As Martin Barre reflects with a wry smile, the late 60s were a glorious time to be a square peg. Formed in Blackpool as reluctant blues-boomers, under the de facto leadership of frontman Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull soon outgrew those roots, turning heads across London with their splice of classical, folk and chirruping flute. Defying both the strictures of genre and the pleas of their record label, by 1971 the band had released Aqualung, the classic fourth album that stands as a monument to a time when artists, not their paymasters, held the creative reins.
"We were lucky because we were left to our own devices," considers the Birmingham-born guitarist, now a wry and tack-sharp 77 year old who pulls each memory from Aqualung's long-distant sessions as if it were yesterday. "I don't know if that will ever happen again.
It was a whole different dynamic back then, a whole different game. I'm really proud of having been through that era, and survived it, and got so much from it."
Where did Jethro Tull find yourselves when the band started work on Aqualung?
"Stand Up [1969, the follow-up to debut album, This Was] had been the breakthrough album, and then Benefit [1970] was a little easier, knowing we had the formula right. Coming back to England to record Aqualung after playing all around the world, we were road-toughened.
So I would say the first three albums, we were just finding ourselves. I think Aqualung was the turning point where the music became intricate, more detailed, and needed more input from everybody. But like all albums, we didn't know what was going to happen.
It developed from nothing, from real basics."
How were the band members feeling each other out at that point?
"I think we were all developing, learning how to play.
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