Martin Barre onstage recently.
The Martin Barre Collection
That last coveted class would absolutely include “Aqualung.” It’s the title track from the 1971 album by Jethro Tull, still their best-selling and most recognizable release. They were both played by Martin Barre, whose tenure with the group (1968-2011) is second in duration only to singer/flautist Ian Anderson, who still fronts it today.
Back in the day, Barre even had an idea for a band T-shirt with the famous six note intro written out musically.
“I drew it out quite neat and told Ian about it, but he was never interested. I didn’t think past it, but of course it’s because it’s not him!” he laughs over Zoom where the 77-year-old just finished up his daily guitar practice. “But I’ve done the shirt myself. It’s part of made me who I am.” The song's intro is credited to Anderson, while Barre created the solo.
But “Aqualung” may—or may not—be on the setlist when The Martin Barre Band presents “A Brief History of Tull” April 5 at the Dosey Doe in The Woodlands. The two-hour show will present hits, fan favorites, super deep cuts, and even an acoustic set.
“I’m very respectful of ‘Aqualung.’ But we haven’t played it in months!” he continues. “I do give it a rest every now and again. We swap around songs so there’s a freshness during the tour. I play it when I enjoy playing it, and I enjoy it when I do. I’m never going to play it because I have to.”
Barre says the set list reflects a “summary” of his time with Tull, paying extra attention to tracks that mean a lot to him personally. The current lineup also includes Dan Crisp (lead vocals/guitar), Alan Thomson (bass) and Terl Bryant (drums). To better recreate the Tull sound, several members pitch in on keyboards, and Barre even plays the flute.
“This is a novelty. I’ve always played flute and I have a right to play it. Ian dominating it in Tull sort of sidetracked my flute playing,” he says. “I played flute before Ian even bought one! And I’m enjoying it again.”
Barre can still vividly recall the day in 1968 when he auditioned for Jethro Tull. Original guitarist Mick Abrahams split only a year after the group’s founding and the later release of debut record This Was.
Another potential replacement had even appeared with the band on the Rolling Stones’ famous Rock and Roll Circus film special, but ultimately decided that Tull’s musical direction and stylings weren’t for him. That axe slinger was Tony Iommi, who soon co-founded a little outfit called Black Sabbath. They did OK for themselves.
Still, Barre’s initial audition didn’t go well. At all.
“I had a guitar that was semi-acoustic and unless you had a lot of space, it would howl. The audition was in this basement room and they didn’t hear me, just this horrible sound,” Barre recalls.
“I hadn’t had pennies to shake together, but I had a friend with a solid Gibson electric that I could borrow. So, I went back a second time, and we spent the whole day in a proper rehearsal room. I knew that was the gig for me. I was quite timid back then, so for me to call them back for a second chance, it took a lot of courage.”
Like other Classic Rock groups including Rush and Pink Floyd, the music of Jethro Tull has many, many layers. Both in terms of instrumentation and shifting time signatures, as well as Anderson’s lyrics that can touch on themes ranging from the social, political and sexual to religion, the environment and character studies.
Stylistically, Tull records have dipped into blues, jazz, folk, hard rock, and Elizabethan/Renaissance-era styles. Surprisingly, Barre says two of his favorite Tull records to play on from a guitarist’s perspective were both post-‘70s releases: 1984’s synth-heavy Under Wraps and 1987’s Crest of a Knave.
The latter triggered a torrid controversy when it was awarded a Grammy in 1989 for “Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal” album, shockingly beating out Metallica’s epochal …And Justice for All.
Even members of Tull were left perplexed by the award, though it’s possible that theirs was simply the only name many Grammy voters recognized on the ballot and automatically checked it off. Assuming they would lose, no Jethro Tull members even attended the ceremony. The whole thing is still used as a comic punchline among music people.
Today on Spotify, with the click of a mouse, one can listen to more than 50 different studio, live, rarity, special edition, and compilation albums from Jethro Tull, along with a dozen Martin Barre solo/collaboration albums. Asked about his thoughts on streaming services, Barre gives them a thumbs up.
“I like it. Music should be accessible to everybody in the same what that nature is,” he offers. “People have always found a way of getting music less expensively, like making cassettes. Someone would buy the vinyl and there would be 20 cassettes made. And I’m not entirely innocent of that!”
Streaming is also a place where both existing and new fans can hear deeper track cuts, like “Big Riff and Mando” from Tull’s 1989 effort Rock Island. It’s a tune particularly close to Barre as it tells the true story of a precious mandolin was unwillingly separated from.
“It got stolen from a gig. Some kid climbed through the roof of the dressing room and took it! I was devastated because it was handmade for me by Paul Hamer. I was really upset because it was pretty irreplaceable,” he says.
Barre went to a local radio station in the city and pleaded on-air for its return, emotionally relaying how much the instrument meant to him. Soon afterward, an anonymous person mailed it in to the station and Barre was reunited the mandolin.
Where his ire is raised has more to do with making a living as a musician outside of record sales and royalties. And it’s no secret that for most bands and performers today from the most popular to the unknown, your career is playing live.
“It’s a struggle. The super successful artists are making crazy money, and at the other end is a lot of bands playing for nothing. We’re sort of in the middle,” Barre says.
“I would love to have more money to bring more people on the road, a bigger band with horn players and girl singers. And a good crew. Right now, we have four band members and only two crew. But we make a big noise, and people work their asses off.”
As for Tull, when Anderson dissolved the band in 2011 but reconstituted it for a 50th anniversary tour in 2018, Barre was pointedly not invited to return. When the Houston Press spoke with Anderson in 2021, he commented that he was fine—mostly—with Barre’s various recent Tullcentric-themed tours and shows.
“He should be!” Barre laughs. “I’m promoting Jethro Tull’s music. I respect his songwriting, but I also respect that we were a duo like Jimmy Page and Robert Plant or Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. It was a magic formula. It took two people. I’m a lesser vehicle because of it, and so is Ian. But so be it. I’ve done my apprenticeship.”
Surprising to many, despite their decades of commercial and critical success, Jethro Tull is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (and they happen to be the #1 snub on this writer’s list). For his part, Barre—like Anderson—is nonplussed about the exclusion.
“I don’t think about it,” he says. “I like accolades like any other human being, and I’ve had some in polls for top guitarists. But if it happens, it will be nice.”
Well, if this guitar thing doesn’t work out for Martin Barre, he could probably go back to practicing in the field of his first, pre-musical, career choice: architecture.
“I’d love to be an architect today! They can build buildings that are amazing!” Barre laughs. “In the ‘60s, it was square boxes like building a motel. Now, you can build an incredible house. I’ve still got my tools. Protractors and slide rules!”
The Martin Barre Band presents “A Brief History of Tull” at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 4, at the Dosey Doe Big Barn, 25911 I-45. For more information, call 281-367-3774 or visit DoseyDoeTickets.com $98-$168. Ticket price includes a three-course meal with soft drink, served 6:30-7:30 p.m.
For more on Martin Barre, visit MartinBarre.com
