Jethro Tull : thanks for the memories

cstack3 wrote: Dr. Occulator wrote: Jethro Tull is Ian Anderson and Martin Barre!  All other musicians though extremely talented are secondary. Possibly...but I like to point out that all of the commercial successes of Jethro Tull included Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond on the bass guitar (and "Japanese electric guitar," per Ian's comment onstage during the "Minstrel" show!) Considering he was taught to play the instrument by Ian and then basically self-taught, I like to think of Jeffrey in the same class as Rutherford, Squire and Lake.  He was remarkable.  No other bassist for Tull had his unique manic energy, although Cornick was close.

  I agree to an extent. But Ian did steal John Glascock from Carmen, and that band had made Ian and his band look bad one night in "In Concert" along with David Bowie! Carmen, died when John left, though their website says that it was when the producer left and dumped them. John Glascock, however, did not have as interesting an impact in Jethro Tull as he did in Carmen ... but I don't know many players that would decline to join Ian.

Tull are still going strong. I haven't found a band with so many strong remasters. All of these rate at least 4 star to me:

Stand up 3 cd deluxe
Benefit remaster
Aqualung 2 cd 40 year anniversary
Thick as a brick
Warchild remaster
Songs from the wood remaster
Heavy horses remaster
Bursting out
Stormwatch remaster
A remaster
Roots to branches

If they can do a broadsword remix with a full range of 28 songs with drum remixes then that will definately be a 4 star rating too. Would like to see Dotcom with bonus tracks too. That would be 4 star too

Edited by dr prog - January 30 2013 at 15:53

I dont belive in nostaligy, or any kind of crab like there will never be bands as great as....noone knows, the 2020's may totaly blow away the 60's and 70's, we dont know.

cstack3 wrote:   Possibly...but I like to point out that all of the commercial successes of Jethro Tull included Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond on the bass guitar (and "Japanese electric guitar," per Ian's comment onstage during the "Minstrel" show!) Considering he was taught to play the instrument by Ian and then basically self-taught, I like to think of Jeffrey in the same class as Rutherford, Squire and Lake.  He was remarkable.  No other bassist for Tull had his unique manic energy, although Cornick was close.

Tull were the best 70s band. Their heavy rock was up there with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. Their folk was up there with Cat Stevens and their prog was up there with Yes and Gentle giant. They mixed it up and never really tried too hard to be prog like Yes and Genesis around 73 and 74. They had a great full time composer unlike King Crimson. No better band ever honestly

Mirror Image wrote: dr prog wrote: Tull were the best 70s band. Their heavy rock was up there with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. Their folk was up there with Cat Stevens and their prog was up there with Yes and Gentle giant. They mixed it up and never really tried too hard to be prog like Yes and Genesis around 73 and 74. They had a great full time composer unlike King Crimson. No better band ever honestly I highly disagree. Tull may have had all the 'progressive' elements, but they ultimately could never touch Genesis, Yes, or King Crimson for me. I think their music lacks the inventiveness of the afore mentioned bands. Believe it or not, the only Tull album that has made any kind of impression on me is A Passion Play if we all could forget the dreadful, and out-of-place, section of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles. Anyway, Tull lacked the consistency of many of the other prog bands of the time. They may have had a unique style or whatever, but they've failed to do much for me. I get my kicks from plenty of other bands who I think brought more to the musical table.

I don't rate Crimson all that highly after Lizard. Poseidon and Lizard contain the best composed stuff but Haskells voice spoilt lizard a bit. Larks and Red had their moments though with nice slow tracks and the occasional riff but they lost all their jazz and classical ideas once Sinfield, Tippet and Collins were gone. Yes were at their best from 69-72 but after that they were patchy and they ran out of compositions so resorted to noises and dragged out songs. Genesis were a patchy too. Trespass and Foxtrot are the highlights for me in the Gabriel years and Trick and Wind are fine too. Yes were the best of those 3 bands in the early 70s. 1969-72 is great Yes. Genesis were the best of those 3 in the late 70s. I rate Tull 1969-72 just as good as Yes. TAAB is better than any Yes or Genesis album imo. Compositionally brilliant. Aqualung is a mixed bag. Very good(Side 1) and Mediocre(Side 2) but disc 2 of the 40th anniversary Aqualung shows why tull were as good as any band in 71. Half a dozen strong tracks from each disc is a very good output. But somehow the 2 weakest tracks on the whole 2 disc set are the most loved here. Wind up and My god and straight forward rock and are failures for tull standards imo. I love late 70s tull. Way ahead of Yes in that period. Crimson didn't even exist then. Genesis were probably similar to tull then. Back to the early 70s, Remasters such as Benefit and Warchild bring the quality back with the bonus tracks. Warchild was a soundtrack for a comedy so it was always going to be patchy and not typical of tull. But the bonus tracks show what the album probably would have sounded like if there was no movie sound track involved

Edited by dr prog - April 20 2014 at 22:54

Everyone disagrees with him. 

Catcher10 wrote: I have never seen Tull in concert...I would only have wanted to see them back in the early 70's. Everything after Passion Play seems lost and without purpose. I would not want to see them today, I prefer to just sit back and spin the wax and hear them at their best. And IMO Genesis had much better albums than Tull, Yes and KC....That Genesis lineup I doubt will ever be beat...ever.

I'd take heavy horses over most genesis albums. Love the folk trilogy of remasters. Cool bonus tracks. Added with bursting out, 1977-79 is a great tull period

Catcher10 wrote: And IMO Genesis had much better albums than Tull, Yes and KC....That Genesis lineup I doubt will ever be beat...ever.

Edited by Mirror Image - April 21 2014 at 19:03

I'm starting the really enjoy some of Time and a word era Yes more than The Yes album, Fragile and Close to the edge. I really like the bonus track Dear father and No opportunity, The prophet and Time and a word. My fave 5 bands of the 1970-75 era would be tull, gentle giant, yes, magma and oblivion express. Fave 5 bands of the 1976-80 period are tull, graaf, genesis, camel, goblin. Fave bands of the 1981-84 period are rush, eloy and crimson,



Edited by dr prog - April 21 2014 at 22:28