Jethro Tull: Classic or Dud?

I need to spend more time with it, and Aqualung, they are my most neglected, I tend to just go straight to Benefit, Stand Up and Songs From The Wood these days.

I've tried so many times to get into A Passion Play and every time I do I always come away from it thinking "wow, that was a bit of a slog" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjZ2LxmRJ8E

I used to listen to this group a bit when I was a baby teen but have largely blanked on it since. I'd probably still remember every bit of Aqualung and TAAB though.

Anyway, HMV have two of the Steven Wilson remix CDs for a tenner - which should I get first, the aforementioned two or A Passion Play and Stand Up, neither of which I'm familiar with AFAIR?

Stand up is a better album but passion play probably benefits more from wilsonization

I'll be quite thrilled if Stand Up is better, because if I haven't made it clear here, Passion Play is probably my favorite album I've heard in the last 3 or 4 years.

Started Too Old To Rock'n Roll. It's the least impressive Tull album I've heard so far (of the 7 I've heard) but "From A Dead Beat To An Old Greaser" is an obvious standout, lovely.

I've enjoyed the deluxe book a lot. I had no idea Dave Gibbons drew the sleeve comic before he had done anything big, he's interviewed. An interview with two members of John Glascock's earlier band Carmen (one of them was Glascock's girlfriend), a Visconti produced flamenco band who were on the rise before disastrous mismanagement killed them. A story about Anderson and Rockette Morton going motorbiking together. And more photos that are making me believe that Tull has more fun photos than any other band.
Anderson's notes on the songs continue to be interesting. He talks about Britain's sleazy and exploitative tv gameshows. He had felt that spending money like crazy is disrespecting the fans who gave him that money. He feels very uncomfortable about the lyrics of "Pied Piper" now and seems to regret it. Discussing another song about dirty old men, he says that singing in character is a risk but sometimes it's the best way to do a song, just hoping people wont assume you're like that character.

Carmen in 1973, more rocky than expected
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ1-hyRJSHY

In "Bad Eyed And Loveless" he describes a woman as being like a warm fart at Christmas.

Really impressed with Carmen's debut, Fandangos In Space, wasn't expecting anything that great when I was curious about this band.

Too Old is not a great album. So many songs have their great moments but ultimately don't hit the mark, apart from "From A Dead Beat To An Old Greaser" which is amazing. Barrie Barlow hated the title track and I sort of understand why.

Bonus track "Small Cigar" is such a brilliant little character sketch ("if you ask me they're all on their way to upper middle class oblivion"), love it for similar reasons to why I love Ween's "Your Party".

If you are wondering what the deal is with the Too Old deluxe version, you're not alone, I wasn't sure until I read the sleeve notes because the product description doesn't explain it well.
Master tapes for half the album were missing but there was an alternate version of the album recorded for a tv special (somewhere between Top Of The Pops performances and an album length music video) which was considered better than the original album (I agree) so they remastered that and included bonus remasters of half the original album that they could locate and included a flat transfer of the original album.
A dvd includes the tv special, which is okay at best (I think the band don't like it), only one track really makes a halfway decent music video.

Agree that it's overall a failure and the worst of their prime stretch

I think Anderson doesn't care that much for it either, he said the whole thing was just a bit too forced.

I think maybe they recorded maybe a tad too many albums in the 70s.

I thought War Child was your least favorite?

Oh no. War Child is the problem piece, with stunning highlights and outtakes that are better than half of what’s on the album, where I’ve neurotically fashioned my own tracklist etc etc. War Child is unsuccessful as an album but TOTRnR is just kinda bad.

I actually think the title track is great until they get to that abominable boogie section

I actually like "Prelude" better because it has most of my favorite elements of the title track. It's understandable why it became an anthem for fans, with lyrics like "unfashionable til the end".

"Jack A Lynn" (early version)

I've been on a massive Tull kick lately, listening to the 5.1 mixes I've pulled down online and this version of the song (which ended up as a Broadsword outtake) is just hypnotically beautiful. "Quatrain" is another great Heavy Horses bonus -- this incredible jig. I think I like this stuff more than the record proper.

https://www.goldminemag.com/news/rhino-to-release-a-special-anniversary-edition-of-jethro-tulls-stormwatch

...40th Anniversary edition of Stormwatch released October 18th 2019

Steven Wilson remix, 6 previously unreleased tracks, a 2-disc live show from 1980. I am v. excited, it's my favorite Tull album and despite that could probably benefit from a remix, the CD has always sounded kind of flat to me.

I went to one of the shows on that tour. Crossing my fingers it's included! (I remember yelling super loud during the "Locomotive Breath" intro.)

Looking forward to it.

I may pop for this as I’m regretting that I let so many of these go OOP – the Martin Webb liners are fantastic on the three I have.

They really need to reissue these.

'A' in about 6 months from now I guess, that's where I will be stepping off the bus with these reissues I reckon.

Has A been announced?

Not sure, I could find out, I can't imagine they're gonna stop now, would be weird if they skipped to Broadsword...

Supposedly Wilson likes broadsword but is not interested in A. (I like both but A is the more unique and imo better album even though it is almost like Oingo Tull. Also the live shows for A were insanely good so I sure hope it does get the luxe treatment.

Appreciate if you could get the scoop Mares.

Someone else could do a 5.1 of 'A', perhaps Jakko Jakszyk, I have asked about it and await a response.

So, it's not definite, but the word is that the most likely outcome will be a Benefit 50th Anniversary release next year, which hasn't yet gotten the box treatment and it's much more likely to sell than A and there's already a 5.1 mix, neatly sidestepping the issue for now.

Awesome, I would love a book version of Benefit, the earlier deluxe edition got really scarce in the last year.

Here's to 2025 when we'll be fervently dissecting the J-Tull Dot Com box set.

if they even have box sets in 2025, instead of just hugs

At this point I’ll take hugs.

So I got the Stormwatch book edition, and the weather is right, so it's time to dim the lights, have a Guinness, and listen to this Steven Wilson remix of my favorite Jethro Tull album (Living in the Past is a comp so it doesn't count)...

Ooh do report back
What’s the bonus material? Live show?

November 15th release, will be getting this.

A live show and quite a lot of bonus tracks.

Live show is Den Haag 1980 AKA Watchers on the Storm... almost a two-hour set.

My favorite of the new-to-me bonus tracks is a 9-minute version of Orion, a song called Man of God, and an instrumental called Lyricon Blues. Tullheads seem to know about all this stuff already though? They clearly picked the strongest stuff for the first reissue's bonus tracks (Kelpie, Broadford Bazaar, King Henry's Madrigal) which are all here too. Broadford Bazaar remains a top ten Tull song for me.

Wilson remix of the album sounds great, some of the instrumental cues being a different levels in the new mix throw me just from hearing the original so many times over the years, but it definitely sparkles.

Still waiting on mine but I've always loved Orion and am jazzed about the long version.

Here's all the info -

https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/jethro-tull-stormwatch-40th-anniversary-force-10-deluxe-edition/

The limited runs of these stress me out. I’m not a massive Stormwatch fan but few like I blew the boxes up to Songs from the Wood. I really wished they’d reissue a few of these.

A list of Ian's favorite folk albums and how much he actually contributed to producing Steeleye Span. Second link has the bare list if you cant be bothered clicking through pages.

https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ian-andersons-10-essential-folk-rock-albums-622920
https://www.loudersound.com/news/ian-anderson-reveals-folk-rock-heroes

I need to get around to Stormwatch, haven't yet listened as I'm still unpacking and the house is in flux but I listened to 'Isle Of Wight '70' while unpacking yesterday and it rules so hard, then I did Space Ritual, live records are good for menial labour.

Still digesting Stormwatch and half of it is very good. But I hadn't seen this album collection before
https://www.discogs.com/Jethro-Tull-Original-Album-Series-Volume-Two/release/8691477
Might be a good option when I've caught up with all the preceding albums and see how far the reissues go.

it would be, I can't see the reissues program extending that far for a number of years, I only have a couple of those records and I never listen to them, maybe I should revisit.

I'd be interested to see how Tull themselves think of the albums, because in the reissues so far they aren't always enthusiastic about the albums.

Still cant get over how negatively Passion Play was received, critic Chris Welch hated it and others thought of it as a massive fuckup, I think I said upthread that Martin Barre wasn't that into it. I have been a bit wary of Welch because he seemed entirely negative about punk music (while making an angry face) but I've only seen him talking/writing on several things.

Roots to Branches is great, there are a few good moments on Crest of a Knave, Under Wraps I’ve still never heard and I don’t like Catfish Rising and Rock Island at all

Stormwatch deluxe.

"Home" and "Dun Ringill" are fantastic. "Dark Ages" could have been the absolute standout but I'm not a big fan of the middle section, the first few minutes are amazing though (even spookier in the live version). "Orion" is good but the extended version is much better, with all these lovely dark instrumental passages not in the final version. "Elegy" is nice too.

I really wish they had made a whole album with the atmosphere of "Dun Ringill" and the spooky elements of some of the other tracks I mentioned. Too many so-so rock tracks.

I understand Anderson's reservations about "A Stitch In Time" (he thought using stock phrases was naff) and "Urban Apocalypse" (he felt self-conscious about the grandeur of the lyrics) but they're both spectacular to me, especially the latter, which I'm stunned was just sitting on a shelf for four decades. It's a Dee Palmer tune, only appeared on a solo album from 2018 (I'll need to get it someday).

The live intros (also written by Dee Palmer) "Sweet Dream" and "Prelude To A Storm" are brilliant. Also a bit spooky.

I assumed that Dee was a nickname for David but I'm only just discovering on Discogs that Palmer is transgender. I didn't read all the notes in these books, so if that has been mentioned, I missed it.

Did Anderson always ham up his Englishness on stage?

hahaha, yes, he does.

Meantime, Ian made an unexpected appearance on an album recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTVrBN7JvPQ

Marc's always said he was a heavy prog fan right before glam kicked in, so not too surprising, especially since this happened a few years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nN4d9E0AuY

And earlier this month, Marc put on a solo show for the new album, and this happened!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxP15kQEQFQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNbQY-MfwhE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlPlNpPFKes

I saw an interview several years ago in which Almond listed several things about himself, then concluded by saying "one of these is true". On the list was being a huge Jethro Tull fan.

hahaha, I would not have guessed that! but it makes sense, since I like Marc Almond and Jethro Tull

I picked up Stormwatch Deluxe recently but haven’t dug into it yet. I don’t know it as well as the other two in the folk/ecology trilogy but “Dun Ringall” has always been my favorite track.