Jethro Tull: Classic or Dud?

(though "Living In The Past" is a nice tune)

I love pretty much everything up to "War Child", plus "Songs from the Wood" and "Heavy Horses"*. I don't think "Stormwatch" is bad. The lyrics on most of "Minstrel in the Gallery" (except for the title song) start to make me cringe. "Broadsword and the Beast" has an unpleasant, bloated-puffy synthesizer sound as well as pretty uninteresting songs. "Crest of a Knave" is hard to imagine as the same band - I can't stand Martin Barre's guitar sound at that time, and the lyrics are brutal. "Rock Island" and "Catfish Rising", as probably everyone will tell you, are just embarassing. I haven't heard anything since, though a friend has told me that "J-Tull.com" (sp?) is not too bad.

*I do think that "Thick as a Brick" is a bit structurally clunky, but when I consider that it was kind of a big piss-take of a concept album, it makes sense that it's that way - it's a pretty funny idea for an album. "A Passion Play" is my favourite: the saxophone and synthesizer parts sound great and the melodies are really deft. I don't know why people got mad about "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles". "War Child" continues with similar arrangements and impressive playing (Barriemore Barlow is a superb drummer), though I'd have preferred "Bungle in the Jungle" as a non-LP single.

But it's not offensive like ELP (whose best moments were Greg Lake's Paul McCartney/Neil Young knockoff songs w/ cheap synth solos just to remind you who's IN CHARGE HERE). And the later dumb pop hits he had, around the mid-'70s, are quite enjoyable. Normally I don't bring up Lester Bangs but his piece "Jethro Tull in Vietnam" does sum it all up nicely.

1) Stand Up. One of the great, great psychedelic albums, stuffed with killer riffs and enough otherworldly moods to simulate or enhance being baked. If this album were a one-off by an obscure British folk band (a la Mellow Candle) it would fetch hundreds of $$$$ in collector's circles.
2) Aqualung. There isn't a bad song on it. The flute solo in "My God" is some scary shit. In my experience people who badmouth this are trying to prove another point, like they're cool, or even good music can get overplayed, or something.
3) Thick as a Brick. Some parts drag, but there's no other album like it (I guess besides Passion Play), and most of it's engaging, not an easy thing to pull off over the course of 40+ minutes.

Songs from the Wood, War Child, Benefit, and Minstrel in the Gallery aren't bad, either, and there are timeless singles like "Living in the Past" to get off on.

There's also a ton of shitty albums--Too Old to Rock & Roll. . ., A, Stormwatch, etc. but who cares, really.

and no, Bangs is not infallible. But his central insight into Tull--no rebop--is a good 'un. And I want rebop myself.

xpost

"Wond'ring Aloud"
"Slipstream" (I think)
"Thick as A Brick" (the intro, but many other parts, too)
"Skating Away On the Thin Ice of a New Day"
"One White Duck/Nothing At All"
"Baker St. Muse"
"Salamander" (again, I think -- it's been awhile)
"Dun Ringill"

My personal tastes tell me they also have a few very good hard rock moments, including "Minstrel In the Gallery", "Pibroch" and much of Aqualung. That and Songs From the Wood has a very cool electro-folk production

Thick as a Brick really is ridiculously good. Sweet tunes, fierce playing, beautifully arranged. The strings near the end are next level.

"Locomotive Breath" still rocks greatly.

1) ...If this album were a one-off by an obscure British folk band (a la Mellow Candle) it would fetch hundreds of $$$$ in collector's circles.

Yes yes yes. In the run up to becoming full-on prog, they created some moody and unfussy stuff. Stand Up layers all sorts of acoustic instruments with blues riffing in a way that is intuitive and natural, rather than the hyper-organized feel they soon took on. Really solid songs that would hold up outside of the textures and arrangements.

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

M.U. – The Best of Jethro Tull

That is an impeccable tracklist, in an interesting order. Whose idea was it to include Rainbow Blues?!

I don’t think I’ve ever known what M.U. stands for. It’s not something obvious, I hope?

and the rain wasn't made of water!

M.U. = "musician's union"

they have some songs I really love - "Mother Goose", "The Whistler", "Inside"...what else have they got like that?

Singing All Day
Wond'ring Aloud/Again
Life's a Long Song
Alive and Well and Living In
Fat Man
Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square
Dr. Bogenbroom
Teacher
Up to Me
Cheap Day Return
Up the 'Pool
Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day
Salamander
Moths
Fire at Midnight
Broadford Bazaar
Home

...as you go later, their albums will usually have 2-3 more acoustic and poppier numbers, but they kinda get increasingly baroque

"Acres Wild" and "Left, Right" are two of my favorites

I consider 'Velvet Green' to be the epitome Jethro Tull song. But I'm very much impressed by their entire discography. I'd agree that especially anything from their first 16-album(!!!) run up until and including Crest of a Knave can especially be highly recommended - perhaps rather the first 14-album run as album 15 (Under Wraps) seems weaker in comparison (although apparently that's a favourite of Martin Barre). But there's plenty to love afterwards, it's just that the albums may overall get a bit less memorable or outstanding in their entirety but I don't think any one of them is bad. Perhaps the most recent two (Zealot Gene / RökFlöte) do the least to me but they're fine enough - I guess they did suffer from Barre's omission.

There's a lot of beauty on Ian Anderson's solo albums too, I especially like the instrumental Divinities and also The Secret Language of Birds and Rupi's Dance, both of which sound like natural follow-ups to the preceding Tull albums Roots To Branches/Dot Com.

I sampled Walk Into Light and the synthesizer background is a lot more tasteful than what I've heard of Under Wraps, it actually seems like a valid turn for Anderson to take in 1983 both commercially and creatively. That matters to me because, though I like a lot of his/their music, I also find the Tull range to be somewhat limited - the downside, perhaps, of its distinctiveness.

The words to "This is Not Love" are quite imaginative and imagistic but the riffs and melody never really catch for me, so it's atmospheric without the music putting feelings into the story. I do find these lists interesting and look forward to the next two instalments.

As I continue my now month-long #TullBender, I have dug into this podcast whilst I walk my dog and schlep my kids around and, well, it's delightful. Two (or maybe just one?) theater/RenFair dudes farfing around about every song doesn't sound like an intriguing proposition at first. But they are self-aware, have great chemistry and have an infectious passion for and insight into this music. The "Baker Street Muse" episode was particularly good, I thought. All told, very fun and highly recommended for those who wonder what it might be like to scale Tull Mountain. Belated thanks, Maresn3st!

― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, March 4, 2024 3:32 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

As my #TullBender stretches into yet another week, I'm just about finishing up the 8th and final Talk Tull To Me episode on TAAB -- which has been great. It's def. a time commitment, but they do an excellent job digging into the "story," which has always been kind of a puzzle to me. The podcast goes pretty deep into the characters and archetypes Anderson populates it with, and ultimately they kind of conclude what I said above about it, but it's been a fun journey nonetheless.

I started digging through TheNuNuNu's list above -- I didn't know a lot of it and am more partial to Rock Island than Catfish Rising which I used to own. I'm still not 100% sure of the songwriting on the latter--he sure was pervy around that time--but there's a lot of sprightly mandolin on that record for sure.

To get back to the original post about Tull being a great singles band, I nominate the Stormwatch bonus track 'Kelpie' as their 'way ahead of its time' potential smash hit, had it been released/remade in the late-'90s by a hopeful popstar. The propulsion of the bass and drums, the instrumental counter-melody in the verses, the subtle use of guitar squeals at the ends of verse sections, the moments of silence, the wild bridge, plus the rhythmic cadence of the vocal melody - it's not quite Max Martin or Bloodshy/Avant & Britney's 'Toxic', but it's not not that! There's some serious 'music as math' going on here. I could totally have seen the late Denniz Pop (or Jellybean Benitez) loving this track, and remaking/reinterpolating it into some huge dancefloor banger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyR7pdLDz_g

Problem is, it's in triple time! So the only dancing it will inspire are jigs.

It's not one of their greatest songs but "A Small Cigar" is such a funny idea with really funny lyrics, it was only released as bonus material
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBIA06c4L3s

I mean it does sound good but much of the amusement comes from the lyrics

they have some songs I really love - "Mother Goose", "The Whistler", "Inside"...what else have they got like that?

Singing All Day
Wond'ring Aloud/Again
Life's a Long Song
Alive and Well and Living In
Fat Man
Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square
Dr. Bogenbroom
Teacher
Up to Me
Cheap Day Return
Up the 'Pool
Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day
Salamander
Moths
Fire at Midnight
Broadford Bazaar
Home

...as you go later, their albums will usually have 2-3 more acoustic and poppier numbers, but they kinda get increasingly baroque

― the absence of bikes (f. hazel), Saturday, March 9, 2024 7:49 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

thanks, as I go through these I have come to the conclusion that I actually do like Jethro Tull

I'd say that the odds are better that a given Tull song will be worthy if it's a ballad or "pop" song than a riff-rocker, maybe partly because the rockers last longer and have to make space for various often-monotonous instrumental solos.

Still, some eternal riffs in the Tull catalogue: Locomotive Breath, No Lullaby, Sweet Dream. Cross-eyed Mary, Hunting Girl, Something's On The Move, etc.

Frogbs - have you done Passion Play yet?

In the documentary I watched last year Dee Palmer said that Eddie Jobson was the dictionary definition of a wizard (she even said which dictionary, oxford maybe?) and I looked it up and didn't really catch her meaning, I suspected it was an insult but maybe not.

was about to, I thought I had it but it turns out it was Minstrel in the Galary lol

Valentijn otm velvet green is the ne plus ultra
For frogbs, this would be my Tull PO5 right now:
Velvet green
No lullaby
Witches promise
TaaB (the usual excerpt from part 1)
Mother goose

And top 5 albums:
Songs from the wood
Living in the past (the first LP of the 2LP set or the first CD of the 2CD set)
Aqualung
Heavy horses (ideally the box so you get the live show)
A (ideally the box so you get the especially killer live show)

Ohhhh, I didn't think this would get a reissue, I'm not sure that I've listened to it more than once.

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/jethro-tull-bursting-out-the-inflated-edition/

I love how Thick as a Brick is claimed to be a parody of prog concept albums, which they thought would be apparent once people listened to the lyrics. as though people were gonna listen to it and go "yes I understand everything this guy is saying"

amazing album though surely one of the best prog LPs ever made parody or no

Also, “Inside” from Benefit is an absolute jam. Glen Cornick’s bass on this is just incredible.

― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, April 23, 2018 9:48 PM (five years ago)

This song sounds so much like Can.