Jethro Tull is one of the most recognized musical groups who fall under the “progressive rock” category. Of course, Jethro Tull can’t be characterized by one musical category label in one little neat package, as they have so many different musical elements to their music, in the thirty years or so of thirty or so recordings they have put out. This being said, the record label Magna Carta decided to put out a tribute to Jethro Tull CD in 1996, and did a fine job of collecting a whole bunch of admiring Tull musicians who were willing to do the job, and the result was “To Cry You a Song: A Collection of Tull Tales”. Magna Carta (www.magnacarta.net) is a relatively new record label that specializes in progressive music of all kinds, but particularly progressive rock. There are some really great renditions of Jethro Tull music here, along with some that are so-so, or just plain mediocre. “To Cry You a Song” refers to the name of a famous Jethro Tull song from the “Benefit” album, put out in 1970. However, it is a CD that I enjoy and sometimes put in my CD carousel, sandwiched nicely between two Jethro Tull original CD’s, mind you!
What follows is a table of information on this CD, followed by what I consider to be its highlights.
Information on “To Cry You a Song: A Collection of Tull Tales”.
Record Label: Magna Carta
Copyright Date: 1996
UPC Code: 0-26245-9009-2-9
Personnel:
Mick Abrahams, Robert Berry
Clive Bunker, Glenn Cornick
Echlin, Keith Emerson
Roy Harper Glenn Hughes
Magellan, Phil Manzanera
Ian McDonald, Charlie Musselwhite
Dave Pegg, Matthew Pegg
Derek Sherinian, Robby Steinhardt
Tempest, Derek Trucks
John Wetton, Wolfstone
Tracklist:
1. A Tull Tale
2. Aqualung
3. Up the ‘Pool
4. Nothing is Easy
5. Mother Goose
6. Minstrel in the Gallery
7. One Brown Mouse
8. Cat’s Squirrel
9. To Cry You a Song
10. New Day Yesterday
11. Teacher
12. Living in the Past
13. Locomotive Breath
14. Life’s a Long Song
Total running time: 1 hour and more.
The Tracks I like.
“A Tull Tale”.
Artist/Personnel: Magellan. Featuring Stan Johnson.
Stan Johnson—flute
Trent Gardner—keyboards
Roger Patterson—Percussion.
Running Time: 2 minutes and 35 seconds. Composed by Trent Gardner.
This is the only track on the CD that isn’t a Jethro Tull song composed by Ian Anderson. This one is composed by Trent Gardner, the lead singer of the progressive rock group Magellan. It is an instrumental track composed and performed in the style of Jethro Tull, and it is a wonderful piece of music in its own right! It features Stan Johnson on the flute, doing a really excellent job of being Ian Anderson, although he’s sometimes a little too clean at it! He does try to get the “voice over flute” bits that Ian Anderson is master of, and does a wonderful job of it. The track really flies, with Trent Gardner accompanying Stan Johnson on some heavy-duty synthesizers, as Johnson really does a wonderful flute solo. This track is first rate and I give it five stars!
“Aqualung”. Running Time: 8 minutes and 9 seconds. Composed by Ian Anderson, lyrics by Jenny Anderson.
Personnel:
Magellan
Trent Gardner—keyboards and vocals
Wayne Gardner—guitars and bass
Roger Patterson—drums
“Aqualung” is the number one recognizable Jethro Tull tunes of all time. Magellan performs this version of Aqualung, and they really do a top-notch interpretation of the original! Trent Gardner has a voice that is very different from Ian Anderson’s, but he does a wonderful job of singing Aqualung here. At times, he sounds just a little bratty, but that’s just his style. Wayne Gardner does an incredible job on guitar and bass guitar, with a little more heavy metal sound than Martin Barre’s original, yet he does a nice job of doing his own solo where Martin would in the climax of the song. Other than the introduction and the ending, it is a carbon copy of the original song. This leads us to the introduction and ending. The introduction has a piano accompanying Trent Gardner singing “Aqualung my friend, don’t you start away uneasy, oh you poor old sod, you see it’s only me”. It is a nice foreshadowing of the song. The ending is quite another affair.
Aqualung has been performed by Tull at each and every of their concerts in the 30 years since it was composed, and there is a way that Ian Anderson intonates his singing with a “whoa…oh…oh….Aqualung”. Here, Trent Gardner successfully encapsulates, and exaggerates, this. He does so successfully, even though he apologizes in the liner notes for it: “ P. S. Hope you don’t mind the ending.” I don’t mind at all!
“Up the Pool”. Running time: 3 minutes and 1 second. (From “To Cry You a Song – A Collection of Tull Tales”).
Personnel: Roy Harper – Vocals and guitar
Colm O’sullivan –keyboards and effects
The original “Up the Pool” is a wonderful little tune from Jethro Tull’s “Living in the Past” album of 1971. It is one of my favorite acoustic songs that Tull is famous for. Ian Anderson does an incredible job of singing in the original as well. Now this leads me to this rendition of it. I don’t know who Roy Harper is, but he makes a completely new interpretation and arrangement of the original. However, despite it’s obvious difference (you’d never mistake it for Tull, in fact, he sounds more like Willy Nelson singing at one point, than Ian Anderson!), it’s not bad at all. In fact, it grows on you to the point where you like it. He even messes up the lyrics “sun stranded star fish in a day”, and chuckles about it, as he sings “sun stan starfish…”. I’m glad they kept it in, as this is a nice take all in all.
“Nothing is Easy”. Running Time: 4 minutes and 17 seconds. (From “To Cry You a Song – A Collection of Tull Tales”).
Personnel: John Wetton – vocals
Mick Abrahams – guitar
Clive Bunker – drums
Glenn Cornick – bass
Ian McDonals – flute
Phil Manzenera – guitar
Robert Berry – keyboards.
“Nothing is Easy” is a fantastic Jethro Tull tune from the “Stand Up” recording, from 1969. Amazingly, in this tribute rendition, you have three of the four original Jethro Tull members performing, Mick Abrahams on guitar, Clive Bunker on drums, and Glenn Cornick on bass guitar! It’s kind of funny, in a way, since Ian Anderson is the only member of Jethro Tull, who has been on every Tull album, and, in a way, has “become” Jethro Tull, at least in an oddly personified way.
The original “Nothing is Easy” is a monster of a tune, and it simply cranks! I’ve seen Tull perform it live in concert, and it is a fantastic blues/rocker tune, complete with Ian Anderson’s flute and distinctive voice. However, in the original tune, Martin Barre, who replaced Mick Abrahams, is on guitar. This version sees John Wetton, from UK and ASIA, replacing Ian Anderson on vocals, and Ian McDonald on flute, also replacing Anderson. I like John Wetton, he’s got a great voice, and I loved his stint with UK and some of his ASIA stuff. McDonald does a fine job on the flute, but lacks Ian Anderson’s classic “voice over” flute voicing, and fingering technique. There is a slightly different guitar arrangement by Abrahams in this one, but it is really a wonderful rendition of the original. This one has a nice “swing” feeling to it that the original lacked, however. So, you get a nice contrast in this one, an “almost as good”, but “as distinctive” feel to this new interpretation of “Nothing is Easy”. This version has an almost danceable part to the middle of it, which is cool.
“Mother Goose”. Running time: 4 minutes and 23 seconds.
Personnel:
Lief Sorbye—vocals, mandolin, flutes, and octave mandola
Mike Varney—Lead guitar
Robert Berry—keyboards, guitar, bass, and drums.
“Mother Goose” was originally on the “Aqualung” album from 1971. The original song was acoustic in nature, with a few electric guitar phrases by Martin Barre. This is a nice interpretation, that is much more electric in nature. Lief Sorbye does a fine job singing, accompanied by Robert Berry and Mark Varney. It is a worthy interpretation of the original.
“Minstrel In the Gallery”. Running time: 5 minutes and 22 seconds.
Performed by:
Robert Berry and Lief Sorbye.
Minstrel in the Gallery is one of the most ambitious Tull tunes from the mid-1970s. The original is a superb and perfect song, with a wonderful mix of acoustic and electric elements. Robert Berry and Lief Sobye do a great job in this rendition and interpretation of Minstrel in the Gallery, capturing some of the feel of the original, while putting in some new flavors. I prefer the original, however.
“Cat’s Squirrel”. Running time: 5 minutes and 52 seconds.
Personnel:
Charlie Musselwhite—harmonica
Derek Trucks – slide guitar
Mick Abrahams – guitar
Clive Bunker – drums
Mike Summerland – bass
Robert Berry—drums
“Cat’s Squirrel” was originally on the “This Was” album, and it is a totally instrumental track, in an ambitious blues tempo. Mick Abrahams and Clive Bunker, who were on the original tune, are back and on here, jamming out. This version is actually as good, if not better, than the original, from “This Was”. It rocks out!
“Living in the Past”. Running time: 3 minutes and 21 seconds.
Personnel: Keith Emerson—Keyboards
Mick Abrahams—Guitar
Clive Bunker—drums
Glenn Cornick—bass
What would Tull sound like if they had Keith Emerson instead of Ian Anderson? I guess like this! Here we have Emerson, of ELP fame, playing keyboards where Ian Anderson would sing, along with the other three founding members of Jethro Tull! It is an instrumental rendition of the hit single, and is kind of nice. I like it. The original is better, but this one is nice too. Emerson lets his mini moog fly nicely here.
“Life’s A Long Song”. Running Time: 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
Personnel: Dave Pegg—vocals, martin 1960 0018 Guitar; Tom Mates acoustic guitar, Gibson A1-1916 Mandolin, drum machine.
Matt Pegg – German Flatback Double Bass
Dave Pegg was the Jethro Tull bassist from 1980 until the mid 1990s, and is also with the group Fairport Convention (concurrently he was a member of both groups). He and his son perform their interpretation of this classic Tull song from the “Living in the Past” album. It is wholly and completely different from the original version, which I like better. However, this one has a charm all of its own, and I like it as well. It has much shorter phrasings and is less ambitious than the original, vocally. I like the fun mandolins and neat guitars on it, though. I also like that father and son Pegg perform it.
The other tunes I like include “To Cry You a Song”, “New Day Yesterday”, and “Teacher”. They aren’t quite as good as the ones above, but aren’t bad at all. The originals are better, that’s why I didn’t go into any depth to describe these here. They have Robert Berry and the three other original Tull personnel to varying degrees on each of them, but the vocals don’t always work.
The Tracks that I don’t like because the artists didn’t do the Tull tune in question any justice.
“One Brown Mouse”. Running time: 3 minutes and 15 seconds.
Performed by: Echolyn
I don’t like this rendition of “One Brown Mouse”. It just doesn’t work, especially the lead vocalist. Listen to the original instead! The vocalist really doesn’t seem to be trying at all. It’s painful to listen to.
But, all in all, I think that “To Cry You a Song” is a very good tribute CD to Jethro Tull. Magna Carta has brought together a nice group of musicians, for the most part, to give us some new interpretations to the timeless music of Jethro Tull. While not the best, it is above average, and I give it four stars.
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