Back when I was in the process of discovering Jethro Tull (which
\nI did in 1988), I began searching out some of the band’s earlier
\nefforts. It was one thing to own the albums with the hits; it was
\nanother to hear the band being born and go through its growing
\npains.<\/p>\n
\nThis Was<\/i> is more than the birth cry, it gives the listener a
\nslap on – no, change that, a kick in the ass that you won’t soon
\nforget. A mixture of hardcore blues, go-for-broke rock and
\nprogressive jazz, this might still be Ian Anderson and crew’s
\nfinest recorded moments.<\/p>\n
The only album featuring original guitarist Mick Abrahams (who
\nleft to form Bloodwyn Pig), Jethro Tull bursts forth onto a
\ndeveloping musical scene (around the same time, Yes, Emerson Lake
\n& Palmer and King Crimson were coming up) with a thundering
\n“hello.” Anderson does triple duty on the flute (I think at that
\ntime it was unheard of to use such an instrument in rock),
\nharmonica and vocals. Glenn Cornick’s bass work shows why he might
\nbe one of the most underrated bassists ever, while Clive Bunker
\ndoes his best Keith Moon-on-speed drum work. Exhibit “A”: “Dharma
\nFor One,” featuring a drum solo that leaves my jaw hanging almost
\nten years since I bought this tape. Bunker sounds like he’s having
\na seizure and an orgasm at the same time – there has never been a
\nmoment so fine in rock.<\/p>\n
The blues often comes into play on
\nThis Was<\/i>, from “Someday The Sun Won’t Shine For You” and its
\ngentle approach, to “It’s Breaking Me Up” and its slightly harder
\nedge – even to the slide guitar work on “Song For Jeffrey”,
\nAnderson and crew show that they’re quite adept at this genre.<\/p>\n
But wait, there’s more. “Cat’s Squirrel” is a balls-out rocker
\nthat serves as a showpiece for Abrahams – guess the guitar vamping
\nwith sparse instrumentation otherwise was the thing to do those
\ndays (it worked for Black Sabbath). “Move On Alone” takes a
\ngentler, folksy approach, but is still quite powerful.<\/p>\n
And just when you thought it was over,
\nThis Was<\/i> branches off into jazz. The album closer “Round” is
\none I wish was longer just to see what Jethro Tull would have done
\nwith it. Once you get a taste of “Serenade To A Cuckoo” and see how
\nwell they cover that song (complete with flute work and grunts from
\nAnderson), your mouth will be watering.<\/p>\n
I don’t want to sound like I’m knocking Martin Barre’s guitar
\nwork since 1969, nor do I want to trivialize other Jethro Tull
\nalbums. But
\nThis Was<\/i> definitely qualifies as a “forgotten classic,”
\nawaiting the discovery of the newly-initiated fans to keep its
\nspirit alive. My advice: pick this one up
\nnow<\/i>, slap it into the CD player, crank up the volume and
\ndiscover Jethro Tull in a whole new light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5643],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-35798","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jethro-tull","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35798"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35798"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}