Tuesday 8 November 2022

Music I Like, #8: Rare and Precious Chain, by Jethro Tull

One of the mindblowing things about teaching university students in the year of Our Lord 2022 is that many of them are too young to remember a world without social media. Meanwhile, I was a few years younger they are now when Youtube was becoming a Big Thing, and I remember the first time I encountered a fan vid for a TV show. The combination of music and clips from the show was absolutely perfect.

The song was Jethro Tull's 'Rare and Precious Chain' and the TV show was Robin of Sherwood. Such a good show, such an excellent song. Here it is.

 

I should also add: rather unusually for a rock band, Jethro Tull includes a flutist (the flute part is one of key ingredients that make this song so excellent). My mother is a professional flutist and I grew up reading her Flute Talk magazines. One of their issues in the early 2000s had a fabulous profile of the flutist of Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson. He seemed amused and delighted to be speaking about his music and career to a bunch of classical musicians.

NB: I'm trying to make sure that all the recordings I'm sharing are from the artists' official channels or have been licensed to Youtube by their record companies--that way they make money from engagement with videos and ad revenue (also, it respects their copyright rights as creators!) However, I want to share the Robin of Sherwood fanvid that introduced me to this song because I enjoy how the creator of the video has matched lyrics and footage from the show. Here it is.

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