1699 Ian Anderson - Banker Bets, Banker Wins
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| From: Thick as a Brick 2: Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock; Year: 2012; Genre: Progressive Rock |
This is the first proper concept album released by 'Tull or Mr. Anderson in over thirty years; depending on your personal definition of what a concept album is. Being this year marks the 40th anniversary of the original TAAB album Ian Anderson decided to revisit the character he created back then: Gerald "Little Milton" Bostock and made an album based on the 'what ifs' in the life of this fictitious character 40 years on. In the first part of the album, Divergence, he explores five possible life routes for the young childhood prodigy: a banker, a homeless man, a clergyman, a military man, and an ordinary Joe; with each one being explored with two songs. The second section of the album, Convergence, contains the album's final four songs, which deal with the destiny of Gerald in these five 'what ifs.' However, in the interview that came with the album I bought Ian Anderson stated that in his mind he saw him becoming a politician even though he didn't cover that 'what if' in the album.
What is really neat about the album is that they continued with whole fake newspaper idea that made the original album's cover, however, to keep with the times this time it's a website instead of The St. Cleve Chronicle newspaper. They actually made a website to go along with the album, you can find their St. Cleve.com website here.
Overall, the sound is more or less exactly what I expected: a mix between that hard-driving 70's prog sound from when Thick as a Brick came out and Ian Anderson's newer, more eclectic world music sound. Many of the songs on the album actually play on some of the musical themes of the original and thus establishes a connection between the two albums even though they were released 40 years apart. I really like how they made the Hammond organ a musical centerpiece alongside the electric guitar, which again harkens back to the older sound.
One of the downsides to this album is that both Martin Barre and Doane Perry were absent from the recording, which means it isn't a proper 'Tull release and instead an Ian Anderson solo album. However, in reality it might as well be a Jethro Tull album; even on the front of the album it's labeled "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson Thick as a Brick 2." My thoughts on it are that with both Ian Anderson and Martin Barre being busy with their side bands they didn't want a repeat of what happened in 1980 when "A" went from being a solo album to a Jethro Tull album, and thus leaving the other members not on the album out in the cold so to speak.
Anyway, this song comes from the Gerald as a Banker section of the album and was one of the first songs that caught my attention and was the first I went back and listen to again. This is one of the songs in my opinion that has a good balanced between the current 'Tull sound and that of 40 years ago. I love this song's nice steady hard-driving rhythm; Florian Opahle's guitar playing really shines on this track along with John O'Hara's keyboards.
Damn, now that was a wall of text!
Hear Banker Bets, Banker Wins on YouTube.
My song pick a year ago today: Ugly Kid Joe - Cat's in the Cradle
My song pick two years ago today: Steeleye Span - Sails of Silver
My song pick three years ago today: Duran Duran - Electric Barbarella
My song pick four years ago today: Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
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