Heavy Horses

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by ZappaSG, May 31, 2005.

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  1. I've mentioned before that "Heavy Horses" was the first Tull album I bought new upon release, on 8 track yet. I think it's one of those albums that's actually gotten better over the course of time. I haven't bought the remaster yet. I keep waiting to find it at the used store, or on sale at Tower. Neither one has happened yet.
     
  2. soundQman

    soundQman Senior Member

    Location:
    Arlington, VA, USA
    Beautiful album, which I didn't appreciate as much when I first bought it on LP back in my college days. I've been listening to the remaster and like it very much now. It may have even been the peak of their musicianship, if not the songwriting or tunesmithing. If memory serves it had the blue Chrysalis label, and I got an early copy because I bought it as a new release. It was the last Tull album I bought for a long stretch, up until Crest of a Knave.
     
  3. Brian J

    Brian J Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    I have an original Canadian pressing, I assume, as I bought upon its' arrival. While not my favorite JT album it is the last JT album that ranks up with the best.
    Never heard it on CeeDee, but I do find there is plenty of upper midrange going on. Keyboards, strings, acoustic guitars, and the like. It could really be effed up with the CeeDee format. Too bad. Moths is killer and Mouse Police on the headphones shold have a warning.
    Glad ya made me pull it out and give it a spin. Come to think of it, the first time I saw this band was on the Heavy Horses tour. Maybe Heep opening?

    Brian
     
  4. Great Deceiver

    Great Deceiver Active Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Also, I heard, but I wasn't sure: is the remaster missing some sort of string overdub that was present on all releases of "Acres Wild" before? I don't have the remaster or any other copy except for some mp3s, so I wanted to check on this before I got any CD version
     
  5. Mike B

    Mike B Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    I used to love this album... I still like it but as not as much, or maybe others have just moved higher up for me.
     
  6. Wally Swift

    Wally Swift Yo-Yoing where I will...

    Location:
    Brooklyn New York
    I am about to embark on this same journey with a US promo vinyl copy.
     
  7. chef0069

    chef0069 Forum Resident

    Heavy Horses and Songs from the Wood are my numbers 1 and 2 fav Tull records!
     
  8. DesertChaos

    DesertChaos Forum Resident

    I'm a little selective when it comes to J Tull. I loved Songs from the Wood when it came out and the tour was fantastic, really enjoyed the show a lot. I looked forward to the followup and eagerly tore the shrink-wrap off a copy of Heavy Horses when we got it (I worked in a record shop at the time) and put it on for a spin. Really didn't take with me….I thought it was a little too much like Wood pt 2 but I stuck with it to give it a fair chance….still didn't click with me.

    Flash forward many years and I got the remaster cd cuz I found it on the cheap, and I found I liked it a lot more now tho' still not as much as Wood. Still, a solid album and for me maybe the last of the JT albums that I feel I "need" to have. I hope it gets the Steven Wilson treatment too!
     
  9. bullygoat

    bullygoat Forum Resident

    I'm one of those people that find many remasters irritating, and Tull is about as bad as it gets for me. I'm happy with the old CDs. Either way it's a wonderful album and a classic.
     
  10. Raunchnroll

    Raunchnroll Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I played it (UK vinyl) recently, a well or so before Christmas. What a great album. Thread resurrected!
     
  11. PROGGER

    PROGGER Forum Resident

    Location:
    Australia
    great cd. I love police, acres, moths, rover, mouse and lullaby. There's a cool outtake called blues instrumental too. Not crazy about the title track but the live version from 1980 is awesome. Just before Barlow, Evans and Palmer left
     
  12. Remurmur

    Remurmur Music is THE BEST! -FZ

    Location:
    Ohio
    Kind of timely for me that this thread got bumped back up from 2005 as I have not heard this album for years but I recently ordered the remastered CD from Amazon and it arrived last Friday .

    I'm a huge Steeleye Span fan and I always saw Horses and Songs From The Wood as being Tull's folk rock experiments and that Ian was definitely using what Steeleye Span had already acomplished as a template for these two albums. Of course, they still sounded like Tull, and unlike Span, Ian went with writing new songs instead of updating traditional British folks songs. But IMO, the Steeleye Span influence is still there.

    As for Heavy Horses, I found the songs and arrangements to be just as wonderful as I did last listen...:)
     
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  13. johnny q

    johnny q Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bergen County, NJ
    I love this Tull period. Songs From The Wood, Heavy Horses and Stormwatch are favorites.
     
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  14. sbeck201

    sbeck201 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wreay, Cumbria, UK
    My favourite Tull period too, with the rustic/folk themes. I saw them for the first time at the Hammersmith Odeon when they toured Heavy Horses in May '78.
     
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  15. johnny q

    johnny q Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bergen County, NJ
    And lest we forget - Ian's "Cat Stevens" like voice! :) "Rover" is a great example of this.............
     
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  16. StimpyWan

    StimpyWan Forum Resident

    I once had a boss that was British. (Sounds like the opening line of a limerick)! While he knew that I liked Jethro Tull, I guess he was too young, to have ever been much of a Tull fan. (Odd considering where he was from). But, he asked me what a good Tull album to start with was, and I loaned him Heavy Horses. He was hooked after that! Good stuff!
     
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  17. stenway

    stenway Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    my fav tull album after Mistrel... great album
    anyone know which is the very first UK pressing?
    exist some variations on artwork, even one that I think is very rare (WHITE)

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  18. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion

    Location:
    Canada
    Then there's the no verse version: (2003 CD remaster)
    [​IMG]
     
  19. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion

    Location:
    Canada
    This is the same as the first Canadian vinyl that I own.
    [​IMG]
     
  20. Remurmur

    Remurmur Music is THE BEST! -FZ

    Location:
    Ohio
    Heavy Horses is my all time favorite Tull Album after Minstrel as well

    I actually prefer it to Songs from The Wood, which Heavy Horses seems to be often compared to as they are both a bit more in the folk rock vein.

    But, I quite like Songs from The Wood as well. .
     
    Last edited: May 9, 2015
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  21. stenway

    stenway Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    cool but anyone knows about the 1st UK, I know is embossed with textured art but which of the 2 variations come first?
     
  22. Front 242 Addict

    Front 242 Addict I Love Physical format for my listening pleasure

    Location:
    Tel Aviv ,Israel
    0ne of my favorite Jethro Tull albums, beautiful music.
    The title track is fantastic and has an amazing and emotional chorus.

    I have the original US cd 1989
    and the remastered cd 2003 that has 2 bonus tracks, the beautiful ballad Broadford Bazaar
    and the song Living In These Hard Times.
     
    Last edited: May 9, 2015
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  23. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion

    Location:
    Canada
    http://jethrotull.proboards.com/post/57574/thread

    I understand that the matrix numbers in the dead wax are A1/B2 and if memory serves me correctly it's the version with the lyric underneath but . . . it's also stated somewhere on the web that both versions were printed at the same time, possibly the sleeve with the lyric to the left are European (German pressings) and US pressings, and the UK pressings came with the lyric underneath the main image. Can't find the reference for that but I'll keep looking and I'll rope in Miss Marple to help. - Maddog
     
  24. keiron99

    keiron99 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Stockport, UK
    My favourite Tull album and on some days, my favourite album of all time. It captures an olde English (or Scottish!) atmosphere so well. One of those albums where the LP sleeve matches the content so well. Wistful and melancholy with moments of absolute delight with the smallest things in life.

    Where on earth did Ian pluck the lyrics from? Pure poetry.
     
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  25. tootull

    tootull Looking through a glass onion

    Location:
    Canada
    http://jethrotull.proboards.com/post/57577/thread
    From one of the auction sites:

    "Original LP purchased new when released in 1978. Chrysalis catalogue number CHR 1175 and first issue matrix numbers A1/B2. This is a UK original pressing. The vinyl is glossy and bright and in near mint condition with no scratches visible whatsoever. The textured embossed sleeve with gold scrolls is in excellent condition with only some minor shelf wear and has its original lyric dust sleeve."

    [​IMG]
    The following includes a bit of background information which I got from a Chrysalis sales rep back in the late seventies, possibly very early eighties.

    Chrysalis vastly underestimated the demand for the vinyl album as they were in the process of "pushing" the audio cassette format here in the UK. In some areas of south London where I lived at the time, it seems the record shops had only been given a small amount of the vinyl format but boxes upon boxes of cassettes. I couldn't get a vinyl copy from my usual shop at the time (Landau of Sutton) and had to initially make do with a cassette issue.

    Anyway, when Chrysalis and their distributors realised the error of their ways, further copies were pressed and sleeves printed (quite possibly from alternative printers to the original) and also at some early stage some may have been shipped in from the USA and elsewhere thus there is a distinct possibility that collectors may think they have a first pressing when in fact, unbeknown to them, they have a US or even a European pressing in a reprinted UK sleeve. -maddog



     
    Last edited: May 10, 2015
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