| Track: | Rating: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Song For Jeffrey | | | | | |
| 2. Love Story | | | | | |
| 3. Christmas Song | | | | ||
| 4. Living In The Past | | | | ||
| 5. Driving Song | | | | ||
| 6. Sweet Dream | | | | | |
| 7. Singing All Day | | | | ||
| 8. Witches Promise | | | | | |
| 9. Inside | | | | ||
| 10. Alive And Well And Living In | | | | | |
| 11. Just Trying To Be | | | | ||
| 12. By Kind Permission Of | | | | | |
| 13. Dharma For One | | | | | |
| 14. Wond'ring Again | | | | | |
| 15. Hymn 43 | | | | | |
| 16. Life Is A Long Song | | | | | |
| 17. Up The 'Pool | | | | | |
| 18. Dr. Bogenbroom | | | | | |
| 19. For Later | | | | | |
| 20. Nursie | | | | | |
(some pressings also contain "Bourree", "Teacher" and "Locomotive Breath", all of which are available on other Tull studio albums)
Between 1968 and 1972, Jethro Tull pulled off two amazing accomplishments -- they rose from an obscure progressive-blues band to international progressive rock stars, and they went through an almost complete membership turnover in the process (with only Ian Anderson lasting to the end of this period). Given this, a double-LP history of their "odds and ends" from this highly transitional period makes perfect sense.
The tracks on Living In The Past document Tull's origins and early development. From the ragged beauty of "Song For Jeffrey" to the relative compositional maturity of, say, "Life Is A Long Song", the difference of only a few years is quite pronounced (both due to Anderson's development as a writer and the acquisition of band members more suitable to his tastes). The is an essential purchase for any serious Tull fan, of course -- newcomers might be advised to start somewhere else (Aqualung for casual fans, Warchild or Passion Play for confirmed prog fans), but this wouldn't be a terribly bad choice even so.
The album begins with a track from This Was, their debut album. "Song For Jeffrey", driven by the ill-fated partnership of Ian Anderson and Mick Abrahams, shows JT as they never really were, but presumably wanted to be in their earliest days. After a cool flute and bass introduction typical of the "blues-turning-to-progressive" British bands of the period, the band turns to their adaptation of traditional blues stylings, with Anderson's harmonica acting as the lead instrument between verses. Anderson's voice is muffled/distorted throughout the song, giving it an "archival" feel of sorts; Abrahams is given an accompanying role, and fills it quite nicely. As an opening statement for an album of this sort, its doubtful that they could have chosen anything better.
The album then shifts to "Love Story" (which, as per most tracks here, had not previously been released on an album). In contrast to the quasi-psychedelic blues stylings of the previous track, this one works as more of a folk/hard rock number. Anderson sings this one extremely well, shifting between the "heavy" and "pastoral" moods fairly easily; Bunker, meanwhile, adds percussion lines which prove that the band really did lose something with his departure. Abrahams has a more subdued role here (wonder why...) until a psychedelic mini-solo in mid-song, which then leads to a duet with Anderson (on mandolin). A case could be made that the instrumental parts on "Wind Up" were first mapped out here. One way or the other, though, its another good number.
Mick Abrahams left the group after This Was under less than ideal conditions, and was replaced by the dependable-if-limited Martin Barre. In the interregnum period prior to Barre's joining, however, the band managed to come up with "A Christmas Song", a well-intentioned holiday message song that ultimately comes up a bit short of its aim. The introductory section of bells, tin whistles, mandolins and horse-trotting captures a Dickensian mood effectively enough, but Anderson's nativity depiction isn't overly convincing. There isn't anything terribly wrong with the music, but the entire idea seems a bit half-baked (and David Palmer's middlebrow orchestrations aren't really a strong point in its favour). It's not a "skip-over" track, but neither is it one of the stronger ones here.
With Barre now on board, our survey then takes us to "Living In The Past", a non-album track which reached #11 in the United States on its initial release (thereby tying it with "Bungle In The Jungle" for JT's biggest hits in this country). The poppish background to the track is tasteful enough, but a tad limited. Martin Barre proves himself a more secondary figure than was Abrahams, giving up the spotlight almost entirely to Anderson. Anderson, in turn, doesn't exactly give the vocal performance of his career here; the instrumental outro is the best part of the song, easily. One wonders if the quietism promoted in this song is enough to verify that Ian was a Tory then as well (though, one way or the other, the final reprise of the chorus probably should have been cut).
We then turn to "Driving Song", a darker blues number than before. Barre and Cornick put forward a rather thick riff, over top of which Anderson provides lyrics suggesting both sexual endeavours and blue-collar labour. This seems, as such, to be something of a one-trick number; from a purely musical basis, the fairly ordinary rock line doesn't go terribly far, and the guitar solo is easily ignorable. Anderson's flute solo at the end saves the track somewhat. Again, a decent number, but not a vital one.
From thence to "Sweet Dream", a better number taking the listener back in a progressive-psychedelic direction (and not a bit too soon, I might add). Through the first orchestral bits could have been mixed in a bit better, the general arrangement of this one is a step in the right direction -- and overtly proggy closing section and a psych-guitar solo from Barre are among its better points. Some might not a vague similarity to "Teacher", but this shouldn't ruin the listening experience.
We then come to a minor sideways-step, as "Singing All Day" takes the album's course into a somewhat lighter direction. The lyrics to this one are fairly compelling -- concerning unfulfilled romantic desires portrayed in traditional English folk style -- but the music, well, isn't so much. The song is clearly meant as a laid-back number of sorts, and probably could have been done a bit better as such; Bunker's performance is probably the best of the lot. The Hammond team of Anderson and Cornick doesn't really break new instrumental boundaries, though this reviewer will admit that the introduction of keyboards here is a decent enough introduction to the next membership change as any ...
... And that being the addition of John Evan, consolidating the band's movement in a more progressive direction. With this new revamped lineup, the lads explore further musical developments on "Witches Promise" -- the acoustic/folk elements seem stronger than before, the actual songwriting elements are better, and the bridge section resembles nothing so much as Trespass-era Genesis. This track, clearly, shows the directions which Tull would explore in later years.
The album then takes another sideways shift with "Inside" (also available on the Benefit album). Ian's lyrics focus on the differences of travelling and domestic life, with a clear preference shown for the simplicity of the latter. The lyrics may actually be a bit too simple, actually, with the "enjoying life's simple pleasures" routine not holding up as well as some of Anderson's better moments from the same era. The guitar mixing is somewhat interesting by virtue of its sheer inaudibility, though, thankfully, the flute lead partly makes up for this. A good enough three-minute number, but not an album highlight.
We then proceed to "Alive And Well And Living In", the first real triumph of the album. Anderson's tale of a frustrated female character living in urban isolation (could this have been a deliberate counterpart to "Inside"?) works very well -- as "songs-qua-songs" go, this one is extremely good. From a musical level, moreover, Barre finally comes alive in this number, adding a significant part which ultimately increases the progressive value of the track -- Evan's leadoff line is fairly good too.
"Just Trying To Be" features only two JT members: Anderson and Evan. This rather gentle number tells a "child's maturation" story without terribly many really interesting observations (though the crib-toy sound effect works well). As this is rather brief, however, it can be bypassed fairly easily.
The album then moves to two extended numbers from an appearance by the band at Carnegie Hall. After a few timekiller spoken word jokes, "By Kind Permission Of" provides the John Evan solo feature of the work. Evan's variations move through classical pastisches to jazz noodlings to blues flavourings -- Anderson joins in on flute on one occasion. As a classical pianist, Evan wasn't exactly a world-class player; as far as JT standards go, though, this is an extremely impressive work (besides which, the shifts in style have their own value). After nine minutes, the entire band finally kicks in, leading to an impressive instrumental ending. The piece isn't an unbroken triumph from beginning to end, but, as a comprehensive whole, this is beyond a doubt an impressive number.
After another timekiller joke about tellies, the band then moves onto a version of "Dharma For One" (original on This Was, where it was an instrumental). The lyrics to this track are among the best of Ian's early career, and the organization of the arrangement is superior to anything else on the album. Evan adds this role well in accordance with the original intention of the song, and Barre handles Abrahams's part quite well (with a hint of "Locomotive Breath" in the process). As the backing vocals section well proves, JT were capable of making an "out there" prog track when they wanted to. This would easily receive a five-star rating were it not for the matter of Bunker's drum solo. While this reviewer can respect the fact that drum solos might have to be heard in context on some occasions, and that Bunker deserves a spotlight of some sort on the album, I still cannot justify giving the track a five-star rating as such (though I'd note that this isn't really anyone's fault).
Next comes "Wond'ring Again", an obvious companion piece to "Wond'ring Aloud" (from Aqualung) -- despite the title, it actually predates the other track by a bit of time. The track begins with folky-prog tones and "world-malaise" lyrics focusing on the abandonment of poorer classes in various "great social leaps forward" -- the sarcasm actually works better here than one might expect. Following this, the track undergoes a sudden shift to a description of Anderson and his partner walking down a quiet country path; the dichotomy comes through quite well. Barre's addition (after the daffodil is crushed) works fairly well too. This could have been added to Aqualung fairly easily.
By this time, Cornick was replaced by Jeffrey Hammond(-Hammond), Ian's old bass-playing friend from earlier years. In commemoration of his arrival, we have "Hymn 43", originally released on the Aqualung album (thereby meaning that it was released twice within the span of a year or so -- rather odd, that). The combination of blues guitar and proggy flute and piano has a rather odd effect -- the blues-rock elements seem ultimately to define the piece in more detail than the others (which, I should note, does not significantly reduce the quality of the piece). The lyrics, concerning fraudulent heroic imagery (in both Christianity and American mythology), come off fairly well. Not the best track on Aqualung, this is still a pretty good representative of the album.
Bunker is replaced by Barlow at this point, and we proceed to a series of brief tracks from the period before and surrounding Thick As A Brick. "Life Is A Long Song" could easily have been one of the shorter tracks on Aqualung -- this subtle number captures the protagonist's sense of urban frustration quite well, and his demise at the end of the track combines novelty and serious flavours without too much difficulty. This then leads to the absurd "Up The 'Pool", a (British) folky number sung in an absurd Blackpool accent -- with, of course, numerous references to elements of the popular culture in this area. Downright bizarre, but not a bad number.
"Dr. Bogenbroom" has some some progressive potential, but never quite makes it all the way there -- the basic structure of Warchild's tracks might perhaps be seen within this number from a musical basis, though the lyrics are something a bit different. Perhaps a bit more work would have yielded a better result here. "For Later" is an instrumental number, driven by keyboards, guitar and flute on differing occasions. This is actually an extremely impressive number, with numerous clever shifts along the way (and, am I alone in thinking that the intro owes a little bit to "For Example" by The Nice? The title might be regarded as a clever reference, if so...).
As per Minstrel In The Gallery and Broadsword And The Beast, the album then ends with a brief Anderson number. "Nursie" has a relaxed, pastoral tone which seems appropriate for closing out the work. Nothing spectacular, but it fits.
And such is Living In The Past. Twenty songs -- or a bit more, should you possess the vinyl version -- and not a bad one in the lot. The quality varies from track to track, of course, and the band ethos varies from incarnation to incarnation, but the songs themselves all stand up to scrutiny.
Recommended for anyone interested in this period of Tull history, though either Aqualung or Benefit should probably be purchased first.
(review originally posted to alt.music.yes on 25 April 1998)