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Fifth Column
Jethro Tull Frontman makes stupid remarks about U.S. & Bush
2003-11-14
(edited for brevity)
"Americans are in a dreadful pickle at the moment, being they’re the villains of the planet as far as roughly half the population of the world is concerned. Half the world pretty much hates Americans."
and now, pretty much half of us hate you Ian.
Ian Anderson —the Scottish-born, English-bred singer-songwriter who usually leads Jethro Tull, but is now in the midst of a thought-provoking solo tour — insists he isn’t America bashing. He’s just telling it like it is. Anderson will admit, though, to being less than a fan of President Bush — or British Prime Minister Tony Blair, for that matter. "Bush and Blair haven’t got the faintest clue what a real war is," Anderson says. "As a couple of guys who have at their disposal considerable forces in the way of weapons of mass destruction, it seems somewhat cynical to be engaging in an act of invasion on foreign soil without the sanction of the international community and with guns blazing. Frankly, I hope both of them have an early demise."
I wonder if he was as bitchy w/Clinton when he attacked Bosnians without UN permission
Why is the skin flute-twirling rocker behind the ’70s FM classics "Aqualung," "Locomotive Breath" and "Bungle in the Jungle" suddenly waxing political? Actually, it isn’t so sudden. Anderson has always been that most rare of rockers — an articulate one — as evidenced by his lyrics, interviews and song introductions. His "Rubbing Elbows With Ian Anderson" tour, coming to Red Bank on Friday, is the musician’s chance to finally let it rip verbally. In each city, Anderson will invite a local radio or TV personality and several audience members to join him onstage for an evening of conversation and music. There’ll be Q&As, acoustic performances of Tull songs and, most interestingly, a local musician performing an original song backed by Anderson’s band. The format sounds either novel or nutty or just plain stupid. Anderson says it can be a little of both.
I’ll take the latter
The question of which topics emerge during the "Rubbing Elbows" chat segments is what sets Anderson off on a diatribe about the ongoing American-led war in Iraq. "I like to sound the audience out a little bit," Anderson says. "I usually bring your president into the conversation at some point, and perhaps Tony Blair. I like to hear the audience divided, as they always are, over the pros and cons of Bush policy and the Iraq so-called war." Anderson scoffs. "I mean, you know, to call it a war is to attempt to dignify a spurious invasion as something that sounds rather grand. As a career-molding war for you-know-who. I mean, to call it a war is just a disgrace.
you're right oh Rommelian one, it wasn’t a war it was a pummeling.
"But that’s not an area that I go into in any depth (during the shows) because I’d get my pussy ass kicked by some American barbarian. For a lot of people, that’s dangerous talk, because they are keen supporters of flag-waving nationalism and, dare I say, retribution and revenge, which is what they see this as being. I find that utterly deplorable and incomprehensible because I’m that fucking stupid. I hate to see the American flag hanging out of every bloody station wagon, out of every SUV, every little Midwestern house in some residential area. It’s easy to confuse patriotism with nationalism."
It's easy to confuse reflexive dissent with thought...

This, Anderson warns, is one reason America has become unpopular overseas. "Unfortunately, the way the world sees it," Anderson says, "we don’t look kindly on the flag-waving stuff anymore. In Europe, the only time you see flag-waving is at soccer games when people beat the (excrement) out of each other. A lot of flag-waving goes on there.
Yes, Soccer, the best reason to pull out the flag and fire bomb the opposing teams grandstands!
"But most of the time, we keep the flag-waving out of normal society these days, because we know that it just engenders old animosities — we old Europeans who are a little sadder and wiser as a result of having the (excrement) beaten out of us a number of times, and our cities and national monuments destroyed, because we wouldn’t stand up the first time. We’re probably a little more sanguine about this than the very sensitive American psyche, which has not experienced or had to endure these offenses on its home turf."
But twice in the last century sent its blood and treasure to help clean up the mess on Euroturf...
Some Americans may disagree in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, though 56-year-old Anderson is referring to the bombing of England and other European countries during World War II.
Yes. I've read about when the Germans bombed London and the Brits just shrugged it off and went back to negotiating...
"I sympathize with the American people," never mind I just called you a bunch of xenophobic facist bastards two paragraphs ago and hate your Hitleresque president he says, "who I have the highest regard for as being warm, invitational and mostly pretty good ambassadors around the world. The fact that they, we, count them as being the bad guys — flag-waving ain’t gonna do it. We have to work over the next two or three generations, not the next two or three months or two or three years. We’re talking about a multi-generational, skillfully worked job of re-education socialism, of stepping out into the world gently and showing a kinder and a more human face i.e. turn into a bunch of cake eating prancers. We have to correct the misunderstandings. We have to correct the prejudices. And we won’t correct them by sending in the tanks and the guns and the bombs and the missiles. Which has never done any good except stopping slavery, facism, nazism, and communism. We are all going to have to learn that sad lesson — that what was done in Iraq is the wrong thing. We had Saddam Hussein pretty much under control.
Except for his penchant for domestic corpse production, of course...
"The lesser of evils at the time was to play the game; send the weapons inspectors back in; do the stuff via the United Nations. To do what was done by Blair and Bush is, I think, a great sin for which I suspect both of them will pay in terms of career and reputation in the way that it is written up in history. But some folks, just like Sigfried and Roy, will do anything for the show-biz buzz. And the show-biz buzz of being out there doing the big, spectacular Las Vegas show with a bunch of poor animals — you know, so Bush and Blair will do the same thing for the different buzz that comes with the power of political leadership. These are powerful forces that folks are playing with. To have that power is something you can’t take lightly. You have to realize there are people out there whose lives you may affect by what you do."
Ian Anderson, I always just thought your band sucked - now I have a good reason to despise you. Flute playing wanker.
Posted by:Jarhead

#16  I always sort of liked some of his more obscure albums: Heavy Horses, Stormwatch, and A. Guess I won't be buying any CDs to replace my vinyl albums anytime soon.
Posted by: Mike   2003-11-14 10:50:14 PM  

#15  Tokyo, right on. And I bet Ian Anderson can't turn it up to '11' either. I knew Nigel Tufnel, I grew up with Nigel Tufnel, Ian Anderson your no Nigel Tufnel.........

CF, apparently his military record includes a stint in the Greek Army where he was a Battalion Commander's personal 'comfort boy'. He joined based on their famous mottto "never leave your buddy's behind." He then tried a lat move to the French Foreign Legion, but they even saw him as too pathetic to be a pass-around-bitch for their ex-cons........
Posted by: Jarhead   2003-11-14 10:05:20 PM  

#14  Too old to die - to young to rock n roll!
Posted by: Secret Master   2003-11-14 8:26:09 PM  

#13  Does the name Jethro Tull get posted in big letters at the top of the marquee? "Jethro Tull and Puppet Show" not "Puppet Show and Jethro Tull"?

I thought Jethro Tull was the drummer?
Posted by: Anonymous   2003-11-14 8:15:51 PM  

#12  Badanov,

Are you sure about the no vagina thing?

This guy is the epitome of old, obscure, pompous, lame classic rock dinosaur. This guy was already dated and played out by 1978.

This guy is the real life Spinal Tap. How does he manage to even get an interview or a single fan coming to his shows? Does the name Jethro Tull get posted in big letters at the top of the marquee? "Jethro Tull and Puppet Show" not "Puppet Show and Jethro Tull"?
Posted by: Tokyo Taro   2003-11-14 8:01:24 PM  

#11  To do what was done by Blair and Bush is, I think, a great sin for which I suspect both of them will pay in terms of career and reputation in the way that it is written up in history.

I'm willing to bet similar sentiments were said of... Churchill.
Posted by: Raj   2003-11-14 7:33:11 PM  

#10  The Jethro Tull 1972 album title "Thick as a Brick" is one of the more accurately named albums it seems.
Posted by: Yank   2003-11-14 6:22:27 PM  

#9  Why do these idiots think they have all the answers? Their entire world is wrapped up in getting a venue to play their music, coming up with new music, plugging themselves and their music, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. Why do they think that makes them a military genius? Idiotarians of this stripe should stick to trying to play music, instead of thinking. Based on the output, it obviously hurts them.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-11-14 5:11:11 PM  

#8  Actually, this reminds me of the Madonna/Britney kiss thing. Goes like this - An aging rocker, poor album sales, not much interest in their music anymore (they only had about 2 good songs anyhow), start a controversy to at least get your name out there again, i.e. make insulting comments to foreigners in their own country and call it 'honest debate'. F*ck Ian Anderson the only interest I have in him is putting my foot up his ass.
Posted by: Jarhead   2003-11-14 5:08:09 PM  

#7  Kirk, Was that his foot?
Posted by: CrazyFool   2003-11-14 4:59:19 PM  

#6  Why do we, or anyone, listen to these twits?!? Tell ya what, Ian, don't tell us how to save civilization for pathetic ingrates like you, and we won't tell you how to play the flute standing on one foot.
Posted by: Kirk   2003-11-14 4:51:09 PM  

#5  "I think you're all a bunch of ignorant, flag-waving, imperialist thugs, but please come to my show and buy my shit!"

What a piece of excrement. I sort of hope somebody 'rubs their elbow' all over this guys temple, with vigor.

Anyway, most of 'the world' is full of leftist crazies, so who gives a wank what they think?
Posted by: Anonymous   2003-11-14 4:40:10 PM  

#4  So what is Ian's military record? Does anyone know?

You had Saddam under control? Do you want to go to Downtown Bagdad and say that? Or perhaps from the side of one of the mass graves? Asshat!
Posted by: CrazyFool   2003-11-14 4:36:58 PM  

#3  BH, please don't forget M-TV in your hatred. They wouldn't play that song by 3 Doors Down because they thought it gave tacit approval of the war when in reality it supported the troops. Self-righteous dumshitz.
Posted by: Jarhead   2003-11-14 4:35:36 PM  

#2  I've f*cking hated them ever since they stole the Grammy from Metallica.
Posted by: BH   2003-11-14 4:33:36 PM  

#1  Here's a good one bro's. Heard this shit coming home from work today on the local radio station. The comments, hi-lighted, and cross-outs are mine. Ian Anderson = Tool. Though I'm sure Murat jerks himself off silly to his flute shit.
Posted by: Jarhead   2003-11-14 4:30:33 PM  

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