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Jethro Tull - Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! CD (album) cover

TOO OLD TO ROCK 'N' ROLL: TOO YOUNG TO DIE!

Jethro Tull

 

Prog Folk

3.11 | 887 ratings

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AtomicCrimsonRush
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
2 stars Adorned with a dreadful album cover and sporting one successful single that has been played too often on the radio, Jethro Tull sunk to some depths with "Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die". It was based on a failed stage musical about a greaser who wanted to be a rock star and Anderson swears its not supposed to be him yet the cover art is definitely in his likeness. This fictitious failed 50s teen hearththrob is Ray Lomas, who wins a fortune on a quiz show but finds that money can't buy happiness. After a failed suicide attempt he awakens from a coma and indulges in extreme plastic surgery to be reborn into the rockstar lifestyle; a never ending cycle.

The title track spells this storyline out and is well known but is not enough to give this album any real credibility. The concept is muddled and hard to decipher unless you read up in it. The best songs are found early, namely the rollicking catchy 'Quizz Kid', 'Crazed Institution', acoustic driven 'Salamander' and blues guitar heaviness on 'Taxi Grab'.

After this the album becomes a mediocre affair, outside of the title single. 'From A Dead Beat To An Old Greaser' is interminably dull and morbid. 'Bad-Eyed and Loveless' is okay, as is 'Big Dipper' but 'Pied Piper' is forgettable and tries too hard to capture old Tull magic of the whimsical pastoral years, yet fails in its attempt. 'The Chequered Flag (Dead or Alive)' is a terrible closing track and sends me to sleep.

So there you have it, some decent tracks and some not worth hearing, but that's the fault of the record producers who wanted an album out quickly to house the mega title single that rocketed up the charts. It was released in a rush and sounds like it, with enough filler material to sink a battleship. This is the non-progressive Tull album we didn't want to hear, but its salvageable thanks to a few good songs amidst the mediocrity.

AtomicCrimsonRush | 2/5 |

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