Customer Reviews

Very Best Of

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Ian Anderson's hand-picked version of "The Very Best of Jethro Tull" is an honest beginner's manual, a history lesson, a modest musical snapshot. There is a difference between the terms "greatest hits" and "best of"-the former refers to the successful singles, while the latter refers to songs that represent a band at their high point whether those songs were popular or not. This 20-track, single disc collection excels due to its honesty and Anderson's refusal to become a hypocrite; as he explains in his humorous liner notes, he stopped bashing compilations because he realized that half of his own CD collection consists of best-of and/or hits packages. "The Very Best of Jethro Tull" does its best to describe various points in the band's lexicon to the lucky new listener. There are moments that range from the legendary ('Aqualung,' a shortened 'Thick as a Brick,' 'Locomotive Breath'), then to what Anderson aptly calls "spectacular duds"-from the critically dismissed (the short masterpiece 'Too Old To Rock N' Roll: Too Young To Die'), to some pieces from the later parts of Tull's career ('Roots To Branches,' 'Steel Monkey'--headbangers were horrified that Tull won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Performance). Some pieces of the Jethro Tull puzzle have been excluded however; albums such as "A" and "Under Wraps" may not have been successful but are still noteworthy points in the band's thirty-plus years; some of these albums may be shown on the front cover collage but are missing from the gallery of album covers in the CD booklet. But perhaps they are being reserved for a worthwhile sequel.
The tracks are not in chronological order for once, but rather the sequencing has been chosen to make a balanced tapestry of different signatures, moods, and themes, which is much more creative than simply putting the songs in the order they were released. Some songs have been newly edited but that doesn't make them any less enjoyable; Anderson compares the reasons for the edits to the reason one might castrate a family dog. Aside from all this, there's little more one can say without repeating himself; "The Very Best of Jethro Tull" is an honest compilation, and thankfully doesn't tout itself as an "essential" history disc.

...but why does the "Editorial Reviewer" (Steven Stolder) feel compelled to state that the group included 23 men and "not a single woman, interestingly"...gee, Stephen, how rare...an old British band with multiple personnel changes that never included a woman...ooh, how "interesting"...what an inane comment...

definataly the best of Jethro Tull brings back great memories of those of us who grew up in the 70 and 80's
A must for those of us who don't want to replace all our vinyl
they don't make music like this anymore.

This album is missing a few songs. The very best of? Not quite. Where is "Teacher Lyrics" and "Hymn 43"? NOw I have to get those songs elsewhere.

this is a good compilation, and for the average person it is worth the money, but for those of you, like myself, treat "Thick as a Brick" as a devout christian would treat a bible this CD will be a little dissapointing. The song fades out and not all of it is heard. But if your religion isn't Jethro Tulls Church of Wisdom and you just enjoy listening to Jethro Tull, this is a CD worth at least a second look. ...And then she ate the pie!

This CD is an excellent buffet of Jethro Tull music. A little bit of everything. Tasty!

The very best of Jethro Tull is a very nice compilation featuring some of the bands biggest hits, such as Aqualung, Bungle in the jungle, locomotive breath, and minstrel in the gallery to name a few. The performace of the cd is exceptional and each song is an individual testament to the greatness of the band. Having missed them at musik fest I felt obligated to at least get a cd and I found this one to be the best. While the band did not play to much good stuff at Musik fest their old stuff more than makes up for it, and 20 of those songs are on this cd.
Any body into Tull will definitley wanna check this one out.
ROCK ON!!!!!!!!!!

Ever since they began releasing albums in the 1960's, Jethro Tull has been one of the finest progressive rock acts out there. Who would have thought that combining rock and roll with medieval folk music would bring a band such great success? Read on to see what this compilation does right, and what it does wrong.

First and foremost, we will discuss what the compilation does right. You'll find most of Tull's big hits here (Living In The Past, Aqualung, Bungle In The Jungle, Locomotive Breath, Thick As A Brick, Minstrel In The Gallery, and others.) It's hard to cover several decades of music in a single disc compilation, but this one does a pretty good job.

Unfortunately, it's not perfect. Where, may I ask, is Cross Eyed Mary, one of the band's biggest hits? And what about My Sunday Feeling, Teacher, and Son? Why are some of the songs the edited versions? Thick As A Brick was sliced from forty-five minutes to a mere three! Likewise, why are all the songs horribly out of their original release order? Why are there no tracks from Benefit, one of the band's finest releases?

If you're a casual fan of Tull, this MIGHT be enough for you. However, the band's primary strength was in creating entire albums, not just single tracks. Keep that in mind. Because of that alone, you may want to consider buying an album by the band rather than a hits compilation. Benefit, though it doesn't have many hits, would be a good bet.

If you're interested in rock and jazz flute, of course you should check out Jethro Tull, just not this particular compilation. You should also bear in mind that Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson was/is not the be-all and end-all of rock and jazz flute.

Don't forget, in addition to the rock flute examples mentioned below, lead singer/keyboardist/flutist/flautist Burton Cumming's flute solo on the great hit "Undun" from 1968's "Canned Wheat" or the omnipresent flute on the great "Fancy Colors" from Chicago's second album "Chicago". (John Lennon's "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", from "Help!", 1965, was probably one of the first rock records to showcase a flute solo, but I don't suppose it counts because the flute wasn't played by a Beatle.)

Don't forget, in addition to the jazz flutists/flautists mentioned below, Bud Shank and Yasef Lateef. Long before Ian Anderson arrived on the scene, Yasef Lateef was famous for simultaneously playing and speaking through his flute.

Jethro Tull was not a singles band, and this album is pointless. If you're considering buying it, you're probably fairly new to Jethro Tull: start with "Stand Up", and see if you can get the un-"remastered" version without "bonus tracks".

If you're fairly young as well as fairly new to Jethro Tull, you may be deceived by remarks such as this from Jethro Tull's web site, "Widely recognized as the man who introduced the flute to rock music, Ian Anderson remains the crowned exponent of the popular and rock genres of flute playing; so far, no pretender to the throne has stepped forward."

According to its liner notes, written by Ian Anderson himself, Mr. Anderson took up the flute only a few months before recording Jethro Tull's first album "This Was" in the summer of 1968. Ray Thomas, on the other hand, played flute prominently on The Moody Blues's first album "The Magnificent Moodies" released in 1967 (as well as on the subsequent Moody Blues albums). Chris Wood played flute on Traffic's first album (and on subsequent Traffic albums), "Mr. Fantasy", also released in 1967. Flutist Ian McDonald was an original member of King Crimson, which released its first (tremendously successful and influential) record, "In the Court of the Crimson King" in 1968. Thijs Van Leer was the flutist, keyboardist, and leader of Focus, a rock group from Holland that achieved mass U.S. popularity in the early 1970's, the same time Jethro Tull achieved mass U.S. popularity. Later, in the early 1980's, Men at Work, featuring flutist/saxophonist/keyboardist Greg Ham had a long string of hits (think of the flute in "Down Under") and a record-selling first album.

Ian Anderson was early associated with his penchant for flutter-tonguing and singing through his flute, but these don't originate with him either: they are long-standing jazz-flute techniques. Mr. Anderson was probably consciously following in the footsteps of jazz flutist Rahsan Roland Kirk, whose "Serenade to a Cuckoo" Jethro Tull recorded on its first album, "This Was". Other notable jazz flutists include James Moody, Herbie Mann, Hubert Laws, and Joe Farrel.