Jethro Tull - "Stand Up: The Elevated Edition (2CD & DVD Deluxe Set) due in November

**JJ88** · 09-01-2016

I haven't yet heard TAAB2...I don't really plan to change that. The reviews on here were mostly of the 'it's OK but no more' variety.

**chalkpie** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by JJ88

I haven't yet heard TAAB2...I don't really plan to change that. The reviews on here were mostly of the 'it's OK but no more' variety.

It might be worth a listen to form your own opinion, but I definitely prefer HE over this one.

**JJ88** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by chalkpie

Can you elaborate on what you mean by precious?

There's a (to me) forced whimsy and quirkiness about this period which doesn't appeal to me. 'The Hare....' is the most notorious example but I also hear it on things like the framing device used throughout Minstrel and Too Old..., and selected tracks like 'Sea Lion'.

Anderson turned his back on this approach with Songs From The Wood and Heavy Horses, and those are- for me- their best albums since TAAB. I even like later albums like Crest Of A Knave and Roots To Branches more than several of those 70s albums.

^I wish they'd put Living In The Past out in full. Some of these albums (including Stand Up!) have now had three CD reissues in 15 years, that hasn't had any...I don't count expensive Japanese/audiophile imports. Sure, there's not much on it unavailable elsewhere now, but it was a well chosen and- at that time- essential collection, as they had so many non-album tracks.

**strawberrybrick** · 09-01-2016

I have to through Living In The Past into the group that is This Was, Stand Up and Benefit. I know there's some overlap, but in particular that fourth side doesn't get any better, for me at least. I must have been 11 when I got that album and I still get chills each time I hear it.

After that (Aqualung aside), Tull was diminishing returns, with the exception of Minstrel In The Gallery. IMHO, of course.

**chalkpie** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by JJ88

There's a (to me) forced whimsy and quirkiness about this period which doesn't appeal to me. 'The Hare....' is the most notorious example but I also hear it on things like the framing device used throughout Minstrel and tracks like 'Sea Lion'.

Anderson turned his back on this approach with Songs From The Wood and Heavy Horses, and those are- for me- their best albums since TAAB. I even like later albums like Crest Of A Knave and Roots To Branches more than several of those 70s albums.

Fair enough, just curious. I love and appreciate it all, even WC and Too Old.....whimsy, so called "preciousness", quirkiness, all of it. I even dig Under Wraps on occasion. I really don't have any major, major problems until snippets of Crest, Rock island, and Catfish.

btw, pretty O/T but we loved Conwy last year and Snowdonia - stunning area and castles!

**JJ88** · 09-01-2016

^It's a taste thing. I will say that spoken word sections in music generally set my teeth on edge!

**chalkpie** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by strawberrybrick

I have to through Living In The Past into the group that is This Was, Stand Up and Benefit. I know there's some overlap, but in particular that fourth side doesn't get any better, for me at least. I must have been 11 when I got that album and I still get chills each time I hear it.

After that (Aqualung aside), Tull was diminishing returns, with the exception of Minstrel In The Gallery. IMHO, of course.

Yeah, side four of 'Past' might be the most overlooked shining gem of their catalog - a stunning segment of tunes imo.

**chalkpie** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by JJ88

^It's a taste thing. I will say that spoken word sections in music generally set my teeth on edge!

Big Wagner fan, eh?

**Facelift** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by JJ88

^I wish they'd put Living In The Past out in full. Some of these albums (including Stand Up!) have now had three CD reissues in 15 years, that hasn't had any...I don't count expensive Japanese/audiophile imports.

Sure, there's not much on it unavailable elsewhere now.

Well, that's the reason why it probably won't get reissued again. It's a not a regular album, but a compilation album. With all of its contents now distributed as bonus tracks on the albums which the songs belong to, recording session-wise, there's no longer a compelling reason for it to exist. The 20 Years set, Nightcap, Original Masters... these aren't getting reissued either, for similar reasons.

**Scrotum Scissor** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by chalkpie

I love and appreciate it all, even WC and Too Old.....whimsy, so called "preciousness", quirkiness, all of it.

I concur. I got Stand Up, A Passion Play and Minstrel as my first Tull buys back in '87 (I was 15), and the stylistic disparity yet integral musical identity of those three titles just knocked my wits out of track for a bit. To me, Ian Anderson's sense of songwriting had a completely different target about it than the other classic "prog" bands I was getting into at that point. Somehow they didn't intend or pretend to be any such fairy thing as "pieces" or "works" or "epics", rather they were densely compressed mosaic variations on the song-form, and I remember thinking I'd never heard anything quite like it. I still love most of APP, and I find War Child their most underrated record. To have dissonant hard rock escapades like "Sea Lion" and "The Third Hoorah" next to a faux-folk-tune such as "Skating Away" - that may appear overly cerebral and forcedly clever to some, but I get the motive in it.

**Trane** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by Facelift

Agreed completely. "Having fun" with concept albums, sure; "making fun" of them? No way. That's IA not wanting to own what he did. If it was a parody, then why do an earnest sequel 40 years later?

only a fool never changes his mind.... Indeed he made fun of these concept albums as soon as A and 1980 (see the Slipstream DVD), but obviously he's gone back on that opinion as TAAB2 and Homo Erraticus were made some 30 years afterwards.

**Facelift** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by Trane

only a fool never changes his mind.... Indeed he made fun of these concept albums as soon as A and 1980 (see the Slipstream DVD), but obviously he's gone back on that opinion as TAAB2 and Homo Erraticus were made some 30 years afterwards.

My point was, why do an earnest sequel to something that was supposed to be a parody of concept albums? The answer, is because TAAB was *not* a parody of concept albums.

**Trane** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by Facelift

My point was, why do an earnest sequel to something that was supposed to be a parody of concept albums? The answer, is because TAAB was *not* a parody of concept albums.

Well he did sell us TAAB as "the mother of all concept albums" after he disliked Aqualung being called one by journalists... It was a spoof, but he was awfully proud of his work. My guess is his cheap shots towards his own concept albums concerns his later-70's ones.

**chalkpie** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by Facelift

The answer, is because TAAB was *not* a parody of concept albums.

Hmmm.....who to believe here....Facelift -OR- the guy who actually wrote, recorded, and produced the album?

"It [Thick as a Brick] was supposed to be fun and a bit of a send-up of the concept album, prog-rock style of ’72, ’71, whenever … it was relatively light-hearted, although there was some rather dark sort of child-fantasy moments in the lyrics. Overall it kept the spirits of parody, of spoof, in the style of surreal British humor, I suppose going back to the ’50s, certainly into the ’60s. It was very British." -Ian Anderson

**BarryLI** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by Trane

Totally agree... Despite a weaker Benefit (a transition album after two fantastic albums >> yes, I love This Was)), Tull was on top of its game until and included TAAB.

However, Anderson went one too far with APP, and to a lesser extent WC, but was unable correct the balance with MitG (some excellent stuff on it) and Too Old.... They only found a good balance with SFTW and HH afterwards

An author with a hit novel might not ever write another as good, same with a recording artist no doubt.

For me This Was was a collaboration with Mick Abrahams which didn't allow Ian to completely flex his wings, enjoyable for what it is but not really of the Tull Pantheon IMO.

Stand Up Ian was allowed to roam free, and I enjoy the stylistic differences that abound, Ian trying different sound motifs for comfortability.

Benefit for me is where he hit his stride, that exemplified the hard/soft passages that would later become a staple of his work.

TAAB was for me the greatest album written ever, I can still pop on the phones and let it wash over me and I'm filled with delight.

APP was a reach that although I can now enjoy it's complexity it's not a very tuneful work especially coming on the heels of TAAB.

WC was uneven, wasn't thrilled with the continued use of sax after APP, some of the tunes were dreary and uninspired.

MITG had some beautiful acoustic moments but was also uneven, I did enjoy the pastoral grace of the following two albums, though.

**Scrotum Scissor** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by JJ88

Well, TAAB and APP certainly come under this category, IMHO. And the 2nd side of Minstrel is also linked.

Not the same effort of creating wannabe-"composed" and unified, integral works. Lengthy sequences of more or less individual songs spliced together without much pretention of simulating the formal scopes of "classical", and as such far more successful to these ears than a medley as badly fragmented as, say, "Supper's Ready". Just IMO.

**jamesmanzi** · 09-01-2016

A Jethro Tull thread? Hey, let's argue about Public Image Ltd!

**Facelift** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by chalkpie

Hmmm.....who to believe here....Facelift -OR- the guy who actually wrote, recorded, and produced the album?

"It [Thick as a Brick] was supposed to be fun and a bit of a send-up of the concept album, prog-rock style of ’72, ’71, whenever … it was relatively light-hearted, although there was some rather dark sort of child-fantasy moments in the lyrics. Overall it kept the spirits of parody, of spoof, in the style of surreal British humor, I suppose going back to the ’50s, certainly into the ’60s. It was very British." -Ian Anderson

Ian Anderson has lied, bent the truth and contradicted himself so many times over the years across different subjects that he generally can't be taken seriously. In any event, I specifically stated that TAAB is "having fun with concept albums." It's just clearly not *making* fun of concept albums. The latter is a bit of revisionist history that Ian Anderson started saying when the rock music press started trashing his concept albums.

**Halmyre** · 09-01-2016

Originally Posted by Facelift

Ian Anderson has lied, bent the truth and contradicted himself so many times over the years across different subjects that he generally can't be taken seriously. In any event, I specifically stated that TAAB is "having fun with concept albums." It's just clearly not *making* fun of concept albums. The latter is a bit of revisionist history that Ian Anderson started saying when the rock music press started trashing his concept albums.

Besides, even if IA isn't telling porkies, an album that spends its entire running length poking fun at concept albums is in itself a concept.