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First Time Listen/Reaction to Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day by JETHRO TULL | Ep. 933

Doug Helvering

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#jethrotull #skatingaway

In this #throwbackthursday edition of #thedailydoug, I'm sharing my reaction and first-time listen to Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day by Jethro Tull. This selection won our January Fan Favorites Poll, and I was pleased to see that (even all the way back in the 1970's) artists were aware and fearful for our changing climate. It's a spunky little song, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Reference Video: Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Da...

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20 Comments

@jc3745 1 year ago

Jethro Tull - one of the most interesting bands of the 70's. Music and lyrics that begged you to listen closer and think about it.

@thelonesomefisherman7425 1 year ago (edited)

My first rock concert was in 1975 and was Jethro Tull, they opened with Skating Away. Ian came onstage in disguise and said Tull couldn't perform that night and that his band would be performing instead. A groan was heard from the audience, and then they started playing Skating Away. 😂

I always interpreted the song as being about life. We get out of bed each day and go Skating Away On The Thin Ice of A New Day, hoping that the ice doesn't break beneath us that day.

I was 15 in 1975.

@Titus9508 1 year ago

Something of sheer beauty. My first proper gig was Jethro Tull on the 'Songs from the Wood' tour, unprovoked the entire audience sang 'Skating Away' to projected lyrics and a bouncing ball spotlight on the words. Deep joy!

@thomassharmer7127 1 year ago

For very many Brits the day begins before anything else with making a cup of tea. So the sound effects make sense in terms of the lyric about tentatively starting a new day.

@Alden61 1 year ago

War Child is a criminally underated album. It's actually a very good Tull album from beginnig to end with a distinctive sound to it.

@davemiii 1 year ago (edited)

I always felt that the electric guitar was intended to be a discordant kind of jarring contrast / counterpoint to the lighter acoustic instruments, analogous to how we are doing the best we can despite life's jarring realities pushing in on us. At both points the lyrics go "As you cross the wilderness suspended in the empiness you feel you have to pray, Looking for a sign
that the universal mind (God) has written you into the Passion Play." (ie why are we here?) then "Do you ever get the feeling that the story's too damn real and in the present tense? Or that everybody's on the stage, and it seems like you're the only person sitting in the audience?". I also always felt the tea bit was him blithely whistling while he prepared to go out and face a new harrowing day, i.e skate away on the thin ice of a new day. Will he fall through?

@markferrett700 1 year ago

Another JT classic......once again the lyrics are steeped in ancient pagan folklore. Beautiful piece of music.

@tkengathegrateful4844 1 year ago (edited)

This song never made me think of climate change. I always heard "the thin ice of a new day" as a metaphor for our very precarious hold on this thing we call life. The tea and humming in the beginning reinforces how much of life is just quotidian tasks like making a cup of tea - at the beginning of a new day perhaps. But we can still hum a tune sometimes.

@WooBino. 1 year ago

I love how each instrument is introduced one by one until the bass comes in and completes the band.

@berniekellman405 7 months ago

Pleasure to watch and listen. Great comments about a great song by the best music group of all time, period.

@stevemd6488 1 year ago

The intro is a representation of him starting the new day

@mikemitton6447 1 year ago

You need to hear this song from their live album Bursting Out! One of the best Live Albums ever!

@nicoladolby2154 1 year ago

Skating Away was originally meant for A Passion Play. If you listen to the full 90 minute version, it's in there. 😀

@PamelaW-t8y 1 year ago

I've loved this song since it first came out. I played this song a lot recently and in those first few months after my husband passed away. For me, at that time, it tended to give me some courage and optimism to face a new future.

@torchape 1 year ago

I saw Jethro Tull in Savannah in 1975 on their War Child tour. During Skating Away, at the line "You're a rabbit on the run," a guy in a rabbit suit hopped across the stage. For the intro to the song "Bungle in the Jungle," a couple guys in a zebra suit came on stage, running around. The guitarist Martin Barre grab the rope around the zebra's neck and led him out the left stage extension toward the crowd. Barre turned the zebra around, lifted its tail, and a red ball popped out of the zebra's ass. Barre caught it and then caught two more that popped out. The zebra trotted off and Barre began juggling the balls! The song started and we all got loud. One of the most memorable concerts I've ever seen!!

@James-c8s9z 1 year ago

One of my all time TULL favorites❤😊

@feedingravens 1 year ago

I met someone on a friend's party (here in the Munich area who was ice-skating (when our lakes still froze). He said with persuasion "The best time to skate is in the early morning, on the smooth ice that has formed overnight at the marging to the open water.

I just thought that I would not want to gamble with my life this way, and eventually endanger lives of others with my recklessness.

And a few weeks ago thete was a case where indian people walked out on a frozen lake in the bavarian alps (which was forbidden) and broke in.

What was astounding is how good the other people reacted - no trained rescue people, just other tourists. They seem to have instantly evaluated how they can get out on the ice safe, and someone saw an inflatable rib lying around, and they pushed that out, being pretty safe that way, and fished them all out.

Just came to my mind when I saw that title...

@gurulimbo 1 year ago

My favorite Jethro Tull song. Used as my original status when I started my FB page.
🤛😎👍✌️🤟🤙
🔥🌳🌬️💨

@ixeyeb 1 year ago

When the line, "You're a Rabbit on the run" comes in, and the bass guitar comes in for the 1st time. It just hits so perfectly!! The volume always gets turned up then!

@davidmckenzie420 1 year ago

Ian Anderson is a God in the Prog genre. Composer, musician, lyricist, performer...Awesome. So glad I go to see Tull on their Passion Play tour mid-70's. And they did half of Thick as a Brick too. AWESOME.