Jethro Tull: Classic or Dud?

people who HATE this band hate fun

From another thread:

for all the shit jethro tull got for beating metallica in the grammys, they are probably the *weirdest* band to ever win a grammy. i mean jethro tull! think about it! how could you even invent jethro tull?

― dave coolier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, February 10, 2012 9:33 AM (6 minutes ago)

i was listening to Heavy Horses by Jethro Tull the other day and the album is dedicated to the "hardworking shire horses of England"

― dave coolier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, February 10, 2012 9:33 AM

Jethro Tull OTM

heavy horses and songs from the wood are both well worth checking out btw, late period successes...they decided to completely ignore punk/new wave/everything that was going on at the time

Songs From The Wood a little more so, but M@tt OTM.

Perhaps the receding of the prog wave did influence them to keep it concise on these two records. There are no long songs.

SFTW was my first-ever "favorite album" and it still captivates.

yeah i guess they are pretty tight, there's one funkier tune on heavy horses that almost reminds me of like a jazz rock version of itchy post punk funk type stuff but it's probably by coincidence

ned, do you like jethro tull?

I do, more casually than anything else but I had a small phase in the late eighties (oddly enough -- pre-Grammys, for what it's worth, but that album that won had a couple of creepily interesting songs on it like "Farm on the Freeway," which got some regular classic-rock-radio airplay at the time).

Songs from the Wood I heard courtesy of friends at the time too -- good album! Probably in more freak/psych/underground folk performer/listeners backgrounds than people admit to.

I'll rep for Stormwatch, which does have long songs, but I love the theme so much.

my best friend growing up was a big Tull fan but i never really gave them much thought until Thick As A Brick blew me away on the radio one day, love that album now, should really check more out.

And hey, just got this in email that the UK's Burning Shed label is where to go for, well, everything Tull-related:

http://www.burningshed.com/store/jethrotull/

woah Tull Xmas album!

Benefit is a killer album. I loved this band when I was a kid, then somewhere in early high school all the charm ran right out of 'em for me. "Locomotive Breath" is all-time though, really oughta be a more commonly-cited everybody-knows-that-riff tune

That riff in "Teacher" totally rules

xpost that wonderfully sludgy ga-chunka ga-chunka rhythm

lol I had no idea that this song was called "Locomotive Breath"

yes, it is fucking fantastic

The only (sort-of) art-rock band where I can easily list a top 5: 1. "Witches Promise," 2. "Nothing Is Easy," 3. "Living in the Past," 4. "Skating Away..." 5. "Teacher." Unless ELO count.

btw A Passion Play is completely batshit and over the top and awesome in a way that makes their other albums sound like the Ramones by comparison, recommended on vinyl where it's sequenced as 2 complete sides of vinyl no "songs"

Next time i'm in mpls/stpl, BOC/Tull night at my mom's. Wordisbond.

Haven't heard Passion Play in yonks, and I can't really remember the music, except for one part:

THIS... is the story of the HARE...who lost his SPECKATICKES!

hahahaha

Next time i'm in mpls/stpl, BOC/Tull night at my mom's. Wordisbond.

― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Friday, February 10, 2012 3:34 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cool! we can plan our launch of Classic Rock Artists' Late Period Albums No One Gives A Fuck About Magazine

THIS... is the story of the HARE...who lost his SPECKATICKES!

― Ham House showdown (Dan Peterson), Friday, February 10, 2012 3:45 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha yeah it's so goofy

Classic Rock Artists' Late Period Albums No One Gives A Fuck About Magazine

also featuring Grace Under Pressure/Presto/Hold Your Fire

Ha, I think the singles from Presto are pretty great.

They are! That's why those albums have to be in the first issue of CRALPANOGAFA Magazine!

Sounds like a planet designed by Slartibartfast.

grace under pressure is a top 5 rush album, act like u know

THIS MONTH: SLY AND ROBBIE SPEAK OUT ON THE MAKING OF BOB DYLAN'S INFIDELS

lol

they were certainly well-realized/fully-formed. really looked exactly like they should have looked with their sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqZmtq5LhFo&feature=artist

still pissed i lent Thick as a Brick to a girl in high school and never got it back

and spotify is reminding me that Thick is awesome fuiud

never had anything against them, have to admit. although I never really felt inclined to accept the punk rules (throw out a world of music because a couple 50s-revivalist punk bands said to? um, no thnx)

fuck there was a foo fighters ad between pts 1 and 2

Tull Rulez. I find it weird that some ILXors don't know this and/or have only listened to one album's worth of material

I dunno about Tull but I have a soft spot for Ian Anderson's "Walk Into Light" solo record. It has to be one of the best arranged/programmed synth-based albums of the period.

could not wring an ounce of pleasure from 'thick as a brick'. recently discovered that the whole thing is a giant pisstake, went back to it and loved it immediately. I've played the whole thing easily 10 times this week.

Ha that makes me happy. I'm a pretty big Tull-head but I haven't tried to listen to long-form Brick in a long time (usually reach for Songs From The Wood, Heavy Horses or Aqualung).

Does the same contextualizing trick work for A Passion Play?

don't know tbh, i've not yet gone back to any other tull stuff

I've been revisiting and enjoying War Child recently, unfairly maligned I think and supposedly a bunch of Passion Play offcuts and leftovers.

Skating Away is sheer magic but I really can't abide the rest of that record. Last time I listened, anyway.

Ha, the other night, the modern/alternative rock station did a whole 'feature' on Aqualung, citing it as a key influence on Mumford and Sons and the whole Brit neo-folk thing.

Real shit that those two cheapo box sets don't have all the bonus tracks because they collect 8 albums in total and that would have been very convenient. They have so many bonus tracks and it'd be missing too much to just stick with the box sets.

Have been on a tear with JT for the last few months, enjoying the remixed/boxed editions that have been coming out, so much great music.

They seem prolific even for a band of that time.

Bloody hell! Passion Play, War Child and Minstrel In The Gallery all have tall book remix expanded editions.

they're horribly out of fashion, but BENEFIT is a great early 70s British rock album!

Oh yes, Benefit is so great!

http://thisiheard.blogspot.com/2015/11/jethro-tull-outside.html

they totally sound like CAN and NEU! it's sad how few people get how great stand up is too

i think 17 is my favourite song from the Stand Up era, it's cyclical and droney, and I love the push when the flute melodies kick in towards the end, it really gets under my skin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dso9s98k_AE

Also, “Inside” from Benefit is an absolute jam. Glen Cornick’s bass on this is just incredible.

― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, April 23, 2018 9:48 PM (five years ago)

This song sounds so much like Can.