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Bent has written this text about his relationship with JT and the process of covering the song:
“Jethro Tull is a band that made a niche of their own. And pretty much stayed there. They caused a rash of flautists to take up space on stage with more heavy folk-rock bands than you could shake a stick at around 1972, before permanently going out of fashion a couple of years later. Huge in influence for a brief time and much loved by some, they were equally derided and scorned by others. Wonderfully original musical iconoclasts, like The Dead, Rush and a select few other True Legends of 70s rock, Jethro Tull’s orneriness and sense of self-sufficient control rang as true as Fugazi’s 20 years later, and have been as great an inspiration to Motorpsycho over the years.
My personal Tull window pretty much shuts after A Passion Play. Not because there is a big change in the music, more because the ambition and self-confidence seemed to receede and diminish around that time. Along with the hair (someone should do something on Ian Anderson as a modern day Samson. Now, there’s a concept album!). A lead vocalist seemingly perpetually in selfdefense mode isn’t really sexy, much less cool, and from the mid-70s on, they somehow just seemed like bitter and serious men in search of some kind of validation, no matter how humorous and light they tried to appear.
But from 69 to 74 their roll was immaculate. If you ask me for favourite albums, I am torn between Stand Up and Thick as a Brick, but there’s a freshness and a humour in all this early stuff that is all really smart and really good.
It’s a pity they stayed curmudgeons when they first went down that road, and never eased off to became jolly old men instead, like they should’ve. They deserved to, because generations of weirdos love their strangely delightful music and that’s the best validation you can ever hope for in this business. Everything else you can buy, but a fan’s love is pure and true. And if that in itself isn’t enough, you’re in the wrong business, mate. Is there maybe more truth and self-awareness in the Aqualong character than we thought after all?
‘Up to me’ is a quirky acoustic number on Aqualung, and for me one of many highlights on a great album. We first tried to play it like we thought an electric Tull might’ve done it in 1971, but it just sounded respectful and flat – their decision to do it acoustically seemed a better one than ever before to us after trying for ourselves – but fooling around with a drum-machine and doing a less Geezer Butlery bass line than Cornick or Hammond-Hammond would’ve seemed to solve the issue. We eventually ended up with this frantic take that manages to blend our first impulse to something far more modern, and hopefully avoids becoming retro-for-the-sake-of-it and ‘too true to the original’ like many covers tend to do when you love the original too much.
So in the spirit of the original J.T. – at least it’s different!” – Bent Sæther/Motorpsycho
Looks like the boys have to find a new distributor.
My band released our first album last Friday.
It’s quite eclectic, but could probably be classified as progressive rock, with ventures into «jazzish» pop.
This might be slightly off-topic, but the Vimeo user "Bernie's Basement" has added high quality live footage from the "Here Be Monsters"-tour, if you were not aware.
Here's the link to the first part (Sleepwalking, Lacuna/Sunrise & Running With Scissors).
