ORIGINAL MASTERS

'Original Masters' is a compilation of Jethro Tull and was released in 1985. This is a compilation album that comprises tracks from several albums of Jethro Tull, between 1969 till 1977. So, here we have two tracks from 'Aqualung', two tracks from 'War Child', one track from 'Minstrel In The Gallery', one track from 'Too Old To Rock'n'Roll: Too Young To Die!' and one track from 'Songs From The Wood'. Besides that, we have also three tracks that were never released on any of their studio albums before. We have also an extract of the suite 'Thick As A Brick' from 'Thick As A Brick'.

'Original Masters' has twelve tracks. The first track 'Living In The Past' is from 'Living In The Past'. It was released as a single in 1969. It's one of the highlights of Jethro Tull's career and it was a bit revolutionary at the time, especially for a single, one of the best prog rock singles ever. The second track 'Aqualung' is from 'Aqualung'. It's one of the most complex songs to be found here. This is one of the best Jethro Tull's songs. It's a very well known song, very heavy and dark with many acoustic elements. It's a great track that is almost played out as a mini suite with several different parts. It's a timeless composition where changes in time and signature are great. Everything functions perfectly well here. The third track 'Too Old To Rock'N'Roll: Too Young To Die' is from 'Too Old To Rock'N'Roll: Too Young To Die!'. It's the best and most known song on that album. It's really a stunning and memorable song. It deserves special mention the wonderful David Palmer's arrangements, soft and solid, which brings to the song certain elegance. The fourth track 'Locomotive Breath' is from 'Aqualung'. It has dark guitar chords, slow soft acoustic parts alternated with heavy fast rock and great rhythms. It's a Jethro Tull's legendary track with great piano, guitar and excellent flute work. The fifth track 'Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day' is from 'War Child'. It's a great acoustic song with nice orchestral arrangements, which gives to it a very interesting and pleasant touch. It's one of the favourite songs of the band, usually performed live on their live venues. The sixth track 'Bungle In The Jungle' is from 'War Child'. This is a melodious song well orchestrated composed in a pop commercial style. It's very simple, very humorous and nothing pretentious, a typical hit song made to sell an album. The seventh track 'Sweet Dream' was never released on any of their studio albums. It was originally released as a single. It was originally recorded during the sessions of their second album 'Stand Up'. It later appeared on the 1972 compilation album 'Living In The Past'. 'Sweet Dream' is a heavy and somewhat experimental tune, a dizzying blend of a hard rock track, a bit pompous on the brass part, but I like it quite a lot. The eighth track 'Songs From The Wood' is from 'Songs From The Wood'. This is a great song to open 'Songs From The Wood'. It's the song that introduces us to the calm and pastoral atmosphere of the countryside. It's the song that explains everything that will be brought to us all over that album. The ninth track 'The Witches Promise' was never released on any of their studio albums. It was originally released as a single. It was originally recorded during the sessions of their third album 'Benefit'. It later appeared on the 1972 compilation album 'Living In The Past'. It's a ghostly orchestral folk number with fantastic build and creepy flute that comes from everywhere and that could have easily fit on 'Benefit'. The tenth track 'Thick As A Brick' is from 'Thick As A Brick'. The version on this compilation is a very short edited version of the theme, including only the first three minutes of 'Thick As A Brick, Part One'. 'Thick As A Brick' is simply their greatest opus with more than 40 minutes. So, is absolutely ridiculous to reduce it to 3 minutes. The eleventh track 'Minstrel In The Gallery' is from 'Minstrel In The Gallery'. It's a very beautiful composition which combines acoustic and hard rock music in a very balanced way. This is one of the two stronger and most energetic songs on 'Minstrel In The Gallery'. The twelfth track 'Life's A Long Song' was never released on any of their studio albums. It was first released on 'Life Is A Long Song' EP. It later appeared on the 1972 compilation album 'Living In The Past'. 'Life's A Long Song' is a beautiful acoustic symphonic track. The song is centred on Anderson's acoustic guitar playing and the lyrics talking about everyday life. It's one of the best things Anderson ever composed.

Conclusion: Unlike some other compilations of Jethro Tull, 'Original Masters' covers a very extensive period of time in the band's career, from 1968 to 1984. We are talking about fifteen studio albums from the band. So, with only twelve tracks it was completely impossible to include a song per album. Thus, many of their studio albums, the most of them aren't represented here, really. Well, in reality, we can't say that this is a very well representative compilation of Jethro Tull, really. I even dare to say that some of their best albums aren't represented here, such as, 'Stand Up', 'Benefit', 'A Passion Play', 'Heavy Horses' and 'Stormwatch'. Besides that, this compilation insists on maintaining the same problem of many compilations of the band, which is, reducing the suite 'Thick As A Brick' to a very short version. Thus, for all I wrote before, I can only rate it with 2 stars. So, in reality, this is a compilation for collectors and fans only.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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