B5Erik

So we haven't discussed Jethro Tull here for a while, and never as a career overview, so why not?

First thing - why are they not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? They were hugely successful, with bestselling albums filled with great, challenging music, and they played to sold out arena crowds for over a decade. They influenced a lot of bands, including Iron Maiden (both Steve Harris and Bruce Dickinson are HUGE Tull fans). So, for a band this great to NOT be in the R&RHOF seems absurd.

And when you dive in to their catalog, you see that they really evolved musically over the years, and then stepped back a couple times, making the odd left turn, stylistically, every now and then.

Early on, they were another British Blues Rock band, with guitar player Mick Abrahams. Yes, another British Blues Rock band - except that singer/flutist Ian Anderson had wide ranging musical tastes, and wanted to bring a lot of that in to Tull (including Jazz and medieval Folk stylings). But the first album, This Was, was a jazzy Blues Rock album, with guitarist Abrahams being just as important to the direction of the music as Anderson was.



Well, Abrahams was let go after the tour supporting the first album. Or he quit. Or both. Anderson wanted to be more than a jazzy Blues Rock band, so he moved on from Abrahams, and brought in Tony Iommi from the band Earth. Iommi only lasted a month or two before going back to Earth and changing the band's name to Black Sabbath, but after Iommi left Anderson brought in a guitar player named Martin Barre who would become his musical foil for the next two decades. Before recording the subsequent album, Stand Up, the band released a standalone single, Living In The Past, which became their first hit.


The album itself found the band themselves living in the past, as the band was still writing just as many Blues Rock songs as more adventurous material.



That would change, though, on their next album, Benefit.

B5Erik

With Benefit the more identifiable Jethro Tull style was born. They would expand on it greatly on the next album, but here you can tell that this was a band coming in to their own.



That latter track was not included on the original UK version of the album, and it was actually recorded twice. The 2nd version of the track was included on the U.S. release of Benefit (it's a much better version than the original), and became a big FM Rock Radio hit. Rightly so.

But the megahit was just around the corner...

B5Erik

Aqualung. 'Nuff Said.

B5Erik

After having Aqualung incorrectly called a, "Concept album," in the music press as many times as it was, Ian Anderson decided to mock said music press by releasing a concept album to end all concept albums - a full, album length single song. Based on a story by a fictitious kid (Gerald Bostock - an Ian Anderson creation). Lyrically, it was all tongue-in-cheek. Musically, it was brilliant.

And the album went to #1 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart!

B5Erik

With the success of Thick As A Brick, Anderson decided to do it again (the album length single song thing).

But this time the results were... Weird. Anderson, already a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, flute, bass, keyboards, and, when the need arose - as on Locomotive Breath - drums) decided to take up Sax. Well, he picked up flute only a year before their first album and was self-taught, so, why not, right? Why not? Well, his sax playing was less than stellar, and it just sounded odd on this album. He also added a lot of other odd instrumentation to the album, and wrote a rather weird album length track. It's not bad, some would say it's brilliant. It's just really dense, odd, and not much fun.

A Passion Play, despite being completely UN-commercial, hit #1 just like it's predecessor had. So what do I know?

B5Erik

The critics savaged A Passion Play. (Some of them didn't like Thick As A Brick, so that's not surprising.) Ian's a smart guy, so he knew he couldn't keep doing the album length song thing, that had been done and it was time to move on.

The thing is, he was still in the, "Kitchen Sink," mode. Throwing in all sorts of non-Rock associated instruments - accordion, glockenspiel, etc. The album, War Child, was overproduced. Several of the songs would have been better suited with more stripped down production and fewer instruments thrown in.

Even so, there is some strong material here...

dom56

Saw them live in Oakland in the eighties. Great show. Anderson was amazing with his flute.

B5Erik

Thankfully, Ian chose a more stripped down approach for the next album. Minstrel In The Gallery is a classic Tull album, with a lot of acoustic guitar and flute, but also some of Martin Barre's most savage guitar paying. The album is complex and sophisticated, and it is all perfectly encapsulated in the title track.

The album's title track starts out as a medieval Folk style album, before shifting into Prog Metal territory, then landing on an AC/DC-ish riff/groove (before AC/DC became a thing), then throwing in more bits of the Prog Metal here and there among the AC/DC style Hard Rock. EPIC.


The rest of the album is top notch, with a variety of styles, all fitting what you'd expect from Jethro Tull. Minstrel In The Gallery sounds like the natural follow up to Aqualung.

So, of course, Anderson completely changed direction next time out!

The next album up became a Broadway inspired concept album, Too Old To Rock and Roll: Too Young To Die! (One of the greatest album titles of all time!)

Sadly, the album title was better than the album itself, but, make no mistake, it's still a good album - just another oddball in the Tull catalog! The highlights are really good, but two or three of the tracks are just OK.

These are some of the better tracks...





Interestingly, Too Old To Rock and Roll: Too Young To Die was the only Tull album of the 70's NOT to achieve Gold sales status.

B5Erik

I so wish I could have seen them in 1980 or 1982! Great tours. The band was on fire, and Anderson still had his voice!

B5Erik

It was around this point (1977) that Ian Anderson moved to the country. The move coincided with his desire to go more acoustic Folk on the next Tull album, and the surroundings of his new home inspired the album, Songs From The Wood. It was their best reviewed album in years, and was a fairly big success, commercially.

Brilliant stuff...





This was the first of three Folk inspired albums from Tull. The next album, Heavy Horses followed the same style as it's predecessor (the first time in a while that they had similar albums back to back like that).

B5Erik

The next album, Stormwatch (1979) followed on the style of the two previous albums, but had slicker production, and hinted at the more synth heavy 80's material that was to come...

B5Erik

At this point, multiple Tull members were burned out on the album/tour/album/tour cycle they had been on for over a decade. Keyboard players John Evan and David Palmer wanted a break, and drummer Barriemore Barlow was shaken by the death of former Tull bass player John Glasscock and also wanted a break. None of them would commit to returning to the band at any point, although they expected that they probably would in a couple years.

So... Ian Anderson decided to do a solo album. He brought on board former Roxy Music and UK keyboard/violin player Eddie Jobson to collaborate on new material. Drummer Mark Craney was brought in, as was bass player Dave Pegg. Even though it was slated to be an Ian Anderson solo album, he decided to bring in Tull guitarist Martin Barre to play on the album. As the album progressed, the record company expressed reservations about releasing an Ian Anderson solo album, and since Barre was going to be on the album they pressed Anderson to release it under the Tull banner. He relented, and advised Barlow, Evan, and Palmer by mail that they were being replaced in the band since they weren't up to touring. (He didn't want confrontational phone calls, so he sent letters instead.)

Ultimately, the album turned out brilliantly. Called 'A' (as the tapes were labeled - A for Anderson), musically, it's a huge success. Great stuff from start to finish. But it didn't feature much acoustic guitar, with Jobson's keyboards filling that sonic space. The album did feature plenty of Anderson's flute, though, and Barre sounded like Barre, so the album still sounded like Tull - just Tull for the 80's. It's very proggy. UK meets Tull, with some really memorable hooks.



That song was a monster live...



One thing that becomes clear is that this line-up was incredibly tight and powerful, and drummer Mark Craney (RIP) was an absolute monster behind the kit! He was arguably the best drummer Tull ever had. Sadly, this was the only album and tour he did with them.

So, despite the shift in style and the intent to be an Ian Anderson solo album, A is actually one of Tull's best albums.

Hokeyboy

Songs From The Wood is one of my favorite albums. I always preferred the folkier, more acoustic side of Tull. Although the Prog nerd in me will always love both sides of the entire Thick As A Brick monstrosity.

Favorite song? Probably this one. Those lyrics hit me every time:

William Fuld

Great thread!

bchbdaddy

B5Erik

1982's The Broadsword and the Beast was an interesting album. Filled with both their 70's acoustic/folky style AND 80's excess in studio production style it's got an interesting dichotomy. It's a good album, but the 80's production really gives it an odd sound. It works to a degree, but I'm hoping that Steven Wilson's remix tones the sound down a bit.

Good album, though. Not as good as A, but better than the album that would follow it.

JackoOnHisBacko

My favorite band. I really love their jazz/blues/prog/folk stuff (aka 1968-1978). Once they got into synths, and less experimental "kitchen sink" stuff, my interest got lower. They still had the occasional good song, but those first 10 years are the only albums I really still listen to in their entirety.

Ian's voice has been awful for so long. At least on "The Zealot Gene" he stays in a vocal range he can still somewhat manage, even if his vocals are almost "spoken word".

B5Erik

War Child (1974) was the 2nd Kitchen Sink album (following the bizarre A Passion Play). A lot of really good songs were diminished by the overinstrumentation that Ian felt the need to use. Strip down War Child and you've got a really good album. As it is it's just kind of good.

You should give 'A' another listen. I dismissed that album for decades, but I just got the Deluxe edition and gave it a fair shot last month - and it's now in my Top 3 Tull albums!

B5Erik

On to Under Wraps (1984).

Ian lost his mind. He got a little nutty during the Passion Play/War Child era when it came to throwing in every instrument under the sun on the tracks (cluttering up the sound and making some of them sound really silly), but that was nothing compared to this.

Synth Pop meets Tull. Drum Machine (with one of the worst synth drum snare sounds you'll ever hear). The songs aren't horrible, but that snare sound makes most of them almost unlistenable, and the fact that the album is so far removed from what Tull was always about just makes this album mind bogglingly wrong.





WTF???

To add insult to injury, Ian had vocal cord problems on tour while supporting this album, and was told by his doctor to cut the tour short or face permanent vocal damage. Instead of cutting it short, the tour was extended. Oops. Ian's voice was permanently damaged (and now it's totally shot with no range whatsoever).

However, the next album was a return to form and revived Tull's career.

B5Erik

Due in large part to Ian Anderson's vocal cord damage Tull had to take some extended time off, which gave them a chance to spend more time writing the next album, which would be their only Grammy winner.

Crest of a Knave was a great album, with a more mature sound that added some Dire Straits type stylings to the mix (in part to help Ian with his vocals - toned down, interesingly enough, as the music got a little more hard edged). The high tech electronic sounds didn't disappear, though, so parts of the album sounded like Tull meets Dire Straits meets Eliminator era ZZ Top with hints of their previous album Under Wraps, while other parts sounded a little more like classic Tull. An interesting combination for sure.

This was the first Tull album I heard in full as I worked at an independent record store when it came out, and we played it daily for a couple months.





After Crest Jethro Tull never again regained their commercial position as a large selling band, and none of their subsequent albums quite matched the quality of this one (let alone their classic material), but they did have some good stuff on Rock Island and Catfish Rising. Some people particularly like their Roots to Branches album, too.

Ian Anderson put out a sequel to Thick As A Brick in 2012 (as Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson), and just this year put out a new Jethro Tull album, The Zealot Gene (even though he's the only real Tull member left).