Versuchen GOLD - Frei
THE MAGIC FLUTE
Classic Rock
|May 2023
The second new Jethro Tull album in two years, Rokfléte, explores Ragnarok, the Norse interpretation of the apocalypse. So naturally, we spoke to lan Anderson about the end of the world.

There was a period during the late 70s and early 80s when Ian Anderson began making plans for the end of the world. Born in 1947, he was a child of the Cold War, and the threat of nuclear annihilation had been a permanent presence throughout his life. “It always seemed entirely possible that all of this could end before I had reached manhood,” he says.
Now, thanks to a combination of escalating East-West tensions and having become a first-time father a few years earlier at the age of 30, the Jethro Tull singer’s fears were more intense than ever. The fact that Anderson and his family lived just a few miles away from RAF High Command near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire didn’t help matters.
“It was, for sure, a hard target for the Russians,” he says. “I wasn’t exactly a survivalist, but I did think quite seriously about an escape plan, what to do if the proverbial hit the fan.”
This escape plan, he says, involved getting the hell out of Buckinghamshire as quickly as possible should the balloon go up. “There were two fuelled-up vehicles, and probably 30 gallons of petrol stashed away. They were the days of easier gun ownership, and there were some fairly serious-looking armaments that I would not have left at home as well.”
As it turned out, real-life nuclear armageddon never came, although a fictional version rears its head on Jethro Tull’s 23rd album, the Norse mythology-inspired RökFlöte. More than once Anderson invokes Ragnarök – the vivid, devastating version of the end times as detailed in the Poetic Edda, the 13th century collection of poems that relate the tales of the Norse gods.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2023-Ausgabe von Classic Rock.
Abonnieren Sie Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierter Premium-Geschichten und über 9.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Sie sind bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
WEITERE GESCHICHTEN VON Classic Rock

Classic Rock
BEYOND BROTHERS
It might be overshadowed by that looming resonator guitar, but Dire Straits' back catalogue runs far deeper and richer than Brothers In Arms.
5 mins
Summer 2025

Classic Rock
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The iconic southern rock band play four UK shows in July. Will they play Free Bird? Good chance.
4 mins
Summer 2025

Classic Rock
YOU PLAY THE GUITAR ON THE MTV
The instrument that featured on the cover of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms is still very much in use.
1 mins
Summer 2025

Classic Rock
The Soundtrack Of My Life
Counting Crows main man Adam Duritz on the records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him.
4 mins
Summer 2025

Classic Rock
THE GREAT ESCAPE
The human experience is hard. One of life's pleasures for Eureka Machines is “having these little tunes, at gigs, that give people a couple of hours to get out of their heads”.
7 mins
Summer 2025

Classic Rock
Battlesnake
They often perform in just underwear, they like to live dangerously on stage, they dig chaos, bombast, the Bible's stories...
3 mins
Summer 2025

Classic Rock
LIVE AND DANGEROUS
On a summer's day in 1985, some of the biggest names in rock and pop came together to perform at the USA leg of Live Aid. Despite the flood of goodwill and camaraderie, the lead-up to the event wasn't without some clashes of the titans.
12 mins
Summer 2025

Classic Rock
Buckcherry
Frontman Josh Todd's mea culpa gave the Californian rockers their biggest radio hit, with a song that music fans of all stripes can identify with and which has brought many to tears.
4 mins
Summer 2025

Classic Rock
King Diamond
The Danish shrieker returns with “a horror show set to music”.
2 mins
Summer 2025

Classic Rock
The Who Asked Zak To "Lie"
Daltrey and Townshend bring in a new Who drummer.
1 min
Summer 2025