Madison Square Garden. Una delle più grandi arene del mondo, ospite d’innumerevoli eventi: è la sede dei New York Knicks nel basket, ha visto combattere Joe Frazier e Muhammad Alì, ha goduto delle esibizioni di Frank Sinatra e dei Led Zeppelin.
Il 14 ottobre del 1978, però, è stata l'arena che ha visto l'esecuzione di uno dei migliori concerti della Storia della musica Rock. Quel giorno sbarca a New York una band inglese, che aveva conosciuto il successo mondiale con gli album "Aqualung" e "Thick As A Brick", che dopo "A Passion Play" aveva rischiato il fallimento e che finalmente si era rimessa in corsa con album d'ottimo livello come "Songs Of The Wood" e "Heavy Horses". Sto parlando del gruppo inglese dei Jethro Tull e che quel giorno d'ottobre del 1978 stava per entrare nell'Eternità.
Il sestetto inglese è formato in quest’occasione dal leader Ian Anderson, dal prode scudiero Martin Barre alla chitarra, il "polipo" Barriemore Barlow alla batteria, il duo magico alle tastiere David Palmer e John Evans e da Tony Williams al basso (in sostituzione di John Glascock, alle prese con problemi di saluto che lo porteranno, purtroppo, al decesso nell'anno successivo).
Il concerto è trasmesso, per la prima volta, in diretta mondiale transoceanica. Sembra inutile sottolineare l'impegno profuso dal gruppo britannico, ma è sempre un'ottima occasione ricordare la bellezza delle musiche e dei testi che i Jethro Tull sono in grado di creare, capitanati dal carismatico Ian Anderson in primis, ma senza dimenticare l'apporto fondamentale degli altri membri.
La scaletta contiene i classici pezzi della discografia dei Tull, in quest’occasione influenzata soprattutto dagli ultimi due album, ossia "Heavy Horses" e "Songs From The Wood" (entrambi del 1978 e che con "Stormwatch” dell'anno successivo, formeranno la cosidetta trilogia folk del gruppo).
Simpatiche musichette aprono il concerto, quando prende la scena la graffiante chitarra di Barre e il riff di "Sweet Dream", canzone "sognante" ed evocativa, che risente del sound duro e blues dei primi anni '70 del gruppo.
Robert Burns e la sua poesia "Ode To A Mouse" (Ode a un topo) sono le fonti ispiratrici del primo pezzo folk della serata: "One Brown Mouse". La terza canzone fa ancora parte dello stesso album e si tratta di un classico del gruppo, di una di quelle canzoni d'antologia che fanno comprendere la grandezza di tali artisti: "Heavy Horses", l'elogio ai cavalli da lavoro in un'epoca dominata sempre di più dalle macchine. Anche qui è ancora Martin Barre ad aprire le danze e la canzone presenta tratti malinconici e cambi di velocità mozzafiato.
La vera diretta, però, comincia ora. Questa era solo un’anteprima (tanto per riscaldare il pubblico). Perché ogni concerto dei Jethro Tull non è tale senza il loro capolavoro assoluto e non parlo di "Aqualung", parlo di una canzone che inizia con un leggero motivo di chitarra acustica, che parla di un bambino prodigio che vince un premio letterario. Parlo, ovviamente, di "Thick As A Brick", la celeberrima suite, dalla quale sono estratti i pezzi salienti riuniti in una magistrale versione ridotta, tra cavalcate rock e intermezzi folk. Delirio puro.
Così come con "No Lullaby", altra traccia di "Heavy Horses" di origini scozzesi. E finalmente il palcoscenico è tutto per Ian Anderson è il suo Flauto Magico, in un assolo che entrato nell'immaginario collettivo della figura dei Jethro Tull. Chi non s’ipnotizza ascoltando i richiami classicheggianti (Bach) o le melodie popolari del Pifferaio di Dunfermline?
A questo punto il concerto è lanciatissimo, come meglio non ci si poteva aspettare: è un successo assoluto. E allora i Tull possono giocare con le canzoni, suonando una versione alla rovescia di "Songs From The Woods" (prima la musica, eppoi la versione cantata a quattro voci), nella quale Barriemore Barlow si improvvisa anche flautista!
I fan, però, aspettano ancora il "pezzo" per antonomasia dei Jethro Tull e allora il tempo di presentare i magnifici sei che parte il "Quatrain", la marcetta musicale interrotta dal riff storico di Barre: è il tempo di "Aqualung" e di raccontare la storia di un senzatetto. Capolavoro assoluto e Barre ci regala un ottimo assolo.
La band abbandona il palco, ma ci accorgiamo che è solo una finta quando ascoltiamo il pianoforte di John Evans. Il fischio del capostazione, la chitarra di Barre che spadroneggia con Evans, le percussioni di Barlow che sfociano nel riff di "Locomotive Breath"! Che emozione, che gioia! È meraviglioso raccontare in questo modo lo scorrere della vita, sfruttando l'analogia di un treno senza freni e con queste note. L'assolo di flauto di Anderson raggiugne picchi di complessità inimmaginabili. Versione, inoltre, estesa con l'esecuzione della "Dumbuster March" e da un fenomenale assolo di batteria di Barrimore Barlow (John Bonham dirà di lui: "È il miglior batterista della storia del Rock").
C'è anche il tempo per la nostalgica "To Old To Rock 'N' Roll, To Young To Die", manifesto di una generazione che non sa più quale sia il suo scopo, e per una versione unita di "My God" e "Cross Eyed Mary". Superbi Tull.
Riassumendo, come definire se non fantastico un concerto dove c'è Ian Anderson che spadroneggia con il flauto traverso, dove c'è Martin Barre più in forma che mai, dove ci sono due persone come David Palmer e John Evans che creano atmosfere affascinanti e dove c'è una sezione ritmica portata avanti da Barriemore Barlow e Tony Williams.
Grazie, Jethro Tull
Elenco tracce e testi
01 Sweet Dream (06:52)
You'll hear me calling in your sweet dream
Can't hear your daddy's warning cry
You're going back to be all the things you want to be
While in sweet dreams you softly sigh
You hear my voice is calling
To be mine again
Live the rest of your life in a day
Get out and get what you can
While your mummy's at home a-sleeping
No time to understand
'Cause they lost what they thought they were keeping
No one can see us in your sweet dream
Don't hear you leave to start the car
All wrapped up tightly in the coat you borrowed from me,
Your place of resting is not far
You hear my voice is calling
To be mine again
Live the rest of your life in a day
Get out and get what you can
While your mummy's at home a-sleeping
No time to understand
'Cause they lost what they thought they were keeping
Get out and get what you can
While your mummy's at home a-sleeping
No time to understand
'Cause they lost what they thought they were keeping
03 Heavy Horses (07:22)
Iron-clad feather-feet pounding the dust
An October's day, towards evening
Sweat embossed veins standing proud to the plough
Salt on a deep chest seasoning
Last of the line at an honest day's toil
Turning the deep sod under
Flint at the fetlock, chasing the bone
Flies at the nostrils plunder.
The Suffolk, the Clydesdale, the Percheron vie
with the Shire on his feathers floating
Hauling soft timber into the dusk
to bed on a warm straw coating.
Heavy Horses, move the land under me
Behind the plough gliding --- slipping and sliding free
Now you're down to the few
And there's no work to do
The tractor's on its way.
Let me find you a filly for your proud stallion seed
to keep the old line going.
And we'll stand you abreast at the back of the wood
behind the young trees growing
To hide you from eyes that mock at your girth,
and your eighteen hands at the shoulder
And one day when the oil barons have all dripped dry
and the nights are seen to draw colder
They'll beg for your strength, your gentle power
your noble grace and your bearing
And you'll strain once again to the sound of the gulls
in the wake of the deep plough, sharing.
Standing like tanks on the brow of the hill
Up into the cold wind facing
In stiff battle harness, chained to the world
Against the low sun racing
Bring me a wheel of oaken wood
A rein of polished leather
A Heavy Horse and a tumbling sky
Brewing heavy weather.
Bring a song for the evening
Clean brass to flash the dawn
across these acres glistening
like dew on a carpet lawn
In these dark towns folk lie sleeping
as the heavy horses thunder by
to wake the dying city
with the living horseman's cry
At once the old hands quicken ---
bring pick and wisp and curry comb ---
thrill to the sound of all
the heavy horses coming home.
04 Thick as a Brick (11:23)
Thick As A Brick
Really don't mind if you sit this one out.
My words but a whisper -- your deafness a SHOUT.
I may make you feel but I can't make you think.
Your sperm's in the gutter -- your love's in the sink.
So you ride yourselves over the fields and
you make all your animal deals and
your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.
And the sand-castle virtues are all swept away in
the tidal destruction
the moral melee.
The elastic retreat rings the close of play
as the last wave uncovers the newfangled way.
But your new shoes are worn at the heels and
your suntan does rapidly peel and
your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.
And the love that I feel is so far away:
I'm a bad dream that I just had today -- and you
shake your head and
say it's a shame.
Spin me back down the years and the days of my youth.
Draw the lace and black curtains and shut out the whole truth.
Spin me down the long ages: let them sing the song.
See there! A son is born -- and we pronounce him fit to fight.
There are black-heads on his shoulders, and he pees himself in the night.
We'll
make a man of him
put him to trade
teach him
to play Monopoly and
to sing in the rain.
The Poet and the painter casting shadows on the water --
as the sun plays on the infantry returning from the sea.
The do-er and the thinker: no allowance for the other --
as the failing light illuminates the mercenary's creed.
The home fire burning: the kettle almost boiling --
but the master of the house is far away.
The horses stamping -- their warm breath clouding
in the sharp and frosty morning of the day.
And the poet lifts his pen while the soldier sheaths his sword.
And the youngest of the family is moving with authority.
Building castles by the sea, he dares the tardy tide to wash them all aside.
The cattle quietly grazing at the grass down by the river
where the swelling mountain water moves onward to the sea:
the builder of the castles renews the age-old purpose
and contemplates the milking girl whose offer is his need.
The young men of the household have
all gone into service and
are not to be expected for a year.
The innocent young master -- thoughts moving ever faster --
has formed the plan to change the man he seems.
And the poet sheaths his pen while the soldier lifts his sword.
And the oldest of the family is moving with authority.
Coming from across the sea, he challenges the son who puts him to the run.
What do you do when
the old man's gone -- do you want to be him? And
your real self sings the song.
Do you want to free him?
No one to help you get up steam --
and the whirlpool turns you `way off-beam.
LATER.
I've come down from the upper class to mend your rotten ways.
My father was a man-of-power whom everyone obeyed.
So come on all you criminals!
I've got to put you straight just like I did with my old man --
twenty years too late.
Your bread and water's going cold.
Your hair is too short and neat.
I'll judge you all and make damn sure that no-one judges me.
You curl your toes in fun as you smile at everyone -- you meet the stares.
You're unaware that your doings aren't done.
And you laugh most ruthlessly as you tell us what not to be.
But how are we supposed to see where we should run?
I see you shuffle in the courtroom with
your rings upon your fingers and
your downy little sidies and
your silver-buckle shoes.
Playing at the hard case, you follow the example of the comic-paper idol
who lets you bend the rules.
So!
Come on ye childhood heroes!
Won't you rise up from the pages of your comic-books
your super crooks
and show us all the way.
Well! Make your will and testament. Won't you?
Join your local government.
We'll have Superman for president
let Robin save the day.
You put your bet on number one and it comes up every time.
The other kids have all backed down and they put you first in line.
And so you finally ask yourself just how big you are --
and take your place in a wiser world of bigger motor cars.
And you wonder who to call on.
So! Where the hell was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday?
And where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you though?
They're all resting down in Cornwall --
writing up their memoirs for a paper-back edition
of the Boy Scout Manual.
LATER.
See there! A man born -- and we pronounce him fit for peace.
There's a load lifted from his shoulders with the discovery of his disease.
We'll
take the child from him
put it to the test
teach it
to be a wise man
how to fool the rest.
QUOTE
We will be geared to the average rather than the exceptional
God is an overwhelming responsibility
we walked through the maternity ward and saw 218 babies wearing nylons
cats are on the upgrade
upgrade? Hipgrave. Oh, Mac.
LATER
In the clear white circles of morning wonder,
I take my place with the lord of the hills.
And the blue-eyed soldiers stand slightly discoloured (in neat little rows)
sporting canvas frills.
With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention,
while queueing for sarnies at the office canteen.
Saying -- how's your granny and
good old Ernie: he coughed up a tenner on a premium bond win.
The legends (worded in the ancient tribal hymn) lie cradled
in the seagull's call.
And all the promises they made are ground beneath the sadist's fall.
The poet and the wise man stand behind the gun,
and signal for the crack of dawn.
Light the sun.
Do you believe in the day? Do you?
Believe in the day! The Dawn Creation of the Kings has begun.
Soft Venus (lonely maiden) brings the ageless one.
Do you believe in the day?
The fading hero has returned to the night -- and fully pregnant with the day,
wise men endorse the poet's sight.
Do you believe in the day? Do you? Believe in the day!
Let me tell you the tales of your life of
your love and the cut of the knife
the tireless oppression
the wisdom instilled
the desire to kill or be killed.
Let me sing of the losers who lie in the street as the last bus goes by.
The pavements are empty: the gutters run red -- while the fool
toasts his god in the sky.
So come all ye young men who are building castles!
Kindly state the time of the year and join your voices in a hellish chorus.
Mark the precise nature of your fear.
Let me help you pick up your dead as the sins of the father are fed
with
the blood of the fools and
the thoughts of the wise and
from the pan under your bed.
Let me make you a present of song as
the wise man breaks wind and is gone while
the fool with the hour-glass is cooking his goose and
the nursery rhyme winds along.
So! Come all ye young men who are building castles!
Kindly state the time of the year and join your voices in a hellish chorus.
Mark the precise nature of your fear.
See! The summer lightning casts its bolts upon you
and the hour of judgement draweth near.
Would you be
the fool stood in his suit of armour or
the wiser man who rushes clear.
So! Come on ye childhood heroes!
Won't your rise up from the pages of your comic-books
your super-crooks and
show us all the way.
Well! Make your will and testament.
Won't you? Join your local government.
We'll have Superman for president
let Robin save the day.
So! Where the hell was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday?
And where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you through?
They're all resting down in Cornwall -- writing up their memoirs
for a paper-back edition of the Boy Scout Manual.
OF COURSE
So you ride yourselves over the fields and
you make all your animal deals and
your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.
06 Songs From the Wood (04:53)
Let me bring you songs from the wood:
to make you feel much better than you could know.
Dust you down from tip to toe.
Show you how the garden grows.
Hold you steady as you go.
Join the chorus if you can:
it'll make of you an honest man.
Let me bring you love from the field:
poppies red and roses filled with summer rain.
To heal the wound and still the pain
that threatens again and again
as you drag down every lover's lane.
Life's long celebration's here.
I'll toast you all in penny cheer.
Let me bring you all things refined:
galliards and lute songs served in chilling ale.
Greetings well met fellow, hail!
I am the wind to fill your sail.
I am the cross to take your nail:
A singer of these ageless times.
With kitchen prose and gutter rhymes.
Songs from the wood make you feel much better.
08 Aqualung (08:04)
Sitting on a park bench
eyeing little girls with bad intent.
Snot running down his nose
greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.
Hey, Aqualung!
Drying in the cold sun
Watching as the frilly panties run.
Hey Aqualung!
Feeling like a dead duck
spitting out pieces of his broken luck.
Whoa, Aqualung!
Sun streaking cold
an old man wandering lonely.
Taking time
the only way he knows.
Neck hurting bad,
as he bends to pick a dog-end
he goes down to the bog
and warms his feet.
Feeling alone
the army's up the road
salvation à la mode and
a cup of tea.
Aqualung my friend
don't you start away uneasy
you poor old sod, you see, it's only me.
Do you still remember
December's foggy freeze
when the ice that
clings onto your beard was
screaming agony.
And you snatch your rattling last breaths
with deep-sea-diver sounds,
and the flowers bloom like
madness in the spring.
Sun streaking cold
an old man wandering lonely.
Taking time
the only way he knows.
Neck hurting bad,
as he bends to pick a dog-end
he goes down to the bog
and warms his feet.
Feeling alone
the army's up the road
salvation à la mode and
a cup of tea.
Aqualung my friend
don't you start away uneasy
you poor old sod, you see, it's only me.
[Guitar Solo]
Aqualung my friend
don't you start away uneasy
you poor old sod, you see, it's only me.
Sitting on a park bench
eyeing little girls with bad intent.
Snot running down his nose
greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.
Hey Aqualung!
Drying in the cold sun
Watching as the frilly panties run.
Hey, Aqualung!
Feeling like a dead duck
spitting out pieces of his broken luck.
Hey, Aqualung!
Whoa, Aqualung!
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