The 500 - #337 - The 500 - Aqualung - Jethro Tull

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 337

Album Title: Aqualung

Artist: Jethro Tull

Genre: Progressive Rock, Folk Rock, Blues, Jazz

Recorded: Island & Morgan Studios, London, UK

Released: March, 1971

My age at release: 6

How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Is it on the 2020 list? No

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Hymn 43

Aqualung Album Cover (1971)

In the fall of 1981, at 16, I found my "tribe" – the important group of friends who ballast the often turbulent high school experience. It was my second year living in London, Ontario, and attending a new school. My first year was okay. I'd made a few friends, joining local recreation leagues for soccer, water-polo and hockey. They were nice enough chums, but we didn't quite fit -- friends destined to become casual acquaintances.

Saunders Secondary School (my alma mater 1980-1984)

My “tribe” emerged later. As is often the case in teenage circles, the path to friendship was circuitous. A conversation in history class leads to an introduction in the cafeteria which leads to an invitation to someone's house after school. One day, the path was opened by an ebullient, blonde-haired teen named Steve Mackison.  

Steve is on the left (circa 1984) The other friends are
Stacy, plus Terry & Heather
(who are now married and remain dear friends)

As we walked from the school's football field through the neighbourhood to his townhome, about a kilometre away, he spoke at great length about his love of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and music.

After a quick stop in his kitchen for snacks (Pop Tarts?), we went up to any teen’s sanctuary -- the bedroom. His walls were covered with fantasy posters, his stereo was impressive and he even had a home computer system (a rarity in 1981).

A Commodore Vic 20 much like Steve's

As we sipped tea, played video games and talked. Steve put on some of his favourite albums. It was there where I was introduced to the music of Jethro Tull.

I had heard of Jethro Tull and, no doubt like many before and after me, thought that was the name of the performer. It isn't. The band took its name from an 18th Century British agriculturalist.

Agriculturalist Jethro Tull (1674 - 1741)

The story behind the name began with the formation of a group comprising Ian Anderson (guitar, flute, vocals), Glen Cornick (bass), Clive Bunker (drums) and Mick Abrahams (guitar and backing vocals). They changed their band’s name frequently to get work on the London club circuit in 1967.

Originally a British blues act, their temporary monikers included "Navy Blue", "Bag Of Nails”and "Candy Coloured Rain" to secure gigs. Some names were provided by the booking agent. One booker was a fan of history who humorously christened them “Jethro Tull” for a show. It was the first time a club owner acknowledged their performance and they were invited back. The name stuck.

Jethro Tull (1969) (l-r) Cornick, Bunker, Anderson, Abrahams

It wasn't this week's record, Aqualung (1971), that Steve played for me. It was Tull's third release, Thick As A Brick (1972). Within seconds of hearing it, I was engrossed by both the music (an odd mix of blues rock, medieval folk and jazz fusion) and the lyrics (a supposed epic poem by child genius Gerald Bostock. In reality, it was all a put on.)

The album cover was equally fascinating. A spoof of a small-town British newspaper called The St. Cleve Chronicle & Linwell Advertiser, it was a delightful parody, "intended to mock the typically parochial and amateurish journalism of the rural English press." (Songfacts website) It was Monty Python in its absurdity -- and I was immediately a fan.

I clicked with Steve at once – a kind, intelligent friend, who liked fantasy literature and progressive, clever music outside the mainstream, with a Pythonesque bent. A pal who enjoyed computers and was even intrigued by the role playing game I loved, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D).

In the weeks that followed, my friendship with Steve grew and our circle of like-minded friends joined and expanded. We remained friends throughout high school, partying on weekends and playing D&D every Sunday afternoon. Steve and I stayed close friends through university and even moved in together in 1993.

My 1993 room mates Don (left) and Steve in our townhouse kitchen

Unfortunately, twenty-something circumstances led to a parting of our ways, for which I accept blame. But, I am pleased Steve found another path. He is now the Reverend Canon Steven Mackison, Incumbent at The Church Of The Redeemer in Toronto, Ontario. I'll remember him fondly for much more than introducing me to Jethro Tull. I'll remember him best for making me feel like I belonged during those tricky high school years…and helping me find my first tribe.

Rev. Canon Steven Mackison today

Aqualung Facts

• The Spotify version of the record includes and interview with Ian Anderson who shares some interesting facts.
• The album was recorded at the newly built, Island Studios, formerly a church. 
• Tull were given the larger room on the main floor but the cavernous space made for challenging recording acoustics. 
• Led Zeppelin were recording their fourth record, Zeppelin IV,  in the smaller, more intimate (and better sounding) studio below.
• Zeppelin and Tull had just finished touring together in 1970, with Tull as the supporting act.
• Aqualung became Tull's best selling record and made them launched them as a major arena act in the early 70s.
• The album cover was commissioned from American artist Burton Silverman who was paid a flat fee of $1500 without a written contract.
• Silverman insists that the fee was for the album only and later sought renumeration for the money it generated in merchandise. The parties settled out of court.
• The lyrics to the title song are also credited to Anderson's first wife, playwright and filmmaker Jenny Franks.
• She based them on a photograph of a homeless man she had taken as a college student.

The 500 - #338 - Cheap Thrills - Big Brother And The Holding Company

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 338

Album Title: Cheap Thrills

Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company

Genre: Blues Rock, Acid Rock

Recorded: Columbia Studios, California. One track live at Winterland Ballroom

Released: August, 1968

My age at release: 3

How familiar was I with it before this week: One song

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, #372, dropping 34 places

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Piece Of My Heart

Cheap Thrills was the second studio release from the American blues and acid rock band Big Brother and The Holding Company. It was also their last record with singer Janis Joplin, who went on to launch a solo career. Her second and final record, Pearl, appears at #125 on The 500. 

Pearl - Janis Joplin (1971)

Originally, Cheap Thrills was to be called Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills, but the record label considered the title too controversial in 1968. The 50th anniversary version, released in 2018, restored the formerly contentious title

50th Anniversary Release of the record (2018)

Times have changed. The word "sex" raises few eyebrows nowadays and the term "dope", a colloquialism for recreational drugs, seems quaint and even amusing. Interestingly, the original album artwork generated more controversy with modern audiences than the title itself did half a century previously. Created by underground comic artist and satirist Robert Crumb (aka: R. Crumb), one panel features an African-American woman with a crying baby, now considered (and with good reason) racist.

Close up of a panel on the Cheap Thrills record sleeve

Crumb was a well known contributor in the world of underground comix, which grew in popularity in the 60s and 70s. Unlike mainstream comics, these pulp-publications displayed explicit content, including nudity, drug-use, sexuality and violence. Crumb is best known for several counter-culture characters, such as Mr. Natural, Fritz The Cat, and the iconic Keep On Truckin' comic panel, which was ubiquitous in the 70s, appearing on t-shirts, belt-buckles and posters.

R. Crumb classics

My introduction to both Janis Joplin and the work of R. Crumb came in the late 70s. At the age of 13, I began purchasing National Lampoon magazines and underground comics while starting to pay attention to more mature film releases. As a pre-teen, I was interested only in mainstream comics and blockbuster flicks (e.g. Jaws, Star Wars), although I did buy the occasional edgy MAD Magazine or Wacky Pack from the local convenience store.

Wacky Packs (a staple among 70s Tweens)

The movie The Rose, starring Bette Midler, was released in 1979 and it was the first time I heard the name Janis Joplin. The movie was a popular topic of discussion in my high school cafeteria, particularly among the decidedly cool seniors.

Originally, the movie was to be called Pearl and was written as a biopic about Joplin, but the screenplay was revised after Joplin's family declined the right to use her name. Nevertheless, the plot was still loosely based on Joplin's meteoric rise and ultimate self-destructive struggles with fame.

Joplin was found dead in a hotel room on October 4, 1970, from a heroin overdose. She was 27.

Despite the passing years, she remains a legendary figure among rock performers. Her distinctive and powerful mezzo-soprano voice was rivaled only by her electrifying performances and her volcanic stage presence. In the Janis Joplin: Biography, she was described as throwing herself "into every syllable...testifying from the very core of her being." (website)

I was five when she died, so I didn't have the chance to see her perform in her prime, only on film. However, in one of those other-worldly dreams that you feel actually happened, I had my Joplin moment.

Joplin in concert (1969)

In the summer of 2005, my wife and I were in New York City. We had heard about a weekly event called "Rock and Roll Karaoke" that was held on Monday nights at an unassuming bar called Arlene's Grocery, located in the hip Lower East Side. At the show, members of the audience signed up to join a band on stage and perform one of hundreds of songs listed in a large book at the bar.

Arlene's Grocery - Lower East Side Manhattan

My wife had once worked at a karaoke bar, but this was like nothing we had experienced before. Live Karaoke, with a band to accompany the performer rather than the traditional pre-recorded instrumental soundtrack, is far more common now, but was a revolutionary concept nearly 17 years ago.

Because it was a Monday night when many Broadway theatres are "dark" , this was not going to be a typical tone-deaf karaoke fling. The wanna-be headliners were no pretenders, but "ringers" (veteran stage performers), and this was going to be a show to remember.

A shot I took at Arlene's Grocery that night

One of the first to take the stage was a twenty-something who looked a bit like a Vanilla Ice impersonator, complete with spiked blonde pompadour. When he launched into a strong performance of the vocally challenging Guns N' Rose's classic Sweet Child O' Mine, the game was on. (I even have a clip I recorded from that performance here)

Midway through the evening, an unassuming young woman took the stage and the band began to play Piece Of My Heart from this week's record, Cheap Thrills. This soulful love song is a Joplin classic and there is no way to perform it only part way. This heart-wrenchingly powerful bluesy number demands a full-throated commitment and, on that hot August night in New York City, this singer delivered.

It was one of those riveting, goosebump-inducing, live performances that elicited raised eyebrows from the visibly impressed backing band. Though no strangers to exceptional karaoke performers, the on-stage musicians made it clear that, "this one was in a league of her own."

I like to think that in a roundabout way my dream of seeing Janis Joplin perform in real time was channeled through another singer on that memorable occasion in a dreary-looking, but hipster-cool bar in the Big Apple. So, if you ask me if I've seen Janis perform...I might say "Yes."

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The 500 - #339 - The Heart Of Saturday Night - Tom Waits

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 339

Album Title: The Heart Of Saturday Night

Artist: Tom Waits

Genre: Blues, Jazz, Folk

Recorded: Wally Heider Studios, Hollywood, California

Released: October, 1974

My age at release: 9

How familiar was I with it before this week: A little

Is it on the 2020 list? No

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: (Looking for) The Heart Of Saturday

For the third and final time, we have a Tom Waits record on The 500. Previously, I wrote about 1985's Rain Dogs (#399) and Mule Variations (#416), which was released in 1999. The Heart Of Saturday, is the second studio album from Waits and my favourite of the three. The album cover depicts an exhausted Waits, smoking a cigarette outside a cocktail lounge while a blonde woman observes him a short distance away. The moody, night-life cover reflecting the melancholy of Waits' songs was inspired by the 1955 Frank Sinatra record, In The Wee Small Hours -- an album which is also on The 500, at #101.

Waits' music isn't for everyone. His gravelly voice is off-putting to some and others find his lyrics, which focus on the underbelly of society, depressing and sometimes morose. In the 80s and 90s, Waits became increasingly experimental. He dabbled with cacophonous, industrial sounds and bizarre, sometimes grotesque, arrangements on later releases. However, this record, The Heart Of Saturday Night, and his debut release, Closing Time, are more conventional and likely more appealing to most listeners.

If I were to introduce the uninitiated to Waits, I would play them side two from Saturday Night long before revealing Mule Variations, Rain Dogs or Bone Machine. Indeed, much about the tone of those records can be gleaned from the titles and album covers alone.

I discovered The Heart Of Saturday Night while working as a bartender in the late 90s. 

Garlics Restaurant - my home away from home for 12 years

One particularly busy night, this record was in the rotation. At that time I was less familiar with the songs on it, so I was taken by surprise when Rob, a waiter who is still my good friend, walked by and, with an impish smile, said plaintively:

"Colder than a whale-digger's ass."

Talk about your non-sequitur. I was flummoxed and, as Rob walked away to continue serving customers, my head swirled with questions. 

"What the hell is a whale-digger?" 
"Was whale-digging something out of Moby Dick?"

"Maybe they are sea-hardy fishermen who harpoon sperm whales in order to dig for the precious ambergris deep in their intestines?" 

"I suppose that would be cold work, right?"

"Why did Rob say he was cold?"

Some time later, I got a chance to ask Rob to clarify. "What did you mean with the whale-digger's ass?"

"Not whale...well-digger's ass", he clarified, "on the Tom Waits record."

"Colder than a well-digger's ass", I would learn, is a popular idiom in the southern United States. Waits' writes it into the fifth track on side one, Diamonds On My Windshield, a beatnik-style, spoken word, jazz performance that includes this verse:

"And a Wisconsin hiker with a cue-ball head

He's wishing he was home in a Wisconsin bed

But there's fifteen feet of snow in the East

Colder then a well-digger's ass

And it's colder than a well-digger's ass"

Diamonds On My Windshield is an unexpected departure from the other tracks on the record, which are perfect late-night, wine-sipping music. In fact, I was playing it in my classroom during a recess period this week. A few students stayed behind to play cards (aka: avoid the cold weather).  As the record played, one piped up and said:

"This is the kind of music you hear in a fancy restaurant."

He was spot on, and I highly recommend The Heart Of Saturday Night for your next dinner party, or any time when the wine is close at hand and you want to escape into Waits' melancholy and wistful world for an hour.

And I'm still not convinced that the job of "whale-digging" doesn't exist.

Cocktail Party Fact

In 1979, Tom Waits sat down for an interview with Australian TV host Don Lane. Many believe the strange interview, available here on YouTube, helped inspire Heath Ledger's performance at The Joker for The Dark Knight movie. Unfortunately, Ledger died in 2008, so it can't be confirmed. You be the judge.

The 500 - #340 - Damaged - Black Flag

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 340

Album Title: Damaged

Artist: Black Flag

Genre: Hardcore Punk

Recorded: Unicorn Studios, West Hollywood, California

Released: December, 1981

My age at release: 16

How familiar was I with it before this week: One Song

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, #487 - dropping 140 places

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: TV Party

Punk rock was not my scene in high school, but I dipped a toe in the pool. There was a small contingent of "punk rockers'' among the student cohort and when we interacted in class, or out on the smoking patio, it became apparent they were bright and incredibly nice. 

Saunders Secondary School (London, Ontario)

One weekend a guy named Pete, affectionately known as Punker Pete, invited me to a party. In anticipation of the event, I tried to "dress the part" -- slicking back my longish mop of rocker hair along the sides while spiking it up in the middle. I think I was going for something in-between Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and a Stray Cats style pompadour.

Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols) and Brian Setzer (Stray Cats)

I donned my green army jacket bought from a military surplus store in downtown London, Ontario and adorned it with a sad collection of safety pins cobbled together from my mother's sewing drawer. Tight black jeans were de rigueur in 1983 -- and the one fashion statement punkers and rockers seemed to agree on was painfully tight pants.

Novack's - A London Landmark (1939-2012)

In retrospect, my choice of apparel was awful, but to my surprise no one said a thing. I was simply accepted as one of the partiers. I was further surprised to see many familiar faces from school not part of the punker scene. There were preppies and kids who played in the school band with me, plus several art-hall students and a bunch from drama class. I was expecting Rock and Roll High School and it ended up being The Breakfast Club.

The music was a mix of pop, punk and new wave (Talking Heads, The Pretenders, The Specials, The Jam). However, the crowd eventually gathered in a large room at the back of the house where Punker Pete and his friend Chester pulled out acoustic guitars.

They played about a dozen songs, most unfamiliar, but I did recognize a couple from The Clash. They even played the song Unchained, from rock band Van Halen. They laughed as they played and, at first, I thought they were mocking the rock and roll hit, but, no, they were playing earnestly and laughing at their own improvisations, good or bad.

Looking back, I hadn't attended a "punk rock party" that night. Rather it was a get-together with a collection of sociable people who enjoyed hanging out, drinking beer and hearing music -- only some of which was punk.

It was also around this time that I first heard the name Black Flag. Of course, I had seen the band's iconic logo long before I ever heard a track -- a simple design comprising four thick black vertical bars sandwiched between the word "Black" above and "Flag" below just slightly offset.. To me, there was something menacing about it. The logo's designer, Raymond Pettibon ( the brother of Black Flag's founder and guitarist, Greg Ginn) has said, "If a white flag means surrender, a black flag represents anarchy."

The iconic Black Flag logo by Raymond Pettibon

Coincidently, I began to hear the name Henry Rollins being associated with the band. Black Flag would only play a small part in my personal history, but Rollins has become, and continues to be, an important part of my pop-culture ethos.

Henry Rollins, 1981, singing for Black Flag

Black Flag’s debut album Damaged is notable for the arrival of Rollins as the lead singer. Before then, the hardcore punk band from Hermosa Beach, California, had been performing for five years and had released two Extended Play (EP) records (1979 and 1980). Rollins remained with Black Flag for five years before forming his own group, while touring as a spoken word performer.

Promotional poster for an early spoken word performance

It was around this time that Rollins began to appear more frequently on my radar. Indeed, Rollins’ songs were regularly played by kitchen staff, usually at closing time, in restaurants where I worked. Rollins also began to host television programs and had a small, but memorable role in the 1994 film, The Chase.

My friend Jeff introduced me to Rollins’ spoken word releases in the early 90s. I was hooked by his smarts and his long, free-form, storytelling sessions, which highlighted his wit, wisdom and, perhaps most importantly, compassion. Rollins was discussing racism, homophobia and justice reform long before these social issues entered mainstream conversation among the "woke" generation.

In 2008, Rollins brought his Recountdown Spoken Word Tour to London, Ontario, and I picked up tickets for my wife and I and pal Billy as a birthday gift. We had prime, third-row tickets, almost dead center. On the night of the performance, Rollins waxed and rambled for nearly two hours -- discussing his seven-day adventure aboard the Trans-Siberian Express from Moscow to the border of North Korea. It was a journey that included two days during which he struggled through a remorseless case of food poisoning as the train whisked through the Ural mountains.

My ticket stub for the Henry Rollins show

They say no favour goes unpunished. Jet-lagged after rushing to the show following a business trip to India, friend Bill fought a valiant battle with consciousness throughout. I am sure he would have preferred tickets in the shadowy recesses of the concert hall, not bathed in the spotlight that illuminated an animated and effusive Rollins who occasionally glanced curiously at our trio -- Billy's head bobbing like a punch-drunk fighter.

Postscript: Punk rock was not my scene in high school, but Henry Rollins has become part of my world over the past 35 years. I remained casual friends with Peter, who invited me to that party. He also became an educator, spending time in Japan (where he met his wife) and in Alberta. He currently works as a Principal with the Waterloo-District Region School Board, about 100 km west of me. He still plays music and he's still a really, nice guy.

Pete (foreground) playing in 2010