Jethro Tull – Heavy Horses: New Shoes Edition, 5-disc set (9 February 2018)

Oy... The 1970-75 run is going to be a hard one to top just because it did for A Passion Play what SW's remix of King Crimson's Lizard did: saved an album I otherwise had no time for. Once you can take something a listener actively dislikes and make it connect with them, you've made some magic. Everything else is so much shifting around of deck chairs.

If he does tackle A, there's a chance for another hail Mary here, but that'd just bring both runs into a tie.

Then again, much as I love Broadsword, he may bring things out of an album I already love that I can't even guess at, so sky's the limit!

 

I've become a big fan of 1973, 74 and 76 due to the remixes. A sensational 12 album sessions. What other band has done this? I can't possibly imagine i'll find another band this good over a 13 year period.

 

All great albums (not a fan of A, but I'd take it) - but in Tull's catalogue there's that one album that just needs help. It may not be a Wilson favorite, but he'd do the music a great service by at least getting something done with Under Wraps. The songs on that one are fantastic, but the production not so much (I actually enjoy the album, but many don't). If I could have Steve Wilson work on one Tull title, it'd probably be Under Wraps just to see if there's anything he can do with it.

 

Same.

 

A hard one for sure as you are trying to cut the apple in two here. 1970-1982 gave us an incredible run of albums, all very different from each other.

Musically, I have a soft spot for the older stuff and SQ wise this is probably where the improvement is much more apparent BUT given the excellent remixing done by SW on SFTW, I am expecting a renaissance of the 1976-82 albums.

 

This set is priced higher than past ones for some reason (on all the usual sites). The Deep Discount sale was 1 and 2 years after release (I picked up a few sets too) and I just cant wait that long.

 

I'm following your lead, because I don't remember buying any of the Tull Deluxe Edition stuff for 25 or under...........I didn't purchase Too Old To Rock N Roll and that still hasn't broken the under 30 mark.

 

So, I apologize for going off thread here. I am late to these Tull Steven Wilson boxset. I have ordered this one with the signed postcard based on the heads up here. My question is are all these boxset with books worth buying or are only some must haves. All look to be still available and reasonably priced- where should I start?

 

Depends on how big of a fan you are. If you love the band then hell yes they are all must. If you only like their best stuff, I'd still get Aqualung, Stand Up and Songs from the Wood to begin with. All of them are great though.

 

For some good previously unavailable songs I'd suggest checking into the Passion Play and WarChild sets. Also Songs From The Wood as hugo.polo mentioned.

 

I've been out of this thread for a while. I've tried to read it all but I may have missed something so apologizes if I repeat stuff that has already been said:

• "Heavy Horses" is in my top #5 and I even like it more than "Songs from the Wood". This album holds a special place in my heart and I'm thrilled we'll have it soon;
• "Horse-Hoeing Husbandry" (along with "The Beach" and a few others) was one of the few unreleased titles we knew. As you may know, that is the title of the book written by Jethro Tull (the agriculturist) so many of us thought it was a hoax. Turns out it's real and I'm very excited to hear this legendary track at least! Hopefully it won't be as disappointing as Pink Floyd's "John Latham" but, considering what the previous boxsets offered, I'd say it's highly unlikely;
• Regarding "Botanic Man": a comment on the Facebook Jethro Tull Group from one of the persons who worked on this box says that it was submitted by the band as a theme and accompanying music for a UK TV series presented by naturalist David Bellamy but was rejected.
• Note that there are two versions of "Living in These Hard Times". I suspect one of the two will have musical connections to "Old Aces Die Hard" since a chunk of lyrics was re-used. I doubt they would include two different versions if the alternate one didn't offer anything new: "Requiem" and "My God" are two pretty good examples.
• I see it has been suggested that the version of "Jack-A-Lynn" included here could be the demo on the "Rocks on the Road" single and I thought about that too. I'd say it's possible but not 100% certain: the vocal stylings on that version are very different than the rest of the "Heavy Horses" sessions. This is also why it makes sense that "Broadford Bazaar" is not an Heavy Horses era track. The fact that it's marked as a 1981 demo on that single doesn't mean anything: these boxsets mark the first time that a serious research is being made on Jethro Tull's sessionographies. Not even when "20 Years Of" and "Nightcap" were assembled the research was this serious: no one even considered that the alternate "Salamander" ("Salamander's Rag Time") and "Dark Ages" ("Old Aces Die Hard") could be totally different songs altogether.
• The Berne show is going to be awesome and it will not be 100% equal to "Bursting Out". "Bursting Out" is composed from several shows (there are instances where I've picked up edits but I'll need to check again. In fact there's one section where sound quality changes) and only one of these is Berne. Other than the extra tracks, you have to keep in mind that the album has edits: as far as I remember, they played "No Lullaby" as on the album during this tour and they definitely chopped up "Songs from The Wood": I think they played it just like on "Slipstream". Plenty of reasons to be excited about this and, yeah, it's a pity it's not a video but what were the chances of finding a second previously unknown video? Re-releasing the Madision Square Gardens show would have been a letdown and a ripoff so yay for Berne!
• To those of you who find "Bursting Out" awful... well, as a friend of mine would say "like most things there's the right opinion and then there's the dissenting one and unfortunately you’re on the latter side"

 

Great post, thanks.

 

Apart from what has already been said, Maddy's first solo album Woman In The Wings was released in May 1978 and was engineered by Robin Black at at Maison Rouge. Although detailed recording information for Steeleye is not so readily available, the last Steeleye tour began in Feburary 1978, which may point to a January recording session for her LP. Therefore, I am guessing her inclusion in the booklet might be because she recorded Woman In The Wings at the same time as Heavy Horses and used the members of Jethro Tull - even Shona (Anderson) - to help. And I don't think it's her voice on Stitch either!

 

Caution.

I wonder if this applies to all HH release dates ??

pledge music
AccessPass Update 13 December, 2017
Release Date Change
Dear Customers, Thank you for your order on The Heavy Horses’s campaign. We are writing to inform you that unfortunately, due to delays at the label, the release date has been pushed back to March.

 

Certainly a great post!

 

Yeap, probably the trembling horse made it slip to march 2nd as per the Burningshed site.

 

I am a casual Tull listener and these sets are just addictive. I ordered them in the following sequence:

SFTW
Aqualung
Stand Up
I found a brand new copy of TAAB in a indie shop. Not opened yet!
MITG
Benefit deluxe ( not a book edition but a SW remix)
HH is next

TOTRNRATYTD and War Child will have to wait a bit.

 

No Passion Play ?

 

Oups, I lost my spectacles! Yes sir, got it in between Stand Up and TAAB.

Probably « the one » from the whole bunch that stands out and benefit the most on all accounts.

 

Don't YOU mean No Château d'Hérouville. oui?

 

I had a similar experience with Stormwatch. It took me quite a while (and, I bet you can find posts on this forum where I state I do NOT enjoy Stormwatch) to warm up to Stormwatch, but Heavy Horses was immediate.

 

It will be interesting to see if you got the corrected DVD in the TAAB set.

 

Just the 1CD release again for me, like with Songs From The Wood.

 

Hence afraid to open it and keeping it for another time... Is there’s any way to tell from the wrapped box?

 

More like a dungeon from the storybook, non?