Jethro Tull - Thunderbird content!

[Stjofön Big]

Nice to see the Jethros got so many friends here. Thick as a brick was the last record I bought with the band. By that time I was fed up with them, Genesis, Yes, and a bunch of other English so called progressive groups. Though they worked in different fields, what held these groups together was, in my mind, the artie stuff they tried to do. I found, that way of doing it, boring. Still do.
When Roxy Music and Television turned up, then I got interested in turning the page again. I think they did artie stuff too, but in a completely other league than the above mentioned. Most of all, Roxy had humour.
Though I agree concerning Glenn Cornick. Great bass player. But I prefer a simpler man, like Carl Radle, or a spectacular one, like John Entwhistle.
Now, let me hear you say Yeah?  .... (in unison:) - Noooooooh!!!

[Hornisse]

And who could forget this classic bass intro?

[Denis]

Or this one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBgVgXpVJXU&feature=related

[uwe]

I never was much of a Tull fan - their music was always too angular for me and didn't swing right, ballads excepted -, but they are one thing not: a boring or uncommitted live band. In fact they have been living on the justified reputation for the opposite ever since their record sales dwindled in the eighties. They're fans are fervent as regards their live capabilities and we're talking about music that is not simplistic to play.

I like War Child best. Iconic cover, slightly disturbing.

[patman]

Ian Anderson was always pretty much willing to go wherever the music took him...regardless of whether it sold well or not.

[PhilT]

Ian Anderson was always pretty much willing to go wherever the music took him...regardless of whether it sold well or not.

Didn't Mick Abrahams leave because, as he saw it, Anderson was going wherever the money took him? As it turned out, the money definitely followed Anderson, rather than Abrahams.

Tull since the mid 1970s has been a who's who of British folk rock.

[eb2]

I am not sure exactly why Mick Abrahams left, but I actually like both Bloodwyn Pig lps. In fact, the music overall is more enjoyable than the Wild Turkey lps.  I prefer GC on bass overall, but musically Wild Turkey was ok.  I suspect Mick Abrahams didn't want to stray too far from blues rock and too far into Tull's peculiar British Folk.  He did The Squirreling Must Go On as a nod to wanting more Cat's Squirrel.

I saw Tull live a couple of times, and both shows were good.  The second was a few years ago, so it was interesting.  It is more or less Ian Anderson and Martin Barre with some hired guns.  But they try to play like it should sound, and oddly enough both Barre and Anderson are in physically great shape and lively on stage, so it was a great show.

[TBird1958]

I saw them on the "Passion Play" tour, I guess in '74 or '75, they played the entire album without pause - like 55-60 minutes of music! Then went on to play many of their older songs.
Two weeks earlier I'd seen Led Zep in what still ranks as the absolute worst show I've ever gone to, Jethro Tull were very tight and musically one of the very best shows by comparison.
And yeah, I like War Child best too 

[jumbodbassman]

That is probably the best period of Tull.  I like that gig a lot.  Now, A Passion Play?  That is boring.

i agree....  Cornick was outstanding bass player.  Bunker great too....it was all downhill  by Aqualung

[PhilT]

Just because Gerry Conway had the drum seat in Jethro Tull for a while, I went looking for Eclection. Thought they were lost forever, but with the magic of Youtube, here they are,



http://www.sailor-marinero.com/related_eclection.htm

[Droombolus]

Their album was released on CD some 5 years ago ........ It's lovely lite-psych in perfect sync with the age it was produced in ....... Their major song writer went on to form Sailor in the 70s.

[PhilT]

Well, I can't remember when I last searched for them, but whenever it was I didn't find anything. I had the original LP, but must have part-exchanged it at one of the 2nd hand record shops I frequented in the early 70s. There's a few up for sale for 40-50 GBP now, though no sign they're selling.

I wonder which species of bass Trevor Lucas is playing there. That's one hell of a tone he's got.

[uwe]

I think the old Jethro Tull guard (Abrahams, Cornick, Bunker) were all sequentially ousted for the same reason: Anderson saw the English blues boom coming to an end and there was already one Fleetwood Mac. He wanted to take the music in a more progish direction (for commercial reasons or for his musical love, it doesn't really matter), where those three wouldn't or couldn't follow. None of them ever played prog grock thereafter, so Anderson was probably right in his instincts.

[Basshappi]

I love Jethro Tull, one of my all-time favorite bands. Saw them on the Stormwatch tour when John Glascock was playing with them (he died a short time later) and he was a great bass player.

I had to play "Bouree" for an audition once back in the day and I have played "It Was A New Day Yesterday"  and "Locomotive Breath" in a couple of bands over the years. I'd jump at the chance to be in a Tull tribute band but I doubt that would ever happen!

Cheers!

[eb2]

If the tour bus had driven off a cliff after Benefit ( or even the Living In The Past comp) they would have been remembered as one of the most amazing bands ever.  Twenty years of stuff like Passion Play, A, Too Old To Rock N Roll, etc., can really take the sheen off the cutting edge vibe.

Did anyone ever really think of them as Prog Rock?  I would lump a lot of people in that nightmare, but Tull/Ian Anderson was really too folky and peculiar to be that.  They did go through a period of odd time changes to fill out an LP side, but it always sounded like Fairport Convention smoked angel dust to me.  And I did see them with David Pegg on bass.