Jethro Tull ‘This Was’ Collectors Edition - June 10

Get the import from AmazonUK. The price is almost the same.....just sayin'......

 

I really hope they continue the series and give Stand Up and Benefit the same treatment!

Imagine a remixed Benefit?!

 

I like this little guy...

 

Anyone received theirs from DDDVD yet? The web site now shows what looks like the British edition with the slipcase. It has the Collectors Edition cover text.

 

Any difference in sound quality between the U.S. and U.K. pressings?
.

 

Highly doubtful.

 

I've had this for about a week now, & have been enjoying it immensely. I've had most of this material for a long time, but it's nice to have the mono mix, all of the BBC sessions (WITHOUT the BBC host's song "introductions") & associated singles. My only gripe is that "Aeroplane" was not included. It truly would have been complete had that song been added.

I listened to the mono mix last night & it sounds pretty good. I was quite surprised. Tape hiss is evident throughout, the EQ sounds very good to me, & dynamics seem to be intact for the most part. There probably is some compression applied, but I've heard much, much worse in modern remasters.

What's really cool is that, as another poster mentioned, there really only was one album by this band, & this new reissue gives a nearly complete overview of it. I have always loved this album, & am gaining even more respect for it after spending the last week listening to this new edition.

Here's to hoping that we see a 40th Anniversary edition of "Stand Up" next year, & "Benefit" in 2010, and so on.

 

Just got mine, no collectors cover on this one.

 

None of the tracks of the 2 discs hit 100% volume when analysed with EAC. I bet all the dynamics are intact!

 

Are there other good sounding Tull expanded edition CD's...or is this really the first?

 

Well, there were the SINGLE disc remasters with bonus tracks that came out earlier this decade. But if you mean 2 disc "Deluxe Edition" type releases, then yes, this is the first one.

I just got done listening to the BBC tracks on disc 1 (again!!!), & they truly sound very good, with hiss a-plenty & good EQ & dynamics.

I'd like to go on record & say that, of the 15 or so Peter Mew remasters in my collection, I think this is the best sounding of them all. While I'm absolutely sure that someone like Steve or Barry could have made this release better sounding yet, I can easily live with this one.

What strikes me as odd is that, of all of the single disc Tull remasters released a few years back with bonus tracks, the single disc version of "This Was" (also remastered by Mew) is by FAR the best sounding of the lot, & the ONLY acceptable sounding one. Maybe Mew really likes this album too, & takes the time to give it the proper sonic treatment!

 

So, the single disc remasters you speak of above were bad sounding...except for This Was?

 

In my opinion, yes. Some here like them, & some don't. To me, on my system, they are mostly painfully bright & compressed to hell. I prefer my original U.S. Chrysalis discs in all cases except for "This Was", actually.
The bonus tracks are great to have, but I've got them covered anyway (& then some) on the "20 Years of Jethro Tull" box set.

 

Great hearing your opinion, Street Legal. I'm also glad I wasn't off base in saying Mew's mastering was pretty darn good on this.
I hope this sells well, that will help make DE's of other JT albums materialize, like Stand Up, Benefit, Aqualung...

Speaking of Aqualung, we now know Ian owns the masters. SH used them and made a holy grail release, which is priced right out of this world now.
It would seem to me, if I was an artist, and I saw work of mine priced this high, I'd try and get in on it.

Hey Ian - get off of those masters of Aqualung and let someone work some magic with them! Or, authorize the reissue of the Steve Hoffman versions. We want 'em!

 

Tell me about it .......

I was just talking to a music friend of mine the other day (funny how I have "regular" friends & "music friends", "music" friends being the coolest, of course ) & I was telling him just how much I have come to appreciate Jethro Tull over the past couple of years. I have always liked them, & their albums have been in my collection for many years now, but over the last 2 years or so, I have REALLY been getting into them. If, say 5 years ago I were to try & decide who my 20 favorite bands were, Tull definitely wouldn't have made the list, whereas now, they just "may" even sneak into the top 10.

Jethro Tull has been growing on me in a BIG way, & I would love to see more of these "Collector's Editions" fleshed out with other tracks from the same period.

However, I read something interesting the other day, a quote from Ian Anderson. I can't remember where I read it, but I think it was from the booklet to the "20 Years" box set, or from a book on Tull that I have entitled "Jethro Tull: A History of the Band, 1968-2001". Regardless, it was a quote from at least 1988 or later. Basically, Ian said that the bottom of the barrel has been scraped, as far as unreleased Tull music, & that he honestly wouldn't want to authorize the release of any more rarities.

But, as we know, rock musicians can be known to change their minds on occasion!

Honestly, compared to many bands like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, etc., Jethro Tull has already given us a TON of unreleased & rare music over the last 20 years or so. Between the 20th & 25th anniversary box sets, the remastered albums with bonus tracks (which can mostly all be found on the 20 Years box set), the 2 CD "Nightcap" set, & now this Collector's Edition of "This Was", we truly have a lot to listen to, & be thankful for.

 

Tull has been VERY prolific in releasing non-lp recordings since cds came out. The 20 Years boxed set, Nightcap, bonus tracks on all the cd reissues, the "Cigar Box" thing that I passed on that I could kick myself for not buying...
he may be right! It might have to be <gasp!> full concerts of the album in question that may make up any 2nd disc of a DE. I don't know if any John Peel/BBC sessions exist for anything after This Was, and we already have the b-sides. Other than alternate takes, live material may be all that's left. And, I'll bet that what they have of live stuff that's releasable for the early years have been scrutinized over already many times.

Damn - I just talked myself into the fact that we may NOT see DE's for the albums I mentioned...

 

What I still wonder about is that someone told me Ian said in an interview around 2 years ago that he had This Was outtake material in his archives.....

 

I think that Ian made that "bottom of the barrell" comment around the time that "Nightcap" came out. There is a ton of great material on that two disc set, but I understand that there has to be a limit to what he can allow to be released. I do wish that he hadn't removed the "Sailor" part of the Chateau Disaster Tapes from the cd. I would love to hear the complete unfinished master reels. He did some rerecording and overdubbing (and certainly editing on the finished product that we finally recieved. I am not complaining. It is a miracle that he ever admitted to having the tapes after he claimed to have thrown them in a fire years ago!!

 

Don't kick yourself for not buying the "Cigar Box". The remixes are awful. What the hell were they thinking? The only part of that set worth owning is the live disc from '70.

 

The Beacon's Bottom tapes CD is also good IMHO. Not sure that Ian's mix of the 1970 concert is as good as the tracks on Living In The Past though, but superb performances. I wonder if some of these 1070's performances were on an old Tull b**t called "Flute Cake"?

 

The Remixes in the Cigar box sound like they were all processed through a cheap chorus guitar pedal. Yuk!

 

The j-tull.com website has a page about the vault claiming (who knows if it's true) that "Sailor" isn't there.

 

I have heard this b*****g, and I think it is the one you are refering to.

 

Those were from Los Angeles.

 

Yes, but Ian put very un-natural digital echo in random spots on that disc of the Carnegie Hall concert. A great concert that needs to be released in its entirety (it's currently split up between the "25 Years" box and the "Living In The Past" album/CD) without the artificially-created echo.