JETHRO TULL - SKATING AWAY ON THE THIN ICE OF A NEW DAY

SKATING AWAY ON THE THIN ICE OF A NEW DAY

JETHRO TULL

SONGWRITER: IAN ANDERSON

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: WAR CHILD

LABEL: CHRYSALIS RECORDS

GENRE: PROGRESSIVE ROCK

YEAR: 1974

 

             Jethro Tull are a British rock band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1967. Initially playing blues rock and jazz fusion, the band later developed their sound to incorporate elements of hard rock and folk to forge a progressive rock signature. The band is led by vocalist/flautist/guitarist Ian Anderson, and has featured a revolving door of lineups through the years including significant members such as longtime guitarist Martin Barre, keyboardists John Evans, Dee Palmer and Peter-John Vettese, drummers Clive Bunker, Barrie "Barriemore" Barlow and Doane Perry, and bassists Glenn Cornick, Jeffrey Hammond, John Glascock, and Dave Pegg.

       After achieving moderate recognition performing in the London club scene, the band released their debut álbum This Was in 1968. After a lineup change which saw original guitarist Mick Abrahams replaced by Martin Barre, the band released the folk-tinged blues album Stand Up (1969). Stand Up saw the band achieve their first commercial success, with the album reaching No. 1 in the UK, followed by regular tours of the UK and the US. Their musical style shifted in the direction of progressive rock with the albums Aqualung (1971), Thick as a Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973), and shifted again to folk rock with Songs from the Wood (1977), Heavy Horses (1978) and Stormwatch (1979). In the early 1980s the band underwent a major lineup change and shifted towards electronic rock, with the albums A (1980), The Broadsword and the Beast (1982) and Under Wraps (1984). The band won their sole Grammy Award for the 1987 album Crest of a Knave, which saw the band return to a hard rock style. Jethro Tull have sold an estimated 60 million albums worldwide, with 11 gold and five platinum albums among them. They have been described by Rolling Stone as "one of the most commercially successful and eccentric progressive rock bands."

         The last works as a group to contain new material were released in 2003, though the band continued to tour until 2011. Both Anderson and Barre have continued to record and tour as solo artists, with Anderson saying in 2014 that Jethro Tull "came more or less to an end." However in 2017 Anderson announced plans for a tour to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of This Was. The current group—now billed as "Ian Anderson and the Jethro Tull band"—includes musicians who have been members of Anderson's solo band since 2012.

           War Child is the seventh studio album by Jethro Tull, released in October 1974. It was released almost a year and a half after the release of A Passion Play. The turmoil over criticism of the previous album surrounded the production of War Child, which obliged the band to do press conferences and explain their plans for the future.

                                        
Meanwhile back in the year One — when you belonged to no-one —
You didn't stand a chance son, if your pants were undone
'Cause you were bred for humanity and sold to society
One day you'll wake up in the Present Day —
A million generations removed from expectations
Of being who you really want to be
 
Skating Away
Skating away
Skating away on the thin ice of the New Day
 
So as you push off from the shore
Won't you turn your head once more and make your peace with everyone?
For those who choose to stay
Will live just one more day
To do the things they should have done
And as you cross the wilderness, spinning in your emptiness
You feel you have to pray
Looking for a sign
That the Universal Mind (!) has written you into the Passion Play
 
Skating away on the thin ice of the New Day
And as you cross the circle line, the ice-wall creaks behind
You're a rabbit on the run
And the silver splinters fly in the corner of your eye
Shining in the setting sun
Well, do you ever get the feeling that the story's
Too damn real and in the present tense?
Or that everybody's on the stage, and it seems like
 
You're the only person sitting in the audience?
Skating away on the thin ice of the New Day.