Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die!
| Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! | ||||
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| Studio album by Jethro Tull | ||||
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Publication |
1976 |
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| Label (s) | Chrysalis | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
10 + 2 |
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running time |
41:55 (LP) |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
Maison Rouge Mobile Studio |
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Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! is the ninth studio album by the progressive rock band Jethro Tull .
album
The concept album is about the fictional person Ray Lomas , an older rock musician who rebels against current trends. The majority of the songs were initially written by the head of the group, Ian Anderson, with David Palmer for a stage play, which was ultimately not realized. Palmer wrote the orchestral arrangement for From A Dead Beat To An Old Greaser and played the saxophone. The album also featured Maddy Prior as a background singer in Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die and Angela Allen ; the latter sang with Big Dipper and Crazed Institution .
Lyrics and comics
The continuous plot on which the lyrics are based is illustrated by a two-page comic on the inside of the fold-out cover of the long-playing record. However, the lyrics printed on the back of the album do not give all the details of the plot of the comic. Sometimes they deal with other topics. In the comic , Crazed Institution stands for the Horrids department store (meaning Harrods ), while the corresponding song is a song about glam rockers who have strayed from reality. All song titles are in red in the comic text, plus the title Living in the Past from the earlier album of the same name , while the rest of the text is black.
Content of the comic
Ray Lomas, an aging, little-heeled rocker, wins a washing machine at a quiz show. However, he notes that society has changed over time. He meets a young woman named Salamander , whom he finds interesting because of her bust size. She invites him to a party. First they steal an empty taxi, drive around and think about each other.
Ray is fascinated by Salamander's optical charms, but she is not interested in him because she thinks he is a "working class lout". They stop in front of a pub and Salamander puts Ray off for eight o'clock because she wants to freshen up and says that she wants to meet him there later. He goes to the pub, orders a beer and a bitter bitters. There he is approached by an old friend. They talk for an hour until Ray tells him that the friend lives in the past. Then Ray leaves the pub and waits outside for Salamander, who moves him so that he goes to his hotel disappointed.
The next day he decides to go back to his hometown and dreams of old times while driving, when he was called big dipper (German for “roller coaster”) because he had numerous women acquaintances back then.
However, he is still mocked at home for his looks. So he decides to take a ride on his old motorcycle, which he affectionately calls Doris (a Triumph Bonneville ). During this trip he thinks about what is happening, is annoyed that he is no longer trendy, which means that he is unable to concentrate and drives far too fast in the rain. This ends in an accident that puts him in a coma for a long time. During this time there is another generation change by the fictional music group Norton and the Wheelies , who revive the style of the 1950s.
When Ray wakes up from a coma, his style is back in style and he looks younger because of the necessary surgeries. The consequence of this is that the young women are interested in him again. After taking a woman for a spin on his motorcycle, he invites her to his home and they end up in bed. There is a knock at the door and Ray receives a telegram : a record company offers him a record deal that will make him a pop star.
effect
The title track Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die was initially hotly debated in England, as some critics took it as a personal statement by Anderson. Ian Anderson said he didn't want to write an autobiography of himself as an aging songwriter.
The album peaked at number 25 in the UK and number 14 in the US. At Allmusic the album received three out of five possible points.
Track list
Original edition
page A
- Quizz Kid (5:07)
- Crazed Institution (4:45)
- Salamander (2:49)
- Taxi Grab (3:51)
- From a Dead Beat to an Old Greaser (4:07)
Side B
- Bad-Eyed and Loveless (2:11)
- Big Dipper (3:32)
- Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die (5:39)
- Pied Piper (4:29)
- The Checkered Flag (Dead Or Alive) (5:25)
Extra title
The revised CD also contains these two tracks:
- A Small Cigar (3:39)
- Strip Cartoon (3:19)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b See Jethro Tull portrait at Allmusic
- ↑ a b allmusic.com, accessed on August 9, 2010
- ↑ Front cover and comic from Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! ( Memento of August 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on August 4, 2010.
- ↑ Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! in the UK charts
- ↑ Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! on the Billboard 200
- ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000651880 accessed on August 4, 2010