In the life of every artist who has some true longevity behind
\nthem, there comes an album which is seen as their “black sheep.” It
\nis the album that sells the worst, has at best one hit song on it,
\nand becomes the object of scorn by fan and critic alike. It is also
\nthe album that, many years later, is seen in a different light, and
\nbecomes a disc waiting for re-discovery.<\/p>\n
I hereby nominate
\nToo Old To Rock ‘N’ Roll: Too Young To Die!<\/i> (hereafter
\ncalled
\nToo Old<\/i>) as Jethro Tull’s “black sheep”.<\/p>\n
Now, I’ll admit I didn’t like this one much as a teenager, when
\nI was discovering Ian Anderson and crew. For years, this disc
\n(recently re-released on CD) has sat in the dusty shelves of the
\nPierce Memorial Archives, seemingly consigned to a fate of just
\nbeing part of a complete discography, never to be played again.<\/p>\n
Truth be told, this album is surprisingly solid, again featuring
\na band in flux but coming to terms with who they were in a
\nconstantly changing musical environment. Moving away from the
\nElizabethan folk which made up
\nMinstrel In The Gallery<\/i>, Anderson and crew (now featuring
\nbassist John Glascock) focus on a more rock-oriented beat. The band
\ndares to write and sing pop-like songs which could easily have made
\nit onto radio stations at that time.<\/p>\n
Of course, critics and fans alike dumped all over this disc, and
\nTull retreated and refocused their energies on the
\nsoon-to-be-burgeoning renaissance of folk music. And while I liked
\nwhat they would do next, something about the music on
\nToo Old<\/i> intrigues me.<\/p>\n
Maybe it’s the solid backbeat of the opening track “Quizz Kid,”
\na song which screams out at me for rediscovery by someone in the
\nfield of radio, and a shoulda-been single that could have pushed
\nthis album out of anonymity. Maybe it’s the light touch on songs
\nlike “Crazed Institution,” “Pied Piper” and “Big Dipper” that hooks
\nyou in and refuses to let go. Maybe it’s the hint of things to come
\nin the acoustic numbers “Salamander” and “From A Deadbeat To An Old
\nGreaser.”<\/p>\n
Maybe — just maybe — it’s the ability to divorce one’s self
\nfrom the cartoon strip in the album jacket and the remembrance that<\/p>\n
Too Old<\/i> was originally designed to be a stage play. If this
\nwas meant to be a concept album, it fails in that the songs are far
\ntoo disjointed for the proposed storyline (despite the fact a few
\nsongs do refer to the Ray Lomas character). And, despite Anderson’s
\nrecent denials that any of the materials were autobiographical, one
\ncan’t help but wonder if the title track was meant to be a slam at
\nanyone who thought that Tull, then nearing their 10th anniversary,
\nno longer fit in the music scene.<\/p>\n
While
\nToo Old<\/i> was not a success in 1976, the disc has proven to
\nhave great lasting power, and hardly sounds like it was recorded 28
\nyears ago. If anything, time has proven that this album is a decent
\neffort from Anderson and crew, and one more worthy of respect than
\nscorn. Is it Tull’s greatest album? Honestly, no — but there are a
\nlot more successes than failures on this disc.<\/p>\n
For a “black sheep,” Too Old is not that b-a-a-a-a-d.<\/p>\n
Sorry, couldn’t help myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5643],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38022","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jethro-tull","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38022","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=38022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38022"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}