Songs: My Sunday Feeling, Some Day the Sun won’t Shine for You, Beggar’s Farm, Move on Alone, Serenade to a Cuckoo, Dharma for One, It’s Breaking me Up, Cat’s Squirrel, A Song for Jeffrey, Round.
Type of Music: Late Sixties Blues Rock
Comments:
Jethro Tull is a Progressive Rock group formed in 1967 in Luton in the United Kingdom. Key Figures are band leader Ian Anderson and guitarist Martin Barre who joined the band in 1969. First some general remarks about Ian Anderson. If you can’t get used to Ian´s voice, it’s difficult to like Tull´s Music. Secondly, Ian is not the most modest guy on this earth. Many times that makes his songs and texts extraordinary, sometimes it makes them almost unbearable. You will encounter all of these when we follow Ian’s career throughout the years. Jethro Tull is still very active by the way and tours the world on a regular base.
Now let’s return to This Was, Tull´s First album. Tull was not yet the successful Prog-Rock Band of the early/middle-seventies but just one of the many Blues Bands that were active in England in the late sixties. Guitarist Mick Abraham (blues back-ground) played an important part in the making of this album.
The Album is unknown to most Rock fans and that’s a pity because it deserves our attention.
It’s mostly right out Blues like in Someday The Sun Won’t Shine For You and It’s Breaking Me Up. On various occasions the songs are jazz-flavoured like Move On Alone, written by Mick Abrahams, and Serenade To A Cuckoo, written by Jazz Flutist Roland Kirk, where Ian starts to show us his magical flute playing abilities. There is some instrumental filler here as well such as the traditional Cat’s Squirrel and Round. And Dharma For One is more of a showcase for the individual players than an actual song.
All throughout his career, Ian sometimes found it necessary to “ robotize” his voice in the way Moby does it today. I think that’s a pity and it downgrades the otherwise good A Song for Jeffrey. Although in 1968 many people probably loved these experiments as they were quite new in those days.
On the plus side we begin to discover the wonderful and unique combination of Blues and Rock and Ian’s Flute. This would produce great results in the future but it also works very well here in My Sunday Feeling and Beggar’s Farm, the best song on the album. This last song shows the difference of having Ian and his flute in your band. Great Lyrics as well.
The Album was digitally re-mastered in 2001 and contains three bonus tracks, the instrumental One for John Gee, written for the owner of the Marquee Club in London where the Tull started playing live, the Indian flavoured Love Song and the somewhat unusual Christmas Song. They aren’t bad songs but I can perfectly live without them.
This Album is different from all other Tull Albums but certainly worth listening to.
Bonus Tracks: One for John Gee, Love Story, Christmas Song.
Rating: ******* (7 out of 10)
Black = Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better
