Jethro Tull are a British rock band that have been going since 1967, and produced many albums. They have a very distinctive style, and never have sold out to commercialism.
Ian Anderson's manic antics on stage, brandishing his flute, or some prop relating to an album or track the band is performing, makes their concerts always entertaining.
The band started out with a single: Aeroplane / Sunshine Day, which I believe is quite rare (Aeroplane and Sunshine Day have subsequently turned up as bonus tracks on one of their early album CD releases). The sound of Aeroplane is quite psychedelic, and very much in keeping with the music of 1967. However, in many sleeve note and music press interviews, Ian Anderson has stated that Jethro Tull are completely anti drugs.
Their first two albums were This Was and Stand Up. The music here is a pleasant blend of rhythm and blues, folk and art rock - ballads, blues and mellotrons.
Ian's crooning style at this point would not be out of place in the English folk music scene.
Both these albums dedicate a track to a person called Jeffrey. According to cover notes of the time, he was a kind of male groupie - a hanger on, that they enjoyed taking the mickey out of. Subsequently, he did play bass guitar for the band for a while. They do continue to play A Song For Jeffrey at live concerts, which goes down well with the fans.
Their third album, Benefit was more art rock, borrowing different melodies from classical music.
It was the fourth album, Aqualung, which broke the mold. The sound is much more heavy rock, and Ian's flute playing is quite outstanding.
This album took our notions of faith, hope and charity, and turned them upside down.1 This is the first album we see with really biting lyrics and social commentary.
Not to let things cool down, this album was followed by another iconoclastic one called Thick as a Brick, challenging our notions on the media, censorship and floccinaucinihilipilification.
Since this time, the band have continued to produce many albums, many of which are concept albums.
Discography2
- This Was (1968)
- Stand up (1969)
- Benefit (1970)
- Aqualung (1971)
- Thick as a Brick (1972)
- A Passion Play (1973)
- War Child (1974)
- Minstrel in the Gallery (1975)
- Too Old to Rock And Roll, Too Young to Die (1976)
- Songs from the Wood (1977)
- Heavy Horses (1978)
- Bursting out (Live) (1978)
- Stormwatch (1979)
- [A] (1980)
- Broadsword and the Beast (1982)
- Under Wraps (1984)
- Crest of a Knave (1987)
- Rock Island (1989)
- Catfish Rising (1991)
- A Little Light Music (1992)
- Nightcap (1993)
- Roots to Branches (1995)
- JTull.Com (1999)
Compilations
- Living in the past (1972)
- M.U. The Best of Jethro Tull (1976)
- Repeat The Best of Jethro Tull Vol II (1977)
- Original Masters (1985)
- 20 Years of Jethro Tull (1988)
- Jethro Tull 25th Anniversary 4 CD Box Set (1993)
- The Best of Jethro Tull: The Anniversary Collection (1993)
- Jethro Tull in Concert
Line-up:3
Original (1967) line-up:
Ian Anderson (flute, guitar, keyboards, vocals)
Mick Abrahams (guitar)
Glenn Cornick (bass)
Clive Bunker (drums)
(1968) Abrahams quits to form Blodwyn Pig --
briefly replaced by Tony Iommi (guitar), later of Black
Sabbath, who only appears with Tull in The
Rolling Stones' Rock 'n' Roll Circus.
(1969) Iommi replaced by Martin Barre (guitar)
(1970) John Evan joins on piano
(1971) Glenn Cornick quits to form Wild Turkey
and, later, Paris. He is replaced by Jeffrey
Hammond-Hammond (bass). Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond is the person to whom A Song for Jeffrey and Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square were dedicated.
(1972) Late in '71, Clive Bunker leaves and is
replaced by Barriemore Barlow (drums). Barlow, Hammond-
Hammond, and Evan were all band-mates of Anderson
in the pre-Tull John Evan Blues Band.
From this point on, there are various changes to the line-up, but Ian Anderson stays on vocals, and Martin Barre on guitar. Below are some details by instrument.
Bass: Glascock left in '78
and died in '79. He was replaced on bass by Dave Pegg,
formerly of Fairport Convention. Dave Pegg continued through '91, then was replaced by
Matt Pegg (a relative presumably).
Keyboards: John Evan finally left in '79 and was replaced
for two years by Eddie Jobson (also on violin, from
Curved Air, Roxy Music and Frank Zappa, in that order).
Peter-John Vetese did the keys from 1982-87, and '88-91.
Apparently, Anderson thought it worthwhile to carry
two keyboard players, because Martin Allcock is also
listed from 1988-91.
Drums: Mark Craney took up the sticks from 1980-81, to be
replaced by Jerry Conway until '84. Following a gap, Doane Perry sat in from 1987-91. Most
recent drummer listed is Dave Mattacks (another Fairport
Convention alumnus!) from '91.
Notes:
1 I have a catholic friend who positively adores the irony in this album. However, I imagine that some christians could find the album bordering on the blasphemous.
2 You will be pleased to know that I do not intend to pollute the nodegel with tracklists and lyrics of everything JT have done. I may add the occasional album review if I think it deserves it. I will also hard link to any existing albums. Please /msg me if you have added a node for a JT album, and you want me to hard link.
3 Many thanks go to sighmoan for supplying the information on the changes of band members.