The next question: how many actually start and finish a half ironman triathlon? More than 15% for most events. See our analysis here.
Half Ironman: How Many Athletes Sign up for a Triathlon?
In the last year, 67,500 triathletes registered to compete in 40 of the world's best half ironman distance events, or about 1700 per race, on average. But there are significant differences; 3000+ registered for a half ironman race in Augusta, Georgia; less than 150 signed up for the race in China.
The next question: how many actually start and finish a half ironman triathlon? More than 15% for most events. See our analysis here.
The next question: how many actually start and finish a half ironman triathlon? More than 15% for most events. See our analysis here.
Sold Out Ironman Races: How Many Choose Not to Race?
Most north American Ironman races sell out on the first day of registration. After that, several hundred enter sold out races via a Foundation Entry, which double the fee, with 50% going to Ironman Foundation charities. With all the demand to enter these races, it's remarkable that hundreds ultimately will never reach the starting line.
Of those who do start a north American Ironman, about 95% finish. The exceptions in 2010 were Louisville and St. George, where several hundred triathletes did not reach the finish line.
Of those who do start a north American Ironman, about 95% finish. The exceptions in 2010 were Louisville and St. George, where several hundred triathletes did not reach the finish line.
Ironman Cozumel Results Analysis
The average finish time for all triathletes in Ironman Cozumel was 12 hours, 40 minutes, a 31 minute improvement compared to the 2009 race. Most age groups experienced faster average times, as well.
Almost the entire differential came from a 30 minute bike split gain, to an average time of 6:06; the swim was slower by 4 minutes, the run faster by about the same amount. Individual race results can be found at ironmancozumel.com
Almost the entire differential came from a 30 minute bike split gain, to an average time of 6:06; the swim was slower by 4 minutes, the run faster by about the same amount. Individual race results can be found at ironmancozumel.com
North American Ironman DNF Rates: Finishers and DNF by Race
The average triathlete spend months, if not years, preparing to compete in an Ironman Triathlon, to finish the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile marathon in less than 17 hours. In a typical North American Ironman, nearly 95% of those who start will ultimately finish the race. And it's interesting to note that even with a world-class field, Kona has a 7% DNF rate.
In 2010, two races deviated from this norm. The Inaugural Ironman St. George was far tougher than expected, leading to a 14% DNF on a very difficult course (we estimate 18% in 2011). In extreme heat, Ironman Louisville Kentucky had 16% DNF, though in previous years, the rate has been in the 5% to 7% range. Also see our DNS/DNF Analysis and the RunTri.com Challenge Index: Top 25 Toughest Ironman Triathlons.
In 2010, two races deviated from this norm. The Inaugural Ironman St. George was far tougher than expected, leading to a 14% DNF on a very difficult course (we estimate 18% in 2011). In extreme heat, Ironman Louisville Kentucky had 16% DNF, though in previous years, the rate has been in the 5% to 7% range. Also see our DNS/DNF Analysis and the RunTri.com Challenge Index: Top 25 Toughest Ironman Triathlons.
Entering an Ironman Race: When is a Race Sold Out?
For races in the US in 2010, about 3000 was the limit. But the definition of 'Sold Out' has increased remarkably over the years (with the exception of 2008). And Canada's on its way to 3400 for 2011.
Many of the most popular Ironman races in North America are deemed 'Sold Out' the same day registration opens. How many entrants can register for 'General Entry'? How many additional Foundation Entries? The numbers aren't made public, but we've done the analysis. Our estimate: roughly 2700 General, 300 Foundation Entries, around 3000 total. Canada is the exception for 2011, so far.
Combined General + Foundation Entries seem to increase by 100 to 200 athletes each year. In 2005, races were Sold Out with about 2200 to 2400 entrants. By 2010, up to 3000 total entries in a race seemed to be the limit for most races.
Half Ironman South Africa 2011 Results Analysis
Tough conditions in the 2011 South Africa half ironman 70.3 resulted in an average finish time of 6:26, an increase of 8 minutes vs 6:18 in 2010. See chart for average finish times by division. Also see our analysis of toughest half ironman races. Complete results at ironmansouthafrica.com.
Ironman Kona 2010 Lottery Analysis
[Also see the list of 2011 Lottery winners]
Each April, Ironman.com announces the lottery winners of Kona slots for the World Championship race in October. The total number of slots awarded by group: Domestic: 150 (see distribution by State chart); International: 50; Paratriathlete: 5.
Each April, Ironman.com announces the lottery winners of Kona slots for the World Championship race in October. The total number of slots awarded by group: Domestic: 150 (see distribution by State chart); International: 50; Paratriathlete: 5.
PF Chang Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon 2011 Results Analysis
Congratulations to winner Josh Cox and the more than 5,000 finishers of the 2011 Rock and Roll Arizona marathon. The average finish time was 4:29:53, and the average finish times by age are shown in the charts below. Complete at rnraz.com.
Half Ironman 70.3 Bike Times as Percent of Finish Time: The 50% Rule
As you prepare your training plans and consider your racing schedule, if you've got a half Ironman race on the calendar, you're trying to decide how much time to spend swimming, biking and running during the year.
One of the factors that should influence your thinking is this: your half Ironman bike time may very well end up being 50% of your total finish time. Of course, as shown in the chart, there is some variation by race (Brazil, Germany, Mooseman and UK) but for the most part, the 50% rule holds. Same is true for full Ironman races: 50%.
Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson: The Complete Solo Tour Interview
By Raymond Britt
Ian Anderson, the founder and creative force behind the classic-rock band Jethro Tull, is taking his show on the road once again. We had the good fortune to speak with Ian about five specific topics before the tour began: Stand Up, Bouree, the Solo Tour, Saving the Planet and Aqualung.
Stand Up
Anderson’s solo tour coincides with the recent re-release of the classic Tull album, Stand Up. Originally released in the UK on August 1, 1969, the record reached the top of the UK record chart within one week, and remains Tull’s only chart-topping disk.
The Stand Up re-release comes in the form of a 3-disc set. The first disk contains remasters of the complete original album, plus additional tracks recorded around the same time, including the radio-friendly 5/4 time classic Living in the Past.
The additional two disks – a CD and a surround sound 5.1 audio DVD – feature Tull’s legendary 1970 concert at Carnegie Hall, and the set includes a new set of liner notes by Anderson. Here’s what Ian had to say about Stand Up:
"The original Stand Up album was the album that was -- on our second tour, I think, in the summer of 1969 -- released and went to the top of the charts. I was sitting in Loews Midtown Manhattan Hotel having breakfast and Joe Cocker came in and said “Congratulations, your album has just gone to number one in the UK.”"And we thought ‘wow, that’s great’ because we were, at that point, just starting off in the US, and not terribly well-known.
"It was essentially the beginning of Jethro Tull’s US career. It gave us confidence that the music that we were then playing live on stage during our shows was already successful in the UK and in Europe and when it was released in the US it hopefully would mimic that European success. And indeed it did quite well for us, inasmuch as that album was contemporaneous with those early tours of that year, 1969.
"And it wasn’t, of course, our first album, which was released in 1968, but Stand Up would generate a wider interest in many different countries. At that time we were obviously playing the Stand Up music. Some music that was recorded around that time for singles, usually back in the UK while we were away on tour.
"And we also recorded a show that we did, in 1970, at Carnegie Hall for a New York drug prevention charity. The live recording of that, part of which went out later on the Living in the Past album a couple of years later; again that was the music from the Stand Up album we were playing at Carnegie Hall as a result.
"It was bundled together at the suggestion of EMI. I have also been involved with the remastering and the liner notes and that sort of stuff. As a collector’s edition it puts together a big bundle of music for people who perhaps have some of the component parts of it but not all of it on the same CD, if anyone buys CDs any more . . . do they?"
Ian has written new liner notes to accompany the Stand Up Re-release. One of the interesting notes is about the band’s creative approach to spicing up the sound. We asked Ian to elaborate:
"You know back then in a recording studios people were always inventing new things, you know, things you could do, things perhaps you weren’t supposed to do.
"On the Stand album it was just a bit of wacky improvisation really, standing on top of a speaker and swinging the mike around mimicking I suppose the effects of a Leslie cabinet, you know the rotating speaker cabinet, spinning around in the cabinet and keeping the microphone still.
"We just kept the speaker still and moved around the mike. it was a bit of fun, and it was an amusing sound, and it had its effects and it was a way of doing something new and different.
"By the traditions of professional recording techniques that we were young musicians – we tried different stuff, and as long as we didn’t break anything, we got away with it."
Bouree
Stand Up is perhaps best known by the band’s instantly recognizable, genre-busting jazz/blues interpretation of Bach’s Bouree. Led by Anderson’s inspired flute arrangement, Tull’s Bouree has, over the course of forty-some years, become the gold standard of flute/rock instrumentals. And yes, Mr. Anderson will be performing Bouree in October’s concert.
We asked Ian what led him to decide to include a Bach piece on a rock album:
"It was a piece I had heard just after I started to play the flute. I heard it in the context of classical guitar, as it such there was a student living in a room underneath mine in north London learning to play classical guitar. And he kept playing this piece over and over and over again, so I kept hearing it coming up through the floorboards.
"When Martin Barre joined the band I mentioned to him, I guess in the early months of 1969 uh, there this little tune . . . I played it for him, and he said, that’s a piece by Bach – I learned to play that song on classical guitar.
"He knew what it was, we identified it, we made an arrangement of it using kind of swing syncopating jazzy feel, you know, sort of cocktail lounge jazz version of Bouree. So it became the notable flute instrumental, I supposed, from those years, and one which I still play today pretty much at every concert."
The Solo Tour
On this tour audiences can expect to be treated to Anderson’s inimitable blend of acoustic, electric, and occasionally orchestral rock music. Further, Anderson promises the show will contain a mix of new material, classic Tull fan favorites, new arrangements, and the occasional surprise tossed in here and there.
Here’s what Ian had to say about the songs we’re likely to hear:
"We’re playing a mixture of classic Jethro Tull songs – some of the more famous pieces – like Aqualung and Locomotive Breath, though perhaps done in a way different than the original recording. We try some different arrangements of those.”
"Then there’s a bunch of stuff that I call the deep catalog, those that are among the more obscure Jethro Tull songs that maybe aren’t usually played on radio, and are there for the more knowledgeable fans.
"And then some stuff, a few new songs, four new songs I’m playing, including a couple of Bach pieces I’ll be playing. Of course, our guitar player will be playing one of them -- it’s a solo piece, the shred-metal version of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue.
"The other piece which I will play with our keyboard player which is the Bach’s Prelude in C Major for which I’ve written a flute melody to go over the original Bach piano piece, which is really just chordal arpeggios all the way through. So I wrote a melody that I hope alludes in some way to the kind of Bach style of that era.
"You know we’re all a bit loose about it because as we go into rehearsal, as there’s usually a bit of redundancy inevitable two or three pieces. So we go into it with a little extra material so that we can switch things from night to night or we can remove things that didn’t go well in rehearsal. I guess I know 50 percent of the set list I know will be in there but the other fifty percent depend on how we feel.
"I guess there will be two or three pieces in there that get, either get the chop, or at least they’re not performed every night sequentially on the tour, and at least we can have some musical alternatives. So we don’t have to play the same songs every night sometimes nice to refresh yourself with a song you haven’t played for a couple of nights."
Anderson’s band on this tour includes Jethro Tull’s six-string bass player David Goodier, Scott Hammond on electric and acoustic drums, German rock and flamenco guitarist Florian Opahle, and classical musician John O'Hara, Anderson’s occasional orchestral director who also plays keyboards and accordion with Jethro Tull. Knowing Ian has often welcomed additional musicians to the stage, we inquired as to whether that might happen on this tour:
"At this point, there are no planned guests traveling and touring with us, other than me and the band guys. You know, I’m used to playing with various guests, as I did in Armenia last week. But on this tour it’s the other band guys who get their moment to shine with some stuff.
"I don’t have a fiddler this time as I have in the past. Last year we were working with Meena Bhashin, the violist. And I have a bunch of concerts coming up later this year, which will have a string quartet, a few string quartets, actually, in different parts of the world.
"And it’s possible that someone that I know will show up on the day and say ‘well, can I come play with you . . ?‘ . . . maybe they can, maybe they can’t . . ."
Saving the Planet
Ian’s passion for the preservation of threatened species of wild cats is well-known. When we raised the topic, Ian voiced an over-arching concerns – about threats to the planet and impacts on the human population. Here’s what Ian had to say on the matter:
"Well, my position on the wild cats is they are a particular example of threatened wild life that um and of course people have their favorites. Some people want to save the whales; some people want to save giant pandas; some people want to save the spider mite. I my case it’s cats . . .
"But you know it’s symptomatic of a bigger degree of threat to the ecology and the enormous variety of wildlife on the planet, our little planet. I guess as I get older my interest is in fundamentally saving the species that I am really close to . . . of all . . . which is homo sapiens.
"I really do fear for my descendents a few generations down the line. If we can’t settle the problems of protecting some endangered species, cutting down rain forests and plundering our limited resources, you know, there is, very very soon, there can be no doubt . . . we don’t have any hope when people can’t take the big view and look ahead a couple generations.
"Unfortunately so far neither politicians nor the general public are willing to look beyond their immediate lifetimes or perhaps those of their children. I suppose our politicians are always coming about them with incredible inertia, a willingness to deal with only the things that they can see stretching four or eight years ahead according to their electoral chances.
"You know we have to look forward to a time . . . we know that in 2050 there can be no doubt -- short of in itself a worldwide disaster -- there will be nine billion people on planet earth. We can’t even feed six billion . . .
"And we’re facing the peril of climate change, which is going to knock the stuffing out of a lot of grain-producing areas around the world and our ability to produce food for the six billion, let alone the nine billion we’re going to have in 40 year’s time.
"So we are really really up against some big decisions that are going to have to be taken and my greatest concern as I grow older is protecting the us among all the other species, though we are likely to lose thousands of species of animals and plants over the next few decades.
"And as a result our insatiable quest for limited resources -- can we get any more? -- taking out of our planetary availability. We can’t take any more of it up whether it’s oil, whether it’s coal, whether it’s gas.
"Or whether it’s fighting for the remote possibility that we are able to produce mass quantities of hydrogen power transport needs, sun power, wind power to provide a lower cost way to provide what we consume.
"At the moment they’re not even producing a dent compared to the increased use of energy use across the board. And that’s just us not just North Americans or us Brits, what about the Chinese, what about the Indians, what about the Africans . . .
"There are so many people just waiting to get their refrigerator, their spin dryer, their motor cars their mobile phone their air conditioning, they just want a little piece of the action, they want to catch up to us guys and we’re the guys who have done all the damage.
"I’m concerned about cats . . . that’s because I like them . . . I’m also concerned about people . . . I like those too."
Aqualung
Changing the topic from the future of humankind back to legendary rock was quite a reversal, but it was worth it, to ask Ian a final question: how did he select the five simple notes that make up the immortal guitar riff on Aqualung:
"I suppose because of an awareness that we lived in an age of rock riffs back then and there had been, I guess through artists like Jimi Hendrix and Cream and later Deep Purple, these bands that came up with these epic, very simple groupings of notes that were rather dramatic riffs.
"And I was reminded, when I started to hear that kind of music, that in fact it had already been done before in the world of classical music and particularly of course Beethoven who managed with just two notes. Rather, I mean four notes but only two, separate, different ones . . . ba ba ba bum ba ba ba bum [Ian sings Beethoven’s Fifth riff].
"I just sat down and tried to come up with something that no one else had played at that time. It was that kind of a functional introduction to a piece of music, just as Beethoven did in his Fifth Symphony or of course in the Toccata and Fugue.
"You know you have those big sort of dramatic statements right at the front of a piece of music and those are quite memorable. When you get one that’s a good one and no one else has done it before . . . well, you know you’re onto a good thing then.
"And so ba ba ba bu ba bum [Ian sings Aqualung riff] was just one of those very memorable yet simple and dramatic motifs. And then I made the most of it."
There really was nothing more to be said. Or so it seemed; he had one last note to impart:
"One note of deep sadness . . . I’m not the guy who wrote bum bum bum bum bum ba da dabum [Ian sings Smoke on the Water riff]. That was Ritchie Blackmore dammit!"
And with that, we thanked him for the words, the music and the inspiration.
Also See:
Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson: Four Centuries of Tull
Ian Anderson: Chicago 2010 Concert Review
Martin Barre: Rocks on the Run
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Ironman Bike Split: The 50% Rule
As you prepare your training plans and consider your racing schedule, if you've got an Ironman race on the calendar, you're trying to decide how much time to spend swimming, biking and running during the year.
One of the factors that should influence your thinking is this: your Ironman bike split may very well end up being 50% of your total finish time. Half your Ironman race will be on your bike; be ready! Of course, as shown in the chart, there is some variation by race, but for the most part, the 50% rule holds. Same is true for half Ironman 70.3 races, too: 50%.
One of the factors that should influence your thinking is this: your Ironman bike split may very well end up being 50% of your total finish time. Half your Ironman race will be on your bike; be ready! Of course, as shown in the chart, there is some variation by race, but for the most part, the 50% rule holds. Same is true for half Ironman 70.3 races, too: 50%.
Ironman Kona: Qualifiers vs Lottery Winners
The path to racing the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Kona is an extremely difficult one: either you race at a nearly elite level to qualify (about 1720 athletes in 2010), or you face increasingly long odds of winning one of 200+ lottery slots each year. It goes almost without saying that, in general, the qualifiers will race Kona faster than the lottery winners. But here's something you might not have expected: if a lottery winner gets to the starting line in Kona, they are more than twice as likely to finish the race.
As shown by the black bars in the chart, DNF rate for qualifiers was 4.5% in 2010; DNF for lottery winners was less than 2%. However, part of the explanation is the dramatically higher rate of lottery winners who don't get to the starting line -- more than 9%. Naturally: only those lottery winners who are really ready to race take the long flight to Kona.
Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson: Chicago Solo Tour 2010 Concert Review
- Jethro Tull Live in Chicago: The 2011 Concert Review
- Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson: Four Centuries of Tull
- Ian Anderson: The Complete Solo Tour Interview
- Martin Barre: Rocks on the Run
A few weeks ago, Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson told me to expect the unexpected when his solo tour arrived in Joliet to perform at the Rialto Square Theater (Saturday night, October 30, 2010). He promised a set that dug deep into the Tull catalog, presented several new songs, reinterpreted fan favorites, and even a surprise or two for good measure.
A couple of hours before Ian and his band took to the stage, keyboardist and occasional orchestral conductor John O’Hara gave us a further insight about what to expect. Not only was the set as varied as promised, but Ian had challenged the band itself, with last-minute rearrangements and key changes – on Aqualung, for example — and even a completely new, untitled song, written in the last two weeks.
The preview comments promised such potential – for great moments, but also for the possibility that things might get out of hand. Not one to take the easy path, Ian was going to take the band and the audience to the edge.
And it worked. On all fronts. Classics, new songs, orchestral interpretations, rearranged classics. On the whole, outstanding material, performed by a top-notch band, to an enthusiastic audience who came for Tull material, and left with that and more.
I’ve seen Jethro Tull performances in arenas in the 1970s to Chicago’s Lyric Opera House and Highland Park’s Ravinia Festival, and I’ve seen Ian perform on his Rubbing Elbows, Orchestral and 5-piece band solo tours. Of all of them, this performance was among the best. Why?
Because of the chances Ian took, because of the places the music took the audience, and because of the strength of the material, whether old (Life’s A Long Song, Bouree) new (New Song, Adrift and Dumbfounded), borrowed (Bach’s Prelude in C Major, and Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor), and reborn (fresh reinterpretations of Thick as a Brick, Aqualung and Locomotive Breath).
We were told to expect the unexpected, we got it, and then some (how about a full reading of A Passion Play’s The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles? Yes, really).
And it was terrific.
Ian pushed the band, and the band ran with it. John O’Hara on keyboards and accordion, David Goodier on fretless bass on assorted percussion, Florian Ophale on classical and electric guitar, and Scott Hammond on drums – all locked into a groove with Ian and never looked back.
Whether on a quiet acoustic number like Wond’ring Aloud, a stealth-rocker like Budapest, a nearly 15-minute extended version of Thick as a Brick, or the translation of the orchestral arrangement of Aqualung, the band rose to the occasion.
And so did the audience, delivering well-deserved standing ovations, several of them, as the evening wound to a close with one final, and slightly unexpected turn in an expected closer: a new arrangement of Locomotive Breath.
Unexpected? Of course. Outstanding? Absolutely.
Four Centuries of Jethro Tull: On Tour with Ian Anderson 2010
- Ian Anderson: The Complete Solo Tour Interview
- Ian Anderon 2010 Solo Tour Concert Review
- Martin Barre: Rocks on the Run
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By Raymond Britt -- Ian Anderson, the founder and creative force behind the classic-rock band Jethro Tull, has returned the North America for the second time in 2010. After a highly-praised summer tour with Jethro Tull, Anderson is returning to intimate theater venues across North America through November.
Anderson’s solo tour coincides with the recent re-release of the classic Tull album, Stand Up. Originally released in 1969, the record reached the top of the UK charts within one week.
"It was essentially the beginning of Jethro Tull’s US career, Anderson told me recently. "It gave us confidence that the music that we were then playing live on stage during our shows was already successful in the UK and in Europe and when it was released in the US it hopefully would mimic that European success. And indeed it did quite well for us." [Also see The Complete Ian Anderson 2010 Solo Tour Interview]
The 3-disc re-release also includes the band's complete, legendary, live performance at Carnegie Hall, recorded on November 4, 1970. It’s perhaps not a coincidence that the Carnegie Hall performance occurred exactly 40 years before this year’s solo tour. Maybe Anderson decided America is the right place to celebrate the anniversary of those four decades of classics and rock. Or maybe he’s just being kind. Or, maybe it’s because there are far more significant anniversaries to be recognized. Like what?
Four Centuries of Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull, the band, was founded in 1968, and Jethro Tull, the agriculturist, he whose name was chosen as said band's moniker, was born in 1674. But, if not for a sort of sideways family loyalty reaching nearly four centuries back in time, you might never have heard of Jethro Tull at all. You see, the Jethro Tull you’ve never heard of was born 395 years ago.
Jethro Tull I. You see, the first Jethro Tull was born on or around the year 1615, and as historian Norman Hidden has done in his article “Jethro Tull I, II and III,” we’ll call him Jethro Tull I. Jethro I was not the brightest bulb in the bunch, an average chap whose skills as a purported businessman and land-owner were fairly abysmal. And he failed to sire a son worthy to carry the family name forward.
Jethro Tull II. But it was Jethro Tull I’s brother John, either being tremendously loyal or perhaps somewhat confused, who named his son Jethro Tull sometime during the 1640s. And this nephew of JTI, whom we will call Jethro Tull II, married Dorothy Buckbridge in 1672.
This couple’s lot in life consisted largely of back-breaking work trying to keep all the Tull family acreage from dissolving into debtors’ hands. But they did take a break to welcome a son into the world. And you know his name.
Without this Tull trio traipsing through the Berkshires in the late 1600s, it’s highly unlikely that some 300 years hence the brilliant young flautist Ian Anderson would have christened his 4-piece rock combo with the name: Jethro Tull.
Jacques Cousteau? What if? In the theoretical absence of this Tull genealogy, would Ian have perhaps named the band “Jacques Cousteau” instead?
If so, it would have set the stage for intriguingly brilliant cross-brand marketing possibilities between Aqualung, the song, and Aqualung, the scuba diving apparatus that was invented by Cousteau. Imagine . . . but that’s another story.
Jethro Tull, the Person, the Reluctant Farmer, and the Innovator
Those who know the difference between Jethro Tull, the band, and Jethro Tull, the person, know the latter was an agriculturalist, a farmer, who invented the modern seed drill. But, given the choice, Tull the person would have rather been a lawyer.
He did, in fact, pursue a law degree at Oxford University, but the combination of his ill health and circumstances related to the dwindling Tull fortunes conspired to force Tull III into management of the family farm, known as Prosperous, in 1699.
Tull did not take easily to life on the farm. He was frustrated by what he viewed as both inefficient farming procedures and an untrustworthy pack of farmhands. Still, with intense pressure to deliver robust crops, he set his mind on finding a better way to plant and cultivate a significant and profitable harvest while reducing dependence on human labor.
Necessity led to inspiration, which led to Jethro Tull’s seed drill. Or, as he wrote in his 1731 book, The Horse Hoeing Husbandry (we’ll call it HHH), “The seed drill was inspired by a need to reduce labor requirements and the mechanics of a church organ.” Church organ, you say? I’ll get to that, soon.
Ian Anderson, the Person, the Artist and the Tour Guide
As a methodical innovator, and, as it turns out, a bit of a musician, Jethro Tull, the seed drill inventor had more than a few things in common with Ian Anderson, the founder of the band Jethro Tull, whom, in his 63rd year, is delighting audiences across the continent on his 2010 North American solo tour.
On this tour, audiences will be treated to Anderson’s inimitable blend of acoustic, electric, and occasionally orchestral rock music. Further, Anderson promises the show will contain a mix of new material, classic Tull fan favorites, new arrangements, and the occasional surprise tossed in here and there.
“We’re looking at playing a mixture of classic Jethro Tull songs, Ian told us, previewing the set list. "Some of the more famous pieces – like Aqualung and Locomotive Breath, though perhaps done in a way different than the original recording. We try some different arrangements of those.”
“Then there’s a bunch of stuff that I call the deep catalog, those that are among the more obscure Jethro Tull songs that maybe aren’t usually played on radio, and are there for the more knowledgeable fans.”
“And then some stuff, a few new songs, four new songs I’m playing, including a couple of Bach pieces I’ll be playing . . . of course, our guitar player will be playing one of them . . . it’s a solo piece, the shred-metal version of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue. The other piece I will play with our keyboard player which is the Bach’s Prelude in C Major for which I’ve written a flute melody to go over the original Bach piano piece.”
So, with a set list that spans musical styles from Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor to classic-rock’s legendary song Aqualung, one thing’s for sure: if you’ve been a Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson fan for any part of the last 40 or so years, it’s a show you’ll be glad you attended.
Anderson’s band on this tour includes Jethro Tull’s six-string bass player David Goodier, Scott Hammond (no relation to Jeffrey, or so we think) on electric and acoustic drums, German rock and flamenco guitarist Florian Opahle, and classical musician John O'Hara, Anderson’s occasional orchestral director who also plays keyboards and accordion with Jethro Tull.
Classic Works: Standing Up to the Test of Time
As noted above, Anderson’s solo tour coincides with the recent re-release of Jethro Tull’s chart-topping album Stand Up.
The Stand Up re-release comes in the form of a 3-disc set. The first disk contains remasters of the complete original album, plus additional tracks recorded around the same time, including the radio-friendly 5/4 time classic Living in the Past. The additional two disks – a CD and a surround sound 5.1 audio DVD – feature Tull’s legendary 1970 concert at Carnegie Hall, and the set includes a new set of liner notes by Anderson.
Jethro Tull, the writer, knows something about re-releases himself.
“It is said that mine is the first book of Agriculture that has happened to be pirated,” wrote Tull in his second edition of HHH, published in 1733. It seems that Tull felt rushed into the 1731 release in “response to pretenders and imposters providing the confusion of misinformation and misrepresentation” about the drill and relevant techniques. He sought to use the 1733 re-release to set the record straight, but he still considered it “an unfinished work” at the time of his death in 1741.
Inspiration; In Other Words, It's Just a Bit Louder
Stand Up is perhaps best known by the band’s instantly recognizable, genre-busting jazz/blues interpretation of Bach’s Bouree. Led by Anderson’s inspired flute arrangement, Tull’s Bouree has, over the course of forty-some years, become the gold standard of flute/rock instrumentals.
“It was a piece I had heard just after I started to play the flute,” Ian tells the story. “I heard it in the context of classical guitar as it such there was a student living in a room underneath mine in north London learning to play classical guitar. And he kept playing this piece over and over and over again, so I kept hearing it coming up through the floor boards."
"When Martin Barre joined the band I mentioned to him, I guess in the early months of 1969 uh, there this little tune . . . I played it for him, and he said, that’s a piece by Bach – I learned to play that song on classical guitar. He knew what it was, we identified it, we made an arrangement of it using kind of swing syncopating jazzy feel, you know, sort of cocktail lounge jazz version of Bouree. And it became the notable flute instrumental, I supposed, from those years, and one which I still play today pretty much at every concert.”
One might wonder: without this bit of inspired “cocktail lounge jazz,” as Anderson puts it, would the 1969 Tull have become one of classic rock’s legendary icons four decades later? “It certainly helps to have a good tune that no one else has ever done,” says Ian. And yes, Mr. Anderson will be performing Bouree in October’s concert.
Dismantling Instruments
“When I was young my diversion was music,” wrote Jethro Tull in 1731, though he quickly added that, to paraphrase, he was quite bad at it. But he did pay attention to the instruments, to the gear, as it were. So much so, that by “altering [the soundboard of an organ] just a little and some parts of two other instruments as foreign to the field as the organ . . . I composed my machine,” the seed drill, in 1701.
Ian's story is similar, in spirit. "On the stand album it was just a bit of wacky improvisation really, standing on top of a speaker and swinging the mike around mimicking I suppose the effects of a Leslie cabinet. You know the rotating speaker cabinet, you know, spinning around in the cabinet and keeping the microphone still . . . we just kept the speaker still and moved around the mike. It was a bit of fun, and it was an amusing sound, and it had its effects and it was a way of doing something different. As long as we didn't break anything, we got away with it."
Compare the two examples of inspiration and it’s not to much to say that Tull’s ability to imagine the possibilities of dismantling a perfectly good instrument or two in the name of agricultural breakthrough is more than just a bit similar to Anderson’s ability to imagine the possibilities of dismantling a perfectly good piece of Bach in the name of classic rock.
Rocks on the Road
And both inventions paved the way, so to speak, to rock stardom for both. Although Tull’s stardom resulted, in part, by the way the seed drill removed rocks from the planting area. But the point is the same; you get it, I’m sure.
Either way, starting with Jethro Tull in 1615, all the way 395 years later on stages across the continent, it rocked, it rocks, and it will continue to rock. But don’t take my word for it; see Ian Anderson in concert in 2010, and you’ll understand . . . you’ll be inspired.
Just one more thing: don’t get any ideas about tearing the instruments apart to invent something. Leave that up to the experts: Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson.
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