Jethro Tull- Stormwatch 45th Anniversary- Ian Anderson

Revisiting Jethro Tull’s 1979 Stormwatch  for its forty-fifth anniversary in September proved to be surprisingly revelatory for me on multiple levels. First, the 2022 Steven Wilson remix of the music on Stormwatch revealed layers of voices and instruments in a fuller, more substantial presentation that were simply not evident on the original. In turn, the more seductive warmth lends several of the subjects and story lines, in songs such as “North Sea Oil”, “Something’s on the Move”, “Old Ghosts”, and “Dun Ringill”, more gravity.

As it turns out, my guest Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, in explaining the dual meaning of the Stormwatch title, may have been among the very first rock composers to observe the coming climate change, as well as the socio-political storms brewing in the former Soviet Bloc nations, Europe, and America. This was my first of many subsequent Ian Anderson interviews about Jethro Tull, and was conducted at ROCK 103 in Memphis back on Halloween 1979. –Redbeard