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Talk Tull to Me - a weekly Jethro Tull deep dive

Sleeping with the Dog

·59 min·5 clips
Omin and Nick launch their prog-rock deep dive with a dog-themed parody of Jethro Tull's lineup.
The episode opens with hosts Omin Thomas Saeed and Nick McGill introducing their podcast 'Talk Tull to Me' through a canine-themed parody of Jethro Tull's music and members. They announce the song of the week: 'Sleeping with the Dog', a bonus track from the 1991 album 'Catfish Rising'. Initial impressions describe the song as sultry, sad, sexy, and bluesy, typical of the album. The hosts analyze the musical elements, highlighting the 'gamey' bass opener by David Pegg, the keyboards by guest John 'Rabbit' Bundrick, and the flute parts. They note the song's time signature, debating whether it's in 3/4 or 6/8, which creates a feeling of being both lugubrious and up-tempo. The discussion shifts to the album art for 'Catfish Rising', which Ian Anderson reportedly dislikes for being too dark to sign. Listener emails are read, including one from Greggy K. about Ian Anderson smoking a hand-rolled cigarette during the Rock Island tour, and another from Folky Phil with a ChatGPT-generated cast list for a hypothetical Jethro Tull movie. The hosts then delve deeply into the lyrics of 'Sleeping with the Dog', interpreting the title as referencing the phrase 'sleeping in the doghouse'. They analyze verses that depict a complex relationship, with lines like 'her tongue like a viper' and 'soft touch like brushed velvet'. Initially seen as a song about a chaotic marriage, they reinterpret it as a self-effacing critique of the singer's own failures as a partner. The episode concludes with promotional content for their Patreon and a humorous skit about men being kicked out to a doghouse.

As heard by us

A dark cover, odd liner-note credits, and a doghouse detour make album packaging unexpectedly entertaining.

The episode turns Jethro Tull album packaging into a comic bit of close reading. Its attention stays on the dark cover, Ian's dislike of it, and the practical difficulty of finding a place to sign it, then shifts into sleeve-credit jokes about hair, instruments, and Martin…

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Why you'd press play

Press play when you want a dark album sleeve examined with a straight face that keeps collapsing.

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