and in part due to your jealousy of those who are your betters, and of course due to your coarse nature and the low-brow company you keep.
ValkyrieShieldmaiden I was born 'down the road' from Ian... I'm not American. My myopia has been surgically-corrected. May be - as you seem to infer - my coarse nature and choosing to keep 'low-brow' company has led me into my 'sitting on a park-bench' and a modern-day 'Aqualung'. But on reflection, based upon listening to this and loads of Ian's later interviews, I'm still left with the opinion that Ian is very talented but decades-on, is crap at giving open interviews.
Such a wonderful interview. I have seen this before but enjoyed it thoroughly again. The whole interview just flows beautifully. A real gem. Thank you.
I love how he is able to formulate complex sentences with total ease, there is absolutely no trouble comprehending what he’s talking about, his points are satisfyingly concise
I saw Tull during the Aqualung tour, never herd of them before, they popped into my life Big time, Stand Up and Benefit appeared and I was along for the ride thru Passion Play. They were quite an influence on a young teen in the early 70's Catching up a bit now, happy they held on to it all! Thanks!
Thank you Tull Tapes. What a gift from the vaults. A real pleasure to consume. Ian amazing, as always and good interviewer. Funny aside....Ian's little eye roll is like no one else......except John Lydon!
Broadsword & Beastie is one of my favorite albums. Actually... I had been in a ... Uh ... Mass media boycott of sorts, in terms of music. I had gotten bored in the mid-1970s (disco), so I went on to different genres. Classical, neo-classical, blues, jazz, various ethnic types... So a friend played the album at a party, and I had a double take. Mid-80s. I sorta discovered Tull late. Story: was playing Songs of the Wood in the car, and Mom and Dad were along. Mom said "That sounds like Ian Anderson." "Yes, it's Jethro Tull." "No! I know that is Ian Anderson!" "Yeeaahss... It's Jethro Tull..." about that time I figured out she knew Ian from PBS appearances, and it was getting funny. Let her argue with me a few rounds before I explained the connection. 😂
"...And The Mouse Police Never Sleeps" is an excellent song and a brilliant album opener to Heavy Horses. It has an unusual rhythm and atmosphere, ominous and tense like something important is about to happen, exactly what you want for an album opener, even though it could easily work on its own in a set. Musicianship is impeccably tight, expressive and melodic. This has been my thesis on why this song is good.
+Stockmuncha IMO, not just "good", but perhaps one of his greatest ever. It's been on my ipod ever since I first loaded it with tunes: the only Tull tune with this distinction. The "hocket" in the rhythm is infectious and great poetry. Perfection.
The last line of my comment was supposed to be deadpan sarcastic :) Believe me, I don't think the song is merely "good", I think it's brilliant! I bought Heavy Horses years ago and its efffect has never dulled since then x
Right?! I NEVER would have guessed. Informed and straight-forward. Nice, gentle, open-ended questions. Sorta rolls along with the conversations. A pro.
Really impressed with Ian Anderston as I'm discovering Jethro, such an incredible artist and musician, and so insightful and clearminded in his interviews. Not many like him.
Ian Anderson is always interesting to hear and Mark Goodman did an excellent job of interviewing; ask the question and let the person answer. Good job, Mark.
Did IA ever get an IQ test. Man, he seems like he could easily be among the quickest people, in any walk of life. Like all geniuses, he may hv had a few non negotiable ways of working and idiosyncracies on the one hand, while on the other he is downright simple and humble!!
Tull was always their own genre, they owned it, unique, immediately identifiable sound like no other. I love their blend of (remember it's the sixties going into the 70's) progressive blues/rock/jazz/ and I don't know what to call the other element they incorporated, don't know if it's proper to say Scot/Celtic, baroque? That other element that defined, the unique blend of strings meet percussion meet a master at his trade flautist. Great stuff. Saw em twice, about 80-81, and " 25 more years of Tull, yeah Ian came on stage (mid 80's sometime SDSU amphitheatre, came out in a wheelchair covered in blankets or something, and then kept out of the wheel chair in classic style, and proceeded. Tull's always a winner
It's classical. Ian had what was known as a classical English education. They grill them with culture, history, "the classics", philosophy. There's a lot of Johan Sebastián Bach in there.
Maybe it’s the pipe that gives him that college professor aire about him but he has a way of looking like he’s thinking “You mere mortal... if you only knew what I know” ... his talent certainly puts mere mortals to shame. I wonder how high his IQ is...and how he got his musical talent. A creative genius that didn’t use a producer ... writing and producing Aqualung himself... amazing...What does he have in common with his audience? Nothing much when you’re a musical genius ...
And not long after this Ian went totally "modern" making videos, cutting his hair, introducing a new sound, then sort of went back to the basics after losing his voice. He's always been a walking contradiction and that's what I've always loved about him, so smart and yet realizes that nothing really makes any sense, just do what you feel is natural and roll the bones.
A local radio morning show dude said he interviewed Ian once and asked him, what does it mean? His response, said with a brig grin, I imagine, "it rhymes "! You guys need to give A Passion Play a listen. That's some of my favorite headphone music to this day.
Just discovered JT music....I know, only took 50 years. Incredible sophistication and originality. Ian is a well spoken gentlemen, very intriguing. Thanks for posting this. Prog rock archetype ???
I wish he had just been left to talk , without questions about rock trends etc . This is the Ian who wrote HEAVY HORSES , with deep respect for the land etc . But he is not singing , but free associating with a sharp mind . Let him talk ...
So funny that I thought Ian Anderson was VERY theatrical, almost Shakespearean. I loved that about Ian Anderson and the Jethro Tull band. It was the music of course, but it was also the spectacle that made it so out of the ordinary. Ian Anderson was the conductor, and in command of his audience as well.
The arrogance of youth! Did he really think he only appealed to the young in the first few rows of the concert halls? Had he looked out when the house lights were up he would have seen every venue stuffed with people of all ages, but mostly his peers. I am just one year older than Ian and have lovingly followed his, and the band's, career since 1969, getting to as many concerts as possible, and I don't think I have a single album missing from the collection. And I know I am far from the only one with a track record like this!
Ahhh, the free old days, when you could light your pipe up on broadcast TV and not get a shower of do-gooder complaints! Unlike today's atmosphere which is less clogged with smoke, but clogged almost to death by health freaks.
Really fascinated by IA --i do think him a genius, musically, & having a somewhat quietly fierce, intimidating persona, impressive intellect Highly Intriguing, rather mesmerizing.,Lovely charming, disarming... like a well loved curmudgeonly(?) "teddy-lion"(bear)...but i can see there just might be some tempests around the tea table as well whenever that "feline" fur is ruffed, the wrong way against the grain etc. Whoa nellie All in all i get that he is for pure art, for love of the performance, but feel he must somehow be a kind of enchanted leprechaun,(?) {perhaps not the right name for it} Rock on!! ~You're not too old to rock n roll, but far too young, imo, to die!.. so that said, please play on!~
Bruno Salvo .. back then men liked to grow beards to look older, but he did look many years beyond his age.. he even looked much older ithan 4 years older when you compare him in ‘74 to how he looked in ‘77 and now 45 years later he is unrecognizable...
After watching this interview a new appreciation for Ian what an articulate country gentlemen a genius composer entertainer should have had a better interviewer to showcase his personna
While its true I can't afford to run around chasing Jethro Tull concerts now in my 40s, I did as a late teen and you can bet I'll do it again when I retire :)
Been a dedicated fan since first listen which was Passion Play. Always bought the new releases sight unseen. I’m thankful for Ian and Jethro Tulls hard work over the years to create my favorite music. Always wished I could meet Ian Anderson.
I grew up with my big brother belting out Jethro Tul in the 70s along with all the great prog rock groups, great interview! But am I alone in thinking that this looks like a Graham Chapman parody? Was Ian Anderson taking the mick a little by being pythonesk?
I think Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd were at school together and once in the same class. I heard that Pink wanted to play with Jethro one time but Jethro didn’t like him.
I was totally prepared to blow off “Vinnie” but that guy did his homework and elicited an interview from Ian Anderson that rewards close listening and repays subsequent viewing.
Ian Anderson is such an attractive man when interviewed like this, unfortunately spoils it all when leaping around playing flute and GURNING. 🤣 The music's great mind you.
I was lucky to see Tull in their early days at Filmore East and Randall's Island. Their first 2 lps were my favs, still listen to them. Ian was a great talent and performer.
The greatest of all is Aqualung. Stand Up and Benefit are all very well, and so is Passion Play and Thick as a Brick, and even The Broadsword and the Beast, when it comes to pop music. But Aqualung is the best ever.
