ORIGINAL MASTERS

I remember when this album was released in 1985 there was some criticism that it did not include any recordings after 1976. This means nothing from Heavy Horses,Storm Watch A,Broadsword and the Beasts or Under Wraps.Instead Chrysalis decided to concentrate on the "Classic" years from 1969 to 1976 also ignoring the Blues based albums altogether.In respect this was a good idea because although I miss some of the Blues tracks like Teacher and New Day Yesterday, much of the post Songs From The Wood albums marked a general decline in quality. The tracks included represent the cream of their output or at least as much as could be included on 2 sides on vinyl.The album also salvages superior tracks from generally fairly patchy albums. Thus we have the two best or at least most memorable songs from the somewhat lightweight "War Child" album, Too Old To Rock and Roll-the brilliant title track from the absolutely dire album of the same name and best of all, the unedited title track from "Minstrel In The Gallery".I say "best of all" because I absolutely love the title track but am one of the few Tull fans who really dislikes the album as a whole.

Not surprisingly some of the best known tracks like Aqualung,Locomotive Breath, Living in the Past and the opening few minutes of Thick as A Brick are present as well as some lesser known but still Classic Songs like Sweet Dreams and Life's a Long Song originally only available on the "Living in the Past" compilation. My personal favorite though would have to be the title track off "Songs From The Wood"- for me the definitive folk-rock era Tull song -in fact possibly the definitive Tull song period!

There are more comprehensive CD compilations available but they all seem to make the same mistake of trying to cram too much music often from non-essential albums or worse still heavily edit Classics like Minstrel In The Gallery and Heavy Horses and so end up pleasing no one. Original Masters is a perfect primer and a great album in its own right. A solid 5 stars

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