Jethro Tull Appreciation thread

They were what got me into this style of music starting with 'Witch's Promise' and then 'Teacher', 'Stand Up' and then 'Benefit'.


I was a young teenager living in Hobart, Tasmania [Aust.]. I used to stay awake at night listening to 2 SM, which I could pick up with a mantle radio on my bedhead with a specially rigged antenna. This was a Sydney radio station and they had a late night show playing music that was generally described as 'underground' back then.

Later, I heard 'The Advent of Panurge' for the first time and my appreciation of progressive music leapt even further forward.

People are way too critical of their later releases imo. I think 'Crest of a Knave', 'Roots to Branches' and 'Dot Com', in particular, have some excellent stuff on them. The 'Christmas Album' has some great re-arrangements of old yuletide tunes and is very good for what it is imo [particularly for this time of year]

I enjoy the 'Living with the Past' DVD [love those heavier versions of 'Cross eyed Mary', 'A New DAy Yesterday' and 'Hunt by Numbers' to name a few]. The acoustic session with the strings and the blues reunion of the original band [yes, with Clive, Glenn and Mick ]is a must for any Tull enthusiast I would have thought.

Saw them live in Brisbane in May of last year and was blown away still [I had seen them in London in 77]. Very tight and entertaining despite the obvious wear and tear on IA's voice. Great play list with some surprises in the older material played.

As I've said on other threads, please don't talk of TULL as if they're deceased or no longer with us. They are indeed 'Alive and Well and Living in.....' the NOW!

Here ends my contribution to this appreciation thread.

No one has mentioned Stormwatch. A pretty solid album itself(a bit like Benefit, not a classic, but pretty good), but the remaster has 4 of the bands best ever bonus tracks. Not to mention North sea oil and Dun ringill which are great tunes plus some other pretty cool songs. This would be one of the bands best years in the studio. The Heavy horses and SFTW remasters are great too. 'A' is one damn cool album also. Living in the past and TAAB are probably the best original releases. Warchild is the greatest remaster which consists of the movie soundtrack album(which is purposely a commercial pop album), plus 7 excellent prog bonus tracks. Broadsword is one of the best remasters with 8 bonus tracks(although only half of those are great). Pity it didn't include the full session with 16 bonus tracks. Benefit, This was and Stand up are also great remasters with excellent bonus stuff. Every remaster is worth the money. Even Crest of a knave, Minstrel, Aqualung and Too old have at least one strong bonus track. APP is a cool album too. Roots and Dotcom are cool too. Why didn't Roots include the 5 unreleased songs? Catfish missed several bonus tracks too damn. Not happy about Ian leaving off songs from the catfish, rock island, broadsword, heavy horses and aqualung remasters

Edited by smithers - December 17 2006 at 21:42

Thick as a Brick got me into prog before I even knew what it was. Positively astonishing.

This Was is a bit underrated, Aqualung a bit overrated (musically speaking, nothing to do with me being biased toward catholicism) and I guess the albums that could get you into the band are TAAB, Songs From The Wood or Heavy Horses; once you've acquired the taste you should definitely get Stormwatch, A Passion Play, Minstrel In The Gallery, Warchild and Aqualung... and so on

Uroboros wrote: TaaB was my first open door to 70's prog and, actually, 70's music in general. I loved it on first listen, it was a nearly magical experience. Years of gradually discovering the rest of their oeuvre followed and it all reached a peak when I saw them live in Bucharest in 2004... Much has been said, so I'll only remind everyone of the wonderful Roots to Branches... Just in case anyone thinks their creative juices were dry in '95, listen to that album carefully.

    
RTB's a great album indeed... although a bit into hard rock territory it has nice jazzy pieces like Wounded, Old and Treacherous; Out Of The Noise and Dangerous Veils... although the more heavy songs are decent as well.
    

Edited by Chus - December 17 2006 at 22:09

Tull had some cool songs in 1991. What's wrong with Night in the wilderness, Silver river turning, Rocks on the road, Roll yer own, Tall thin girl, Still loving you tonight. That's 6 very decent songs if you ask me

Dotcom has 5 or 6 excellent songs. It all trickles down is a cool B side aswell. 1999 would be one of the bands best years in the studio and even better than half of the 70s studio sessions

Fassbinder wrote: Roots to Branches looks (sounds, actually) like a recovering from the illness (two previous albums), which is pretty close to reality too, remembering Ian Anderson's own story.

Stormwatch is a solid album, true enough. I never really got Elegy though, until I heard a live version (from http://www.raylomus.com/Jethro_Tull.html, for reference's sake). I'm not sure why, but the album version was pretty, but I never really liked Barre's electric presence. In the live version, it all clicks.

verslibre wrote: smithers wrote: No one has mentioned Stormwatch. A pretty solid album itself(a bit like Benefit, not a classic, but pretty good), but the remaster has 4 of the bands best ever bonus tracks. Not to mention North sea oil and Dun ringill which are great tunes plus some other pretty cool songs. This would be one of the bands best years in the studio. The Heavy horses and SFTW remasters are great too. 'A' is one damn cool album also. Living in the past and TAAB are probably the best original releases. Warchild is the greatest remaster which consists of the movie soundtrack album(which is purposely a commercial pop album), plus 7 excellent prog bonus tracks. Broadsword is one of the best remasters with 8 bonus tracks(although only half of those are great). Pity it didn't include the full session with 16 bonus tracks. Benefit, This was and Stand up are also great remasters with excellent bonus stuff. Every remaster is worth the money. Even Crest of a knave, Minstrel, Aqualung and Too old have at least one strong bonus track. APP is a cool album too. Roots and Dotcom are cool too. Why didn't Roots include the 5 unreleased songs? Catfish missed several bonus tracks too damn. Not happy about Ian leaving off songs from the catfish, rock island, broadsword, heavy horses and aqualung remasters Stormwatch is one of my favorite Tull albums! "Dark Ages," "Dun Ringill," "Flying Dutchman"...outstanding! And I agree, the Broadsword remaster is one of the best.