"A PASSION PLAY, THE STORY OF IAN ANDERSON AND JETHRO TULL" BY BRIAN RABEY, NEW BOOK.
It will be published 20 March, 2013.
In the summer of 1972 Jethro Tull hit the dizzy heights of number one in the
Billboard album charts, and thus could lay claim to being the world's biggest
band at the time, with Thick As A Brick. They repeated the feat the next year
with A Passion Play and have sold over 60 million albums to date. Considering
just how big this group is (they are still going to this day, of course) there
is surprisingly little written about them - only a couple of books, which is
scandalous when you consider how many books have been written about
contemporaries such as Yes or Led Zeppelin. This book is a gem containing
interviews with band members such as Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, John Evans, Martin
Barre and - of course Ian Anderson. In fact, this book may well contain the
longest interview Anderson has ever given. Biographer Brian Rabey and Anderson
really hit it off, possibly because Brian helped the latter recover his beloved
harmonica which was stolen backstage - something Anderson never forgot.
Biographer Brian Rabey was given access all areas and used this wisely. Via new
interviews he traces the history of a band which started life as the Blades,
briefly included Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi (his plastic finger tips
grafted on after an accident didn't lend themselves to playing Tull's subtle
music!), and went on to become Prog Rock royalty (or Elizabethan Rock as they
were sometimes dubbed!), but constantly re-invented itself with new personnel
and styles. Due to Brian's contact book there are also quotes from
contemporaries such as Greg Lake and John Wetton, which really helps to put
things in context. Another really appealing aspect of the book is that it looks
at the landscape of the times - for example, the flat Tull lived in during the
1960s would be regarded as unfit for human habitation today. A final nice touch
is that several band members have sent photographs from their personal
collections making this a unique book. AMAZON
