Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull was very much a blues band on their debut album, and this double-CD edition -- restored to its original 1968-vintage mono-mix on the first platter, and augmented there with BBC archive performances recorded for John Peel's Top Gear show, and remixed in 2008 for stereo on the second platter, augmented with chronologically related single- and EP tracks -- shows them as even more of a blues- and roots-oriented outfit. In terms of sound, the original mono version of the album would be worth the price of admission by itself -- at this point, the band (Ian Anderson, Mick Abrahams, Glen Cornick, Clive Bunker) was generating a lean, bluesy hard rock sound that didn't really benefit from stereo mixing as it was done at the time, and the BBC sessions only bear out the simplicity and directness of their sound, with Anderson and Abrahams pushing the group in what were originally compatible directions, into blues and realms of jazz -- fans of Mick Abrahams, incidentally, will have to own this set just for those BBC sides, which showcase his acoustic and electric guitar about as well as they ever could be, and with impressive clarity, as well. Additionally, the BBC version of "Love Story" plunges into some pyrotechnics that the official version only hints at. And on top of the expected songs off the album and related singles, we get "Stormy Monday" and "So Much Trouble" to expand out the repertory legacy of the early band. The second disc offers a new stereo mix that does, indeed, show off the band's strengths in ways that the 1968 version missed -- all of the reverb that was applied to Anderson's voice is gone, and as a result the whole album sounds more realistic. Comparing the two contrasting mixes of the record side by side, this reviewer will take the mono version, but the new stereo mix also sounds very good, if not as essential. There are also new stereo mixes of the single tracks "Love Story" and "Christmas Song," and remastered mono mixes of "Sunshine Day" and "One for John Gee," as well as "Love Story" and "Christmas Song"." This double-disc set is essentially a summing up of the band's first phase in its totality, and in optimum form, accompanied by a well-illustrated booklet that includes observations by all of the original participants, 40 years on. To be sure, this is still not the Jethro Tull that most listeners came to know a few years later on Aqualung etc. -- they're closer in spirit to the Graham Bond Organization or even the Blues Project, with elements of Cream. But as this set keeps reminding us every few seconds, they were still a great band, and one that sold a surprisingly large number of records their first time out, at least in England -- their original sound, showcased here, was that special, even if it started to be supplanted by a folkier, poppier, more commercial brand of music as the sales on the original album had begun to slacken. [An expanded version of the CD was also released.] ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide