Figuring It Out: “Teacher” by Jethro Tull

With Jethro Tull you’ve got to separate the wheat from the chaff, but that’s partly because they’ve put out a ton of music and are still doing it. Ian Anderson is 77 and they’ve got a new album out March 7 of this year.

“Teacher” is about gurus and quacks, an implicit dig at the Beatles/Maharishi phenomenon. It’s one of their best, most soulful songs, imho, from the album Benefit. I kept hearing this melody and rhythm but I couldn’t place it, didn’t know or remember the title. When I finally tracked it down I got to work.

The original key of A was too high vocally so I went down a whole step to G and used drop-D tuning. I also decided on something I’ve never done before: overdub the vocal. It was sheer necessity, too difficult to pull off while playing. Pretty tough for my voice even in the lower key, but I took my time and got something passable from about three different takes.

Interestingly, Jethro Tull recorded “Teacher” first in the UK and then redid it, vastly improved (imho), for the American market. The American one is what I heard on FM radio growing up, so maybe I’m just used to it and can’t hear the UK version as anything but odd.

Here’s the video, hope you enjoy!