u/eric-dolecki

Their very best. I can’t believe it didn’t make the Broadsword album. What a prolific period of writing. Do many amazing songs that didn’t make that album.

So I’m recently unemployed and I have a few interviews. However, my in both eyes are near 85% which means reading Mail is almost impossible. Everything is in dark mode. I have to use magnifying glasses, which I can make work if I work at home. I know not to bring this up right away with people interviewing me. I can worry about it later. However, I just discovered that my surgery is not until the middle of August. That’s a long time to wait. I lack confidence and a smooth ability to actually work because of the cataracts. I’m in a pickle do I just wait it out have the surgery and then worry about getting a job or do you think that employers might be OK hiring someone that has to work at home for a month or two before they can come into the office.?

Lights go down. Spotlight on keyboards. Geddy walks up.

“For our fallen brother…”

They play Available Light. Video tribute behind them. Not of Neil playing. Laughing with stage crew. Driving. Smoking. Hiking. Living.

Not a dry eye in the house. Then they rip into something uplifting.

Years ago I saw Ian perform thick as a brick and thick as a brick 2 from the front row in Worcester Massachusetts. In fact, I was sitting in a chair on the actual stage with no one to my left or to my right about 4 feet away from Ian at the microphone and I swear the entire concert felt like it was played solely for me. I knew the words to every lyric and Ian winked at me in agreement as I sang along at the top of my lungs for the entire night and to this day outside of any rush concert I’ve ever been to it was the most fantastic experience I may ever experience.

I’ve heard it a billion times. After Geddy sings about the space he invades he plays the Space Invaders theme. I had no idea after all these years.

I would much appreciate an album of instrumental material. Material that harkens to chamber music, folk, acoustic, and earthy works that make me think of thatched huts around a fire in a mossy wood. Ian can still certainly write compelling and wonderful lyrics, he just cannot sing them. And talking over the music does the music no favors.

In a perfect world maybe AI can be trained on his previous vocal recordings and then made to repair his own voice in the studio - but that would fall down in live settings. I wouldn't mind hearing new material with Ian's previous magnificent pipes even if synthetic.

Short of that, Ian is still a masterful song writer, flautist, and guitar player. He is the world's bard. And we all know how painful it's been to hear the struggles in attempts to convey singing material. I think Ian could produce a whole new set off Tull instrumentals that somehow composed a suite to a concept and we'd all be quite happy with it.

End of my useless thought 😄