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Post by carolinec on Oct 18, 2008 14:00:20 GMT
i'm surprised at this minor Aqualung backlash. Certainly didn't find anything distasteful about the religious stuff - it's surely just a pop at the worst excesses of the English church as seen through the eyes of a very young Ian Anderson who clearly hadn't much enjoyed his schooldays. That's true - apparently he had a very strict religious upbringing which he rebelled against of course. It's quite funny on this latest autobiographical DVD where there's a home video of his mum and dad saying what a nice boy he is!
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Post by PeterC on Oct 18, 2008 15:10:48 GMT
A 'minor' backlash, Dem? Ouch!
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Post by jkdunham on Oct 18, 2008 15:11:00 GMT
I've recently been rediscovering their very early blues period with the 40th anniversary edition of This Was - absolutely amazing! I'm begining to think that my love of Tull isn't so much due to Ian Anderson as it is to their early drummer, Clive Bunker - he is just superb! 'This Was' is a great album, one of my favourites back when I used to listen to Tull a lot. Generally, I'm not at all keen on that whole '60s blues/rock thing. I'm a huge fan (by weight) of old blues music but, to these ears (and with the very notable exception of Captain Beefheart), once white rock musicians got hold of R'n'B things got very tired, very quickly. "It's breaking me up" is probably the worst offender on 'This Was' when it comes to the 12-bar dirge, but even that has its moments. "Someday the sun won't shine for you" - now that's proper blues! Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee would be proud. The thing that really stands out for me with 'This Was' is the, at times, almost quirky mix of other elements which mean it's never just a straight ahead 'bluesy' album - most notably, I suppose, the jazzy Roland Kirk-influenced flute but other more subtle things too that make the album sound not quite like anything else. There's a touch of the 'British eccentric' about it that I really like in albums of this era. And they're not afraid to take a few risks in their playing either. It's playful without being overly self-indulgent. Can't say I've ever really been much for drum solos but Clive Bunker actually manages to add some sort of character to "Dharma for one" with his nicely idiosyncratic playing. It's possible to have an extended drum workout without taking yourself too seriously. Who'd have thought it? (parts of it even remind me of the drum break in the Legendary Stardust Cowboy's "Paralyzed"!) Even though the playing's fairly loose, there are some nice '60s grooves too - the more than somewhat Beefheartian "A song for Jeffrey" is a particular favourite. And I have to say a bit about Mick Abrahams. I used to be quite a fan of his purely on the strength of his work on this record. "Move on alone" is a great song with a lovely arrangement. I'm not sure why I never followed up my interest with Blodwyn Pig and his subsequent solo work, I just didn't. Anyway, as I was saying before this turned into something approaching an album review, 'This Was' is a great - and in some ways quite unique - little record. Thanks for reminding me, Caroline!
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Post by carolinec on Oct 18, 2008 15:58:58 GMT
The thing that really stands out for me with 'This Was' is the, at times, almost quirky mix of other elements which mean it's never just a straight ahead 'bluesy' album - most notably, I suppose, the jazzy Roland Kirk-influenced flute but other more subtle things too that make the album sound not quite like anything else. There's a touch of the 'British eccentric' about it that I really like in albums of this era. And they're not afraid to take a few risks in their playing either. It's playful without being overly self-indulgent. I think that's why it appeals to me so much too - it's blues, with a quirky twist! Can't say I've ever really been much for drum solos but Clive Bunker actually manages to add some sort of character to "Dharma for one" with his nicely idiosyncratic playing. It's possible to have an extended drum workout without taking yourself too seriously. Who'd have thought it? (parts of it even remind me of the drum break in the Legendary Stardust Cowboy's "Paralyzed"!) And I'm still grinning from ear to ear when I recall I saw him play that live earlier this year - truly wonderful. He also did a great bongo duet with their current drummer Douane Perry - reminded me of that when you said "without taking yourself too seriously"! And I have to say a bit about Mick Abrahams. I used to be quite a fan of his purely on the strength of his work on this record. "Move on alone" is a great song with a lovely arrangement. I'm not sure why I never followed up my interest with Blodwyn Pig and his subsequent solo work, I just didn't. No, funnily enough, I never got into Blodwyn Pig but I was thinking of trying to get hold of some and revisit it since getting into This Was again. Hmmm, might have to have a little wander around obscure record selling sites on the internet ..
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Post by PeterC on Oct 18, 2008 15:59:30 GMT
I've promised myself 'The Jethro Tull Christmas Album' for er, Christmas. Meanwhile, does anyone recommend 'Stormwatch'?
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Post by carolinec on Oct 18, 2008 16:00:43 GMT
A 'minor' backlash, Dem? Ouch! I think he might have been referring more to my comments, Peter, than yours - Dem probably thought that I love absolutely everything about Tull!
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Post by carolinec on Oct 18, 2008 16:01:59 GMT
Meanwhile, does anyone recommend 'Stormwatch'? Oooo, yes. If you like Broadsword, you'll love Stormwatch. Got to go and dish the tea out for hubby now, so I'll pop back later with some more detailed comments on the tracks.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 18, 2008 17:27:12 GMT
No, funnily enough, I never got into Blodwyn Pig but I was thinking of trying to get hold of some and revisit it since getting into This Was again. Hmmm, might have to have a little wander around obscure record selling sites on the internet .. You can get a taster by typing Blodwyn Pig into the YouTube search engine: tracks from both the albums, some more recent live footage and a 'legendary' Top Of The Pops appearance. As I remember it, the first album is the more trad blues - one of the songs - might be Dear Jill - seems to go on forever and is possibly an example of what X was grumbling about in his post. The second has a rockier edge overall and I used to be fond of their anthem See My Way and Send Your Son To Die which has a *good* (i.e., early) Mothers Of Invention sound - or so it seems to johnny no ears here. Much of Stormwatch seems to have found it's way onto YouTube as well .....
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Post by carolinec on Oct 18, 2008 19:21:59 GMT
Ooo, thanks Dem! I might try YouTube for Blodwyn Pig starters then - before actually buying anything. And, Peter, sounds like you can do the same with Stormwatch. But here's a track list and a few comments from me: North Sea Oil Orion Home Dark Ages Warm Sporran Something's On The Move Old Ghosts Dun Ringill Flying Dutchman Elegy This is a much angrier album than Broadsword and the Beast. It seems to take a dig at consumerism, Thatcherism, materialism, etc - nice! For example, North Sea Oil is an angry dig at our reliance on .. erm, oil from the North Sea, Something's on the Move could be an environmentalist's anthem (except, in those days, everyone thought we were going to have a new Ice Age, not Global Warming!), and Dark Ages - well , it's quite unlike anything I've ever heard Tull do before or since. Let me quote you a couple of the verses - it's savage, and bloody brilliant: The big jet rumbles over runway miles that scar the patchwork green where slick tycoons and rich buffoons have opened up the seam of golden nights and champagne flights ad-man overkill and in the haze consumer crazed we take the sugar pill and: Jagged fires mark the picket lines the politicians weep and mealy-mouthed down corridors of power on tip-toe creep. Come and see bureaucracy make its final heave and let the new disorder through while senses take their leave
Home, Old Ghosts and Dun Ringill are much gentler - the latter two have a bit of a pagan feel to them with mention of stone circles - "Down by the stones where the old ghosts play" and "We'll sit in stone circles till the force comes through". Elegy and Warm Sporran are short instrumentals - Warm Sporran is a cheeky little number with a really Scottish feel to it! Overall I'd say go get it - but have a listen to some of them on YouTube first to see what you think ... PS: All lyrics quoted above copyright Ian Anderson of course - a true genius with words and musical instruments.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Oct 18, 2008 21:22:31 GMT
Stomwatch is an odd 'un. Kind of a quiet ending to a trilogy with the superior Songs From The Wood and Heavy Horses. I didn't know much about Tull until someone lent it to me. Aqualung was mentioned at school (Mr Naive thought it was about scuba diving - Doh!) and I saw (and taped) their TV performance of Too Old To Rock And Roll, Too Young To Die. A young lady I worked with had a much older husband, and one day she brought in some of his albums for me to listen to. A Salty Dog by Procol Harum, Juicy Lucy, a blues comp called Gutbucket and Stormwatch. It was the first time I'd heard Tull for a while and made me get off my backside and go and see them (on the Catfish Rising tour), and investigate their back catalogue.
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Post by pulphack on Oct 19, 2008 10:07:55 GMT
Blodwyn Pig albums are pretty easy to get hold of on CD, Caroline - I've seen 'em going for £3 in Fopp, which is a kind of warehouse clearance store (or seems like it, anyway). Not sure if it's just London based or national, but a quick whizz round Amazon should turn 'em up cheap.
MIck Abrahams' solo stuff is a bit of a curates egg - a lot of it was for acoustic guitar oriented labels, and as suchfalls into the scholarly approach to picking that can get a bit dull if you're not a fellow picker.
Odd thing about Tull and Pig is that he formed both bands, was the early leader, then found himself ousted - Pete Banks, ex-of Yes and about to form Flash (if my chronology is right) was drafted in as guitarist by the others after Mick was sacked! Not sure if this line-up ever recorded anything, but probably best to check before buying any Pig.
'This Was' is something I've never really thought of as a Tull album, really. Tull is Anderson, and 'This Was' is almost purely Mick - which may be why it's one I prefer to any other Tull I've heard part from 'Songs From The Wood'. I'm not really much of a fan of Mr Anderson, but 'Songs...' has something I don't hear in his other work.
SteveX - interesting point about brit blues boom. The more 'authentic' a band or player was, the more dull they're likely to be to me. For instance, I don#t like the first couple of Savoy Brown albums, but when they start to get heavy and move away from 'pure' blues, I really like them. Similarly, anything on the Blue Horizon label is dull to me, yet Peter Green taking Fleetwood Mac into new areas is exciting still; and Chicken Shack are deadly dull to my ears until Stan Webb goes heavy and signs to Deram. I suppose you could argue this means I like heavy rock not blues, and it's a fair point - but I think it's because they stop copying and become something of their own at those points. To me, the best brit blueser is Tony McPhee - and that's because he's like his hero John Lee Hooker to the extent that he takes the form and uses it to his own ends rather than as a formula. The Groundhogs still, to this day, sound nothing like a 'blues' band even though they are, and no-one has ever written songs like McPhee (or made up their own weird chords for them, as Captain Sensible - a big 'Hogs fan - once pointed out).
Which may seem a long way from Tull, but ultimately that's what Mr Anderson did when he ousted Mick Abrahams - the next couple of Tull albums are tight, riffy little numbers that take the blues ostinato and warp it around M Anderson's own take on blues songwriting, incorporating his jazz and pop influences.
Incidentally, Mr X , it occurs to me while I'm writing this that your preferences in this kind of music echo what you were saying about pulp - bringing some new and personal twist to the form to spice it up (he said, grossly simplifying for speed). Tastes may not coincide exactly, but I think in essence this is what I'm looking for when I pick up a book or shove on a CD, too.
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Post by carolinec on Oct 19, 2008 15:33:06 GMT
I'm not really much of a fan of Mr Anderson ... And now I'm coming round to your house to kill you, Pulphack! But seriously ... each to their own, of course. I know his music isn't to everyone's taste (my husband hates it, for example!). Interesting points from you and Mr X about blues/rock once the white bands got hold of it. I guess I was brought up listening to this kind of music in the late 60s (BTW has anyone mentioned Ten Years After and Alvin Lee?), so that tends to be the kind of "blues" I go for. I tried going back to the roots of real blues, but never really took to it. Indeed, I tended to go off on the more commerical track of soul (Atlantic, Stax) and Tamla Motown! I've recentley realised that my other musical love when I was a youngster really shares the same bluesy roots as Tull, even though at the time I thought they were very different (my parents even liked this band!) - Creedence Clearwater Revival. Both Creedence and Tull were really white bands, with unusual-sounding vocalists, who took blues in different directions. Perhaps I ought to go back to the original blues and see what it does for me now? I might be mature and sophisticated enough nowadays to appreciate it!
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Post by PeterC on Oct 22, 2008 11:59:42 GMT
Caroline,
Thank you for your very useful tips on the Tull.
Peter
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Post by carolinec on Oct 22, 2008 20:18:50 GMT
Caroline, Thank you for your very useful tips on the Tull. Peter It's a pleasure, Peter! As you might realise by now, I love talking about my favourite musicians!
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Post by jkdunham on Oct 25, 2008 13:11:26 GMT
...interesting point about brit blues boom. The more 'authentic' a band or player was, the more dull they're likely to be to me. Although some of those involved in the blues/rock boom of the '60s went on to do other, far more interesting, things later, there was certainly precious little in the way of imagination or inventiveness on display initially. I think a large part of the reason for this is that they were still learning the ropes. It's a bit like watching someone learning to ride a bicycle - things only really get exciting once the stabilisers come off. The other reason, to my way of thinking at least, is that they'd chosen as their main model what was probably the least interesting form of blues in the first place, i.e., what can broadly be categorised as 'Chicago Blues'. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing at all against electricity - John Lee Hooker (born in Mississippi, forged in Detroit) is a shining example of what magic can be worked with one chord and an electric guitar - but it's the R'n'B stylings of those small-group combos associated with Chicago that, more than anything else, have tarred the blues with its now seemingly unshakeable reputation of being based purely around 12 bars, 5 notes, 3 chords and the line "I woke up this morning..." (x2). The blues is in fact a very broad church - it may well use 3 chords (in no strict order and over as many bars as it damn well feels like) or it may decide on just one chord and stick with that until the liquor runs out, or have no chords at all (who needs 'em?), or maybe a whole bagful of fancy jazz chords, or chords you'd struggle to put a name to resulting from some bizarre guitar tuning of the players own invention. And lyrically, given that its major themes are generally sex, substance abuse or the supernatural, there is an equally diverse and free-spirited range of styles displayed - drink-fueled dreams and nightmare visions, social commentary (both witty and bitter), and saucy double entendres that'd make Talbot Rothwell blush. What was my point before I got into Steve's Story Of The Blues? I can't remember now and it probably wasn't particularly important. I can't really say why I like what I like, Pulps me old mate - some things just set the sparks flying in my head and some things don't. I do like a bit of original thought though, you know? Something that's going to excite me and make me think a bit. And if it makes me laugh and has a few dirty bits in, well, all the better...
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