Released - June 1972
Genre - Folk Rock
Producer - Terry Ellis & Ian Anderson
Selected Personnel - Ian Anderson (Vocals/Flute/Guitar/Mandolin/Organ/Violin); Martin Barre (Guitar); Glenn Cornick (Bass); Mick Abrahams (Guitar); John Evan (Piano/Organ/Mellotron/Keyboards); Jeffrey Hammond (Bass); Clive Bunker (Drums/Percussion); Barriemore Barlow (Drums/Percussion); David Palmer (Orchestral Arrangements)
Standout Track - Life Is A Long Song
Once again I'm breaking my own self-imposed rules ever so slightly (something I'll continue to do on a semi-regular basis whenever I feel the whim to do so), by including what's technically a compilation album, something I said I wouldn't do. Still, Jethro Tull's Living In The Past is a little different and certainly doesn't count as some sort of repackaged Greatest Hits compilation bringing together songs already readily available on their studio albums. While there are a couple of alternative versions of songs from This Was, Stand Up, Benefit and Aqualung, it mostly consists of early singles and obscure curios from their early years, and as such should be of interest to any Tull enthusiast. But it's not just a collector's item for the completist, but actually contains some really great material that stands up well against the best of their early work. It was a collection I didn't bother listening to for a long time, as I feared it would just be a bunch of songs not really worth much attention given the fact that most of them hadn't ever made it onto the tracklisting of a studio album. Eventually, having exhausted much of the rest of Tull's discograpy and listened to pretty much everything they had to offer, I decided to give Living In The Past a go and found that pretty much every song here I wasn't already familiar with was an undiscovered gem. Tull clearly weren't the kind of band who wasted time working on filler material to be liberally distributed as B-sides and non-album releases that were only of interest to the die-hard fan. Clearly everything they did came out of the same passion and inspiration and hard work that went into all their music, and I was glad I finally got round to giving this collection the time it deserves, even if it took me a while to get there.
Living In The Past was actually the second major release by Tull in 1972, although I'm reviewing it first due to the fact that all the material from it comes from earlier years. The other was their new major studio album, the masterful prog rock piss-take Thick As A Brick. The incredible success of Thick As A Brick gave them the opportunity to raid their back catalogue for something to package together for the general public, hence the arrival of this album. It has to be said, some of the choices for inclusion are a little odd - it includes some identical versions of songs already available on other albums ("A Song For Jeffrey" from This Was, for instance, or "Teacher" from Benefit), but omits some non-album singles that are still only available as obscure bonus tracks, like the brilliant "17." It's also arguable that the album's third side, consisting of the two live cuts "By Kind Permission Of" and "Dharma For One," is largely surplus to requirements - the former is a lengthy piano solo by John Evan and the reworking of the latter (originally a song from This Was) consists largely of Clive Bunker's drum solo. They're both refreshingly unusual opportunities for band members other than frontman Ian Anderson or guitarist Martin Barre to be put into the spotlight, but one gets the feeling that these lengthy, semi-improvised solos would have been far more exciting to actually see live than they are to sit through on record.
But other than those minor gripes, this lengthy collection is generally a wonderful journey through the less well-explored hinterland of the band's early work. The tone in general is closest to the whimsical folk rock of Stand Up rather than the dirtier, harder-hitting hard rock of Aqualung (even Barre, usually a key ingredient in the band's sound, is frequently invisible here, providing simple, workmanlike accompaniment to Anderson's flute and vocals rather than his usual showstopping solos and riffs). But Anderson has a real talent for writing effortlessly brilliant folk tunes, and some of his best are on offer here. "Love Story" is a percussive, eastern-tinged song in the vein of "Fat Man" from Stand Up, while "Living In The Past" itself is a brilliantly hummable little tune and one of their most successful early singles, giving Anderson plenty of room to shine with his acrobatic flute work. "Witch's Promise" is a Tull classic, showing Anderson in full earthy mystic mode and once again putting his fluttery, theatrical flute skills to good use. My two personal favourite tracks on offer come as part of the "Life Is A Long Song EP" that makes up the final side of the record, the first being "Life Is A Long Song" itself - it's one of the sweetest and most stirring melodies in the band's discography, and is transformed into something really sunny and uplifting and triumphant via David Palmer's masterful string arrangements. Then there's "Up The 'Pool," a song which perhaps sums up Ian Anderson's homely, domestic British sensibility better than any other. A simple acoustic folk tune telling of a trip to the seaside "to taste me mum's jam sarnies and see our Auntie Flo," it's such an innocent homespun, almost delightfully naive, song that it stands out as a real testament to the cheeky, twinkly humour and purity of spirit that can make Tull such an irresistible band at times. Of the more up-tempo rock tunes on offer, other than the slightly alternative version of the all-time classic "Locomotive Breath," there's also the slow, bass-driven groove of "Driving Song" and the more aggressive rock workout of "Sweet Dream," which gives Martin Barre perhaps his only chance to really pull focus on the whole record, though Palmer's string and horn arrangements are still the star of the show.
After the monumental success of Thick As A Brick, the kind of whimsical, folksy material found on Living In The Past would be consigned to Tull's history for quite a long time. It wouldn't be until 1977's Songs From The Wood that the band again turned their focus whole-heartedly to pastoral folk music and even then the spirit of prog, and the extent to which they had been associated with it, would hang heavy over their approach to the genre. So Living In The Past is perhaps the perfect epitaph to this particular incarnation of the band as a bluesy, folksy, joyously straightforward band. From here on they would be increasingly ambitious and complex in their work, and they would create great things out of that new direction, but this compilation serves as the perfect reminder of how great they were even before they became one of the biggest prog acts in the world.
Track Listing:
All songs written by Ian Anderson except where noted.
1. A Song For Jeffrey
2. Love Story
3. Christmas Song
4. Living In The Past
5. Driving Song
6. Bouree (Johann Sebastian Bach, arranged by Jethro Tull)
7. Sweet Dream
8. Singing All Day
9. Witch's Promise
10. Teacher
11. Inside
12. Just Trying To Be
13. By Kind Permission Of (John Evan)
14. Dharma For One (Ian Anderson & Clive Bunker)
15. Wond'ring Again
16. Locomotive Breath
17. Life Is A Long Song
18. Up The 'Pool
19. Dr Bogenbroom
20. For Later
21. Nursie
No comments:
Post a Comment