M.U. - THE BEST OF JETHRO TULL

In 1972, the Tull released a compilation album with some rare tracks and unreleased album material. They are doing so again with this one.

I am not quite convinced by the selection of tracks though.

Some left overs from studio sessions : Rainbow Blues" are completely out of purpose in a "Best Of" effort. They are quite boring songs (in the meantime one can discover these "lost jewels" on some remastered versions). Pointless. "Teacher" is a bit better (released on remaster of "Benefit"). "Living In The Past" is of course a great song (single release but available now on remastered "Stand Up". It was already present on the previous compilation ...

Some average tracks from studio albums like "Nothing Is Easy" and "Skating Away". But "Fat Man" is pretty useless.

Two ridiculous edited versions for "Thick" and "A Passion" : three minutes or so each. That's about 7 % of the original song ("Thick peaking at 43'48" and "A Passion" reaching 45'05").

The best song from "War Child" : "Bungle" (finally).

OK, there are two alternate takes for "Aqualung" and "Locomotive". Since I do not owe this album as such, I can not judge these versions. Since they belong to the best Tull repertoire I can only say that these are the two that fully deserve (together with "Bungle") to be featured in a "Best Of" effort.

I would highly recommend the newcomer to the Tull repertoire to stay away from this compilation. Actually, my feeling is the same than for "Living In The Past" one. Get the remastered Tull's albums and forget about these "Best Of" or whatever they are called.

Even at the time of release, I am not quite sure that this one was relevant.

For completionists only. Two stars.