Jethro Tull Appreciation thread

I have to say that Jethro Tull was one of those groups who, so to speak, opened me the gates to the world of Prog (together with ELP and King Crimson; with Pink Floyd I was already acquainted). A magical world. (And they are still one of my favourite groups). At the beginning I haven't understood anything, I was almost unfamiliar with this unusual language; it took me about six-seven listenings until I finally realised that I'm listening to something... don't know... very promising... intriguing... after that it has revealed that it is just great. The first albums I heard were Heavy Horses, Aqualung, and Bursting Out. They are still amongst my favourite albums (in quite a "warm" company of some dozen (or so) of others). And I decided to deepen my acquantaince with the band. I was buying album after album, and there wasn't any disappointment, on the contrary -- my love and respect to the group only grew. Then I started to differentiate -- say, Thick as a Brick is an awesome album, but I like A Passion Play more. The first (and only) disappointment was Under Wraps. At that point I realised that I'll have all their albums. There are some albums which I consider weaker than others, but they' are not disappointments by any means. For example, both 1995 albums -- Roots to Branches by Jethro Tull and Divinities: Twelve Dances with God by Ian Anderson (I have his discography also, in parallel) are amongst their overall best achievements, in my opinion. ...And I'm still hoping to hear something new and interesting from them.

I honestly can't see any other band having a greater career than Tull ;)

Yes, they really are magnificent. So long-lived and prolific, surviving huge changes without becomming stuck, and continuing to make quality music. Plus, you can still go see them and be thoroughly satisfied, they play the old and the new with vigor year after year. I don't think that can be said of anyone except Crimson.
    




Edited by Atavachron - December 19 2006 at 23:50

Aren't Tull and Crimso the only two classic bands that didn't quite sell out? I mean, Yes, Genesis and ELP all gave out at some point, and Pink Floyd kinda became a marketing tool, but Under Wraps is faaar too weird to be marketed as pop...unless Ian's really, REALLY stupid about that sort of thing.

pero wrote:   Yes I agree with you. Passion play is for me JT best, and one of prog masterpieces overall. I also like TAAB, Stand up, This was, Minstell, Benefit, The best JT DVD is their concert 1977 on London hyppodrome. They were in great form and in rheir show include peaces of TAAB and Passion play. Excellent DVD

Edited by smithers - December 21 2006 at 17:52

kyrandia wrote: Do you know other Prog Band like JT who made more than ten good or very good albums ?

Firepuck wrote: kyrandia wrote: Do you know other Prog Band like JT who made more than ten good or very good albums ?      So, albums with 4.00 or higher rating:   Frank Zappa = 26 Tangerine Dream = 16 (mind you 9 of these albums have less than 5 reviews) Steve Hackett / Genesis = 13 Jethro Tull / Ian Anderson = 11 Peter Gabriel / Genesis = 9 Genesis = 7 (all consecutively released!) Gentle Giant = 7 (again, all consecutively released, quite an accomplishment) King Crimson = 7 Pink Floyd = 7 Rush = 7 Yes = 5

LITP is close to the bands best cd. All those classic singles and so called album rejects ;). Half of those songs are spread over the This was, Stand up and Benefit remasters now and they pretty much stand out as the best songs on each cd. I would have preffered to see those songs on the albums originally, because they would have been much stronger albums and a much better representation of the band at the time. Benefit is a much better album with Teacher, Witches promise and Just trying to be ;)

The Whistler wrote: 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.

I am REALLY looking forward to seeing Tull this summer..... I have never been an ardent Tull fan, but the opportunity to see them is quite exciting!!!