New Jethro Tull remasters (1 Viewer)

[RaulR]

I know that the first three albums, "War Child," "Too Old to Rock and Roll..." and "Minstrel in the Gallery" have been reissued in remastered form. Why have they skipped "Aqualung," "Thick as a Brick" and "Passion Play"? And does anyone know if they intend to remaster the entire JT catalogue? The official Web site doesn't seem to say anything about the reissues (or I just couldn't find it).

 

[Mike Broadman]

I am very much hoping to find the new remasters in the store tomorrow.

As for the three albums you mentioned:

Aqualung has had quite a few versions on CD, including a "25th anniversary" thing in a cardboard case and bonus tracks (the one I have) and a gold disc.
Thick As A Brick has a fancy-schmancy packaged version and another with bonus tracks (interview and live version).
As far as I know, there is only the plain ol' original CD release of A Passion Play. I hope they will get to that one. But you can find excellent sounding versions of the other two.

NP: Porcupine Tree, Signify

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Put me down for all of these, but especially Songs from the Wood, Stormwatch, and TaaB.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Just for the heck of it, I shall take this opportunity to sing the praises of the most underrated Jethro Tull album: Minstrel in the Gallery. I adore this album. The title track and the 16 minute Baker Street Muse are nice long folk-proggish workouts with varied instrumentation, lots of Victorian character, and phenominal composition. Smaller, acoustic songs like Cold Wind To Valhalla and One White Duck balance it out nicely. In fact, I tend to favor the acoustic numbers of this period more.

Ian Anderson has expressed some regret over the personal nature of some of these lyrics, particularly about the split from his wife. Requiem and One White Duck are about that.

For anyone interested in checking out more than just Aqualung, the new remaster of Minstrel is a great chance to do this.

 

[John Watson]

"I have no time for Time Magazine,
or Rolling Stone"

 

[RaulR]

As for the three albums you mentioned:
Aqualung has had quite a few versions on CD, including a "25th anniversary" thing in a cardboard case and bonus tracks (the one I have) and a gold disc.
Thick As A Brick has a fancy-schmancy packaged version and another with bonus tracks (interview and live version).
As far as I know, there is only the plain ol' original CD release of A Passion Play. I hope they will get to that one. But you can find excellent sounding versions of the other two.

I was under the impression that "Aqualung" and TAAB would be given new remasters as well, since Ian Anderson has gone on record as saying he had nothing to do with the 25th Anniversary reissues and wasn't happy with them.
I have the 25th Anniversary "Aqualung," but I've never been happy with the sound, especially since I found out on the Steve Hoffman forum that it has been de-noised and EQ'd to death. I'm trying to find a reasonably priced copy of the DCC gold disc.
I also have the fancy TAAB reissue that comes with the newspaper, and I'm quite satisfied with it, though I'd like to see what a new remaster with Ian's blessings would sound like.
I just found a note on tullworld.com that says "Rest assured, all of the analog titles from Chrysalis will be remastered..." I hope so. They're going about it in a rather odd way, methinks. But as long as they redo all the titles, I'll be happy.

 

[Mike Broadman]

I just visited Best Buy and Strawberries and neither had Warchild, Minstrel, of Too Old remastered.

 

[Louis C]

It would be criminal not to remaster "A Passion Play"
"Aqualung" and preceding efforts will have "limitations in the source tape" that will be hard to overcome - but for Aqualung they need to pull out all stops and do it right if only for music history's sake (not to mention it being my favorite Tull disc as well )

 

[Michael_T]

It would be criminal not to remaster "A Passion Play". "Aqualung" and preceding efforts will have "limitations in the source tape" that will be hard to overcome - but for Aqualung they need to pull out all stops and do it right if only for music history's sake (not to mention it being my favorite Tull disc as well )

Actually "Passion Play" was re-done years ago when Mobile Fidelity was still going strong. The MOFI "Passion Play" is not to bad as it is - but being out-of-print it might be hard to find or expensive.

In addition - "Aqualung" was also re-masterd by Steve Hoffman on a DCC Gold CD from Ian Anderson's private master tape of the album. It is the best sounding digital version of the album in my opinion. Again- DCC went out of business, so the disc may be near impossible to find, and would be fairly expensive if you did find one on the collectors market.

So, in a sense, the 2 albums you mention were already re-mastered - not just in the usual sense where they are readily available and inexpensive.

 

[Jon Sheedy]

I've waited...and waited....and waited for the Tull catalog to be remastered. One of the last of my favorite artists to get the treatment....it's about time. Extremely happy that it is FINALLY coming to pass!!! Can't wait to hear mid-period Tull is all it's glory.

Of this first wave....Minstrel and TOTRAR are among my top ten. Warchild is, for some reason, one of my least favorite Tull albums. However, I'll be purchasing the entire remastered catalog. Wonder what the release scheduele looks like beyond this initial group?

Jon

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

I don't think this is the initial group. Haven't Stand Up, Benefit and something else already been released?

 

[KevinJ]

stand up,benefit and this was were the 1st set of remasters

 

[Parker Clack]

Mike:

Well, I saw a bird today --- flying from a bush and the
wind blew it away.
And the black-eyed mother sun scorched the butterfly
at play --- velvet veined.
I saw it burn.
With a wintry storm-blown sigh, a silver cloud blew
right on by.
And, taking in the morning, I sang --- O Requiem.
Well, my lady told me, ``Stay.''
I looked aside and walked away along the Strand.
But I didn't say a word, as the train time-table blurred
close behind the taxi stand.
Saw her face in the tear-drop black cab window.
Fading in the traffic; watched her go.
And taking in the morning, heard myself singing ---
O Requiem.
Here I go again.
It's the same old story.
Well, I saw a bird today --- I looked aside and walked
away along the Strand.

---------------------------------------------------------

The man can write. There was nothing quite like the total elation that I had seeing Anderson in concert and watching him stand at the mic, flute in hand and right leg pulled up so was only standing on the one leg. The imagery has never left my wind.

Skating away on the thin ice of the new day....

 

[Mike Broadman]

Parker, when did you see Tull? I've seen them twice but only in the last couple of years. I'm too young to have seen then in their glory days.

It seems that Tull often gets forgotten in the minds of rock fans. I think it partly has to do with the imagery- the idea of a flute playing bearded guy in white pants on one leg can seem kinda hokey. But goddamn if that music ain't great.

So has anyone gotten the new remasters yet, or did they not come out?

Big bottled Fraulein, put your weight on me,'' said the pig-me to the whore

NP: Adrian Belew, Mr. Music Head

 

[Parker Clack]

Mike:

It had to have been around '73 in Houston Texas at the Coliseum. Great stuff.

Parker

 

[Mike Broadman]

Ah, the Passion Play tour? Isn't that when they played that movie and performed the whole album, then all the critics started to hate them and they stopped being cool? Man, that must have been fun.

 

[Parker Clack]

Mike:

Actually it was more of a session concert where they can in and played some early stuff, some of the stuff they were working on and new stuff. For some reason *cough* *cough* I can't remember any of the new stuff just he playing Aqualung and so on.

--Parker

 

[Carl Johnson]

"Who's Jethro Tull?" Armageddon

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

I think some of my favorite Tull is the Chateau d'isaster (sp?) sessions off the box set. Some great stuff in there.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Ah-hah! I finally got the remasters!
Will listen to them ASAP.