Jethro Tull Studio Works

Jethro Tull is a regular listen for me. my favs in order, warning, I love 'em all!

1. Minstrel In The Gallery 2.Thick As A Brick
3. A Passion Play 4. Stand Up
5. The Broadsword & The Beast 6.Benefit
7. Catfish Rising 8. WarChild
9. Heavy Horses 10.Songs From The Wood
11.Stormwatch 12.Christmas Album
13.Roots To Branches 14.Too Old To Rock'n'Roll: Too Young To Die
15.A 16.Under Wraps 17.Rock Island
18.Crest Of A Knave 19.Dot Com
20.This Was 21.Aqualung

Ian Anderson solo:
1.Rupi's Dance 2.SLOB
3.Walk Into Light 4.Divinities

Living In The Past & Nightcap are wonderful comps!

 

At a certain point they lost me--not sure exactly where--but these are, in order, my favorites:

1. Stand Up
2. Benefit
3. Living In The Past
4. This Was
5. Aqualung
6. Songs From The Wood
7. War Child
8. Thick As A Brick
9. Passion Play
10. Minstrel In The Gallery

 

I love the "classic" line-ups, '68-'78, though "Heavy Horses." After that, the really good stuff thins out. The acoustic material on "Catfish Rising" is great. The live lp from '92 is a standout.
No doubt, Jethro Tull was/is a unique band. But I wish they'd stuck to their strengths over the years, rather than trying to follow the trends, like with the early 80s synth stuff, etc.

 

Other related Albums
Martin Barre - 1.Stage Left is top flight! 2.The Meeting 3. A Trick of Memory
Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where The Time Goes?
Maddy Prior - Woman In The Wings Ian Anderson On Gutter Geese Martin Barre solo on Cold Flame + other Tull members involved. Produced by Ian Anderson

 

Stand Up & Benefit are like Rubber Soul and Revolver to me. I often play them together.

 

Just listening to Minstrel this morning and shaking my head in early AM disbelief. Amazing!

 

I listened to so much Led Zeppelin that I can't listen to them anymore. Still love 'em, but I'm even thinking of selling my CDs because I just can't see myself playing them anymore.

Almost the same with Rush- got a but burned out, still love 'em, but I'm selling off a bunch of their albums because they're just not gonna get played.

Replaced my Genesis albums with the "platinum" comp.

Even replacing my Beatles albums with the red & blue comps.

No, not much room for full rock albums in my listening anymore.

But here are some albums I'm not parting with any time soon:
Stand Up
Benefit
Aqualung
Thick As a Brick
Passion Play
Warchild
Minstrel in the Gallery
Songs From the Wood
Heavy Horses
Stormwatch

Maybe someday they'll release a really awesome, extensive compilation that covers a bulk of this material. But until that day, these are staying. Especially Stand Up and Minstrel.

The remastered Minstrel CD is just a gem. The only song on the album proper that I don't absolutely love is Valhalla because the very mention of Valhalla is too D&D prog-ish for me. Every moment of the rest is achingly gorgeous. I used to not like the 0^10=Nothing At All part of One White Duck but now I love it. And Baker St Muse is just my favorite "epic" piece- yes, I now love it more than 2112 or Close to the Edge or Supper's Ready.

 

My top ten, in order:

A Passion Play (including The Chateau D'Isaster Tapes)
Thick As A Brick
Benefit
Minstrel in the Gallery
Stormwatch
Heavy Horses
A
Aqualung
Warchild
Songs From the Wood

 

I've been collecting Tull music for quite some time now. A 100+ cd's and 50+ lp's. Lots of rare stuff, bootlegs, DCC's, MFSL's, EP's, Picture discs, and the list goes on. I have all of Ian's and Martin's solo stuff as well.

You could say that I'm a huge Tull fan.

Favorites:

My absolute favorite on any given day could be Benefit or Minstrel. I like them both equally but for different reasons as they are very different stylistically. Hard to place the rest in any kind of order. TAAB is high on the list as is Heavy Horses and Songs From The Wood. And I really like Crest Of A Knave too. Budapest is a killer song.

 

Be sure to visit this for my feelings of Baker St. Muse.....


http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=52261&highlight=baker

 

One fav. track from every Tull
A Song For Jeffery
Look Into The Sun
To Cry You A Song
Wind Up
-
-
SeaLion
Baker St. Muse
Crazed Institution
Pibroch (Cap In Hand)
No Lullaby
Something's On the Move
And Further On
Clasp
Heat
Farm On The Freeway
Ears Of Tin
Doctor To My Disease
Beside Myself
El Nino

Ian Anderson solo
Looking For Eden
In The Grip Of Stronger Stuff
A Better Moon
Lost In Crowds

 

Thick as a Brick
Benefit
Stand Up
Aqualung
Minstrel in the Gallery
Songs from the Woods
Rock Island
War Child
Broadsword and the Beast
Catfish rising
Passion Play
Heavy Horses

 

Songs: In no particular order..

Broadsword
Nothing to Say
To cry You a Song
Sossity
Baker Street Muse
One White Duck
The Whalers Dues
Big Riff and the Mando
Mother Goose
Slipstream
Wondring Aloud
Nothing is Easy
A New Day Yesterday
Look Into the Sun
Skating Away
Christmas Song
Thick as a Brick

 

I would list all my Tull favorites in order here, but if you asked me next week the list would be completely different.

My favorite Tull song of all time is Part of the Machine, followed closely by Budapest.

My favorite album of late is IA's Secret Language of Birds, especially Montserrat.

I have tickets to see Tull at two New England venues in October, I also have extra tickets to one venue. Anyone else seeing them on this upcoming tour?

 

i just bought my first tull album today. i got the new MOJO CLASSIC prog rock magazine (it is awesome!) and the tull story in it is about the passion play album, so i thought i'd get it (U.S. green chrysalis pressing, a bit muddy but solid NM). excellent stuff! i think i'll work my way backwards from here. that DCC tull comp. looks mighty good, though!

-eddie

 

I concur. You can hear the !spark! of creativity on those two albums; as if they found a direction and the muse at the same time. They did go on to create their biggest sellers after those two, but the initial creative rush is on those two.

I liken those albums to Pink Floyds Meddle - that's where Floyd found the spark, muse and direction of where to take the band without Syd.

 

Cross-Eyed Mary was playing on my radio alarm clock when I awoke this a.m. What a great song to wake up to It sounded GREAT, even on a chinsy little clock radio. That's my favorite Tull song so far, and I haven't even bought/heard Minstrel, Stand Up, or Benefit yet.

 

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=57702

I've been listening to Minstrel more so lately but I think my fav Tull disc to toss in is the DCC Original Masters.

I get a little of everything that way and it sounds sooo nice.

 

How does their catalog sound on vinyl? I plan on getting into that "format" soon and would love to get Stand Up and Minstrel and maybe Passion Play, and I guess Brick for the art work.

 

From Thick As A Brick on the Canuck vinyl has good sound. HH bass on Canuck vinyl is a winner!

 

yesterday, as i wrote last night, i got passion play, my first tull album. today i found early (first?) NM pressings of songs from the wood and heavy horses. i'm happy with the sound considering it's late 70's u.s. wax. songs from the wood sounds better than passion play which was a bit muddy. my copy of of songs from the wood has some sibilance, but it's not distracting. took 'em both for $4. i always hated tull, too, but now that i'm a little older (aged 32), it makes more sense--there's good music within!

-eddie

 

Tull has got to be my favorite band from the classic rock era. Even more-so than The Beatles, who are a close second. They just spanned every genre imagineable, and sounded brilliant doing it!

That said, I was surprised with some of the recording qualities of the Jethro Tull works on vinyl.

Thick as a Brick is very good, and the MoFi edition even better (is there a DCC of this?).

Aqualung is kind of muddy on the lows (seems all kind of fused together down there ) but the midrange is very enjoyable.

A Passion Play is pretty nice all around, but sounds kind of rushed and pretty "smushed together", if you will, with instrumental placement.

Songs from the Wood, however, has some of the best imagining, however, that I've ever heard from a record from the 70's. I can only imagine what a DCC re-master could do to it! The vocals are very life-like.

Stormwatch contains some brilliant percussion - the timbre and bass impact is to die for! Highs are bright, and it makes the acoustic guitars sound fake at times, but it also seems to make Anderson's voice particularly strong.

Note: Every LP I mentioned is from an original seventies release date unless otherwise specified.