The Jethro Tull thread.

[mutantllama]

I know Einherjar is a pretty big Tull fan.
I know there are other Tull fans here as well.

I have Warchild and Aqualung.

 

[Psychonaut]

Been a Tull fan for many years. My favorite stuff is his mid-catalogue: Broadsword And The Beast, Passion Play, Minstrel In The Gallery, Songs From The Wood, Stormwatch, Heavy Horses, and Aqualung.

That said, you need to buy more.

 

[razoredge]

That said, you need to buy more.

Me too.

Thick as a Brick, Aqualung and Songs from the Wood were very important recordings in my early childhood development lol

 

[mutantllama]

Been a Tull fan for many years. My favorite stuff is his mid-catalogue: Broadsword And The Beast, Passion Play, Minstrel In The Gallery, Songs From The Wood, Stormwatch, Heavy Horses, and Aqualung.

That said, you need to buy more.

Yeah, I plan on buying more.

 

[Einherjar86]

Aqualung and Warchild are both necessities; but that said, neither one is actually my favorite (still great records though).

My favorite of theirs remains Heavy Horses, but lots of fans differ when it comes to Tull (they went through lots of style changes).

Their first album, This Was, is very much old school rhythm and blues (with a flute). The following two records (Stand up, Benefit) continue in this style, but you gradually start to see them blend more of a hard rock/progressive style into the music.

Then comes Aqualung, which many people recognize as their seminal album and really solidified their future style. Thick As a Brick is a fantastic album, and really an incredible achievement. It's also when Barriemore Barlow began on drums, who I think is better than Clive Bunker (although some traditionalists might call this blasphemy). Some of my favorite musical moments of rock are on this disc. They followed that with A Passion Play, which, like Thick As a Brick, is divided into two tracks but is essentially one long continuous song. It's not as accessible as Thick As a Brick, but it's still cool. Warchild has more of a hard rock feel.

Now, we go to Minstrel in the Gallery. On this album they started incorporating more folk elements into their sound, along with the hard rock. Minstrel is an amazing record, and might be my second-favorite. Too Old To Rock n' Roll: Too Young To Die! is another concept album. It's good, but I think a slight drop-off compared to Minstrel.

After this we enter into their folk era. Songs From the Wood might be my third-favorite album. They moved slightly away from the hard rock and opted for a more folk-influenced sound. Still, the songs are badass. Heavy Horses follows in this vein, but I think it's their most consistent, solid record; really an example of genius songwriting. I never tire of this album. Stormwatch is included in what is usually referred to as the "folk trilogy," but it actually is more of a return to hard rock (it just continues some of the lyrical themes from the previous two albums).

After Stormwatch, the lineup of the band changed severely, and this affected their sound in enormous ways (Barriemore Barlow quit, keyboardist John Evan was fired, and bassist John Glascock died soon after this record). Stormwatch is generally considered the end of the "classic" Tull sound. I wouldn't recommend getting any albums after Stormwatch, except Broadsword and the Beast, which has some great songs on it.

And a word of warning: stay away from Crest of a Knave, as it is a terrible record and it is blasphemous for any metal fan to own (I've since sold my copy).

EDIT: I'm psyched about this thread, should be fun!

 

[razoredge]

So many of these I havent heard in so long and honestly didnt follow after Songs from the Wood nor have much if any ear time on the first few. I planed on compiling my Tull library on CD a few years back and started with Stand up, Agualung, Thick as a Brick and the live Aqualung at XM studios, then got side tracked I guess. I still have my origional Songs From the Wood vinyl but it hasnt been played since the late 80's.

Why do you say this about Crest of a Knave ? IIRC my good buddy and deceased song writing comrade, a diehard metalhead that made an exception for Tull and was heavily inspired by Tull (and Rush) liked that recording. Remember I have not heard it unless someone played a few songs from it for me once.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I haven't listened to enough Tull albums yet. They're one of those bands I'm rarely in the mood for unfortunately (I'm really not a folk enthusiast in the slightest).

I've heard Aqualung (of course), Songs from the Wood, and Stormwatch. They were all great. SftW has a few boring songs, though. I guess Aqualung does too, really, but it's offset by the handful of utterly amazing songs it has.

 

[Einherjar86]

Why do you say this about Crest of a Knave ? IIRC my good buddy and deceased song writing comrade, a diehard metalhead that made an exception for Tull and was heavily inspired by Tull (and Rush) liked that recording. Remember I have not heard it unless someone played a few songs from it for me once.

I was half-joking. That was the album that won Tull the Grammy for best hard rock/heavy metal album, and a lot of metalheads were up in arms about it because they beat Metallica's ...And Justice For All.

Aside from that fact, it's really just a horrible record. Bad songs, bad writing, bad production sound; it has that reverb 80s sound, and it just doesn't fit the band at all. Also, the only two permanent members of the band at that time were Anderson and Barre, so it suffered greatly from not having a consistent lineup, I think. The instumentation is not on par with what Tull usually does. The only redeeming quality is Barre's guitar playing (which is very good, as usual; just not as innovative).

In short, I think it's just a badly written album with a bad sound.

 

[razoredge]

I knew you were refering to that incidence in part but thanks for tellimg me about the rest. One day, if I get back after them I will still probably buy it.

Now is the time (and place) for me to say I tried and tried Justice so many times and honestly except for the occasional couple measures and some interesting lyrics I feel that recording is total garbage. Yet all Metallica fans and metaheads praise it, I was never a thrasher anyhow, try as I did. I mean so much of that stuff is soooo tone dead.

 

[Psychonaut]

Under Wraps was a pretty bad offering as well. I can accept Crest for what it is. We all know damn well Ian wasn't trying for a heavy metal album. It was a million dollar question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire years ago. I stood screaming at the tv as the gentleman punted and ran off with his measly half-million. Fool!

 

[wandering_taco]

Fucking love Tull. I have Aqualung, Warchild, Roots to Branches, Minstrel in the Gallery, Heavy Horses, Original Masters, & Songs From the Wood. Love all of it. When I got Warchild for xmas this year I was obsessed with the song The Third Hoorah lol, I dont know why but I can listen to that song all day. Aqualung is probably my favorite record of all the ones I have, though I think Sftw is quite close. Roots to branches has a lot of amazing songs but I have to really be in the mood to listen to the whole thing.

edit- off topic but wtf happened to my Loreena McKennitt thread I posted in this forum?

 

[Einherjar86]

I knew you were refering to that incidence in part but thanks for tellimg me about the rest. One day, if I get back after them I will still probably buy it.

No problem. It is just my opinion, so you may like it.

Is anyone else here a fan of the early years, like This Was, Stand Up, and Benefit? I definitely don't think they're up to par with Tull's later, popular material; but they're still great records, and the musicianship is superb.

 

[wandering_taco]

I think I have a cassette of Benefit that I haven't listened to in a long time, might spin it sometime soon. Haven't hear those other ones. And it appears Tull is fast becoming my most listened to artist on last.fm, I'm just never not in a Tull mood I guess.

About Ian Anderson, at what point did his singing become more nasally vs. how he used to sound?

 

[wandering_taco]

Win.

 

[Psychonaut]

Bigger win.

 

[Psychonaut]

I'll just toss out some of my all time favs.

 

[razoredge]

Is anyone else here a fan of the early years, like This Was, Stand Up, and Benefit? I definitely don't think they're up to par with Tull's later, popular material; but they're still great records, and the musicianship is superb.

I like Stand Up, all the goods are there Ian just didnt have them dialed in yet. Maybe they had alot of the 60's to shake off yet? I also give the early bands alot of credit as well as slack for having absolutely nothing to follow or be influenced by but each other and they were few and they all carved out their own idenity which didnt leave them sounding much alike.

I find the story of the song Living in the Past quite interesting. I didnt even know it until just now because I was looking them up to see what album it was on. It was left off the Stand Up album and released as a single and charts high. Great song and the rest is history as they say!

Im sure I heard Benefit and the album Living in the Past way back but dont remember them. Same with so many others because I never owned them but had friends who did, but its been ages. Thick as a Brick and Aqualung just stood out so much I knew I needed to have them when it came time to play catch up with CD's. I played the hell out of Songs from the Wood in the late 70's and never really tired of it.

Honestly to me I think Anderson has some quality that really doesnt allow him to write garbage or bullshit, or more of the same ol', never cheap... "heres a song" and "hears another one". Sure he has his formula, an unmistakable idenity, things one could expect to hear from Tull but I've never been disappointed or felt "I'm not in the mood for this now" or "heard this before" or "wheres this going?" and have to change the "record". Bungle in the Jungle grew old, was kinda "gay" I guess but really back in the day that song stood apart from other "pop" songs, commercial radio hits.

 

[Einherjar86]

Win.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgUw6t3b6oE

Bigger win.

Hunting Girl

If anyone has not seen this entire concert, I highly recommend you try and do so. It's a fabulous performance, and possibly one of the best recorded concerts I've ever seen. I'd say it's even better than Bursting Out.

 

[wandering_taco]

Is the whole thing on youtube or is there somewhere I could view it in its entirety?
I did see Ian Anderson a couple years ago playing with a local orchestra, and some chick who was bitchin at violin. It was an amazing experience, Ian's a funny guy. And they played Kashmir by Zeppelin, I was awestruck. She was playing it on her violin, he was going at it on the flute, it was so goddamn epic.

 

[Einherjar86]

I'm not sure if you can find the whole thing on youtube, but you can download from some torrents. The date of the show is February 10, 1977, and it was performed at Golders Green Hippodrome. Here's another sample from that show, it's one of my favorite songs.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxpcSKqlies&feature=related[/ame]

I love it at 3:25 when it's just Ian and guitar. So awesome.