Jethro Tull: Classic or Dud?

Their true masterpiece was "A Passion Play". Jethro Tull at their most progressive was also Jethro Tull at their best.

But they did some interesting folk influenced stuff later too.

To me, Minstrel In The Gallery through Stormwatch = classic. The expansive prog notions recompressed into concise songs without losing the progginess.

The stuff from the first heyday's great, but I don't get the urge to put it on very often.

The string of high-concept records (Thick, Passion, Too Old) I have no time for.

i own 'aqualung'. i like it and think it's pretty creative and inspired, but i don't listen to it often

I went to see them live a few days ago. I only really went along to the gig after a mate said he wanted to go.

I hadn't much listened to them for 30 years, and though I wasn't a big fan I had mates who were very keen indeed and back in the day I did have a soft spot for the quirkier, pop-eyed silliness.

Before the gig I was kinda worried about all that zany 70s catweazle'n'codpiece stuff, since I figured it wouldn't have aged well...

I needn't have worried as there wasn't much of it, indeed there wasn't nearly enough of it. Stripped of the theatrics, left pretty much the music unadorned, though that did reveal some elements which I hadn't noticed before (or didn't know anything about to notice) such as the Mingus influences (though I guess the Roland Kirk stuff was always obvious).

Mainly though they sounded polite 80s rock. Barre's guitar sounded especially cleaned up, Dire Straits and (80s) Supertramp.

So not great then, mostly not even good, but now and then there were flashes about what made them interesting and did confirm there were interesting bits in the War child and earlier albums.

Their guitarist kicks ass and besides that they are fucking Jethro Tull. So many songs to love by them.

Oh god, I had an urge to hear "Skating Away" so I downloaded the Anniversary collection and I'm kind of enjoying it.

Kill me.

They are classic beyond classic.

people who HATE this band hate fun

From another thread:

for all the shit jethro tull got for beating metallica in the grammys, they are probably the *weirdest* band to ever win a grammy. i mean jethro tull! think about it! how could you even invent jethro tull?

― dave coolier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, February 10, 2012 9:33 AM (6 minutes ago)

i was listening to Heavy Horses by Jethro Tull the other day and the album is dedicated to the "hardworking shire horses of England"

― dave coolier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, February 10, 2012 9:33 AM

Jethro Tull OTM

heavy horses and songs from the wood are both well worth checking out btw, late period successes...they decided to completely ignore punk/new wave/everything that was going on at the time

Songs From The Wood a little more so, but M@tt OTM.

Perhaps the receding of the prog wave did influence them to keep it concise on these two records. There are no long songs.

SFTW was my first-ever "favorite album" and it still captivates.

yeah i guess they are pretty tight, there's one funkier tune on heavy horses that almost reminds me of like a jazz rock version of itchy post punk funk type stuff but it's probably by coincidence

ned, do you like jethro tull?

I do, more casually than anything else but I had a small phase in the late eighties (oddly enough -- pre-Grammys, for what it's worth, but that album that won had a couple of creepily interesting songs on it like "Farm on the Freeway," which got some regular classic-rock-radio airplay at the time).

Songs from the Wood I heard courtesy of friends at the time too -- good album! Probably in more freak/psych/underground folk performer/listeners backgrounds than people admit to.

I'll rep for Stormwatch, which does have long songs, but I love the theme so much.

my best friend growing up was a big Tull fan but i never really gave them much thought until Thick As A Brick blew me away on the radio one day, love that album now, should really check more out.

And hey, just got this in email that the UK's Burning Shed label is where to go for, well, everything Tull-related:

http://www.burningshed.com/store/jethrotull/

woah Tull Xmas album!

Benefit is a killer album. I loved this band when I was a kid, then somewhere in early high school all the charm ran right out of 'em for me. "Locomotive Breath" is all-time though, really oughta be a more commonly-cited everybody-knows-that-riff tune

That riff in "Teacher" totally rules

xpost that wonderfully sludgy ga-chunka ga-chunka rhythm

lol I had no idea that this song was called "Locomotive Breath"

yes, it is fucking fantastic

The only (sort-of) art-rock band where I can easily list a top 5: 1. "Witches Promise," 2. "Nothing Is Easy," 3. "Living in the Past," 4. "Skating Away..." 5. "Teacher." Unless ELO count.

btw A Passion Play is completely batshit and over the top and awesome in a way that makes their other albums sound like the Ramones by comparison, recommended on vinyl where it's sequenced as 2 complete sides of vinyl no "songs"

Next time i'm in mpls/stpl, BOC/Tull night at my mom's. Wordisbond.

Haven't heard Passion Play in yonks, and I can't really remember the music, except for one part:

THIS... is the story of the HARE...who lost his SPECKATICKES!

hahahaha

Next time i'm in mpls/stpl, BOC/Tull night at my mom's. Wordisbond.

― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Friday, February 10, 2012 3:34 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cool! we can plan our launch of Classic Rock Artists' Late Period Albums No One Gives A Fuck About Magazine

THIS... is the story of the HARE...who lost his SPECKATICKES!

― Ham House showdown (Dan Peterson), Friday, February 10, 2012 3:45 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha yeah it's so goofy

Classic Rock Artists' Late Period Albums No One Gives A Fuck About Magazine

also featuring Grace Under Pressure/Presto/Hold Your Fire

Ha, I think the singles from Presto are pretty great.

They are! That's why those albums have to be in the first issue of CRALPANOGAFA Magazine!

Sounds like a planet designed by Slartibartfast.

grace under pressure is a top 5 rush album, act like u know

THIS MONTH: SLY AND ROBBIE SPEAK OUT ON THE MAKING OF BOB DYLAN'S INFIDELS

lol

they were certainly well-realized/fully-formed. really looked exactly like they should have looked with their sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqZmtq5LhFo&feature=artist

still pissed i lent Thick as a Brick to a girl in high school and never got it back

and spotify is reminding me that Thick is awesome fuiud

never had anything against them, have to admit. although I never really felt inclined to accept the punk rules (throw out a world of music because a couple 50s-revivalist punk bands said to? um, no thnx)

fuck there was a foo fighters ad between pts 1 and 2

Tull Rulez. I find it weird that some ILXors don't know this and/or have only listened to one album's worth of material

I dunno about Tull but I have a soft spot for Ian Anderson's "Walk Into Light" solo record. It has to be one of the best arranged/programmed synth-based albums of the period.

could not wring an ounce of pleasure from 'thick as a brick'. recently discovered that the whole thing is a giant pisstake, went back to it and loved it immediately. I've played the whole thing easily 10 times this week.

Ha that makes me happy. I'm a pretty big Tull-head but I haven't tried to listen to long-form Brick in a long time (usually reach for Songs From The Wood, Heavy Horses or Aqualung).

Does the same contextualizing trick work for A Passion Play?

don't know tbh, i've not yet gone back to any other tull stuff

I've been revisiting and enjoying War Child recently, unfairly maligned I think and supposedly a bunch of Passion Play offcuts and leftovers.

Skating Away is sheer magic but I really can't abide the rest of that record. Last time I listened, anyway.

Ha, the other night, the modern/alternative rock station did a whole 'feature' on Aqualung, citing it as a key influence on Mumford and Sons and the whole Brit neo-folk thing.

Real shit that those two cheapo box sets don't have all the bonus tracks because they collect 8 albums in total and that would have been very convenient. They have so many bonus tracks and it'd be missing too much to just stick with the box sets.

Have been on a tear with JT for the last few months, enjoying the remixed/boxed editions that have been coming out, so much great music.

That new Lap of Luxury mix has me on a massive Tullbender. New finding: even Steven Wilson's remix doesn't warm me up to [half of] The Broadsword and The Beast.

dunno why I'd never picked up Bursting Out until now, it's so great and I think a glimpse into Anderson's personality that you don't get from the studio albums. truly a one of a kind dude.

I still have my original double-vinyl pressing, which misspells it as Busting Out on the sleeve - an error I assume they've rectified by now.

meant to say it was misspelled on the spine

mine also says "Busting", I think...like all the great live prog albums it is worn to shit because the gatefold was opened so much

only flaw imo is the fact that the abridged Thick as a Brick doesn't include the bit that ends Side A...probably my favorite section of Tull music

also wanna point out I think this is the only album I have with a word bleeped out

I have bronchitis right now, I am Aqualung. Lying in bed listening to music lungs make deep sea diver sounds

"Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day" is a really special tune, as much as I love prog I think this is the sort of thing they do best. always surprised to find that one is not on Songs from the Wood or Heavy Horses but rather the fairly unappreciated War Child

And its recording predates "A Passion Play".