Jethro Tull - This Was: Collector’s Edition

Before Stand Up or Aqualung, there was This Was

If your acquaintance with Jethro Tull stems from the more expansive likes of Aqualung or Thick As A Brick, then the direct, unfussy and predominantly blues-based This Was could well come as something of a surprise.

Recorded by the first and short-lived line-up of Ian Anderson, Clive Bunker, Glenn Cornick and Mick Abrahams, with additional input by future Tull keyboardist David Palmer, This Was only hints at the depth and majesty of the ensuing seven albums (hardly surprising, perhaps, given that it was recorded for around £1,000). That said, Some Day The Sun Won’t Shine, Serenade To A Cuckoo and several others do feature some inspired ensemble playing, not least from frontman, mult-iinstrumentalist and principal songwriter Ian Anderson.

This new remastered Collectors’ Edition, issued to mark the band’s 40th anniversary and featuring new sleevenotes by Anderson, is awash with extras. While the second disc couples a new stereo mix with a quartet of additional mono recordings from the band’s earliest days, the first contains the original mono mix and nine tracks drawn from two 1968 John Peel sessions. Powerful performances all, it is these cuts that are likely to be of the greatest interest to Tull aficionados.

EMI | 206 4972 (2-CD)

Reviewed by David Davies
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