Why run marathons if you’re going to cheat? Why play music if you don’t respect it enough to give it the “straight-ahead” approach? Such is the philosophy of Martin Barre, longtime Jethro Tull guitarist, who both runs marathons and plays music.
“When I was running a marathon in Paris (recently),” I noticed there were other runners who were cutting corners, and I wondered, why?" mused Barre. "You’re not going to win the race, so why put in all that preparation to make the race shorter by a few hundred yards?”
The guitarist/songwriter is on his way to Barrie next week where he will play the Mady Centre on Dunlop Street West, and communicate that love of music he’s always had to fans in these parts. And the fact he’s passed the “Big 7-0” does not deter him in any way.
“I believe in keeping the flag flying,” he laughed. “I love music, which is, to me, eternal, infinite, and I’ll continue playing until somebody tells me to just shut up.”
Fat chance of that happening. Album sales for Barre and Tull have exceeded 60 million, and his work continues to be played worldwide. His career has never been restricted by the fame he found in Jethro Tull. He’s jammed with the likes of Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.
Like many other bands of the day, Jethro Tull were called “progressive” something which, to Barre, denotes a kind of snobbery and pretence.
“Tull was called ‘the thinking man’s rock band,’ which kind of made me shudder. We were probably too clever for our own good, fiddling with time signatures and what not, rather than just playing it straight down the line, which I prefer.”
Another aspect of music Barre always shoots for with his guitar playing: diversity, “changes in feel, changes of rhythm – not just blues, not just rock, but things that give the audience something it otherwise was never going to get.”
His latest effort, Back to Steel, came out two years ago. And Martin refuses to be cornered into naming any one of the 15 tracks featured on the CD as his favourite.
“I like to play the album in its entirety,” he continues, adding that the strength of each of the songs has been proven by how they’ve been received when played live. He concedes, though, that if there’s any one tune that typifies the album, it’s the title track.
One more thing he tends to shy away from is playing tracks from the Jethro Tull days for their obvious applause-catching effect. Aqualung, which came out in 1971, is an example of that.
“I respect it and its power, but I’ve since then sidelined it, trying not to attach may name to it (too closely). This way, we don’t have to worry about the audience going crazy when they hear the first few bars.”
His caution is understandable: Aqualung is considered as memorable in rock history as Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple), Satisfaction (Rolling Stones), and Hotel California (Eagles). Barre is anxious that his past work might divert attention from what he’s up to now.
His immediate future plans include Barrie, a city he knows only by reputation, but which provides him with a warm sense of anticipation, particularly the intimacy of the Mady Centre.
“I love Canada,” he declares brazenly, having lived for long stretches in British Columbia. “I love being in a place that’s so down-to-earth that you can talk to folks in the first row.”
Martin Barre rocks the Mady Centre, 1 Dunlop Street West, Thursday, April 13, starting at 7:30 p.m.
Find tickets and information here.
