A CLASSIC CASE

Back in the eighties, after Jethro Tull had retired (not permenently, thankfully) due to Ian Anderson's medical problems, former band member and orchestrator, David (now Dee) Palmer began recording orchestral albums of the music of some of the great prog bands (Yes & Genesis were also covered in the series). All of the albums displayed Palmer's shortcomings as an orchestrator. None of the songs are an improvement over the originals, and some just sound like the versions of the songs you might hear in the background at a supermerket.

On this, some are not so bad, but too close to the original, like Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll; Too Young To Die and Living In The Past, some sound like a marching band like Locomotive Breath and a medley that strangely also includes Locomotive Breath, and some are overly maudlin, like Palmer's Elegy and War Child. Aqualung is tolerable, but stiff. Thick As A Brick features only the opening and ending sections. It could have been good, but the edit disappoints. Only Bouree and Fly By Night seem to have any real life of their own.