Jethro Tull Appreciation Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by tootull, Jun 21, 2006.

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  1. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    By popular demand. :laugh:

    If I laughed a bit too fast. Well it was up to me.

    Jethro Tull the the most famous underground band in the world.

    There was only one difficult album to get into "Too Old" and today it's a fav.

    Studio albums: (no comps listed)

    This Was
    Stand Up
    Benefit
    Aqualung
    Thick As A Brick
    A Passion Play
    WarChild
    Minstrel In The Gallery
    Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young To Die
    Songs From The Wood
    Heavy Horses
    Stormwatch
    A
    The Broadsword And The Beast
    Under Wraps
    Crest Of A Knave
    Rock Island
    Catfish Rising
    Roots To Branches
    DOT COM

    If you eliminated every Tull album before (where I came in)
    "Thick As A Brick" I'd still love 'em -
    ...and come to think about it -They are all masterpieces in their own way! :p

    I can't get out!!!
     
  2. street legal

    street legal Senior Member

    Location:
    west milford, nj
    Tootull, Are you going to get the proceedings started with the 1st album, "This Was"? I'm looking forward to this, as I was going to start a Jethro Tull appreciation thread awhile back, myself. This could turn into a very looooooong, very interesting thread. :thumbsup:
     
  3. heavyd

    heavyd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Utah
    JT is music I've only become intimately familiar with during the past three or four years. The band was a huge discovery for me. One of the things I like most about them, other than the music itself, obviously, is that my favorites are all available on great- sounding CD's. I could listen to Original Masters, Aqualung, Living In The Past, and TAAB non-stop & forever! :agree:
     
  4. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    "Thick As A Brick" "Minstrel In The Gallery" fan first.

    "This Was" blues influenced album that Anderson would stray from.

    Favs "Some Day The Sun Won't Shine For You" "Move On Alone" "A Song For Jeffrey" & "It's Breaking Me Up"

    "This Was" Liked the album hated the sound!
    Love the remaster - the remaster makes this an enjoyable listen for the first time here.
     
  5. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    If he doesn't, I'll jump in. BTW, though it is a comp, I think Living In the Past should be included in the discussion, as it is a critics fave, and not particularly repetative with the rest of the catalog!
     
  6. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    :thumbsup: Love "Living In The Past" MFSL CD
     
  7. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    I started with Aqualung; where I lived it was considered really 'underground' music. Went back to Benefit when a local band started doing Teacher. Bought everything through Minstral, woke up one day and discovered I really didn't like anything past Aqualung. Never played them. Out they went.

    Later, a friend turned me on to the first two, especially the mono and first stereo mix of This Was. I think it's not a great album, but is much better than most people know. They could've been one of the UK's greatest blues bands.

    Nowadays, I have the MoFi Stand Up and Living in the Past, a dub of the DCC 'lung, and play the cdrs of the two different This Was mixes.

    A collector friend once said to me 'when the codpiece came in, I went out.' They just became too much of a parody of what they once were.
    :hide:
     
  8. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    I've read this a lot - don't agree - Old Tull fable! :winkgrin:

    -too easy - "Rock Island" tour proved this thinking stinks!
     
  9. bhazen

    bhazen I Am The Walrus

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    Stand Up, Benefit (still my favourite), Aqualung, Living in the Past; that's what killed me in high school & college, sticks with me today. Stone classics. Once they became a "progressive" band with Thick as a Brick, etc., I lost interest a bit; although Passion Play and Minstrel in the Gallery I still like. Gentle Giant are natural fellow-travellers with the Tull.

    Codpiece? I'm wearing one right now! :winkgrin:

    Cheers,
    Bruce
     
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  10. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    Minstrel in the Gallery turned me on, I loved his surreal verse and delivery.

    A while or so ago, I asked for recs on prog rock, and was surprised that I already had a bit more than I knew of (a definitional issue I guess), including several JT albums.

    Have never listened to most of the earlier albums tho. :(. I'll see about Living in the Past, if that gives me a bit of the flavor of JT.

    BTW I like the Christmas album, even if I haven't listened too closely yet. I only bought it last year.
     
  11. TommyTunes

    TommyTunes Senior Member

    I bought Stand Up when it first came out based on a recommendation from a friend. Loved it from the start, then went back and picked up This Was. I was sold from that point on. Their first six (including Living in the Past) remain my favorites and are regularly played. I almost gave up around the time of "A" and "Under Wraps" but they bounced back after those.

    I thought that both Rock Island and Catfish Rising were strong efforts. Both of their Box Sets were 2 of the best box set produced. Enough of unreleased early tracks to keep their fans enthused. I especially liked having the Carnegie Hall show included in the 25th Anniversary Box. My son and I saw them last year and both of us agreed that it was one of the best shows we have seen.

    For those who can't get enough of the Tull sound I highly recommend an Italian band Dalton who only released one album in the early seventies but really have that Tull feel.
     
  12. ZappaSG

    ZappaSG New Member

    Location:
    Philadelphia
    The other night my wife proclaimed Jethro Tull heavier than Led Zeppelin! :eek: It was after having Aqualung DCC in her car for about a week straight. She had never heard it, not even the title track!! (she later took that statement back, saying she just can't let anyone top Zep...but she said Tull is a 9.9 on her "Heavyometer", a very, very critical meter)

    She got me the Benefit remaster for my birthday. She proclaimed it a perfect album and demanded I turn "Nothing to Say" up to 11!! :agree: "These guys are just amazing. Master musicians", said she.

    I bought Heavy Horses and I thought her head was going to explode. "This is brilliant", she was heard to say.

    I must say I agree with her 100%.

    Amazing playing, and incredible lyrics. It doesn'y get much better than Tull!!
     
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  13. seg763

    seg763 Forum Resident

    Location:
    NJ
    Bought Heavy Horses at age 14 with my hard earned lawn mowing money. Back then if an album didn't sound like Zoso, Machine Head, Cat Scratch Fever, or Rocks it was garbage to my 70's hard rock ears. Suffice to say I was baffled by Heavy Horses, some guy at school told me they were hard rock, I was confused. Due to lack of income, that was my 1 album for the month so I played it. To this day when I cut that dark moist grass you only get in May I think of Heavy Horses. Anyway I picked up Bursting Out that fall and that was more my speed. I now have remastered editions of the debut thru Storm Watch.
     
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  14. Mike B

    Mike B Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    I've owned and absorved the entire Tull catalog in painstaking detail. My tastes and reaction to music have changed but I stil dig Tull.

    At the time I was getting all into them, I was a progger, so Brick and Passion Play and Woods were my faves, after getting over Aqualung. But now that I'm over prog, my fave Tull is Stand Up. I now have to be in a weird mood to listen to Brick (and even then the first side is enough for me). Some of Horses and Woods sounds silly to me now but it's still fun.
     
  15. pig whisperer

    pig whisperer CD Member

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    I'd like to learn about all of their albums from start to finish - like that great KISS thread. Have to start with "This Was".

    Here is what All Music has to say:

    Review by Bruce Eder
    Jethro Tull was very much a blues band on their debut album, vaguely reminiscent of the Graham Bond Organization only more cohesive, and with greater commercial sense. The revelations about the group's roots on This Was — which was recorded during the summer of 1968 — can be astonishing, even 30 years after the fact. Original lead guitarist Mick Abrahams contributed to the songwriting and the singing, and his presence as a serious bluesman is felt throughout, often for the better: "Some Day the Sun Won't Shine for You," an Ian Anderson original that could just as easily be credited to Big Bill Broonzy or Robert Johnson; "Cat's Squirrel," Abrahams' big showcase, where he ventures into Eric Clapton territory; and "It's Breaking Me Up," which also features some pretty hot guitar from Abrahams. Roland Kirk's "Serenade to a Cuckoo" (the first song Anderson learned to play on flute), their jazziest track ever, is one of the best parts of the album. The drum solo on "Dharma for One" now seems like a mistake, but is understandable in the context of the time in which it was done. The one number here that everybody knows, "A Song for Jeffrey," almost pales amid these surroundings, but at the time it was a superb example of commercial psychedelic blues. This would be the last album of its kind by the group, as Abrahams' departure and the lure of more fertile inspiration tugged them toward English folk music. Curiously, the audio mix here is better than that on their second album, with a much stronger, harder group sound overall. In late 2001, This Was was reissued in a remastered edition with much crisper sound and three bonus tracks. The jazzy improvisation "One for John Gee" (a reference to the manager of the Marquee Club), the folky "Love Story" (which marked the end Mick Abrahams' tenure with the group), and the novelty piece "Christmas Song" have all been heard before but, more to the point, they're worth hearing again, especially in the fidelity they have here.

    1 My Sunday Feeling
    2 Someday the Sun Won't Shine for You
    3 Beggar's Farm
    4 Move on Alone
    5 Serenade to a Cuckoo
    6 Dharma for One
    7 It's Breaking Me Up
    8 Cat's Squirrel
    9 A Song for Jeffrey
    10 Round
     
  16. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    :thumbsup:

    "This Was" LP originally came with no titles on the front cover, also in miniLP form in the Originals' box-set.

    :cheers:
     
  17. Elegy

    Elegy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midland, Michigan
    I have over a 100 cd's of Tull music that include:

    All of the Japanese mini lp's, Mofi's and DCC's
    All of the studio albums, greatest hits compilations (many from other countries) and legit live albums released to date.
    All of the box sets
    All of the In The Studio radio shows for TAAB, Aqualung and Benefit
    Bootlegs (between 30-40, rough estimate, and they range from 1969 to present)
    Lots of promo stuff. The two or three track cd type stuff.
    All of the DVD's.

    All of Martin Barre's and Ian Anderson's solo albums. A tribute cd or two and god knows what else.

    And this doesn't even include my vinyl.

    Yeah, you could say I'm a Tull fan.
     
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  18. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    This Was is the Tull album for people who don't like Tull. Of course those people have no business in THIS thread :) . The sound is definitely bloozier, with Abrahams competing for musical direction with Ian. Ian was also still using his throaty faux bluesman voice, especially in the great "My Sunday Feeling." "Dharma for One" was still an instrumental, bearing little resemblence to the raga rave-up with lyrics it became on Living In the Past.

    Roland Kirk apparently took some delight in showing up Ian's johnny-come lately copping of his style when opening for Tull. In interviews Ian is quite dismissive of anyone who refers to Roland as Rhassan. I'd like to know what went on there...

    A Song for Jefferey is, of course, about Jeffery Hammond, later to join the band as Jeffery Hammond-Hammond.

    This was the only Tull album to have a commercial release in mono, albiet, only in England.

    Ian was laughing in an interview about a woman who said she'd seen them at Woodstock, which, of course, they weren't at. However, This Was can be heard playing over the PA in the background during one of the non musical segments!
     
  19. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    This Was 8

    Stand Up 10
    Benefit 10

    Aqualung 8.5
    Thick As A Brick 10

    Living In The Past 10

    A Passion Play 8
    WarChild 8

    Minstrel In The Gallery 10

    Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young To Die 7.5

    Songs From The Wood 10
    Heavy Horses 10
    Stormwatch 9

    A 8
    The Broadsword And The Beast 10
    Under Wraps 8

    Crest Of A Knave 7
    Rock Island 8

    Catfish Rising 9
    Roots To Branches 8
    DOT COM 8

    ..just to score Tull out of ten.
     
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  20. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA

    Like I said, I own it and I have 3 other Tull titles; but I can see your point about people owning it and no other Tull.

    I read a Fillmore book years ago with a lot of Graham quotes in it. He said Kirk opened for Tull and he [Kirk] mocked the audience for liking Tull and insulted Anderson from the stage several times. Graham goes on to say that he respected Anderson cause he didn't respond.
     
  21. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Roland Kirk

    Glenn Cornick in "Minstrels In The Gallery" by David Rees states:

    "Yeah, it was a great gig. I remember playing on the same bill as Roland Kirk, who Ian was always accused of copying. Roland Kirk was really thrilled to meet us, and pleased that Ian was doing all that stuff because it made him famous! We had a good time with him. The Newport festival was interesting because it was the first year they'd had any sort of rock music on, we were breaking new ground there." -Newport Jazz Festival

    :cheers:
     
  22. Mike B

    Mike B Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Was Anderson actually "accused" of "ripping off" Kirk? I thought it was open and blatant, and Anderson would be the first to tell anyone, that he took tongue-blocking and theatrics from Kirk. This would be like saying that Stevie Ray Vaughan "ripped off" Jimi Hendrix.

    Anderson's playing was fine for what it was- icing on the musical rock 'n' roll cake that, like Tyler or Plant playing the occassional harmonica. And I say this as a bigger Kirk than Tull fan.
     
  23. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Stand Up & Benefit

    The perfect pair!
     
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  24. Gary

    Gary Nauga Gort! Staff

    Location:
    Toronto
    :righton:
     
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  25. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    1971 Aqualung 1972 Thick As A Brick

    ...and then the the :D this: Fame fortune and the the whole nine yards. A great band! At this point there can be no denying.
     
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