Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Released:
July 14, 2009
Label:
Eagle Rock
Rating:
Styles:
Blues-Rock
Hard Rock
Prog-Rock/Art Rock
Art Rock
Album Rock
Arena Rock
Perhaps there haven't been that many live Tull albums -- as Ian Anderson points out in his liner notes, it's been ten years since the last, and there were only two prior to that -- but there sure have been a lot of Tull titles that play with the phrase "Living in the Past," so it's easy to forgive less dedicated fans if they decide that they might have heard the Fuel 2000 release Living with the Past before. But they haven't -- it's a collection of new live recordings from 2001, largely taken from a performance at London's Hammersmith Apollo in November 2001. What makes this particular live performance noteworthy is that they bring back several original members -- Mick Abrahams, Glen Cornick, Clive Bunker, and Dave Pegg -- for guest appearances in something that will surely delight longtime followers of the band, which is really who this disc is aimed at. On that level, this works quite well. Perhaps the sound is a little too clean, with each instrument clearly defined and detailed, and perhaps the performance leans more toward the professional than the inspired, but it's enjoyable all the same, proving that Tull remained a strong live band well over 30 years later -- and for those who have followed them for years, this will be as welcome as a visit from an old friend. [This version also contains a DVD of the 2001 live performance.]
Tull are a musical powerhouse driven by the distinctive flute and wonderfully crafted melodies of Ian Anderson. Living With The Past is the definitive record of Jethro Tull live. T...
Listen to this collection, put together to capitalize on the explosive growth in the group's audience after Aqualung, and it's easy to understand just how fine a group Jethro Tull was in the early '70s. Most of the songs, apart from a few heavily played album tracks ("Song for Jeffrey," etc.) and a pair of live tracks from a 1970 Carnegie Hall show, came off of singles and EPs that, apart from the title song, were scarcely known in America, and it's all so solid that it needs no apology or explanation. Not only was Ian Anderson writing solid songs every time out, but the group's rhythm section was about the best in progressive rock's pop division. Along with any of the group's first five albums, this collection is seminal and essential to any Tull collection, and the only compilation by the group that is a must-own disc. [Caroline's 2008 Japanese edition featured 21 tracks across two CDs.]
Jethro Tull was very much a blues band on their debut album, and this double-CD edition -- restored to its original 1968-vintage mono-mix on the first platter, and augmented there with BBC archive performances recorded for John Peel's Top Gear show, and remixed in 2008 for stereo on the second platter, augmented with chronologically related single- and EP tracks -- shows them as even more of a blues- and roots-oriented outfit. In terms of sound, the original mono version of the album would be worth the price of admission by itself -- at this point, the band (Ian Anderson, Mick Abrahams, Glen Cornick, Clive Bunker) was generating a lean, bluesy hard rock sound that didn't really benefit from stereo mixing as it was done at the time, and the BBC sessions only bear out the simplicity and directness of their sound, with Anderson and Abrahams pushing the group in what were originally compatible directions, into blues and realms of jazz -- fans of Mick Abrahams, incidentally, will have to own this set just for those BBC sides, which showcase his acoustic and electric guitar about as well as they ever could be, and with impressive clarity, as well. Additionally, the BBC version of "Love Story" plunges into some pyrotechnics that the official version only hints at. And on top of the expected songs off the album and related singles, we get "Stormy Monday" and "So Much Trouble" to expand out the repertory legacy of the early band. The second disc offers a new stereo mix that does, indeed, show off the band's strengths in ways that the 1968 version missed -- all of the reverb that was applied to Anderson's voice is gone, and as a result the whole album sounds more realistic. Comparing the two contrasting mixes of the record side by side, this reviewer will take the mono version, but the new stereo mix also sounds very good, if not as essential. There are also new stereo mixes of the single tracks "Love Story" and "Christmas Song," and remastered mono mixes of "Sunshine Day" and "One for John Gee," as well as "Love Story" and "Christmas Song"." This double-disc set is essentially a summing up of the band's first phase in its totality, and in optimum form, accompanied by a well-illustrated booklet that includes observations by all of the original participants, 40 years on. To be sure, this is still not the Jethro Tull that most listeners came to know a few years later on Aqualung etc. -- they're closer in spirit to the Graham Bond Organization or even the Blues Project, with elements of Cream. But as this set keeps reminding us every few seconds, they were still a great band, and one that sold a surprisingly large number of records their first time out, at least in England -- their original sound, showcased here, was that special, even if it started to be supplanted by a folkier, poppier, more commercial brand of music as the sales on the original album had begun to slacken. [An expanded version of the CD was also released.]
Jethro Tull's best album of the 1990s, a surging, hard-rocking monster (at least, compared to anything immediately before or since) that doesn't lose sight of good tunes or the folk sources that have served this band well. The lineup this time out is Ian Anderson on acoustic and electric guitars, flute, and electric and acoustic mandolins, Martin Barre on electric guitar, Doane Perry on drums, Dave Pegg on bass, and Andy Giddings on keyboards. The real difference between this and most of the group's output since the end of the '70s lies in the songs, all of which are approached with serious energy and enthusiasm -- the lyrics are completely forgettable, but for the first time since War Child, the band sounds like they're playing as though their lives depended on it. "Sparrow on the Schoolyard Wall" is at least as good a song as "Bungle in the Jungle" or "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day," and while that ain't exactly "My God," it's still better than most other recent Tull albums have been. "Still Loving You Tonight" and "Sleeping with the Dog" recall the group's blues roots, albeit not quite in bluesy enough fashion. There's still some dross, as there would almost have to be on an hour-long album, but overall this is the group's best album since the end of the '70s. [The 2006 reissue includes two bonus tracks.]
Remastered edition of this 1991 album. Jethro Tull's best album of the 1990s, a surging, hard-rocking monster (at least, compared to anything immediately before or since) that does...
Back to the topNothing Is Easy: Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 (Bonus CD)
Review by Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
Released:
October 04, 2005
Label:
Eagle Vision
Rating:
Styles:
Blues-Rock
Hard Rock
Prog-Rock/Art Rock
Art Rock
Arena Rock
Perhaps the most interesting and insightful of the individual films to come out of Murray Lerner's footage shot at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, Nothing Is Easy is also the most ambitious. Jumping between the 1970 events and a rather droll-humored Ian Anderson recalling the events from 2004, the film gives a lot more than an excellent account of the band's music and stage presentation of that era. We also get a close-up look at the threats of violence and hooliganism that lay beneath the peace-and-love rhetoric of the later-'60s counterculture, as the band finds itself caught in the midst of a confrontation between festival organizers trying to retake control of one sliver of the venue, and attendees -- most of whom crashed the gate -- refusing to cooperate and threatening mayhem. Surprisingly, it all holds together as cinema verite, band retrospective, social commentary, and concert movie, right down to the 15-minute Clive Bunker drum solo. Anderson also gets to explain a few aspects of the band's performing history, such as the mistake printed in a press review that led him to start trying to play the flute standing on one leg. The music holds up well as representative of the band's early sound, and also captures them in transition introducing a new song, "My God," at this performance, which marked their first serious push into progressive rock -- and Anderson's banter in the opening of the song, as he tries to tune up his acoustic guitar, is still very funny, as is his 2004 explanation for the banter. The whole piece is as essential for any Tull fan as any compilation album ever issued, and will prove enlightening to non-fans as well, about more than just the group's history. The full-frame (1.33-to-1) image is in excellent shape, and the sound is good and loud; support materials on the DVD include an array of still photos. [Eagle Rock reissued the DVD in 2005 as a DVD/CD including the previously released CD edition of this concert.]
Jethro Tull was formed in the late 60’s and released their debut album This Was in 1968. Led by charismatic frontman Ian Anderson, they have been touring and recording almost const...
Jethro Tull appears to have had something like an embarrassment of riches when it came to assembling The Broadsword and the Beast -- at least, that's the obvious way of explaining how the 2005 reissue of the 1982 album, drawn from the same sessions, could expand to 68 minutes of material that's mostly of the same quality as what was on the original. The reservations that one felt about the original album still apply here, however -- the album's concept, such as it was, is still elusive; it also seems to have eluded the band as well (which wasn't the first time that happened with this band). The Broadsword and the Beast does still seem to be just a bunch of tunes -- some of them quite nice -- thrown together, rather than a cohesive, coherent narrative. Most of those tunes are also at times played a little too loudly for their own good -- Martin Barre's electric guitars share the spotlight for the first time with Peter-John Vettesse's synthesizers, and Ian Anderson is still playing lilting tunes on his flute and acoustic guitar (when you can hear the latter). There's a little too much of what seems to be loudness for its own sake, as on the opening track, "Beastie" -- as though the members of Tull, going into the middle of the band's second decade (with only Anderson and Barre having extended tenure) seem bent on proving that they can rock as hard as any of the twenty-somethings filling arenas in those days. But on the plus side, the album, and most of its individual tracks -- including "Beastie" etc. -- do represent something very close to the group's live sound, successfully generated in the studio. The two best tracks among the original ten songs, "Broadsword" and "Pussy Willow," don't have too much competition from the bonus tracks, though there's also nothing here to detract from the merits of the original; and folkier numbers such as "Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow" add some needed lyricism. Anderson's annotation fills in some of the production details surrounding the record, and the upgraded sound here will also, undoubtedly, be welcomed by serious fans.
Another Tull Remaster Replete with Original and Restored Sonic Detail and featuring Eight Brilliant Bonus Tracks Recorded at the Same Time as the Original Album Release, but Left O...
Ian Anderson and company seemed to make a conscious effort to update Jethro Tull's sound on this record. And, to the amazement (and distress) of many, it was voted the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Performance. Truth is, it isn't a bad album, with an opening track that qualifies as hard rock and pretty much shouts its credentials out in Martin Barre's screaming lead guitar line, present throughout. "Jump Start" and "Raising Steam" also rock hard, and no one can complain of too much on this record being soft, apart from the acoustic "The Waking Edge," along with "Budapest" and "Said She Was a Dancer," Anderson's two aging rock-star's-eye-view accounts of meeting women from around the world. The antiwar song "Mountain Men" is classic Tull-styled electric folk, all screaming electric guitars at a pretty high volume by its end. Overall, this is a fairly successful album and arguably their best since 1978, even if it does seem a little insignificant in relation to, say, Thick As a Brick. By this time Tull was effectively a core trio of Anderson, Barre, and bassist Dave Pegg, augmented by whatever musicians (drummers Gerry Conway and Doane Perry, Fairport Convention keyboard player Martin Allcock, and violinist Ric Sanders) that they needed to fill out their sound. The result is a very lean-sounding group and a record probably as deserving of a Grammy as any other album of its year -- in the cosmic scheme, it sort of made up for Tull's not winning one for Thick As a Brick or Aqualung, or for Dave Pegg's former band Fairport Convention never winning. [The 2005 reissue of the album includes the bonus track "Part of the Machine".]
The Album that Won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Although Not a Metal Album! this Album Originally Went Gold in the UK after Having Two Videos on Heavy Rotation on MTV. Steel...
Ian Anderson's Walk into Light (1983) was an uncharacteristic venture into the world of drum machines and synthesizers, and was partly a collaboration with keyboardist Peter-John Vettese. The next year the two cut the similar-sounding Under Wraps using the Jethro Tull banner. Most of the work, including drum programming, was done by Anderson in his home studio before guitar and (scant) bass guitar were added. The group members were excited about their latest sounds, which brought a cold edginess to the usual intricate music (the acoustic "Under Wraps No. 2" being one exception). Lyrically, Anderson was letting go of his Olde English façade; here he showed his fascination with Cold War-era espionage. While the British audiences didn't mind the changes, U.S. buyers pretty much hated the album. Compared to the U.S. number 19 position of 1982's The Broadsword and the Beast, Under Wraps never got past number 76. (Crest of a Knave, three years later, shot up to number 33.) The original release had 11 tracks, with "Astronomy," "Tundra," "Automotive Engineering," and "General Crossing" appearing as B-sides and bonus tracks around the world. Now the standard release carries all 15 tracks. [The 2005 reissue adds the video for "Lap of Luxury".]
The 2004 two-disc version of this 1978 double album totals only 15 minutes longer than what can fit on a single CD. Therefore, each platter is about 20 minutes short of its potential playing time. So why not unearth more or different performances from the tour to flesh out the extra space? This is especially annoying because most other Jethro Tull remasters from 2001 onward have done exactly that. Although the sound is sharper and Ian Anderson writes the (rather unnecessary) liner notes, this remains a frustrating release, more for what it could have been than for what it is. Recorded on the tour supporting 1978's Heavy Horses, Tull successfully mix tracks dating back as far as "Sweet Dream" and an abbreviated "New Day Yesterday" with tunes from their less popular material from the bucolic, British folk-based Horses and its similarly themed predecessor, Songs From the Wood. It's a tight, energetic performance showing a terrific band at its best as it shifts from arena-filling hard rock to tricky prog and more sedate fare. Anderson's between-song banter is a little too self-consciously wry, yet it seems like he is at least enjoying himself as he leads this classic version of Tull through its paces like a pro. It's an excellent overview of the band's work through the late '70s, but the 2004 reissue misses the chance to be an even better, more definitive portrait of the group in its prime.
In 1978, Having Already Recorded a Decent Bunch of Interesting and Varied Albums, the Members of Jethro Tull Embarked on a Full European Tour, Deciding to Record Each Show in Order...
Stormwatch, Jethro Tull's 12th studio album, found lead singer/songwriter Ian Anderson (who also played flute as usual, while on most tracks adding bass guitar for the ailing John Glascock) bewailing the greedy, anti-environmental tilt of contemporary governments and corporations, and sternly warning of dire consequences to come. Anderson began with a specific topical concern, the British government's decision to develop the North Sea oil reserves off Scotland, in the opening song, "North Sea Oil." Later songs were more general and poetic, but he carried the theme throughout, celebrating the qualities of nature ("Orion") and home ("Home") before predicting a return to the "Dark Ages." The album's narrator clearly located himself in Scotland, from which he both celebrated ancient traditions and deplored modern trends. These views were set to typical Jethro Tull music, the sort of madrigal folk-rock Anderson and company had been playing for years, and the familiarity of the sound, along with the cranky sentiments, may have contributed to the album's turning out to be a holding action commercially; despite respectable showings in the Top 30, it placed lower in the U.K. and U.S. charts than any of the band's albums in ten years, which is to say that it sold to Jethro Tull's existing fan base and no more. Coming at the end of the 1970s, it also marked the end of a phase in the group's career, with only Anderson and guitarist Martin Barre continuing to later lineups. The 2004 reissue adds four previously released tracks of the period (all drawn from the box set 20 Years of Jethro Tull). The catchy "A Stitch in Time" was a one-off single released the year before Stormwatch appeared, while "Crossword," "Kelpie," and the traditional instrumental "King Henry's Madrigal" are all songs recorded during the Stormwatch sessions but left off the original release, presumably because they don't really contribute to the main part of the album's theme.
Gone are the longtime Anderson images of the vagabond/sage (the group is clad in white jumpsuits on the cover) -- also gone are the historical immersion of their music and anything resembling Dickensian, much less Elizabethan sensibilities. And nearly gone was Jethro Tull itself, for A started life as an Ian Anderson solo project but ended up as a Jethro Tull release, probably for commercial reasons. The difference is probably too subtle for most people to comprehend anyway. It is more reflective than Tull's usual work, but lacks the sudden, loud hard rock explosions that punctuate most of the group's albums. The death of bassist John Glascock in late 1979, and the departure of Anderson's longtime friend John Evans after the release of Stormwatch, as well as the exit of arranger/keyboard player David Palmer, led to some major lineup shifts; Fairport Convention's Dave Pegg's taking over Glascock's spot and the addition of Eddie Jobson (ex-Roxy Music/King Crimson violinist/keyboardist) all seem to have removed some of Anderson's impetus, at least for a time, for keeping the group going in the studio. What finally emerged is the first Tull record not to feature Anderson's acoustic guitar, yet it also has a more balanced sound than any of their prior records. Jobson's arrangements are leaner and more muscular than Palmer's, giving the music a stripped-down sound, a sort of folk-rock (reminiscent of Steeleye Span's All Around My Hat), augmented by synthesizer and electric violin. This somewhat updated Anderson's music and moved him into the art rock category. Released in the midst of the punk/new wave boom in the United States, it didn't do too much for anyone's career, although it probably maintained Anderson's credibility better than any traditional Tull album would have. [This version of the album includes a DVD of bonus material.]
The group's second album, with Ian Anderson (vocals, flute, acoustic guitars, keyboards, balalaika), Martin Barre (electric guitar, flute), Clive Bunker (drums), and Glen Cornick (bass), solidified their sound. There are still elements of blues present in their music, but except for the opening track, "A New Day Yesterday," it is far more muted than on their first album -- new lead guitarist Martin Barre had few of the blues stylings that characterized Mick Abrahams' playing. Rather, the influence of English folk music manifests itself on several cuts, including "Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square" and "Look Into the Sun." The instrumental "Bouree," which could've passed for an early Blood, Sweat & Tears track, became a favorite concert number, with an excellent solo bit featuring Cornick's bass, although at this point Anderson's flute playing on-stage needed a lot of work. As a story-song with opaque lyrics, jarring tempo changes, and loud electric passages juxtaposed with soft acoustic-textured sections, "Back to the Family" is an early forerunner to Thick As a Brick. Similarly, "Reasons for Waiting," with its mix of closely miked acoustic guitar and string orchestra, all hung around a hauntingly beautiful folk-based melody, pointed in the direction of that conceptual piece and its follow-up, A Passion Play. [A Japanese version included bonus tracks.]
Jethro Tull was very much a blues band on their debut album, vaguely reminiscent of the Graham Bond Organization only more cohesive, and with greater commercial sense. The revelations about the group's roots on This Was -- which was recorded during the summer of 1968 -- can be astonishing, even 30 years after the fact. Original lead guitarist Mick Abrahams contributed to the songwriting and the singing, and his presence as a serious bluesman is felt throughout, often for the better: "Some Day the Sun Won't Shine for You," an Ian Anderson original that could just as easily be credited to Big Bill Broonzy or Robert Johnson; "Cat's Squirrel," Abrahams' big showcase, where he ventures into Eric Clapton territory; and "It's Breaking Me Up," which also features some pretty hot guitar from Abrahams. Roland Kirk's "Serenade to a Cuckoo" (the first song Anderson learned to play on flute), their jazziest track ever, is one of the best parts of the album. The drum solo on "Dharma for One" now seems like a mistake, but is understandable in the context of the time in which it was done. The one number here that everybody knows, "A Song for Jeffrey," almost pales amid these surroundings, but at the time it was a superb example of commercial psychedelic blues. This would be the last album of its kind by the group, as Abrahams' departure and the lure of more fertile inspiration tugged them toward English folk music. Curiously, the audio mix here is better than that on their second album, with a much stronger, harder group sound overall. [A Japanese version included bonus tracks.]
The last Jethro Tull album with any ambition beyond getting enough songs together for a full LP and a tour, A Passion Play evoked a violently mixed response from fans and critics alike when it first appeared. In the decades since, it was generally neglected by the record label that owned it as well as most rock historians, until the spring of 2003, when this remastered and expanded version showed up, its first generally available upgrade (a Mobile Fidelity gold-plated audiophile disc had shown up for a short time near the end of that label's existence). It literally runs circles around previous editions of the album, the guitars, keyboards, flute, sax, percussion, and bass all sounding incredibly close and loud, without any of the hiss that marred the earlier Chrysalis CD release, while every nuance of Ian Anderson's singing is evident as though one were listening to his vocal track alone -- indeed, this CD sounds the way this reviewer (who loves this album) always wished the LP could have sounded; when the saxophone comes in on the various musical climaxes and resolutions, it's one of the most vivid appearances of the instrument this side of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man." The annotation by Anderson explains how difficult getting the record together was, though he misses the chance to direct serious listeners to the Nightcap compilation to hear the abortive early sessions. The remastered CD comes with a Quicktime presentation of the four-minute video "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles," which was an integral part of A Passion Play's presentation on-stage; it's a clever and engaging pantomime, involving dancers and actors, that at last makes sense of the audio that one always heard on the LP and earlier CDs. It's all very easy to access and play, even for a computer illiterate like this reviewer. Overall, this release makes all prior editions of the album, including Mobile Fidelity's edition, obsolete and irrelevant.
Track #
Track
Time
Composer
1
A Passion Play, Pt. 1
45:08
Anderson
2
A Passion Play, Pt. 2
23:32
Anderson
3
The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles (Enhanced Video Track)
Digitally remastered reissue of 1973 album includes the enhanced bonus track 'The Story Of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles' & theatre programme (enhanced section taken from the...
This album, which seemed so soft and lyrical in its original CD incarnation, comes to us with some surprisingly sharp edges in its remastered form -- the 24-bit audio allows us to practically hear the action on Ian Anderson's acoustic guitar and puts Barriemore Barlow's drums in the room with us, suddenly giving the whole album the texture of a live recording. Oddly enough, in the case of this album, the result is a roughening of many of the textures to go with closer presence of all of the instruments -- thus, Songs From the Wood ends up sounding a bit more like the Tull albums around it than it previously did. Of the two bonus tracks, "Beltane" is a harder-rocking song than anything on the original LP, while "Velvet Green" keeps to the pastoral mood of the existing album, with a very pleasant melody.
Jethro Tull's 11th studio album is one of their prettier records, a veritable celebration of English folk music chock-full of gorgeous melodies, briskly played acoustic guitars and mandolins, and Anderson's flute lilting in the background, backed by the group in top form. This record is a fairly close cousin to 1977's Songs From the Wood, except that its songs are decidedly more passionate, sung with a rough, robust energy that much of Tull's work since Thick as a Brick had been missing, and surpassing even Aqualung in its lustiness. "No Lullaby" is the signature heavy riff song, a concert version of which opened Live -- Bursting Out. Anderson sings it -- and everything else here -- as though it might be the last line he ever gets to voice, with tremendous intensity. The band plays hard behind him throughout, with lead guitarist Martin Barre (most notably on "Weathercock") and bassist John Glascock showing up very well throughout. Anderson's production and Robin Black's engineering catch their every nuance without sacrificing the delicacy of his acoustic guitar and mandolin playing. "Acres Wild," "Rover," "One Brown Mouse," "Weathercock," and "Moths" (which makes this listener think of a folk version of Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill"), the latter featuring some of David Palmer's most tasteful orchestral arrangements, are among the loveliest songs in the group's entire repertory. Curved Air's Darryl Way plays violin solo on the title track -- a tribute to England's vanishing shire horses, which doesn't really take off until Way's instrument comes in on the break, with a marked tempo change -- and on "Acres Wild." [The 2003 reissue of Heavy Horses contains crisp new remastering, liner notes by Ian Anderson, printed lyrics, lots of pictures of Anderson with horses, and two bonus tracks: "Living in These Hard Times" and "Broadford Bazaar."]
Minstrel in the Gallery was Tull's most artistically successful and elaborately produced album since Thick as a Brick and harkened back to that album with the inclusion of a 17-minute extended piece ("Baker Street Muse"). Although English folk elements abound, this is really a hard rock showcase on a par with -- and perhaps even more aggressive than -- anything on Aqualung. The title track is a superb showcase for the group, freely mixing folk melodies, lilting flute passages, and archaic, pre-Elizabethan feel, and the fiercest electric rock in the group's history -- parts of it do recall phrases from A Passion Play, but all of it is more successful than anything on War Child. Martin Barre's attack on the guitar is as ferocious as anything in the band's history, and John Evan's organ matches him amp for amp, while Barriemore Barlow and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond hold things together in a furious performance. Anderson's flair for drama and melody come to the fore in "Cold Wind to Valhalla," and "Requiem" is the loveliest acoustic number in Tull's repertory, featuring nothing but Anderson's singing and acoustic guitar, Hammond-Hammond's bass, and a small string orchestra backing them. "Nothing at All" isn't far behind for sheer, unabashed beauty, but "Black Satin Dancer" is a little too cacophonous for its own good. "Baker Street Muse" recalls Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play, not only in its structure but a few passages; at slightly under 17 minutes, it's a tad more manageable than either of its conceptual predecessors, and it has all of their virtues, freely overlapping hard rock and folk material, classical arrangements (some of the most tasteful string playing on a Tull recording), surprising tempo shifts, and complex stream-of-consciousness lyrics (some of which clearly veer into self-parody) into a compelling whole. [The November 2002 remastering features vastly improved sound, remastered in state-of-the-art digital audio under the personal supervision of Ian Anderson. The original album tracks have more warmth and presence, which improve it immeasurably, but Anderson also added on five tracks: The haunting "Summerday Sands" and "March The Mad Scientist" (which almost sound like throwbacks to the group's early albums), the flute and orchestra
instrumental "Pan Dance", and live-in-the-studio versions of "Minstrel In The Gallery" and "Cold Wind To Valhalla". All of it simply extends the original LP's range into wider realms of acoustic-textured beauty, and raises the value of the album by a notch above what it was].
24-bit digitally remastered reissue of 1975 album with 5 added bonus tracks Summerday Sands', 'March The Mad Scientist', 'Pan Dance', 'Minstrel In The Gallery' (live) & 'Cold Win...
Back to the topToo Old to Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young to Die! (Bonus Tracks)
Review by Dave Sleger, All Music Guide
Released:
November 05, 2002
Label:
Capitol
Rating:
Styles:
Album Rock
Rock & Roll
Hard Rock
Prog-Rock/Art Rock
Art Rock
This album was summarily dismissed by reviewers, who universally invoked their handbooks of hackneyed "critic speak." Cop-out terms like "indulgent" and "pretentious" were bandied about, employing the popular critic's method of simply discrediting an album due to its concurrent release with the arrival of punk-rock- - as if that were an intellectually sound critique given the virtually unrelated style of Jethro Tull's music. The main knock on this album is the ill-conceived concept involving an aging rock star. That is a valid observation, but what rock concept albums are deserving of literary accolades? Precious few, if any. Lyrical themes notwithstanding, Too Old to Rock 'N' Roll is a fine collection of independent rock songs that marked a return to the classic Tull style carved out on Aqualung and Benefit. Absent here are the muddled epic-length pieces synonymous with Thick As a Brick and A Passion Play, the pop leanings of War Child, and the complexity of Minstrel in the Gallery. So despite being the target of disparaging reviews, this album achieved modest chart success and boasted several quality rockers like "Quizz Kid," "Taxi Grab," and "Big Dipper." Martin Barre's unheralded lead guitar style remains a force, rescuing a couple of tracks from the doldrums. David Palmer's orchestral arrangements are, at times, a bit overblown but this album is far from the colossal disaster it's been portrayed as. Jethro Tull's third bassist John Glascock made his debut on this record, and Maddy Prior makes a guest appearance on the title track. [In October of 2002, EMI issued a remastered and expanded edition of this album, with killer sound and a pair of pleasantly folky, albeit unambitious bonus tracks from the same sessions, "A Small Cigar" and "Strip Cartoon" -- the latter is especially cheerful and will especially please guitar buffs with its mix of Anderson's glittering acoustic guitar and Martin Barre's crunchy electric lead playing.]
As a return to standard-length songs following two epic-length pieces (Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play), it was inevitable that the material on War Child would lack power. The music was no longer quite able to cover for the obscurity of Jethro Tull's lyrics: the title track is reasonably successful, but "Queen and Country" seems repetitive and pointless. "Ladies," by contrast, is one of Tull's folk-based pieces, and one of the prettiest songs on the record, beautifully sung and benefiting from some of Ian Anderson's best flute playing to date. The band is very tight but doesn't get to really show its stuff until "Back-Door Angels," after which the album picks up: "Sealion" is one of Anderson's pseudo-philosophical musings on life, mixing full-out electric playing and restrained orchestral backing, while "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day" is a beautiful, largely acoustic number that was popular in concert. "Bungle in the Jungle," with a title that went over well, got most of the radio play. [War Child was reissued in an upgraded, remastered edition during November 2002, with improved sound and seven bonus tracks recorded during the sessions for the album that add 27 minutes to the original running time. The new tracks include the gently orchestrated instrumental "Warchild Waltz," which is really an overture of sorts, quoting from songs off the finished album and mostly a showcase for conductor/arranger David Palmer and the Philomusica of London chamber orchestra; the instrumental "Quartet," which is exactly what it says, a piece of chamber music for the group with some low-level accompaniment from the orchestra; the slightly rambling electric guitar and flute-driven "Paradise Steakhouse"; the silly sounding but catchy "Sealion 2," which is a worthy follow-up to its previously issued namesake; "Rainbow Blues," which ought to have been released before this, as one of the group's better and more memorable hard rock numbers of the period; the gorgeous, folk-like acoustic guitar-driven "Glory Row," which could have been a single B-side; and the hard, crunchy "Sensation," which is superior to at least a third of the songs on the original LP.]
Benefit was the album on which the Jethro Tull sound solidified around folk music, abandoning blues entirely. Beginning with the opening number, "With You There to Help Me," Anderson adopts his now-familiar, slightly mournful folksinger/sage persona, with a rather sardonic outlook on life and the world; his acoustic guitar carries the melody, joined by Martin Barre's electric instrument for the crescendos. This would be the model for much of the material on Aqualung and especially Thick as a Brick, although the acoustic/electric pairing would be executed more effectively on those albums. Here the acoustic and electric instruments are merged somewhat better than they were on Stand Up (on which it sometimes seemed like Barre's solos were being played in a wholly different venue), and as needed, the electric guitars carry the melodies better than on previous albums. Most of the songs on Benefit display pleasant, delectably folk-like melodies attached to downbeat, slightly gloomy, but dazzlingly complex lyrics, with Barre's guitar adding enough wattage to keep the hard rock listeners very interested. "To Cry You a Song," "Son," and "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me" all defined Tull's future sound: Barre's amp cranked up to ten (especially on "Son"), coming in above Anderson's acoustic strumming, a few unexpected changes in tempo, and Anderson spouting lyrics filled with dense, seemingly profound imagery and statements. As on Stand Up, the group was still officially a quartet, with future member John Evan (whose John Evan Band had become the nucleus of Jethro Tull two years before) appearing as a guest on keyboards; his classical training proved essential to the expanding of the group's sound on the three albums to come. Benefit was reissued in a remastered edition with bonus tracks at the end of 2001, which greatly improved the clarity of the playing and the richness of the sound; the four additional tracks are "Singing All Day," "Witch's Promise," the elegant, gossamer-textured "Just Trying to Be," and the smooth hard rocker "Teacher" -- which had the first truly memorable guitar/flute riff in rock music (or Tull's output). Written and recorded prior to Benefit, they're all lighter in mood than the material from the original album, adding some greater variety but fitting in perfectly on a stylistic level. [The reissue includes four bonus tracks: "Singing All Day," "Witch's Promise," "Just Trying to Be," and the "Original UK Mix" of "Teacher."]
Digitally remastered reissue of 1970 album includes four bonus tracks, 'Teacher' (Original UK Mix), 'Witch's Promise', 'Just Trying To Be' & 'Singing All Day'.
The group's second album, with Ian Anderson (vocals, flute, acoustic guitars, keyboards, balalaika), Martin Barre (electric guitar, flute), Clive Bunker (drums), and Glen Cornick (bass), solidified their sound. There are still elements of blues present in their music, but except for the opening track, "A New Day Yesterday," it is far more muted than on their first album -- new lead guitarist Martin Barre had few of the blues stylings that characterized Mick Abrahams' playing. Rather, the influence of English folk music manifests itself on several cuts, including "Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square" and "Look Into the Sun." The instrumental "Bouree," which could've passed for an early Blood, Sweat & Tears track, became a favorite concert number, with an excellent solo bit featuring Cornick's bass, although at this point Anderson's flute playing on-stage needed a lot of work. As a story-song with opaque lyrics, jarring tempo changes, and loud electric passages juxtaposed with soft acoustic-textured sections, "Back to the Family" is an early forerunner to Thick As a Brick. Similarly, "Reasons for Waiting," with its mix of closely miked acoustic guitar and string orchestra, all hung around a hauntingly beautiful folk-based melody, pointed in the direction of that conceptual piece and its follow-up, A Passion Play. The only major flaw in this album is the mix, which divides the electric and acoustic instruments and fails to find a solid center, but even that was fixed on later CD editions. (The original LP had a gatefold jacket that included a pop-up representation of the band that has been lost on all subsequent CD versions, except for the Mobile Fidelity audiophile release.) [In late 2001, Stand Up was re-released in a remastered edition with bonus tracks that boasted seriously improved sound. Anderson's singing comes off richer throughout, and the electric guitars on "Look Into the Sun" are very well-delineated in the mix, without any loss in the lyricism of the acoustic backing; the rhythm section on "Nothing Is Easy" has more presence, Bunker's drums and high-hat playing sounding much closer and sharper; the mandolin on "Fat Man" is practically in your lap; you can hear the action on the acoustic guitar on "Reasons for Waiting," even in the orchestrated passages; and the band sounds like it's in the room with you pounding away on "For a Thousand Mothers." Among the bonus tracks, recorded at around the same time, "Living in the Past," "Driving Song," and "Sweet Dreams" all have a richness and resonance that was implied but never heard before.
Jethro Tull was very much a blues band on their debut album, vaguely reminiscent of the Graham Bond Organization, only more cohesive and with greater commercial sense. The revelations about the group's roots on This Was -- which was recorded during the summer of 1968 -- can be astonishing, even years after the fact. Original lead guitarist Mick Abrahams contributed to the songwriting and the singing, and his presence as a serious bluesman is felt throughout, often for the better: "Some Day the Sun Won't Shine for You," an Ian Anderson original that could just as easily be credited to Big Bill Broonzy or Robert Johnson; "Cat's Squirrel," Abrahams' big showcase, where he ventures into Eric Clapton territory; and "It's Breaking Me Up," which also features some pretty hot guitar from Abrahams. Roland Kirk's "Serenade to a Cuckoo" (the first song Anderson learned to play on flute), their jazziest track ever, is one of the best parts of the album. The drum solo on "Dharma for One" seems like a mistake, but is understandable in the context of the time in which it was done. The one number here that everybody knows, "A Song for Jeffrey," almost pales amid these surroundings, but at the time it was a superb example of commercial psychedelic blues. This would be the last album of its kind by the group, as Abrahams' departure and the lure of more fertile inspiration tugged them toward English folk music. Curiously, the audio mix here is better than that on their second album, with a much stronger, harder group sound overall. In late 2001, This Was was reissued in a remastered edition with much crisper sound and three bonus tracks. The jazzy improvisation "One for John Gee" (a reference to the manager of the Marquee Club), the folky "Love Story" (which marked the end of Mick Abrahams' tenure with the group), and the novelty piece "Christmas Song" have all been heard before but, more to the point, they're worth hearing again, especially in the fidelity they have here. [The CD was reissued with bonus tracks.]
Released at a time when a lot of bands were embracing pop-Christianity ( Jesus Christ Superstar), Aqualung was a bold statement for a rock group, a pro-God anti-church tract that probably got lots of teenagers wrestling with these ideas for the first time in their lives. This was the album that made Jethro Tull a fixture on FM radio, with riff-heavy songs like "My God," "Hymn 43," "Locomotive Breath," "Cross-Eyed Mary," "Wind Up," and the title track. And from there, they became a major arena act, and a fixture at the top of the record charts for most of the 1970s. Mixing hard rock and folk melodies with Ian Anderson's dour musings on faith and religion (mostly how organized religion had restricted man's relationship with God), the record was extremely profound for a number seven chart hit, one of the most cerebral albums ever to reach millions of rock listeners. Indeed, from this point on, Anderson and company were compelled to stretch the lyrical envelope right to the breaking point. As a compact disc, Aqualung has gone through numerous editions, mostly owing to problems finding an original master tape when the CD boom began. When the album was issued by Chrysalis through Columbia Records in the mid-1980's, the source tape was an LP production master, and the first release was criticized for thin, tinny sound; Columbia remastered it sometime around 1987 or 1988, in a version with better sound. Chrysalis later switched distribution to Capitol-EMI, and they released a decent sounding CD that is currently available. Chrysalis also issued a 25th anniversary edition in 1996.
After veering sharply from the blues inluences of their debut, This Was, Jethro Tull's sound quickly coalesced around jazz-tinged English folk influences and the antics of frontman...
Jethro Tull's first LP-length epic is a masterpiece in the annals of progressive rock, and one of the few works of its kind that still holds up decades later. Mixing hard rock and English folk music with classical influences, set to stream-of-consciousness lyrics so dense with imagery that one might spend weeks pondering their meaning -- assuming one feels the need to do so -- the group created a dazzling , at once playful, profound, and challenging, without overwhelming the listener. The original LP was the best-sounding, best-engineered record Tull had ever released, easily capturing the shifting dynamics between the soft all-acoustic passages and the electric rock crescendos surrounding them.
Track #
Track
Time
Composer
1
Thick as a Brick
22:45
Anderson, Bostock
2
Thick as a Brick
21:05
Anderson, Bostock
3
Thick as a Brick (Live at Madison Square Garden 1978)(Live)
11:48
Anderson, Bostock
4
Interview With Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, Martin Barre and Jeffery Ha
Released at a time when a lot of bands were embracing pop-Christianity ( Jesus Christ Superstar), Aqualung was a bold statement for a rock group, a pro-God anti-church tract that probably got lots of teenagers wrestling with these ideas for the first time in their lives. This was the album that made Jethro Tull a fixture on FM radio, with riff-heavy songs like "My God," "Hymn 43," "Locomotive Breath," "Cross-Eyed Mary," "Wind Up," and the title track. And from there, they became a major arena act, and a fixture at the top of the record charts for most of the 1970s. Mixing hard rock and folk melodies with Ian Anderson's dour musings on faith and religion (mostly how organized religion had restricted man's relationship with God), the record was extremely profound for a number seven chart hit, one of the most cerebral albums ever to reach millions of rock listeners. Indeed, from this point on, Anderson and company were compelled to stretch the lyrical envelope right to the breaking point. As a compact disc, Aqualung has gone through numerous editions, mostly owing to problems finding an original master tape when the CD boom began. When the album was issued by Chrysalis through Columbia Records in the mid-1980's, the source tape was an LP production master, and the first release was criticized for thin, tinny sound; Columbia remastered it sometime around 1987 or 1988, in a version with better sound. Chrysalis later switched distribution to Capitol-EMI, and they released a decent sounding CD that is currently available. Chrysalis also issued a 25th anniversary edition in 1996.
Track #
Track
Time
Composer
1
Aqualung
6:31
Anderson, Anderson
2
Cross-Eyed Mary
4:06
Anderson
3
Cheap Day Return
1:21
Anderson
4
Mother Goose
3:51
Anderson
5
Wond'ring Aloud
1:53
Anderson
6
Up to Me
3:14
Anderson
7
My God
7:08
Anderson
8
Hymn 43
3:15
Anderson
9
Slipstream
1:12
Anderson
10
Locomotive Breath
4:23
Anderson
11
Wind Up
6:01
Anderson
Back to the topBursting Out: Jethro Tull Live (Bonus Tracks)
Review by Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
Released:
October 25, 1990
Label:
Toshiba EMI
Rating:
Styles:
Hard Rock
Prog-Rock/Art Rock
Art Rock
Album Rock
Released just as punk was taking hold on the public's imagination in America and making groups like Jethro Tull seem like dinosaurs on their way to extinction, Bursting Out: Jethro Tull Live became a seemingly perpetual denizen of the cutout bins for years afterward. However, it happened to be a good album, a more-than-decent capturing of a live Tull concert from Europe. The sound is remarkably good, given the group's arena rock status at the time, and the repertoire is a solid representation of the group's history, going all the way back to "A New Day Yesterday" from thei
