Jethro Tull

Here's another one that was playing one afternoon when Dad had a day off, and I took a little more interest in it than the episode of Sesame Street that I was watching. Actually, I'd heard some of these guys back at the White house, but this was really the first time I'd given their music a studious listen, as it could get a little on the complex side. One that really caught my attention was one where a huge balloon was suspended over some manic-looking guy on the front cover, and clutching a flute on the inside gatefold. And he had a strange name: Jethro Tull.

Of course, I was told right away that this was the name of the band, not specifically the name of one guy in the band (I had thought the same thing with Black Sabbath, for some reason!).

On the back cover, one of the guys (Barriemore Barlow, their drummer) had a beard and was wearing a white bucket hat. He reminded me of the stop-motion farmer I would see on Sesame Street, and thought they were the same guy!

One of the covers in the collection really caught my attention, one called Stand Up, where you open the gatefold, and this is what you see:

To a four-year-old, that's just the coolest thing in the world!

Of course, there was much more to discover. One that became of my favorites was a best-of album with a simple white cover, though Dad took a few markers and filled in the simple line-drawing of Ian Anderson with some color. I liked "Thick As A Brick", but it would be a little while before hearing the first half of the ultra-long title track, and being blown away by it. It was supposedly a take-off on the whole progressive-rock genre, but it sounded far from a joke to me! And, of course, "Bungle In The Jungle" is going to suck a kid right in, with its animal sounds and references; I still get a smile when I'll hear it on the supermarket PA on occasion.

And, of course, Geoffrey likes it that they have a song with his name in the title...sort of, aside from the different spelling!