Jethro Tull: 'Aqualung' The Most Un-Prog of Prog Albums Ever!
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- Jethro Tull's 'Aqualung' is seen as a blending or reportage, folk whimsy with conceptual flights. Seen as a kind of beginning of their more prog phase, yet it is a distinctly un-prog prog album.
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#jethrotull #ranking #classicalbum
Thank you for Jethro Tull for making flutes rock!
I bought Benefit in early 1971 and remains one of my favorite Tull albums.
I challenge anyone to find a single less-than-stellar moment on Aqualung. It's literally perfect.
Only Tull album I own, love it. Steven Wilson remix fixed alot of the sonic problems and 5.1
Brilliant review. Aqualung and Quadrophenia were my coming-of-age albums in
my late teens. At age 17, Aqualung with its “Windup” and “Hymn 43” had me deeply question what I had been taught at Sunday school. Hugely influential on my life!
My former brother-in-law was a big fan of this album and used to play it almost every time we went to visit him and my elder sister in their groovy hippy pad. It absolutely brings back the early 1970s for me as soon as I hear any of the tracks played - well, that and The Wombles.
Very, very well done mate. Not a big Tull fan myself but that does not stop me from recognizing the lyrical depth that the band possessed. All praise unto you for highlighting that. Such a good job that I'm going to refrain from pestering you about Fever Tree's first album. Cheers!
My older cousin got me into Tull in '84, been a fan since, mainly the early stuff.
Wond'ring Aloud is one of the most exquisite songs, lyrically and musically, to be found on any rock album, in my opinion.
Just got it on vinyl, along with Thick as a Brick, Minstrel in the Gallery, A Passion Play, and Songs from the Wood... their work is amazing.
I was in a prog fog from '69 onward and this album featured prominently. Always maintained I saw them on the same bill as ELP but recently realized the concert dates were months apart. I blame it on all the smoke in the auditorium.
Great review of my favorite Tull album!
Thanks
This album, dare I say it is one of the most PUNK records I have ever listened to.
Extremely provoking and apt assessment of a wonderfully prog progressive rock album. The standard has been set
First Tull album I ever bought way way back in the 70's 2nd album was the double album Living in the past! 👍
AQUALUNG was my first Jethro Tull album but albums like THICK AS A BRICK and STAND UP are my favourite Tull albums these days. Yeah, I would say other Jethro Tull albums like THE PASSION PLAY and the aforementioned THICK AS A BRICK are much more "progressive" than is AQUALUNG. Interesting video - thanks for posting!
Particularly descript overview. I agree with all your insights. Best wishes.
Thank you kindly!
The most compelling review of Aqualung I have read or heard. So good! 🙏
The train crops in TAAB 2, where an adult Gerald Bostock plays with model trains
My first Tull album and the most loved.
I/we use to practice some of these songs with early ' it bites' members when we were kids in a council house parlour .Great songs for learning the craft
Thank you for the best reviews and the education!!
Thanks for watching!
Easily in my top ten albums of all time!! I listen to it as much now as I have for the last 5+ decades. Thanks for a fine overview. 😊
Glad you enjoy it!
Here's an idea: Prog songs by non-prog bands.
Love it , Bohemian rhapsody, she so heavy to start with
Jethro Tull forever
Another great video.
Very informative.
I love Tull inspite of not being English , Aqualung my second favourite after Thick as a brick and love busting out and minstrels gallery . Top class enjoyable and informative analysis
Bursting Out
Minstrel in the Gallery
Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, Songs From the Wood, Heavy Horses- best lineup, best work IMO
Thanks!
Thank you so much
My god that was good analysis , I have a PhD in a Jungian analysis of early Genesis lyrics and the use of archetypes
I was a prog fan since 1970 with ELP, King Crimson, YES and Gentle Giant. And I never thought of Aqualung, or Tull , as prog. If anything, it was a more mellow version of Anderson's earlier work. That's what made Thick As a Brick such a surprise. Is it their finest? I actually rate it behind the first three. Then again, those are really good albums.
"..and what is the concept of this album, Ian?"
"Well, it's mainly about a filthy prostitute, the death of a cocaine addict and a pedo."
which is the attitude of the outsider Ian was trying to illuminate, people with no mercy or compassion.
Great Review mate .
Cheers 🍻
Aqualung is a truly iconic album in so many ways. If you take Anderson's definition of prog as being any and all types of non-standard music, then Aqualung is definitely prog. Unusual feel and atmosphere; unique blending of instruments; lots of variation in light and shade, tempo speed and volume; great intellectual and poetic depth; sonic topography.
Great record, but I'm still a bigger fan of Benefit. The earliest song I can think of to mention "snot". This, from the man that gave us the sublime Reasons for Waiting.
That's my take on it too. I felt more of a connection with Benefit and the beautiful Reasons for Waiting off Stand Up.
This song was co-written by Ian and his (then) wife, Jenny, and it was she who wrote that "snot running down his nose" part....Ian has said so himself :)
Now I know why no one I know has a Jethro Tull T shirt…..lol
Excellent review of one of my top 3 Tull albums.
I particularly love Ians' acoustic playing at this period of the bands' career, none more so than on songs like Cheap Day Return and Mother Goose..and yes, you can absolutely hear the influences of Roy Harper and Bert Jansch.
If you've ever seen a photograph of Burton Silverman, it's very clear that Aqualung is him, not Ian Anderson.
My Gran, who had seen some shit, once told me "We are only ever a couple of bad decisions away from becoming a tramp."
Then one day, after a decent win on the horses, I gave a vagrant £100. He spat on me and announced "I've got the AIDS."
The new jethro Tull Christmas album is out 6/12 not 2/12 as I said before certainly having a look at it
Quite poetic and persistent analysis of Tull's both creative and commercial coming of age and financial out of the red albums. However, hardly the pinnacle of creativity after which only dwarf albums ensue as applicable to many other bands. Tull voyaged forward to issue several more creative masterpieces over the decades and even beyond 1979 that looking back show Aqualung as more dated than timeless.
I think Songs from the wood is more of a traditional folk album. Still brilliant though
Anderson's displeasure at the Aqualung character resembling him on the album art must have been made worse by his portrayal in the group portrait, as shown at 6:32, where he looks very much like the same character as shown on the front and back of the album. (I just realized it's interesting that Clive Bunker is shown sort of in the background, as he was to leave the band shortly thereafter.)
I saw Jethro Tull in 1970 when they toured with Procol Harum. Still like those classic albums, but live I found Ian Anderson's prancing and gesticulating quite distracting so I ended up listening with my eyes shut for most of the concert. I cannot listen to the more recent stuff as Ian's voice naturally has lost its edge and power that comes with age and I prefer not to listen as I find it slightly depressing.
I saw them for 4 dollars front row
It's a great album, but my favourite Tull albums are SFTW and Heavy Horses.
Absolutely agree
As always super review I really enjoy your take on all things musical will you be doing a review from Santana ? 'Caravanserai' (1972) · 4. 'Borboletta' (1974) etc my favorites , i look forward to hearing seeing from you cheers from Austria not really prog but rock jazz fusion ??? well worth a review
Possibly!
I've never seen a first printing of the vinyl, I'm curious if Jennie Anderson got co-writing credits from the beginning. My hunch is she only got credit on what was [conveniently] Tull's biggest hit as a divorce settlement.
I wonder if side two's religious themes (particularly Wind Up) were influenced by Lindsay Anderson's 1968 movie IF which parodied the public school system, the C of E and Army.
Ha ha. Jack Knife Barber looks like Buster Bloodvessel of the 80's UK ska group Bad Manners. Martin Barre's guitar playing and John Evan's keyboard playing were outstanding in Tull. Sadly, when punk hit, Ian Anderson panicked and fired most of the band which was the end of Jethro Tull.
How right they were. I grew up in the Bible Belt in a valley in the shadow of the Appalachian mountains and had just begun to piece together the questions of how could the Bible be true when Santa Claus was revealed to me as a hoax. My older sister shared the album with me and the lyrics and music truly blew my young mind. Proud to say that with future assistance from disparate sources ranging from Christopher Higgins to George Carlin I arrived firmly in the camp of no longer believing in the invisible man who they claim lives in the sky. Alas for the religious fanatics they were a bit too late with their album burning in my case. But hooray for me. Life is difficult enough without worrying about ridiculous imaginary fire, brimstones and streets of gold. Do you need cars in the afterlife? What value is there in gold? Do they charge rent? Anyway, Aqualung was a fantastic album and Locomotive Breath is in the same league as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon as a depiction of life if approached in typical socioreligious fashion. Did I invent a word there?
Hitchens?
@@rightchordleadership yes. My bad for not proofreading. Thanks.
Good idea to have a Miles Davis shirt on. Jethro sux. Thank U.
Not sure it was intended to be a prog album
There lies the problem... categorise a piece of music, and you force the listener to have pre conceptions to the value of the piece.
I think it is an issue of it being an album made by a band that were growing and learning and progressing musically, which is a normal process for creative people, as opposed to a piece of work which is specifically trying to be PROG ROCK™, which I don't see Tull as being. They were not trying to be ELP or King Crimson, they were being themselves and exploring their world.
Not really a prog album, some pop folk songs
I find the passage of time funny , as a teen I did not get it , in my twenties I started to really love this album and by my 30's I found it brilliant , now in my 50's I am starting to find it over rated , a bit over explained , celebrated , ...., I think with time , more exposure, one sometimes can weigh things in and out in their own personal listening experiences ?
If you have a list of the attributes of prog that consensus agreed upon, you could say it's un-prog. Listen to Yes Fragile, King Crimson Red, and Van Dere Graaf Pawn Hearts and tell me what in the world they have in common. Anyway we can agree it's a great album.
Tull were not "prog" as now understood though they lost me after thick as....
Saw them at Liverpool Uni with Steeleye Span launching this album which is almost as good as Benefit, their best IMHO.
It was never a Prog album Barry, and for me it was a bit of a curate's egg. It's a shame that you missed out the best track on the album, the closer that was Wind-Up. Lyrically brilliant album with some lovely acoustic introspection but the sound of a band that was changing and becoming something else. The original mix didn't work for me and I've not heard the Steven Wilson remix.