The two albums that “carved the path” to prog rock, according to Ian Anderson

Posted On August 18, 2024August 18, 2024

Towards the end of the 1960s, Ian Anderson and his entourage, Jethro Tull, took heed of recent departures from rock ‘n’ roll convention and took yet another step into the creative abyss. With Anderson taking lead vocals and nailing quirky flute solos, Jethro Tull hollowed out a niche on the musical vanguard with a markedly eclectic sound ranging from an early attachment to the blues to jazz fusion and contemporary psychedelia.

Their name, derived from that of an 18th-century English agricultural pioneer, suggests that Jethro Tull liked to celebrate history and tradition. They exhibited this aspect of their being in their music by blending the traditional sounds of jazz and the blues under a modern guise. This approach, which became increasingly popular throughout the 1970s, would underpin much of the creative output of the so-called prog-rock wave. 

With their grounding in blues-rock, Jethro’s stylistic evolution into a nuanced jazz-fusion behemoth traced the convoluted path from psychedelic rock to prog-rock. The path is convoluted for several reasons: firstly, neither subgenre is well defined beyond general eclecticism and extravagance. Additionally, the psychedelic rock wave diffused into several offspring subgenres, including glam rock, art rock and heavy metal, which were, too, rather loose descriptors. Some bands, such as Led Zeppelin and Roxy Music, could be put under two or more of these banners.

Still, as musicologists and journalists, we must have names for things. For the sake of ease, prog-rock can be described as the natural continuation of psychedelia, just without the colourful paisley shirts and not quite so much LSD. As far as Anderson and many other rock fans are concerned, Pink Floyd and The Beatles defined the path to prog-rock better than any of their contemporaries.

Following the British invasion of the American charts, London became the global headquarters for rock ‘n’ roll evolution. The bustling city housed all the greats of the time, from The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. In 1967, the most psychedelic year of the psychedelic period, Jimi Hendrix released his debut album, Are You Experienced, Cream released their masterpiece Disraeli Gears, The Rolling Stones joined in with Their Satanic Majesties Request, The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pink Floyd debuted with The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

If we take 1967 as ground zero for prog-rock, all of the above-listed albums could be described as prescient of prog, with the jazzy rhythms of Cream and Hendrix and the orchestral extravagance of Sgt. Pepper and Their Satanic Majesties Request. As far as Anderson is concerned, however, just two of these albums were crucial to the development of prog.

Intriguingly, the two albums Anderson picked out for special praise were recorded at around the same time at Abbey Road Studios, London. “There were two seminal albums in 1967 that carved a path for people like me in the progressive pop context,” Anderson told Classic Rock in 2021. “One was The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, of course, and the other was an altogether more surreal and progy affair, Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn.”

Anderson was 19 years old when he heard both albums for the first time and was inspired by the bands’ innovative compositions, which defied genre classification. “Both albums took elements from lots of different sources and used them in colourful, creative ways,” he noted. Indeed, how can one forget the marvel that was ‘A Day in the Life’? A bizarre yet accessible song that blends two different lyrical tones on either side of an orchestral crescendo. Pink Floyd, for their part, launched listeners into unprecedented cosmic territory with ‘Astronomy Domine’ and ‘Interstellar Overdrive’.

Like most prog-rockers, Anderson takes Sgt. Pepper is his bread-and-butter blueprint, but has much more to say for the promising Pink Floyd debut. “For me, the Pink Floyd album had more meaning. The Beatles were a pop group, so I thought their stuff was a bit contrived, a bit twee,” he opined. “I liked the singer-songwriter element to Floyd more. Syd Barrett’s songs were strange and funny, and they perfectly complemented the radical, druggy instrumental stuff the band did. You saw pictures and presented them with words and sound rather than as paintings.”

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