Heavy Horses: John Glascock

[Denis]

For some reason, I have never owned a copy of Tull's 1978 album "Heavy Horses" until a few days ago. Found a really nice LP at a used record store for $5. The title track is an incredible piece, and now that I've listed to it about a dozen times I must say that John Glascock was an amazing bass player.
I'm his newest and biggest fan!

[uwe]

Go back in his history then a little, this here got him the job with Tull when the latter saw him performing with their openers Carmen, the Fandango girl singer (sister to the guitarist) and he were an item back then:





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdp3ANwwGm0&playnext=1&list=AL94UKMTqg-9BGmkyWtH6DFKQdpeU8S-tV

This is where he started: Toe Fat. And if it sounds reminiscent of Uriah Heep to you, well the lead vocals on this track are provided by Ken Hensley who played guitar in Toe Fat and later on left to form Uriah Heep, bringing in Toe Fat drummer Lee Kerslake into Heep sometime later too. Chances are that had Glascock not been busy with Carmen (he manically believed in the band and only left when it was either starvation for him or Jethro Tull) he rather than another John (Wetton) might have followed drug-ailing Gary Thain in Heep:



And in full flight and flared cuffs with JT:

[maxschrek]

Heavy Horses is easily my favorite Tull......really like JG's playing.
Isn't he on "Bursting Out" as well?

[uwe]

He is. Dave Pegg only came later when Glascock's heart condition made touring with Tull impossible, he was out of breath and close to fainting by the first song in the final stages. With todays cardiology improvements he could have most likely been saved.  

He was a leftie btw, playing righty, might explain some of his left hand dexterity.

[Highlander]

Nicked that Carmen video for the EB3 vids thread...

[Denis]

He is. Dave Pegg only came later when Glascock's heart condition made touring with Tull impossible, he was out of breath and close to fainting by the first song in the final stages. With todays cardiology improvements he could have most likely been saved.  

He was a leftie btw, playing righty, might explain some of his left hand dexterity.

Tony Williams stood in for John Glascock for a short while, probably only for a few shows. The Madison Square Garden concert from 1978 has Williams playing with Barriemore Barlow still on drums. Barlow quit after Glascock died. I read somewhere that Anderson didn't like Williams' playing but I think it's great.

[Pekka]

Tony Williams stood in for John Glascock for a short while, probably only for a few shows. The Madison Square Garden concert from 1978 has Williams playing with Barriemore Barlow still on drums. Barlow quit after Glascock died. I read somewhere that Anderson didn't like Williams' playing but I think it's great.

Actually Barlow, John Evan and David Palmer quit when Chrysalis leaked the news about a new Jethro Tull line-up that played on the "A" album that was supposed to be an Ian Anderson solo album.

Glascock died when the band was on tour supporting "Stormwatch" and the line-up (Anderson, Barre, Evan, Palmer, Barlow and Pegg) toured well into 1980.

Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond was great visually and played fine too but my favourites were John Glascock and Dave Pegg. Peggy's "jigs" and bass solos are great on "Stormwatch" and "A" tour bootlegs.

Tony Williams was a guitar player and played a fine bass. Much better than Anderson's over-amped-and-flanged bass on majority of "Stormwatch".

[mc2NY]

I was actually in comunication with Tony earlier this year regarding the Hamer Bass he is playing is this photo. I was wondering if it may have been the same one I'd gotten from Freddie Cavalli of Herman Brood's Wild Romance (the Hamer guys used to bring sample basses/guitars backstage in the early days for artists to try out/buy.) Tony's a real nice guy. Here is some info he sent about his basses FYI....


The early Hamer Standard/Explorer in the photo was actually loaned to him by John Entwistle as a back-up bass for his tour with Tull, on the condition Tony drop it off to Paul Hamer for some "adjustments" to be done to it when Tull played Chicago.

Tony said he found the neck on it rather "like a telephone pole, very big" and he "normally used a Precision and a Telecaster Bass...preferred the neck on the Tele but the sound of a Precision, so I added a Precision pickup to the Tele."

Oh...and he added "Martin and I look like we are young auditioners for ZZ Top" in the photo

[Denis]

Great photo!

[Pekka]

His Tele (or is that an early P because of the black scratchplate?) had an added bridge pickup, probably a J pickup.

[gearHed289]

I was never a huge Tull fan, though I was into them a little bit in my late teens. One of my bands in high school used to attempt this: