|
Post by TM on Sept 24, 2009 22:00:39 GMT -5
What was your very first Tull album, and your initial impression? Did you become an instant fan, or did it take repeated listening?
|
|
|
Post by Mothfairy on Sept 24, 2009 22:12:31 GMT -5
It was Original Masters. I think Aqualung was the first song. When I bought this album this is the first song I knew. I think the second song is Too Old, right? Well that was the second song I heard...I thought it was....different....not much like Aqualung...I was to soon find out that this band had a lot of different songs, many of which sounded nothing like eachother, just like those two. So, the second question is hard to answer....kind of both I guess..took some getting used to, but it did grow on me quickly.
|
|
Stjerky
Ethnic Piano Accordian-ist
Posts: 165
|
Post by Stjerky on Sept 25, 2009 0:40:46 GMT -5
Same here. And I became an instant fan. The time was just right for Tull to come to my life. I had already practiced with likes of Uriah Heep and early Genesis.
|
|
|
Post by TM on Sept 25, 2009 8:39:45 GMT -5
I think Original Masters was a pretty big seller for Tull.
But for us old guys, we were left wondering what the purpose of this release was. I don't think there was any sonic value on LP, cassette, or CD, with the the possible exception of the gold CD that came out later.
Does anyone know the actual story behind Original Masters?
|
|
|
Post by Nonfatman on Sept 25, 2009 10:13:22 GMT -5
This is long, but as Paul knows, I give good story. ;D The first time I heard Tull was in late 1975 or early 1976, somewhere in between the release of Minstrel and TOTRNR. In Stony Brook, next door were two blonde sisters, one my age, the other two years older, who I was friends with since early childhood, both very pretty gentile girls. (Why do my stories always seem to involve good looking girls? It's true though....and right across from those two sisters were three other sisters, two of which were also quite comely.....growing up we would all play kickball and other children's games, like Red Rover, Giant Step, Red Light, Green Light and Spot, with the other kids from our block.) Anyway, I was this nice Jewish boy, a Tull virgin and virgin, who was listening to Top 40 singles whereas the older blonde sister (and possibly the younger one, Lori, too) were already doing drugs, listening to album-oriented rock and sleeping with guys. So anyway, one day I was hanging out with the sisters at their house and looking at their albums, which included stuff I hadn't even heard of yet, like Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and......Aqualung! From the moment I saw the irreverent cover art and read the iconoclastic lyrics I was fascinated, and had to hear it right away. Then when My God came on, I was stunned.....in total awe of the shrill, stuttering flute, the crunching electric guitar, the complex drumming and the eerie mood that the music created, with that spooky Gregorian chanting. I think the rebellious nature of the music and lyrics is something that my 15 year-old self found very intriguing....it's at that age that we begin to question parental authority and religion, I think. Anyway, there I was in Lori's room, totally hooked by the Aqualung album as I was hearing it for the first time....I appreciated how great it was right away, and I remember, that night, lying in bed scouring the radio for Jethro Tull, when, lo and behold, a midnight rock block came on, and it was the entire Minstrel album! I was elated, and even more captivated when hearing my second Tull album. I then proceeded to buy up all of their albums one by one, with whatever allowance and lawnmowing money I was able to gather, until one day, several months later, I learned of the release of a brand new Tull album! So I rode my blue Schwinn with its banana bicycle seat up to the old Rickel's Department Store on Hallock Road, which had a record department, and there it was, a cartoon cover with Ray Lomas giving me the "up yours" gesture! Can you imagine anything else being more appealing to a teenage male? I certainly couldn't, so I grabbed it up, paid the cashier my five bucks or so and rushed home with it! And I was not disappointed, what with all the vulgar imagery and sexual lyrics on that album. From then on I was a complete Tull fanatic, even taking Lori and one of the sisters from across the street to see that 1978 Tull show at MSG, the subject of the new DVD release and my second Tull gig ever. The sad thing is that I never had anything more than a platonic relationship with any of the five sisters, despite blowing a golden opportunity with Lori in 1979 or '80 when we drove to Florida together in her brand new Trans Am and I was too dumb to realize she was making advances. What an idiot!
Jeff
|
|
|
Post by TM on Sept 25, 2009 11:49:58 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by bobo the monkey on Sept 25, 2009 22:36:34 GMT -5
Thick as a brick--new years eve 1972/73 which i stumbled onto babysitting that nite...by the time I bought and listened to the whole thing twice, the next day the stores were open ( 1-2-73)...they were my favorite band...a status never threatened. Then I got LITP--which was the 'current release'...probably in the middle of january 73....by the time i saw them, for the first time, in July 73...I had every album, purchased in exact backward order from Aqualung thru This Was...and a couple of boots.....much like Jeff, i was 15 and somehow ready for Tull.
|
|
|
Post by Nonfatman on Sept 26, 2009 10:49:26 GMT -5
Thick as a brick--new years eve 1972/73 which i stumbled onto babysitting that nite...by the time I bought and listened to the whole thing twice, the next day the stores were open ( 1-2-73)...they were my favorite band...a status never threatened. Then I got LITP--which was the 'current release'...probably in the middle of january 73....by the time i saw them, for the first time, in July 73...I had every album, purchased in exact backward order from Aqualung thru This Was...and a couple of boots.....much like Jeff, i was 15 and somehow ready for Tull.[/quote So we both have similar stories of stumbling across a Tull album at a neighbor's house, being hooked immediately and buying up the back catalogue, and both of us at the age of 15.That definitely was the age that I think many of us first became hooked on Tull. Posting from a blackberry is a pain. Jeff
|
|
|
Post by bobo the monkey on Sept 26, 2009 17:37:31 GMT -5
Tull confounded me...I discovered them on my own...so there was no one to guide me thru the catalog...I was surprised that 'Benefit' was NOT the benefit concert alluded to on Living in the Past...and even more surprised that 'Stand Up' wasn't a live album...the title implied concert to me...I assumed 'This Was' was a compilation....no matter...by the time A Passion Play was released, i was guiding friends thru the catalog...many of whom became long time Tull fans as well...I remember about 6 of us listening to the 'war child' album, which i stole from the radio station well before the release date ( my life has been downhill since)....when the first song started and I broke the silence to say " hey, ian's added another instrument: air raid siren"I was qucikly and sternly shutted up by my cohorts in Tull...for whom the album after Passion Play was VERY IMPORTANT!!!
|
|
|
Post by Sharkdaniel on Sept 28, 2009 15:06:31 GMT -5
Tull confounded me...I discovered them on my own...so there was no one to guide me thru the catalog...I was surprised that 'Benefit' was NOT the benefit concert alluded to on Living in the Past...and even more surprised that 'Stand Up' wasn't a live album...the title implied concert to me...I assumed 'This Was' was a compilation....no matter... I have always been impressed about Tull´s horrible marketing. It´s very confusiing, repetitive and frustating. SD
|
|
|
Post by Sharkdaniel on Sept 30, 2009 13:43:47 GMT -5
This is long, but as Paul knows, I give good story. ;D The first time I heard Tull was in late 1975 or early 1976, somewhere in between the release of Minstrel and TOTRNR. In Stony Brook, next door were two blonde sisters, one my age, the other two years older, who I was friends with since early childhood, both very pretty gentile girls. (Why do my stories always seem to involve good looking girls? It's true though....and right across from those two sisters were three other sisters, two of which were also quite comely.....growing up we would all play kickball and other children's games, like Red Rover, Giant Step, Red Light, Green Light and Spot, with the other kids from our block.) Anyway, I was this nice Jewish boy, a Tull virgin and virgin, who was listening to Top 40 singles whereas the older blonde sister (and possibly the younger one, Lori, too) were already doing drugs, listening to album-oriented rock and sleeping with guys. So anyway, one day I was hanging out with the sisters at their house and looking at their albums, which included stuff I hadn't even heard of yet, like Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and......Aqualung! From the moment I saw the irreverent cover art and read the iconoclastic lyrics I was fascinated, and had to hear it right away. Then when My God came on, I was stunned.....in total awe of the shrill, stuttering flute, the crunching electric guitar, the complex drumming and the eerie mood that the music created, with that spooky Gregorian chanting. I think the rebellious nature of the music and lyrics is something that my 15 year-old self found very intriguing....it's at that age that we begin to question parental authority and religion, I think. Anyway, there I was in Lori's room, totally hooked by the Aqualung album as I was hearing it for the first time....I appreciated how great it was right away, and I remember, that night, lying in bed scouring the radio for Jethro Tull, when, lo and behold, a midnight rock block came on, and it was the entire Minstrel album! I was elated, and even more captivated when hearing my second Tull album. I then proceeded to buy up all of their albums one by one, with whatever allowance and lawnmowing money I was able to gather, until one day, several months later, I learned of the release of a brand new Tull album! So I rode my blue Schwinn with its banana bicycle seat up to the old Rickel's Department Store on Hallock Road, which had a record department, and there it was, a cartoon cover with Ray Lomas giving me the "up yours" gesture! Can you imagine anything else being more appealing to a teenage male? I certainly couldn't, so I grabbed it up, paid the cashier my five bucks or so and rushed home with it! And I was not disappointed, what with all the vulgar imagery and sexual lyrics on that album. From then on I was a complete Tull fanatic, even taking Lori and one of the sisters from across the street to see that 1978 Tull show at MSG, the subject of the new DVD release and my second Tull gig ever. The sad thing is that I never had anything more than a platonic relationship with any of the five sisters, despite blowing a golden opportunity with Lori in 1979 or '80 when we drove to Florida together in her brand new Trans Am and I was too dumb to realize she was making advances. What an idiot! Jeff Nice story Jeffie. Probably most of us man have been idiots on that matter at least once. Me, you would hit me knowing the girls I lost beeing as stupid as you get. Test and mistake, or something like that. SD
|
|
|
Post by TM on Sept 30, 2009 14:08:05 GMT -5
This thread has me thinking about the old days. I too got into Tull right around 15 - when thoughts turn to things other then sports.
Now of course I have to worry about that same sort of thing as my daughters are getting nearer that age!
It's pretty amazing the crap you hear about these days with young kids.
|
|
|
Post by Nonfatman on Oct 1, 2009 23:22:33 GMT -5
It's because their signals are so hard to read, Sharky, and we have a great fear of getting shot down. Most of us are a lot like the guy in 'A Hand of Thumbs.'
Jeff
|
|
|
Post by Nonfatman on Oct 2, 2009 0:10:25 GMT -5
This thread has me thinking about the old days. I too got into Tull right around 15 - when thoughts turn to things other then sports. Now of course I have to worry about that same sort of thing as my daughters are getting nearer that age! It's pretty amazing the crap you hear about these days with young kids. I hear you. So much to worry about with kids these days and I'm a worrier by nature. Things were much different, better, when we were kids, which I've been thinking about a lot lately, and this whole fear and safety issue is probably a good idea for a separate thread in the Do you still remember category. When we were kids we went out to play and stayed out the entire day. Our parents didn't even know where we were half the time. Nowadays, forget it. Jeff
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2009 19:36:05 GMT -5
Fatman, That's a GREAT story. I of course have several stories of missed opportunities. One that I tend to forget about was in 1976. I went to my first Springsteen concert and invited a cute Asian girl from work to go with me. (We went with my buddy and his girlfriend.) I probably could have easily at least made out with her, and/or probably start the beginning of a dating relationship. I think I was nervous about starting anything with somebody from a different ethnic background.
|
|
Stjerky
Ethnic Piano Accordian-ist
Posts: 165
|
Post by Stjerky on Oct 8, 2009 3:03:12 GMT -5
Probably most of us man have been idiots on that matter at least once. Me, you would hit me knowing the girls I lost beeing as stupid as you get. Oh yeah, tell me about it... And "once" is a major underestimation.
|
|
|
Post by aquafish on Oct 9, 2009 18:59:28 GMT -5
it was stand up. i can still feel the fall air & early snow of that year in upstaste ny. the album & tull became one of my favorites at the time. who would think that 40 years on i would be going to another tull/ia gig......
|
|
|
Post by Chea on Oct 28, 2009 5:48:00 GMT -5
I discovered J.T only a coulpe of years after AQUALUNG came out.It was love at first sight :(It took a while to find myself a Tull Fan....
|
|
|
Post by TM on Oct 28, 2009 7:58:54 GMT -5
Funny that Aqualung was not my first album, Warchild was. And while everyone I spoke to told me I had to get Aqualung, I think Too Old to Rock & Roll was next. I purchased a second hand 8-track outside of Boston somewhere, along with that huge Tull poster from 1974-75.
|
|
|
Post by 2fingers on Oct 31, 2009 9:13:47 GMT -5
When I was around 8 years old (1978), I discovered my mother's lime-yellow 8-track with a bizzare looking beggar on the face of it and Jethro Tull... Aqualung in Gothic calligraphy. When I injected the 8-track, a medieval flute solo accompanied by a heavily reverbed male choir was my response. Having only very limited knowledge of pop music, I couldn't figure out why my mom would be listening to "ancient medieval" music. Suddenly out of nowhere, these LOUD guitars start pumping through both stereo speakers and blowing my mind in the process. I always thought electric guitars were twangy like early-Beatles or gramma's Les Paul & Mary Ford records. Then the music dies down and a man who sounds like the dirty beggar on the cover starts singing about God and "praying til next Thursday to all the gods that you can count!!" Its funny to me how even as a child I somehow associated the beggar with the singer as the same person. Come to find out later - HE WAS THE BLOODY SINGER!! Needless to say, I played (or looped) Aqualung for hours and weeks on end. When I was 10, I got a wonderfully scratchy vinyl copy so I could study the album artwork and memorize every scratch & pop while imagining that both the recording and myself were in the 16th century together. That's how much Jethro Tull's Aqualung impressed my young fertile mind!! Thank God for Jethro Tull!!
|
|
|
Post by Nonfatman on Oct 31, 2009 10:26:57 GMT -5
When I was around 8 years old (1978), I discovered my mother's lime-yellow 8-track with a bizzare looking beggar on the face of it and Jethro Tull... Aqualung in Gothic calligraphy. When I injected the 8-track, a medieval flute solo accompanied by a heavily reverbed male choir was my response. Having only very limited knowledge of pop music, I couldn't figure out why my mom would be listening to "ancient medieval" music. Suddenly out of nowhere, these LOUD guitars start pumping through both stereo speakers and blowing my mind in the process. I always thought electric guitars were twangy like early-Beatles or gramma's Les Paul & Mary Ford records. Then the music dies down and a man who sounds like the dirty beggar on the cover starts singing about God and "praying til next Thursday to all the gods that you can count!!" Its funny to me how even as a child I somehow associated the beggar with the singer as the same person. Come to find out later - HE WAS THE BLOODY SINGER!! Needless to say, I played (or looped) Aqualung for hours and weeks on end. When I was 10, I got a wonderfully scratchy vinyl copy so I could study the album artwork and memorize every scratch & pop while imagining that both the recording and myself were in the 16th century together. That's how much Jethro Tull's Aqualung impressed my young fertile mind!! Thank God for Jethro Tull!! Amen! Jeff P.S. Great Tull discovery story there....Love it, Aqualung on 8-Track. Jeff
|
|
|
Post by bobo the monkey on Nov 3, 2009 14:46:05 GMT -5
'Thank God for Jethro Tull'
Ya think with the Little Milton bit he was acknowledging that he was blowing upon precocious pre-pube minds ?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2009 17:43:23 GMT -5
Well, when I was a whole lot younger, before I heard Tull's music, I heard their name around. An uncle was a huge 80s metal fan of Motley Crue, Def Leppard, etc. and I never liked any of that. He was also a huge fan of Tull, so I always thought that Jethro Tull was the same type of music as those other bands.
Anyway, I was at a friend's house and my friend said "Let's put on some Jethro Tull", and all my other friends seemed to whole heartedly agree. I was expecting something similar to 80s hair metal (a silly assumption), but they put on Aqualung, and it just blew me away. It sounded like the music I always wish I knew existed.
I think the next weekend I went out and bought two albums--Thick as a Brick and Minstrel in the Gallery. Those were my two first. Many a good memory from both.
|
|
|
Post by Nonfatman on Nov 5, 2009 10:35:42 GMT -5
Well, when I was a whole lot younger, before I heard Tull's music, I heard their name around. An uncle was a huge 80s metal fan of Motley Crue, Def Leppard, etc. and I never liked any of that. He was also a huge fan of Tull, so I always thought that Jethro Tull was the same type of music as those other bands. Anyway, I was at a friend's house and my friend said "Let's put on some Jethro Tull", and all my other friends seemed to whole heartedly agree. I was expecting something similar to 80s hair metal (a silly assumption), but they put on Aqualung, and it just blew me away. It sounded like the music I always wish I knew existed. I think the next weekend I went out and bought two albums--Thick as a Brick and Minstrel in the Gallery. Those were my two first. Many a good memory from both. Good discovery story there, KB! Aqualung is the album that hooked me too......immediately. Jeff
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2009 17:07:00 GMT -5
Yeah. The initial riff on that record was incredible. I remember how being fascinated at how unorthodox a riff could be and still capture you into it whole heartedly. The rest of the album just took it away.
|
|