Jethro Tull - A Passion Play or WarChild or Minstrel In The Gallery or Too Old To...

I was listening to Passion Play yesterday. I'll put it first before Minstrel.
I would be interesting to know when people first heard A Passion Play. When it came out (as I did) or 20 years later. If you heard it when it came out (as a Tull fan) and listened to it 100 times till you memorized it it would have a different impact than starting to listen to Jethro Tull when War Child came out and went backward to A Passion Play.

 

A Passion Play

Why I'm a little bit too Tull.
May 30/73 Attended MLG for "A Passion Play"
July/73 Album released and played to death almost to this very day.
Where's that MoFi CD? ...in the player...

 

gotta vote Minstrel, in some ways the most representitive Tull album of all.

Passion is fine with me (despite a critical bashing)
Too Old is one of their weaker efforts as is Warchild (despite the seminal Skating Away)

 

I bought Passion Play in 1979, after I had Heavy Horses and Minstrel in The Gallery, I was a wee lad of 16.

 

PASSION PLAY by a long mile, but that's because it's either my favorite or second favorite Tull album altogether. WARCHILD is probably my third favorite Tull album. For me, these are all from the period where the band was at their strongest.

I had an old MINSTREL CD and found it boring, so I sold it. Kinda wish I didn't as I'd like to hear it again. I suspect it isn't as bad as I remember it to be.

TOO OLD... didn't much seem worth the $2 I paid to have it on cassette. Didn't care to listen to it more than once. I suspect it is as bad as I remember it to be.

 

Fool's gold above:

CCD not DCC, CCD 1082 is the real deal.
The red lettered title is the key.

 

It would be Minstrel for me if only it was recorded better, or engineered better. It's stupid I know, but no matter what pressing on CD or vynil I listen to, the sonics prevent me from totally adoring that album. (never heard the CCD 1082, though )
It's the same for Too Old..., I feel I could get my kicks but the sound... I don't know... It's the "ambiance" of the recording studio, the reverb on the voice or something.

But don't get me wrong, I love those albums, most of the tracks are truly amazing... (I'm thinking "Cold Wind to Valhalla", "Baker St Muse", "Salamander", "Too Old...") They're just not realised to their full potential for me.
Others feel that way?

Warchild is fun to listen to, but misses some continuity, and some tracks are weak IMO.

So, A Passion Play it would be!

 

New Tull Box Set...

You forgot May 27th, 2005 Joined Steve Hoffman forums and slowly began an all out assult campaign to make everyone see the light fo Tull's magnifcence,
an assualt not seen since the Beatlebugs were temporarily locked up and...

And soon to celebrate his third anniversary of this most suckcessfool of Tull endevours, and his 12,000th post/tull poll/tasteo'tullfortoday anniversary...
Might even get mentioned in the 40th anniverary 4Cd Tull box set due this fall.

"Oh No! Not Another Forty Years of Jethro Tull" EMI 0727 1965 / 4TT

Disc One: "Returning to the Past" Outtakes, rehersals, and B sides, 1968-72
Disc Two: "A Passion Play Disaster" Complete live version from 1975 tour...
Disc Three: "Songs from the Freeway" just like disc one, but 1976-1987
Disc Four: "Salmon Farmer Rising.com" EVERY single Ian brain fart ever made!


Liner notes by tootull, mythohistory by Mr. Bill...


Guaranteed to be a wild ride...

 

Almoist frogrot...

Forgot the bogus disc only available with first 40,000 pre-orders:

"Too Old To Remember My Tunes"

Live versions of later day Tull classics from the past 20 years...

tootull running time: twenty-two minutes...
(including pause for hidden bonus track)... "tiptoetotootullthroughthetulips"...

 

I like them all for different reasons. Tull during that period in time could do no wrong, IMHO. If I had to pick one, Minstrel In The Gallery, but the others would be close behind.

 

I'd have to go with Minstrel only because I haven't heard the other two

 

Ahhhh..Baker Street Muse

 

Guaranteed to be a wild ride...

 

Baker Street Muse is everything Tull should be. Check this out for proof

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

 

Well I am a Passion Play nut (bought LP upon release), but I find Minstrel to be better produced and recorded (I have the [so-so] original Canadian LP, as well as the excellent - but a tad bright - Japanese CD), and in spite of one or two little musical jokes I never really got and always skip, its material reveals better maturity, perhaps also better playing (including Ian's singing), and showcases the exquisite string arrangements of D. Palmer more prominently. ... to say nothing of Ian's exquisite Martin brand guitars also more upfront!

I also like the fact that the new absence of Moog and other sundry instruments seems to set it apart from the prog movement, in a way. I find really nothing wrong with the prog canons of the day; just that I like it when an artist takes good care not to pigeon-hole him/herself too much within a genre. (Thus also my liking of Too Old To RnR)

And Jeffrey's swansong as a bass player with Tull... Wow, what a sound! What tonal and rhythmic accuracy (Black Satin Dancer... Minstrel...)!

 

I love Too Old to Rock and Roll...I think it's the most "Benefit"-like lp of the 4 choices. It's really good one-legged rock.

Quizz Kid is a great opener. The main riff reminds me of To Cry You a Song. From a Deadbeat to an Old Greaser is absolutely beautiful. Crazed Institution, Taxi-Grab, Checkered Flag are killer tracks to my ears.

I like all 4 albums. Minstrel is next then Passion, then Warchild.

 

Keep it quiet. The one that has improved with age.

Quizz Kid
Crazed Institution
Salamander
Taxi Grab
From A Dead Beat To An Old Greaser
Bad-Eyed And Loveless
Big Dipper
Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die
Pied Piper
The Chequered Flag (Dead Or Alive)

 

Always like Deadbeat me-self.

 

Some tasty tull tidbits to tease too tull with...

 

Note that the second Minstrel cover is an odd Asian pressing, Korean I suspect... It is in the red First label... photo forthcoming...

 

bump...

 

After shelving this for years, I pulled it out a few months ago and listened to it on some really expensive headphones. I loved it, and listened to it three times in a row - It managed to move up to number 4 on my top ten Tull list (displacing "Benefit"). Check it out:
1. Stand Up
2. Thick As A Brick
3. Heavy Horses
4. Too Old...
5. Benefit
6. Aqualung
7. Songs From The Wood
8. Minstrel In The Gallery
9. Broadsword & The Beast
10. Stormwatch

I know. Absolutely fascinating.

 

Wow... I find it hard to believe that 2O2RnR could knock Benefit out of one's top five, but to each his own...

I personally have never been able to enjoy much of it~my faves are Salamader and and Eyed...), too cliched to me, Tull in a lull.. the albums on either side of it are so strong that it pales in their shadows IMNSHO... I bet if you put Benefit on that same expensive turn table and cranked it up, it would worm it way back into your heart and top five...

cheers,

 

Hey Tootull!

I've found a CDP 32 1082 2 Minstrel! Is it the one you're talking about? red lettering and all...