February 8th, 2008
I find myself listening to 80s Jethro Tull lately – Crest of a Knave and Broadsword and the Beast mostly. This being the case, I thought I’d post some videos of some of my favorite songs from these albums.
“Farm on the Freeway”
1987’s Crest of a Knave was touted as Tull return to form after the synth-laden drum box extravaganza of Under Wraps with this song having received a fair amount of airplay. Well, it was and it wasn’t. Sequenced piano and drum machines are present on a few tracks, for starters. Surprisingly, flute is absent from four of the nine songs. Plus, “Jump Start” and “Budapest” to the contrary, acoustic guitar is used differently than on past Tull albums. “Farm on the Freeway” is the best example. Notice the synthesizers in the opening part of the song. Had this been a true return to form, there would have been an acoustic guitar there eagerly strumming along and elsewhere. This approach carried over to CoaK’s follow-up Rock Island where you can hear the absent rhythm acoustic guitar in “Rock Island” and “The Whaler’s Dues”.
The video is from 19 November 1987 and 10 days later I saw Tull at the UIC Pavilion for what was my second concert ever. And so this video brought back some great memories.
“Clasp/Broadsword”
I recall listening to Broadsword and the Beast in high school. It was one of the first Tull albums I got into. Its reputation is as of being the best example of the band integrating synthesizers into their sound by making them sit well next to flute, acoustic guitar, and mandolin. This is true enough. “Fallen on Hard Times” and “Clasp” are great examples. (Unfortunately, the mandolin is missing here in the live version of the latter.) I would also note that “Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow” and “Commons Brawl” also illustrate well how the band integrated acoustic instruments with electronics. Although recorded during the same sessions, these songs did not appear until years after the album’s release.
“Broadsword” is fluteless with plenty of heavy guitar – a early-80s “Aqualung”, in a way. “Clasp”, however, is a different animal. There’s more drama and, in three and a half minutes, it manages to satisfyingly collect all the great attributes of Tull’s music and make an exciting song.
I may have to post an 80s Tull show now…
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