Ian Anderson's voice

The last JT album that featured Anderson with vocals intact was the dreaded Under Wraps album from 1982. After that, he reportedly blew out his vocal chords and, sadly, never recovered his voice.

WARNING! BORING OLD MUSICIAN POST! IA's voice started to lose it's top end (and to be fair-and I do love Tull-Ian never had a large vocal range anyway. Just about two octaves, and he (almost) never sang in his lowest octave-(E below middle C to e just above mid.C (written, not actual pitch)) around Stormwatch. He encountered massive throat problems (due to excessive smoking and poor breath control-remember breath control from singing and breath control from playing flute are two different techniques) during the Under Wraps tour and never recovered. It worsened on the Crest Of A Knave tour, and when I saw them on th Rock Island tour his voice was pretty thin...The last time I saw them was in the late '90s (I think...early aughts, maybe?) On a double bill with ELP...and it was a shock...IA could no longer hold any note for more than a few seconds. Mostly rewritten instrumental versions of songs with a LOT of (unrecognizable) flute parts and very little vocals. Then there was Keith Emerson's 2 finger+thumb only keyboard playing, and Greg Lake's voice made IA (now, yet) sound like Tony Bennett ...but that's another topic...

Metalmarsh89 wrote: A good diet and healthy living habits really help keep a singing voice intact for many, many years. Some people are blessed with an amazing voice that not only sounds amazing, but continues to do so for decades. Unfortunately, not all singers are this lucky, so if they pursue the life of heavy drinking and/or smoking, there are great risks down the road. I remember reading an article/interview with James LaBrie of Dream Theater on this topic, and him explaining what he does to keep his voice in top shape.As for what is going on with Ian Anderson's voice, I haven't a clue. I haven't listened to anything he's sung after the early 90's studio stuff. If he is/was a heavy chain smoker as some have stated here, than I don't find it at all surprising that lifestyle has come back to bite him.

James LaBrie is a huge model of consistancy for my ears. I hear he drinks alkaline solutions to sooth his throat! Pretty interesting. He is one of my gods for sure. Really like Ray Alder as well. His voice has really matured nicely over the years. :)

I was at the TAAB2 tour too, and his voice was quite weak actually, he couldn't sing almost any high pitched note, but he's still a great flute player and entertainer...

I've always thought that Ian's voice, from 87 until recently, suffered, more because of his breathing than his actual singing (not sure if I made myself clear here...)

Listen to Locomotive Breath Live, for instance (on recent tours); It looks like he's having troubles catching his breath..

I remember Ian's voice was fairly coarse (not hoarse) sounding on the Rock Island tour.

Lizzy wrote: I know he had a throat surgery around the Crest of a Knave era, but he might have had another one around Heavy Horses, because he did have serious throat issues back then as well. I would blame a lot of his voice changes (he's the only singer I can think of at the moment who sounds different on every single album he's on) on the fact that he was a chain smoker, and his vocal chords possibly being more sensitive than others'. But these are mere speculations, of course.

Has their been some degeneration in awesomeness in Mr. Anderson's voice?? I've not heard him of late, so let me know dear prog brothers and sisters. :)

I suspect old age may have something to do with it as well, the same as Dylan, McCartney etc.

I saw Tull a few years back and his voice was quite bad. Still plays a mean flute though.. It was a great show otherwise.

His voice was showing some strain in the 80's. They supported Marillion at a big open air show at Milton Keynes (1985/86?) I remember recording Tulls set off the radio and thinking that his voice was pretty bad back then, on some of the songs.