"Too Old to Rock 'N' Roll:Too Young to Die!"..Jethro Tull. [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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Smokey
02-14-2004, 02:49 PM
Your favorite Jethro Tull CD?

JT's greatest hit album (Original Masters) does pack a bunch which does include the most excellent song "Too Old to Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young to Die!". But for a single album, my favorite have to be:

Songs from the Wood (1977)
<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00008G9JN.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">

DarrenH
02-14-2004, 03:19 PM
Son of a gun. It's not often a Tull thread pops up around here. Or any music from the 70's for that matter. Anyway, so many great Tull albums.

Benefit is perhaps my favorite followed very closely by Minstrel In The Gallery.

Actually, I like most everything from the band save for that awful Under Wraps. Yeah, Under Wraps has it's fans but not me. Horrible album. Synthesized and electronically processed to death. Tull fans agreed as it sold very poorly. Oh well, Ian was just trying to be creative and make use of new technology. Thankfully, and aside from Anderson's first solo attempt, the electronic synthesizer gizmos were shelved.

Ironically, during an interview Martin Barre was asked what his favorite Tull album was and he said that it was Under Wraps. It was an older interview so it's my hope that he was simply not feeling well that day and that the passage of time has brought him to his senses.

Now that you mention it, think I'll go play me some Tull.

Thanks for the post.

Darren

Smokey
02-14-2004, 04:56 PM
Darren

You must be a die hard fan of Jethro Tull since your avatar is the exact replica of photo cover of "Original Masters" album. Is that a coincident or what! :)

<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000003JAU.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg">

I have to agree with you about progression of Jethro Tull thru the years. Their earlier albums are much better than later works (such as Under Wraps that came out in 1982). But I hope you agree that Ian Anderson is a one of the greatest Rock vocalist :)

JDaniel
02-14-2004, 05:46 PM
Your favorite Jethro Tull CD?


Smokey - you did more good for Darren than a double dose of Levitra. :D

I'm partial to Living in the Past & Aqualung. But then again, there's TAAB & Minstrel in the Gallery and Heavy Horses and This Was. Dang Smokey, this is a tough question.

I never liked Broadsword and the Beast, but I admit I haven't listened to it since about 1984, so perhaps I should give it a try. Actually I didn't listen to anything after Broadsword. Darren - where should I start with the 80's & 90's stuff?

JD

jasn
02-14-2004, 07:13 PM
I have to say Thick as a Brick is still my favorite. I was scanning through CDs just earlier today, slowed down through Tull, and realized I don't have Passion Play. It would be great to listen to that again. Its been a long time...

DarrenH
02-14-2004, 07:16 PM
Smokey - you did more good for Darren than a double dose of Levitra. :D

Darren - where should I start with the 80's & 90's stuff?

JD
Hi JD, I'm always up for some Tull talk. Anytime, anywhere.

Start with Crest of a Knave. Ya know, that heavy metal grammy winner from 1987. :confused: Metal it's not by a long shot.

I just love Budapest. And other tunes such as Jump Start, Steel Monkey and Farm On The Freeway are pretty darn good as well. The whole album is superb start to finish.

Next would be Catfish Rising. Not a lot of love for this album but Rocks On The Road and This Is Not Love are great songs. Doctor To My Disease and Like A Tall Thin Girl are other highlights.

Lastly, Roots To Branches. Beside Myself is most excellent. As goes for Rare And Precious Chain and the title track.

I saw Tull back in August of last year and they rocked. The band played Beside Myself, Budapest, Heavy Horses and many more including some tracks from Benefit. Very cool concert. This band is well rehearsed and very professional. I'm proud to be a fan of this most excellent group.

Darren

Dusty Chalk
02-14-2004, 08:53 PM
I think the problem with Under Wraps was the songwriting. It was just cheesy. He used electronics many times, and it didn't always work, but I don't think that was the albums worst sin, by any means.

audiobill
02-15-2004, 09:18 AM
Great thread!!

Jethro Tull ranks as one of my top 5 all-timers. My favourite JT album is "Thick As A Brick"; second place is "Living In the Past"; third place is "Songs From the Wood", and fourth is "Benefit". (I know ....rather silly to rank them all)

I, too, need a primer on post "Bursting OUT" Jethro Tull; I'll be definitely checking out the Grammy Winner.

BTW, the last time I saw Ian and the boys was on their "Bursting Out" tour.....one of the best shows I've ever seen.


2 Questions:

1. Can you guess what album the quote in my post is from?
2. What ever happened to Evans?? Anybody know??

Cheers,
Bill

DarrenH
02-15-2004, 10:09 AM
Great thread!!

2 Questions:

1. Can you guess what album the quote in my post is from?
2. What ever happened to Evans?? Anybody know??

Cheers,
Bill

To Cry You A Song.

Not sure what John Evans has been up to. Last thing I knew he had his own business in the U.K. refurbishing old buildings, or something like that. That was back in 1993 though. So your guess is as good as mine.

Darren

Dusty Chalk
02-15-2004, 02:11 PM
Oh, and in answer to the original question, my favourites vary:

Minstrel in the Gallery -- most under-rated
Thick as a Brick -- all-around winner for being an excellent straight-through listen
Broadsword and the Beast -- best of the post-Stormwatch breakup season
Aqualung -- classic
A -- best one with Eddie Jobson
Stormwatch -- second most under-rated
Songs from the Wood -- "Hunting Girl" has got a great instrumental break
Heavy Horses -- probably my favourite at this time, but I'll probably change my mind as soon as I post...from the delicacy of "Moths" to the earthy "Journeyman", to the affectionate "One Brown Mouse" to the almost metallic "No Lullaby", to the epic title track, it's just a dam near perfect album.

I dunno...there are so many good ones, I just can't decide...

Troy
02-15-2004, 02:53 PM
4 of my Favorites.

Aqualung. My first JT album and probably still my favorite. It was a hand-me-down 8-track from my brother (who hated it) which I literally wore out.

War Child. This and The Lung made me an absolute Tull fanatic as a teenager. War Child was a great collection of short and accesible, yet strangely offbeat songs. It has a very nice way of tying all the songs together with timbre and tone. Compared to the 2 previous album-length-song efforts, a breath of fresh air.

Songs from the Wood. Great memories connect me with this record. It was such a wonderful time in my life. Velvet Green rocks. And that cover, it's a meticulous painting that most people think is a photo.

Passion Play. Probably the band's most creative release, yet I am aggravated when I try to listen to it. It needs to be broken into separate tracks so that if I wanna punch in 15 minutes into side 2 (22+/- minutes long) I don't have to FFWD thru the rest of the "song". Think of how the Abbey Road CD is laid out for comaparison.

Yeah, the recent Roots to Branches was surprisingly good (especially the first 5 or so songs).

I also happen to like Under Wraps. A few real clunkers on there, to be sure, but the title track (both versions) is truly outstanding.

Worst? Broadsword, which sounded like a contractual obligation release, a half hearted parody of Jethro Tull and "Dot Com" which was, truly, an embarassment. Especially coming after R2B. Catfish Rising also left me bored and uninvolved.

Most Unjustifiably Ignored Release:
Too Old to Rock and Roll. Possibly some of Anderson's best writing about what he writes best about- the seedy underbelly of society, yet the album is largely forgotten and ignored. I like this album's low-key style.

And that leads me to the thought that that was the downfall for the band for me. When he started writing about Xmas morning toys, his cars and his pets instead of society, god and people, I grew bored with the band.

Live, they were killer in the 70s. Just amazing bravura performances with so much energy, humor and style. There has never been a band that strived to entertain as much as JT did in their day. Bands today need to learn a lesson from JT. Last time I saw them was in the early 90s and, well, they WERE too old to rock and roll. Sorry, time just marches on guys. I saw that DVD last year of them performing at some biker meet (what, no "Pied Piper" at a biker convention?) and that did nothing to make me think they had gotten any better.

MindGoneHaywire
02-15-2004, 03:36 PM
Troy:

There has never been a band that strived to entertain as much as JT did in their day.

As I'm not a Tull fan I don't really have anything to add to the thread, except to question this comment. You ever hear of James Brown & the Flames?

DarrenH
02-15-2004, 03:40 PM
[QUOTE=Troy]

Passion Play. Probably the band's most creative release, yet I am aggravated when I try to listen to it. It needs to be broken into separate tracks so that if I wanna punch in 15 minutes into side 2 (22+/- minutes long) I don't have to FFWD thru the rest of the "song". Think of how the Abbey Road CD is laid out for comaparison.

QUOTE]

Yeah, great album.

Do you want a copy of my Mofi release? It's broken into separate tracks. Stupid question. It's on the way.

Darren

Troy
02-15-2004, 04:45 PM
Troy:

There has never been a band that strived to entertain as much as JT did in their day.

As I'm not a Tull fan I don't really have anything to add to the thread, except to question this comment. You ever hear of James Brown & the Flames?

There you go again, always calling me out.
Gotta saw that James Brown and Jethro Tull are really apples and oranges, but there is that similarity in that they were both bands that were fronted by megalomaniacs with incredibly high standards that put together a group that was painfully eager to please the audience.

I've seen James Brown on TV in a recent concert and man, think there was enough people on that stage? I swear, there were over 20! Killer drummer. Well, one of them was, the other was there merely for fill.

It could be that Brown's band was so big that it allowed all the players to have a moment of limelight and then glide the rest of the gig (the guy even had 2 bass players). Tull was always about a tight small band combining theatrics and style with impeccable showmanship.

Call it a tie.

Smokey
02-15-2004, 05:02 PM
I saw JT in concert back in '79 in Memphis supporting the Song from the Wood album. I guess that is why it my favorite. The concert was something else and loud. Every body at front were passing around refer joints and smoking (I did not inhale :D) like it is was nobody's business. And the band kept sending out this huge air balloons into crowd and everybody kept tossing them around and bouncing them with the music rhythm. It was a wild party, but a memorable one :)

Dave_G
02-16-2004, 10:31 AM
Jethro Tull.

I've been buying their product since 1973.

Many people lump them in with Kansas and Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin.

But ya know, Tull are different.

Sure, basically they are the Ian Anderson band, but so what?

For the most part their output is solid over the years.

How can they do that?

They have zero profanity in their lyrics.

The leader plays a flute.

Most every toon has a lot of flute in it.

Go figure.

But I love 'em. Especially the good old rocking stuff. (but Tull rocking is kind of like old Genesis rocking - they don't really rock but they do, you know?).

I have yet to really dig A Passion Play, the first album, (too bluesy), Catfish Rising, and even Thick as a Brick gets annoying. But the rest of their stuff I just love, especially Roots to Branches, Songs from the Wood, Aqualung, Heavy Horses, Broadswoard and the Beast, Stormwatch, yadda yadda.

Ian has the knack of writing very clever yet inspiring lyrics, whilst yet composing great music to go along with the words.

Live I think they are still spectacular.

By the way the old keyboard player Dave Palmer is now a woman. A sex change at age 60. Gaaaag.

Oh, and I like Ians solo albums too a lot and all but I do wish there were more concert dvd's of them and I don't have the new dvd yet but will when I find it cheap somewhere.

Tull are a great band to komp for your own personal komping.

Dave

Smokey
02-16-2004, 03:22 PM
Oh, and I like Ians solo albums too a lot and all but I do wish there were more concert dvd's of them and I don't have the new dvd yet but will when I find it cheap somewhere.

If you really think about it, few artists have successful career after they have left the band that shoot them to the top. Don Henley (Eagles), Sting (Police), Peter Gabriel (Genesis), John Lennon&Paul McCartney (Beatles) are handful I can recall :)

DPM
02-16-2004, 10:54 PM
Gee, I nearly missed the boat with this thread. I'm a huge Tull fan and have seen every tour in support of a release since Broadsword back in 1982. The best Tull show I witnessed was at the Pier in NYC back in 1988. It was during the band's twentieth anniversary tour in support of the boxed set (which I own). Sadly, someone stole the backdrop the band used at that show. Ian had planned on giving it to his daughter for a wedding gift. I don't think it was ever recovered. Oh well, that's life in ol' NYC.

My last exposure to Tull live was August of 2003 in upstate New York. It was a day or two after the blackout. Edgar Winter opened the show and really put on a good performance. Tull was good too and managed to pull a couple of surprises out of their hat. Still, I wish they would get more adventurous with their set list.

As for my favorite Tull release, the title to this post should be a clue. It's from Minstrel In The Gallery--Tull's artistic peak IMHO. Martin Barre really turns in some stinging guitar work, and Ian's vocals never really sounded this good again. So, in a word, Minstel is the best release from the best lineup of this group.

Here are my top five:
1) Minstrel In The Gallery
2) Thick As A Brick
3) A Passion Play
4) Aqualung
5) Songs From The Wood

Their best post seventies releases? Crest Of A Knave and Roots To Branches.

Dave M