My Sunday feeling (Jethro Tull) (LP 2857 - 2870)

Jethro Tull  This Was (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1968) ***  

Jethro Tull  Stand Up (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1969) ***

Jethro Tull  Live & Sessions 1968 - 1969 (CD, MCPS, 2020) *** 

Jethro Tull  Aqualung (Vinyl/ CD, Chrysalis Records, 1971) ***** 

Jethro Tull  Thick as a Brick (Vinyl/ CD, Chrysalis Records, 1972) ***** 

Jethro Tull  Passion Play (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1973) **** 

Jethro Tull  War Child (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1974) ***

Jethro Tull  Too Old To Rock'n'Roll: Too Young To Die! (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1976) **

Jethro Tull  Songs From The Wood (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1977) ****

Jethro Tull  Heavy Horses (Vinyl/CD, Chrysalis Records, 1978) ****

Jethro Tull  Stormwatch (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1979) ***

Jethro Tull  The Broadsword and the Beast (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1982) **

Jethro Tull  Nightcap - The Unreleased Masters 1973 - 1991 (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1993) **

Jethro Tull  A Little Light Music (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1992) ***

Genre: Blues, prog rock, folk rock 

Places I remember: (In order) 1 Fopp, 2 Fives, 3 and 12 JB Hi Fi; 4 DJ Records, 5 The Warehouse, 6 Keegan's collection, 7 Fives, 8 Chaldon Books and Records, 9 and 10 The Warehouse, 11 and 11 and 13 Real Groovy  

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Locomotive Breath (Aqualung)

Gear costume: The Whistler (Songs from the Wood)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4

Active compensatory factors: My Jethro Tull collection is all over the place - vinyl, CDs, DVDs and I've already written about a few albums (Benefit, Minstrel in the Gallery, Living in the Past, Thick as a Brick 2). 

So, this round up of the others in my possession will go back to the start - 1968's debut album - track one (My Sunday Feeling) and end somewhere in the nineties. 

Strap in. Grab another coffee. And away we go...

This Was is still a bit of a shock in that Jethro Tull started out life as a really good blues band thanks to Mick Abrahams' presence (Cat's Squirrel sounds like Cream). Ian Anderson is just another band member (his showcase on this album - Serenade to a Cuckoo is very jazzy). All light years away from the folk rock/ prog rock outfit they would evolve into.

Second album Stand Up sees the introduction of the mighty Martin Lancelot Barre - and the start of the next phase. 

That said, there are still bluesy, jazzy, folky numbers on Stand Up. The band, and Ian Anderson, are trying different styles and not afraid to experiment with their music (Fat Man is one brilliant example). That theme would continue.

Live & Sessions 1968 - 1969 neatly sums up the start of the band with both Mick Abrahams and Martin Barre getting roughly half of the tracks each. The majority of the songs come from BBC radio broadcasts (Top Gear).

Standout moments come from the early shows - the Top Gear 23rd July 1968 material and Living in the Past from 1969. A lovely sea change moment is documented.

The not so good is the drum solo on Dharma For One. They (there are three versions on this album) are long and tedious. Why drum solos became a thing is a mystery to me. I'm with Ringo - drums are always better when combined with other instruments.

Aqualung was my first glimpse of Jethro Tull in 1971. A school friend's brother was a fan and I was intrigued. Then Locomotive Breath happened and that was it, maan!

Each song leaves an indelible impression. I have heard it countless times and I enjoy it every time. That's pretty remarkable. The CD version comes with a bonus CD of extras, but this is one album that doesn't need enhancement.

Thick is a Brick is another album like that. I know it's a kind of pastiche of concept albums, but I've never been too convinced or bothered about that. For me the two sides are genius full stop (I bought the CD so that I could listen to the whole album uninterrupted - just like on my original cassette tape version). 

This was Barrie Barlow's first album on drums and I think he's a great fit - nimble and swinging where Clive Bunker was a great blues drummer.

 

All up - a five-star classic and it's another album I never get tired of hearing.

In my world, Passion Play has gone from meh to 4 stars over the last 50 years. I initially dismissed it and found it boring to listen to, but I've revisited it from time to time and it's grown hugely in stature. Even the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles has charm now. 

It's a real concept album this time and it's more sophisticated musically than TAAB. It definitely rewards repeat hearings and an open mind (age will do that).

War Child was a return to songs with two resulting in hits - Bungle in the Jungle and Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day. Both are excellent songs. The rest of the album isn't very memorable though. Clearly, Ian was struggling for content around this time as both of those songs came from an earlier abandoned project.

Sadly, that trend would continue with the next album on my list - Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young To Die! (which followed the excellent Minstrel in the Gallery). This one wouldn't have any great songs at all, although the title track is catchy enough.

Best thing about it is the comic in the inner sleeve spread which attempts to tell a conceptual story which is followed up on the actual album via the songs. Was this the last attempt at a concept album before his return to Thick as a Brick 2? Probably. I started to lose interest in the band around War Child times.

My ears pricked up again for the trio of folk-rock albums that came later in the decade.

First up was Songs from the Wood in 1977. These are muscular folk rock songs, nothing airy-fairy about them. While the content is inspired by English folklore and country living, the sounds are folk-prog-rock - i.e. combining traditional instruments and melodies with drums, synths and electric guitars. It works a treat!

The similarity with Steeleye Span isn't an accident - Ian Anderson had been involved with the band earlier in the seventies.

The second of the folky trilogy is Heavy Horses - a slightly earthier sound and subject matter prevailed this time. The album is dedicated to indigenous working ponies and horses of Great Britain.

On both of these first two albums Ian Anderson allows for a more democratic approach from band members. Martin Barre is an important ingredient to Jethro Tull as a guitarist, and he shines on these albums as a collaborator/composer as well.

The so-called third part of the folk-rock trilogy is Stormwatch. So-called because it sounds rockier than those others and deals more with Scotland and the sea than with English pastures and woodland.

Whatever, it is definitely the last Jethro Tull album of the seventies, and it also marked the end of the 'classic' seventies' lineup.  

Drummer Barrie "Barriemore" Barlow and keyboardists John Evan and Dee Palmer all left or were fired from the band in the months after the album's tour concluded in April 1980, while bassist John Glascock had died from heart complications in November 1979 during the tour.  

The Broadsword and the Beast is their only eighties album I own. That means I didn't bother with A (1981) and anything after Under Wraps (1984 onwards). Thick As A Brick 2 came out under Ian Anderson's name rather than Jethro Tull's, so it technically doesn't count.

The eighties Jethro Tull albums hold little appeal for me. Too many synths. The Broadsword and the Beast is a tough album to love. 

It's not as bad as one critic had it (tuneless drivel), but it's a typical sounding Tull album, okay but uninspiring. It's the place where I decided enough was enough for eighties Jethro Tull. I don't regret that decision.

Curiously, the bonus selections are much better than the actual album (Mayhem Maybe is terrific).

The other two albums listed above are kind of compilations. Nightcap has two CDs worth of unreleased songs - there is often a reason why they are outtakes, so this is an album I find hard going.

The live compilation, A Little Live Music, is more appealing, but this isn't a coherent concert. Instead, it has songs from ten different venues during their 1992 tour. 

It's quite a jolt moving through and among them, even though the band is on form.

The good news is Martin Barre, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks joined Ian Anderson as Jethro Tull.

The bad news is the songs range from A New Day Yesterday and Living in the Past to Under Wraps - so from a huge range of years and styles. Cohesion, then, is a problem for this album. Good for the Spotify age, not so good for people like me.

Where do they all belong? I think this is enough. I'm not a Tull completist and, in some ways, Ian Anderson's solo albums are a better prospect these days.