Jethro Tull...They Were a Singles Band!

Sweet Dream/17, Witch's Promise/Teacher, Inside/Alive and Well and Living In, Hymn 43/Mother Goose is a really amazing run of singles... b-sides and all.

I think I once started a thread where I claimed that JT was prog's only singles band. I'm actually a little sad that their hits have faded from FM radio.

How long ago was it that "Aqualung" was still a staple? 10 years?

The Living in the Past compilation remains endlessly listenable and wonderful.

The best-of with the white cover was one of my most played albums in high school (I didn't get the Living in the Past compilation till years later). That's all I had, though, so they really were a singles band to me. Then I would have voted for "Teacher" or "Living in the Past"; now, "The Witch's Promise" is my favourite. They're the most anomalous inclusion on the Boogie Nights soundtrack, and probably the most improbable band from 40 years ago who have many songs that still sound great to me. I make jokes about them to mask how much I love some of those songs above (and two or three that aren't there).

"Aqualung" vs "Locomotive Breath" vs "Living in the Past" right now but I should (re-)listen to more of these before voting.

I once read that their first single was credited to "Jethro Toe" on the label.

"Inside" is really good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMv0yLtz6iA

Imagine if Iommi had stuck around...alot of the world as we know it wouldn't exist.

Cross Eyed Mary

Oooh I forgot Sweet Dream, that is really good as well

'Living in the Past', because it was the first Tull I liked.

Living in the Past for the effortlessly breezy 5/4

Looks like that song's on the list twice. Will click its first appearance, although... might hold off voting as I'm jostling loose some good memories of a few other key tracks. Relistening to Hymn 43, kind of remembered it as a bit harder. Chalk it up to preferred volume as a kid. Love the riff as chorus there.

I voted for Sweet Dream - an amazing joust between Ravel's Bolero and Forever Changes. This went top ten??!?

I cut-and-pasted the list from Wikipedia, and had already eliminated one extra "Living in the Past"--missed that it charted three separate times. (Third time in 1985, hitting #11 in the States on Billboard's pop chart...is that right? That strikes me as bizarre.) Looking at their discography, it appears I was destined to be a fan: their debut album was released on my 7th birthday.

Thick As A Brick is the only record of their i know really well -- would've voted for the single edit if that was here. i should probably put all these songs in a Spotify playlist or something, i don't know most of them at all. i think "Aqualung" is still pretty ubiquitous though.

The Aqualung album is really really good.

Living In The Past, for so many different, huh, 'reasons'.
Tho could've picked The Whistler as easily.

my fav Tull tune is "One Brown Mouse", but I don't know if that was a single (it shoulda been!)

One Brown Mouse is sooooo cute.

I'm leaning witch's promise cause these days I find it the most remarkable melodically.

I have deep Tull love from my youth. Songs from the Wood was my first self-consciously designated 'favorite album'.

My favourite non-singles are "Thick as a Brick," "Skating Away..." and (in the running for my favourite song of all) "Nothing Is Easy." Lots of great early live footage on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWb431tI4Fw

He really does look crazed. I mean, I know it's theatre, but still.

'Skating Away' probably my favorite Tull of all.

love "Skating Away" also. really love the live album, "Bursting Out"

of the ones listed, I've narrowed it down to these:

"Living in the Past"
"Teacher"
"Inside"
"Living in the Past"
"Locomotive Breath"
"Fat Man"

first "Living in the Past" for me but man if "Nothing to Say" had been a single

i like a bunch of their stuff, but have a particular soft spot for '17' -- it's like three minutes of tull power pop!

"Skating Away..." is really nice!

Has anyone actually heard Crest of a Knave, the album that won the Grammy? I was always a bit curious about it.

i like 'farm on the freeway'! it is not very \m/ tho

\m/ = ?

Tullish? Tullesque? Tullian?

Jethrohensible

those are devil horns, guys

I think this thread is the first time I realized how much I actually really like Tull.

Finally found my copy of Living In The Past. And just as I thought, it's gotta be 'Witch's Promise'. But I thank this thread for making me pay more attn to 'Inside', whose awesomeness I never noticed before!

God how I love the chunka ga-chunka guitar on the chorus of Hymn 43 tho!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

I forgot to vote!

I guess the unspoken rule is that if some doofus lists the same song twice, click on the first one. So happily that worked out.

Has anyone actually heard Crest of a Knave, the album that won the Grammy? I was always a bit curious about it.

what if we listened to it and it turned out it was Atheist style prog-death

y'all wanna act like yr mans upper mississippi don't have spotify at work and won't listen any goddamn classic rock dino album?

i'm going in

btw this was remastered in 2005 haha

first up STEEL MONKEY

opens with some synth sequencer stuff....haha...uh...some kind Top Gun soundtrack guitar vibes....sequencers are totally they heard Jan Hammer's Miami Vice theme and dug it

"i'm a high rise junkie, and i'm heavenbound"

"Feel me climbing up your knee"

yeah hella Steve Stevens vibes from the guitar solos/tone....

haha sequencer and slap bass breakdown

this is what I always imagined Marillion sounded like...but no on in America can actually hear Marillion, their CDs self erase when they cross our shores

i wonder who was in the band at this point?

next up: Farm on the Freeway

mellower..synth pad and flute/synth melodies....more (don) airy almost new agey

this almost sounds like an outtake from Brothers in Arms with flute

but the fundamental chord changes and ian's vox sound kinda old school jethro tull

sometimes this is reminding me of 80s Rainbow

middle break getting down to some old school pomp and circumstance

next up: jump start

again we're back at kinda late 70s tull songs with shitty 80s production :/

I've never been able to get down with the stuff from 'A' onward. I'll try again someday but yeah. It's SUCH a weird thing though, synth hair funk tull...

spoiler alert: this album isn't very good and probably shouldn't have won a grammy

Jethro Tull seem stuck...they couldn't really change the style up and if they hate then let em hate and watch the money pile up a la Yes and Genesis

but they didn't totally stick to their guns either and got saddled with moments of trying to be "modern" and so it just ends up in this middle ground that wouldn't satisfy anyone

by the mid 80s i was really into fairport and boiled in lead and stuff like that and it was super galling to me that tull couldn't just do songs from the wood parts 2 3 and 4.

If this is an attempt to jumpstart an Eagles-style track-by-track Tull thread, count me in.

man i would be like a pig in shit for about 150 tracks of that

"Teacher" is such a jam, just realized it was cut from the CD version of Living In The Past, which is insane

That is insane. If you gotta cut something for the cd cut by kind permission of, not fkin teacher with that riff!!!

Three Top 10 hits, one Top 20 and Top 30 in the UK, 1969-71. The only ones I know are "Living in the Past" and "Witches Promise".

Family were having hits at roughly the same time, the charts were pretty weird back then.

Three Top 10 hits, one Top 20 and Top 30 in the UK, 1969-71. The only ones I know are "Living in the Past" and "Witches Promise".

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Saturday, March 10, 2018 1:52 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

two of the best imo

The LP version of the Living in the Past comp is a great place to start if you're dipping your toes into Tull waters, and will cost you >$2 at any record store in America

They cut Teacher? Hey man what’s the plan what was that you said.

That is a terrible error

(xpost) $2? For the double? Is there no ridiculously-priced used market down there? I doubt you could get that in good shape for under $10-15 up here.

Huh, I dunno! I just assumed because I used to see it everywhere, frequently in the dollar bin. But I've given up shopping for vinyl in record stores in big cities so you may be right. LPs that were once ubiquitous--Rumours, Dark Side, etc--are now being sold for $25. It's madness!