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If you haven't listened to it yet, the Chateau D'Herouville sessions* remastered by Steven Wilson are also superb - would have been quite an album.
*which would have been the album after TAAB but morphed into A Passion Play
1: Benefit
2: Aqualung
3: Living in the Past
4: Thick as a Brick
5: Dead heat between Minstrel in the Gallery, Songs from the Wood, Stand Up, and Too Old to Rock 'n Roll, too Young to Die.
Thick as a Brick a masterwork? Absolutely! Have always loved it. Aqualung was the second record I ever bought. These days I probably play Benefit and Living in the Past more than any others. For many years I have rated the guitar solo on the title track of Aqualung as the best short solo ever played by anyone anywhere, and I have heard nothing to change my mind. It is just perfect. No possible change could make it better.
I saw them live in Melbourne for the third time around about then, and they were dreadful. Anderson had a bit of a crook throat, sure, but he obviously didn't give a damn about the people who'd waited for years between tours and queued up and paid serious money for tickets. Very short show, and not much good while it was going.
But in their prime, Tull were unique, and very special. Best advice is to just put Benefit or Brick on again and remember them at their best.
My claim to fame is that I was nearly run over by Dave Pegg behind the Hammersmith Odeon in the late 70's. Did get his autograph though
I understand why people like the earlier stuff but it doesn’t connect with me in the same way.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
Benefit is the one I've played the most over the years, I think I've maybe got Minstrel in the Gallery and one or two others on CD. I've never properly listened to Thick as a Brick, but I used to like reading the sleeve.
Even if it had been Broadsword - which is a better album, as well as arguably a bit more 'metally' with all the Viking imagery - it would have still been ludicrous... no Tull is metal or really even hard rock in any sensible context. Apparently no members of the band were even at the awards since they assumed they'd been entered as a bit of a joke and would never win.
I saw them live on the Crest Of A Knave tour, the only time I have - they were very good. Apparently they could be a bit variable though.
It's not *that* bad - just a bit early-80s synthy in places. (But not as much as Under Wraps, which I really didn't like.)
Still definitely one of my top three.
There's a quite cheap CD box set you can get of all the 'folk rock era' - Songs From The Wood to Broadsword, and including the slightly odd 'A' album (which was originally intended to be an Anderson solo project) - if you like this variety of Tull.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
Again I have dim memories of these from my brother's collection... we were slightly befuddled by Stormwatch and A, and didn't like Under Wraps at all.
I don't really remember anything from Heavy Horses or Songs from the Wood - this will sound weird (no big surprise coming from me) but I always thought the cover art on those two was strange, they looked like compilation albums somehow, which put me off.
I must take a look how much of the Tull discography is on Spotify.
Of the early Tull albums I think I actually like Stand Up the most.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
My favourite era is the Aqualung to Songs From The Wood period - beyond that its diminishing returns. Broadsword is great, but the later albums are weaker (albeit I have a soft spot for J-Tull.com - possibly a contender for worst album title ever).
A real pity that Martin Barre appears to have been sidelined completely by Anderson when his guitar riffs and style were so much a part of the good stuff - a really underrated player, I think.
Great band though and one of my favourites. As I said earlier in this thread, if you haven't listened to the "special edition Steven Wilson remastered Passion Play with the Chateau D'Herouville sessions extra CD, give it a go. Some really brilliant stuff if you like the full on prog of TAAB. It's on Spotify if that's your thing.