In my family there are three members who were teachers, and two others whose work was related to the school systems. As the only member of my family to avoid working in education, I spent many a day in Teacher’s Lounges waiting for my Father to get off work. Yeah, you try attending a High School where your Father was both a counselor AND a the Department Chair for Industrial Arts (thus why Jeff’s teacher is an electronics teacher). Now, in my day, these teachers lounges were full of smoke and dirty jokes. Or, they were pissing and moaning about some student or the other. Great bargaining chips for me (“I know what YOU did…”) BUT… I still have a great deal of respect for teachers as they do the best they can with what they have… us!
But it was in 1970 that Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson wrote “Jump up, look around, Find yourself some fun, No sense in sitting there hating everyone.” And thus was born one of Tull’s earliest hits, “Teacher”. The album “Benefit” was released before “Aqualung” and us Tull fans argue over which album is better (Aqualung, says me…).
🙂
Think I’ll have to agree with you there, Aqualung is one of my fav’s too, although I would say that most Tull albums have something of merit on them 🙂 – apart from possibly ‘Under Wraps’ I saw them when they were promoting the album on tour and was VERY unimpressed. I was a Broadsword fan though
I also agree, Aqualung all the way.
I actually got to see them twice, once after Aqualaung and again during the Warchild tour and have to say they were impressive both times.
(Having Pan’s People on stage dancing with hilarious comedy fake boobs on probably helped the Warchild tour! :D)
I also have a lot of respect and sympathy for teachers nowadays. Not only are they hamstrung by the lowest common denominator principle apparently applied by all academics NOT in the teaching industry, by the Politics of Education as also rules by people NOT in the teaching industry, but also by not being able to administer a decent clout round the ear to any wayward little b’stard that deserves it! And there are a few in each class as ever!
I wouldn’t do that job, well, to secondary school teenagers anyway, for all the tea in China!
Bob
Oh yeah! Aqualung my frieeeeeeeend! ♪
Cross eyed Mary is also one of my favorite’s Jethro Tull song
Always loved Teacher. Saw Tull once, though I have no idea which tour it was. Damn. I can’t even remember who opened. I must have been having a GOOD time!
Bi-cotton rod? Y’know, even if I had a pocketful of Q-tips at the time he said that to me I still wouldn’t know what the hell Jeff was talking about. (And yes, I know that they aren’t all Q-tips, or Kleenexes, or Radaranges… though I suppose that last has passed out of fashion.)
Oh! Don’t want to forget… I LOVE the new look of the site! Bravo!
There’s an unbusted, unstolen *’scope* in that classroom? Wee-oo!
Not so keen on the new site as I should be. I have an aversion to CSS-infestation because of the compatibility issues it uncovers. This text box, for example, is definitely not “right” when I’m typing – it displays in such a way as to obscure what I’ve just typed, and the horizontal scrollbar has started making itslef known. ‘Kay sirrah.
My list of Tull albums worth listening to: Songs from the Wood (their “folk album, but it contains “Hunting Girl”) and Living in the Past for “Wond’ring Again” – not the only reason to listen to that album but one of the best, and Warchild for “Skating Away…” a song with a beat structure so complex (for me) that I still can’t play the bugger – it says on the sheet music it’s 4/4 but the song don’t *sound* 4/4 in places. Bloody synchopated rhythms.
Leaving the 70s we get to include Rock Island – “Kissing Willie” only got past the US censors because they didn’t understand the rhyming slang or get the connotation of “kissing my best friend, Willie”, and “Roots to Branches” with the title track, “Rare and precious Chain” and “Another Harry’s Bar” (see if you can figure out who Tull are channeling on this ballad) the standouts.
My favourite track from Aqualung id Cheap Day Return. Not a rocker. Tweak the treble and cut the middle for the best sound.
Ah, Jethro Tull…
I’m so sorry Mr. Ian lost that big voice he had. When I went to see the band here about 2 years ago, it was sad to hear him singing “I’m going back to the ones that I know” with a fainting high tone…
Time is evil for many vocalists. The instrumentalists just get better and better, but the voice gets weaker…
When I think about JT, my first memory is always this song. It’s from “Benefit”, I’m almost sure.
My mom was a librarian for the elementary school I attended, so I understand what you went through. Especially in the teacher’s lounge. 😀
never again will I call it a Q-tip
long live the Bi-cotton Rod!
I love that you have to call it the “Bi-Cotton Rod.” AKA, Q-Tip. It’s like Kleenex… who calls those “facial tissues”? Please, hand me a KLEENEX. Even if it’s CVS brand.
Some areas of the country call all sodas “Coke”. Like– “I’ll have a Coke.. um.. a Sprite please”. Like, what? Make up your mind. Hell, I used to call it “pop”, and I get made fun of for that.
[Byron] I’ll try it out at home on a different browser, /then/ get back to you. Take it all with a pinch of salt anyway. I do this sort of stuff for a living and have some very old-fashioned views on what’s what webwise.
Kevin’s avatar made me think Kevin Smith was posting comments here..haha