Minstrel in the... Pollery

Great idea to poll this one. Seven magnificent tracks - I don't know if there are any common favourites here so I'm interested to see how this plays out. At the moment I have no idea myself yet which one to vote for.

A few months ago, I'd have said "One White Duck/0^10 = Nothing at All" easy, with "Baker Street Muse" and the title track coming in a distant second and third. But a deep dive on the record with the recently reissued box set and some digging in via the TTTM podcast, first, opened my eyes to what a wonderful, shambolic masterpiece "Baker Street Muse" actually is -- in a lot of ways, it's kind of Ian's "Ambulance Blues."

I didn't come away with too many different feelings about the "Minstrel" song itself beyond thinking it's a great statement of purpose. Lastly, I came around to thinking what an aching, beautiful thing "Requiem" really is. Even tho he swears it isn't about him, it's 100% an impressionistic meditation on his divorce and it's just gorgeous.

But forced to choose, I think I have to go with "Baker Street Muse."

Baker St. Muse is amazing. I gave my vote to the Duck. Looking at this as objectively as possible there are still no wrong choices here.

Even the bonus tracks are really good (Summerday Sands/March The Mad Scientist/Pan Dance), listening to the CD I wasn't very much aware for a while where the original album stopped and where the bonus tracks began.

The last half of the title track might actually be their most/best heavy-rocking song, but I like the whole thing, even the proggy interlude and the spoken word introduction. I also appreciate the hubris of Ian Anderson judging and scorning the entire contemporary world from his apparently elevated position, it makes me think of the lyrics of the nearly-contemporary "Broadway Melody of 1974" by Genesis. "Requiem" and "One White Duck" are touching ballads. The rest isn't as interesting to me.
It seems to me that this album is very close in quality and sound to WarChild, but that seems to be disdained while this is a Tull fan favourite.

I guess it's also impressive how "Requiem" makes you feel sorry for a man choosing to leave his wife.

Shots fired ... Baker Street Muse isn't interesting?

Agree with you on the title track -- tho I'd caveat that the lyrics, while def. scornful, are a bit more reflective than they seem at first glance. And overall, I think this is a pretty different record from War Child -- which is all short songs, has a bunch of saxophone on it and (I believe) was written for a film or something. By contrast, this whole record feels like it was composed on acoustic and all the orchestrations and band components are sort of like imaginary overdubs. I don't think there's a dud on it.

I enjoy WarChild a lot too, but the material does seem to be of a different timber, more playful and gregarious, while Minstrel edges toward the cold and dark, and is definitely more inward-looking. You couldn't fit Sealion or The Third Hurrah on Minstrel, could you? I think there's an interview in the deluxe set where Ian says that, in hindsight, he should have just made a solo album from the material. (And while that's a neat thought, wouldn't it mean no Barriemore Barlow in the back half of Cold Wind to Valhalla?!)

I thought I'd vote Baker St Muse for sure, but as I typed the song titles into the poll, I realized I actually wasn't that sure. Too much fantastic material. I'm still leaning Baker but I need to give the record a full listen in the right mood first. Could also easily be Grace or Black Satin Dancer (that doomy groove!) or Duck/Nothing or or or...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

No resisting the Muse, after all! -- not that we had a huge sample size. In the end the hardest choice for me was between Baker St Muse and Grace. The epic and the miniature.