Jethro Tull 'Aqualung'.

I can't wait for the Benefit 5.1.

 

ah! all these years I thought that was "park" ... which doesn't make any sense for footwarming but that didn't stop me.

"Crosseyed Mary" I don't want to know the lyrics to.

 

G'day all, well I'm rather glad to see that this album is well liked (ok.... loved). I know I certainly do. As a person who has a tendency to 'dissect' lyrics, given that the album came out in 1970 and yes the world is a very different place now, the album still sounds stunningly contemporary to me. The use of 'earthy' and occasionally cryptic lyrics to me suggests real 'sincerity'! Regards, Felix.

 

Are there plans to issue the Blu-Ray separately, or do you mean you want to track down a copy of the box set?

 

I've never had any idea either but I do love that song more with each passing year.

Been listening to this album since the late 70's and am pretty burnt out on the title cut, "Hymn 43" and "Locomotive Breath" from playing them dozens of times in bands over the years. But it's still a great album and always has been. And I like "Lick your Fingers Clean", too.

I prefer the Steve Wilson 2.0 remix (24/96) - the bottom end is amazing, especially during the choruses in "Cross-Eyed Mary."

BTW it's not my favorite JT album, that would be "Benefit".

 

What he said. Pretty much to a tee!

I'm still partial to the DCC, but I love the new one too, and the bonus disc is just amazing. I actually play that one more now, having burned out on the original Aqualung songs, after so many spins.

Oh yes, in 1992, I went to Europe for the first and only time. I took my MFSL Aqualung vinyl (cover only) with me as I had a ticket to the Jethro Tull Convention at Milton Keynes in England. Martin and Ian played there and after the show I hustled myself backstage and got them both to sign it for me....

cheers,

mrbill

 

I didn't hear the entire 'Aqualung' album, until I was a teenager in 1976. I thought it was incredible on that first listen, and I still do to this day. It's a classic by any standard, in my humble opinion.

 

Aqualung is a freaking awesome piece of work. One of the best start-to-finish albums ever!

Does Wilson's mix get rid of the scads of tape hiss on the original CD? That was AWFUL!

By the way fans, get Aqualung Live, I got it very cheap and really like it.

 

While I enjoy cranking the smiley-face MFSL vinyl version , the DCC CD remains my favorite!

 

That was one of the coolest albums in 1971 a must and Clive's last bash.

 

One of the real masterpieces from that era, my fav Jethro Tull album. The stereo Wilson cd sounds really great, IMO ...at last! I have an old CD and an LP which I never liked, sound quality wise.

 

Yes I really like the album. I'd put it behind Thick As A Brick, Stand Up, Benefit and Songs From The Wood in my list of favourite Jethro Tull albums though. But that still makes it a top 5 JT album.

 

It was and is an outstanding album.
From the cover to the music inside, what a complete package.
I was aware of Jethro Tull from the This Was release, mostly hearing Beggar's Farm
on FM radio when it was released.
I never bought a Tull album until Aqualung.
Saw it in the record store when it was released and bought it because of the cover
And from my limited interest in the band.
From first listen it blew my mind and just grew and grew on me with
each listen.
I still believe today, It still gets better with each listen after all these years.
Glen

 

I love Jethro Tull full stop. I've been reading the new book that just came out about Thick As A Brick and A Passion Play. I made the mistake of posting something on Facebook referencing this, and got no end of flack. I really believe Jethro Tull is one of the most under-appreciated bands of their era (the era of their glory days, that is...I know they keep churning it out and all props for that - why fade away, why die?). No hipster would dare cast a favorable vote, and even classic rock aficionados look more towards Zepplin and Floyd and Hendrix, and anything guitar-heavy EXCEPT Tull. Outside of prog-rockers (I'm an admirer of prog but not a "prog guy" if that makes sense), nobody gives this band the time of day. Ian Anderson truly was and is one of the most talented, accomplished (in terms of technical ability) artists ever to create music in the rock idiom. I sometimes think it's his proficiency, his virtuosity, that leave people cold. I'm a HUGE Dylan guy, and Dylan is an Artist, no arguments against that have I ever seen in print. But Ian Anderson is an artist too, who just so happens to play the bejesus out of any instrument he happens to pick up, and who just so happens to have no proclivity towards drugs and the usual trappings of the '60s visionaries. I think that, coupled with his more clinical approach, leaves him ostracized by popular, critical opinion. And it's just not fair. The man is a GIANT. Stand Up through Aqualung are late-60s, post-psychedelic classics, fully succinct, embedded with vigor and ambition, unmatched by so many contemporaries. And then came the cleverest of all - the spoof to end all spoofs, the self-effacing monstrosity that taken at face value is one of the most moving, most amusing, most cleverly conceived and executed works of artistry in the history of pop-rock: Thick As A Brick. And after that (bridging past the Chateau music, so dearly beholden to me) comes the tour de force, A Passion Play. I fully get why people get off the bus at that point, as the humor (save "The Hare...") and the modesty are long gone at this point, but if you allow yourself to get giddy over the accomplishment of it all, over the intricacy, over the buckets-ful of savory sound and composition, that album stands as maybe the best work they've ever done. It's truly mind-blowing, and to me, moving.

 

Love that record. I bought it shortly after it's release in 1971. What made that LP particularly special, for me at least, were the acoustic ditties in between the heavier songs. No big rock bands of that era wrote acoustic ditties like Ian.

 

I go back along way with this one. I remember it coming out, though i was never a full -on follower of Tull. I have this and 3or 4 other of their albums. When Aqualung gets discussed now, it's opften in relation to the originally bad production, and how this has or hasn't been obviated by various remasterings. The 1996 anniversary CD is mostly hated. Earlier CDs are said to be better. I have the Classic records LP edition, which I like, and sounds like it ought, as far as i recall the original.

Tracks? 'Cheap DAy return' , 'Wondrin' Aloud ' and 'Nursie' always move me.

 

I was lucky enough to attend that event live at the XM studios.

 

It's a pity that the vinyl remaster that only came in the expensive deluxe box set hasn't been released separately as it's been claimed to better Classic Records and DCC versions. Strangely the new SW mix of Benefit is being releases as a separate vinyl LP.

 

I agree with so many - Aqualung is just one of those albums that I keep going back to. My first Tull was Standup on cassette! Benefit is my all-time favourite JT, Aqualung I would have to say is a VERY close second. As an aside, going back to Benefit, even in the vinyl days I had no idea that the British version was different until I bought the CD remaster. To this day I reprogram my player to play the album in the North American order, which for once, I personally find better. The new Benefit coming has the North American album included on the DVD - thank you Mr. Wilson!

 

So you like Aqualung? I had no idea!

 

I have heard nothing about the Blu-Ray disc being released separately.

 

It has a flow like no other JT album has, including the next two album-long pieces, and it has a great variety of songs, well defined riffs and melodies. The production is a bit anemic, and I'm not particularly fond of "Wind Up", because I think the lyrics there are better than the music, but on the whole, Aqualung is simply JT on a larger scale than the three albums that preceded it, good as they were.

 

Aqualung? Must learn more...
Loving this in quad. Blu-ray, yeah.

Aqualung 40th
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...ial-edition-part3.271261/page-12#post-8442139

 

I wasn't aware of that book. I pre-ordered this book, which was supposed to come out last month, but has been moved back to December last I heard:
http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Play-...=1382793880&sr=1-1&keywords=jethro+tull+books

 

You're right. I have the box set and have only listened to the record out of the box because that's the format I listen to. Before the Wilson remix my go to copy was the Classic Records 200g pressing which I like better than my MFSL copy.