Jethro Tull: Classic or Dud?

The horses were much smaller than intended, so they got a midget to pose for the photoshoot. That's why "Ian's" head is tilted down.

He said he regrets the cover because it's too close and you don't really get a proper look at their size. The book has lots of better photos from that shoot.

Loving "Acres Wild", a beauty. Loving the Heavy Horses tracks which Anderson noted as going in a Scottish direction. I wouldn't know where to begin with traditional Scottish dance music, the stuff I used to hear my gran listening on the radio was a bit too leisurely so anyone could keep up with it. But of course I want it fast and complex and only professionals could dance to properly.
Writer Jack Vance once recommended Jimmy Shand but I doubt he ever goes nuts with it.

In the notes Anderson is quite ashamed of some of the bonus tracks, like "Botanic Man" (an unused tv theme tune), and the start of a track which he said he wouldn't subject the biggest Tull nerds to (it's not listed on the back tracklist for some reason).

I had "Beltane" on an earlier Songs From The Woods CD as a bonus track and I wasn't too fond of it, but I'm quite impressed by it now. Oddly Anderson said the references were maybe too obscure (what kind of reasoning is that? Especially for this sort of music?) and he was a bit embarrassed by the accent he put on (sounds much the way he does on most of Heavy Horses to me) and that it's a bit too "let's get in touch with our pagan roots", I see where he's coming from but I find it quite evocative nonetheless.

"There's a snap in the grass behind your feet
and a tap upon your shoulder.
And the thin wind crawls along your neck ---
it's just the old gods getting older"

I don’t see how that’s any less atavistic than jack-in-the-green.

Maybe he thought both those on one album would be too much

Sorry any MORE atavistic

It's a Heavy Horses reject though. I guess it ended up as a bonus on some versions of Songs From The Woods because it fit more thematically.

"No Lullaby" lyrics he wrote for his children when they were small but they didn't hear until decades later.

"So come out fighting with your rattle in hand, thrust and parry. Light
A match to catch the devil's eye, bring a cross of fire to the fight.
And let no sleep bring false relief from the tension of the fray.
Come wake the dead with the scream of life, do battle with ghosts at play.
And gather your toys at the call-to-arms and swing your big bear down
Upon our necks when we come to set you sleeping safe and sound.
It's as well we tell no lie to chase the face that cries.
And little birds can't fly so keep an open eye.
It's as well we tell no lie, so I'll sing you no lullaby."

Any of you got a good feel for Tull's whole lifetime? Their ups and downs, solo albums etc?

Kinda do. Couple of years ago I dug in and listened to everything I hadn’t ever heard. I’d have to look over the discography to refresh my memory now. It didn’t change my top tier favorites but I discovered some really nice 2nd tier stuff (Broadsword, Crest, one of the recent growly ones but I can’t remember which). Tried hard for the umpteenth time with War Child, incl the Wilson edition and the outtakes/alternates, bc skating away is possibly my favorite song he ever wrote, but it’s overall a dud.

For me, it's hard to push past 'A', I like Broadsword well enough but apart from the odd track everything after that has felt like a bit of a snooze, if somebody was to compile a later period album list of worthwhile tunes I'd be interested though.

But the run from the beginning up to Stormwatch is fabulous, agree with Jon about most of War Child and I'm not as fussed about To Old... but hell, that leaves a pretty big chunk of greatness.

Thanks.

I'm kind of worried that the backlash against A Passion Play distorted their opinions of the material. It's now one of my favorite albums by any band and I've been daydreaming about wishing I was an expert dancer so I could invent dances to go with the album. It's just so much fun.

Heavy Horses is pretty good, the bonus tracks I could have mostly lived without but there's maybe three really good ones (("Jack A Lynn" (early version), "Quatrain" (studio version) and "Beltane"))

title track of HH just made me cry (i'm having a bad week)

It's a good one. Anderson says it's a favorite to perform.

https://www.last.fm/music/Jethro+Tull/+images/6e079bed45eb40fdc0d9c733acece474

There's a great Minstrel In The Gallery era photo of them that's completely in the "photos of people who've figured out to live" vein.

http://www.tullpress.com/images/tull803.jpg

"And then I turned around, exited Vault 82, and decided to try my luck alone in the post-apocalyptic wasteland"

Always good to be reminded that the "long hair with receding hairline" look used to be a thing.

"They were the best NASCAR pit crew I ever had, and that's why I took them to Mars with me, to win the Red Planet 350"

Hahaha!

"It took all year for us find one another, so there was only one glorious weekend, before they busted up the union and we went our separate ways, that we were the Brotherhood of Lunar Miners Local 580 Zero-G Perpendicular-Track Roller Derby Team"

I've got mixed feelings about Minstrel In The Gallery, but it's mostly good.

The title track is mostly great but I'm not so fond of the rockier second half. Aside from a few moments "Cold Wind to Valhalla" and "Black Satin Dancer" don't really do much for me sadly.

But "Requiem" and "Baker St. Muse" are wonderful ("I can't get out!" is one of my favorite bits of non-musical jokery in an album). The rest is good.

Bonus highlights: the early version of "Requiem" is well worth hearing and the BBC version of "Minstrel in the Gallery" has a great vocal echo effect at the start and the BBC "Aqualung" really thrilled me with the opening and closing sections.

Until the Stormwatch deluxe comes out I think I'll start in chronological order from the first album.

those three BBC versions at the end totally slay, i actually only have those on my player currently in lieu of the actual album.

I heard "Bungle in the Jungle" today and jeez, that song, which I liked a lot at 13, is terrible.

Just put on "Living in the Past," and whew, this one is still good.

The other "Bungle in the Jungle" tracks from the Chateau Sessions are brilliant.

War Child is weird, having my favorite Tull song and what may be my least favorite

"Bungle in the Jungle" was of seven audio questions at a trivia contest I was part of last week. Same thing: loved it when it was on the radio, "Living in the Past" a thousand times better today.

Ha, I didn't know until now that "Bungle" was their biggest hit in North America. Top 5 in Canada! I don't mind it tbh but yeah, it's no "Living in the Past". I really like the 5/4 groove (with a 6/8+2/4 feel) in that one.

"Skating Away" is killing me right now. I liked this as a kid but now I LIKE it like it.

It’s wonderful

The early version in the Chateau bonus material on A Passion Play is worth hearing as well, though not better than the war child version

Skating Away is one of their best songs!

Sorry, the good tracks I was referring to were called "Law of the Bungle (Part I)", "Tiger Toon" and "Law of the Bungle (Part II)". The last one is a brilliant instrumental with no animal stuff apart from Barre introducing himself as an owl with smooth feathers.

weird that we didn't do a POX Jethro Tull pack in the days of POX fever. Few bands better served by one imo - the stumbling point being both "thick as a brick" and "passion play" would throw off purists. I'm not a purist.

Thick As A Brick i.e. the song that starts "really don't mind if you sit this one out"
Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day
To Cry You A Song
Teacher
Locomotive Breath
Nothing to Say
Heavy Horses
Taxi Grab
Orion*
Fylingdale Flyer*

*I loved this band when I was a kid, as I've said, and got into these songs during that phase so I have affection for these songs they may or may not deserve

honestly though no, sub out something for "Requiem" off Minstrel in the Gallery

Though a Tull fan since age 9, the thing of this year for me has been: the album A is a great album. It’s closer to oingo boingo than 70s tull and unlike anything else in the discography but turns out it rules

Not a POX, but I did try a singles poll a few years ago:

Jethro Tull...They Were a Singles Band!

I like to put on Stand Up every once in a while.

One of my early mixes was just all their slow or super light-hearted tracks. Summerday Sands, Requiem, Wond’ring Aloud, One White Duck, For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me...

I feel like that would be a good way back in if I were to revisit the band anytime soon.

I remember clipping the tiny instrumental segments right before and after ‘The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles’ and putting at least one of them in my mix. Such a beautiful little passage.

My highlight of last year: A Passion Play. Any moment in life could be improved by shifting into one of the main transitions from that album.

I need to spend more time with it, and Aqualung, they are my most neglected, I tend to just go straight to Benefit, Stand Up and Songs From The Wood these days.

I've tried so many times to get into A Passion Play and every time I do I always come away from it thinking "wow, that was a bit of a slog" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjZ2LxmRJ8E

I used to listen to this group a bit when I was a baby teen but have largely blanked on it since. I'd probably still remember every bit of Aqualung and TAAB though.

Anyway, HMV have two of the Steven Wilson remix CDs for a tenner - which should I get first, the aforementioned two or A Passion Play and Stand Up, neither of which I'm familiar with AFAIR?

Stand up is a better album but passion play probably benefits more from wilsonization

I'll be quite thrilled if Stand Up is better, because if I haven't made it clear here, Passion Play is probably my favorite album I've heard in the last 3 or 4 years.

Started Too Old To Rock'n Roll. It's the least impressive Tull album I've heard so far (of the 7 I've heard) but "From A Dead Beat To An Old Greaser" is an obvious standout, lovely.

I've enjoyed the deluxe book a lot. I had no idea Dave Gibbons drew the sleeve comic before he had done anything big, he's interviewed. An interview with two members of John Glascock's earlier band Carmen (one of them was Glascock's girlfriend), a Visconti produced flamenco band who were on the rise before disastrous mismanagement killed them. A story about Anderson and Rockette Morton going motorbiking together. And more photos that are making me believe that Tull has more fun photos than any other band.
Anderson's notes on the songs continue to be interesting. He talks about Britain's sleazy and exploitative tv gameshows. He had felt that spending money like crazy is disrespecting the fans who gave him that money. He feels very uncomfortable about the lyrics of "Pied Piper" now and seems to regret it. Discussing another song about dirty old men, he says that singing in character is a risk but sometimes it's the best way to do a song, just hoping people wont assume you're like that character.

Carmen in 1973, more rocky than expected
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ1-hyRJSHY

In "Bad Eyed And Loveless" he describes a woman as being like a warm fart at Christmas.

Really impressed with Carmen's debut, Fandangos In Space, wasn't expecting anything that great when I was curious about this band.