20 YEARS OF JETHRO TULL (THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION)

Wow! I saw this used for under $20.00, and snapped it up. I had been getting by on the single-disc "sampler" for years, since this has been out of print for a very long time. Nice booklet, although the track listing information is not presented in the same order as the tracks themselves, and it's only in the big booklet, not in the individual CD booklets. The music is mostly good, although the selections recorded in the later years suffer from Ian's deteriorating voice and the gradual turning away from prog elements. I certainly can't complain, given the amount I paid for it.

Only bothering to review this as I'm a wee bit alarmed with seeing so many reviews for their other records, and only one for this. Guess it really has been out of print for ages, and most of the prices I hear for it are quite absurd. Having said that, this came out fairly early in the box set, career retrospective game, and at the time would have to say it deserved high marks for the breath of its coverage. Now I'm at best a prog sympathiser, and do not now, or ever, 1971-3 included consider Tull a progressive act. Indeed it annoys me when IA talks of Yes, ELP, Frank Zappa or the Moody Blues and Genesis as some kind of musical next door neighbors to Jethro Tull. Indeed I consider most or all of those acts to have regularly been guilty of the excesses of which Tull was roundly accused. Having said that I do believe they have all been given too much "stick" thru the years and all had sparkling moments. However to my ears to the extent Tull had any musical relatives in their four decades it would be Fairport and Steeleye Span. Had this set on vinyl, can say the sides of acoustic Tull, and the live side, altholugh mostly featuring predictable choices, would rank in the upper quarter of Tull's output. At their best quite stunning. The condensed set, way more readily available, is overall of higher quality because the crap (see 17) is cut out. For the sheer amount of material on here, 5 vinyl albums, there is drag down in the overall grade, Jethro Tull fan or not, its not brilliant. However for acheiving the goal they had set out for, a comprehensive overview I really must say 5 stars. Incongruous? Perhaps.

JETHRO TULL'S CAVERN OF ALI BABA.

This luxurious boxset came out in 1988 as a 5 lPs or a 3 CDs set. I bought the LP format as i was still ''living in the past'' and not ready to embrace new technology yet. It was accompanied by a nice thick booklet the size of the LP, a wonderful resource on the life of this band. A very stylish and 'chic' boxset indeed!

''20 years OF JETHRO TUL'' is not a best-of or a greatest hits album. It's more than that; this is the entrance to the secret JETHRO TULL vault where all the riches of the bands were hidden from public eyes for 20 years. This set should be considered as a ''new''' album and not as some sort of normal compilation.This is where the treasures, the little hard to find gems of the band are finally brought to the public.

The album is divided in 4 parts:

-''The radio archives and rare tracks'' where you can hear reworked versions of old classics and live radio renditions

-''Flawed gems (dusted down) with a lot of unreleased tracks and you know when it comes to JETHRO TULL, unreleased can still mean great tracks; Since 1988, a few of those little treasures have found a way to feature on the remastered new editions of the JT catalogue, but actually just a few like the great KING HENRY'S MADRIGAL or PART OF THE MACHINE. Still plenty of these gems can only be heard on this 3 CDs set.

-''The other sides of Tull'' showing the different aspects of the band with a lot of medieval and acoustic flavors, the old TULL blues-rock period , the more modern 80 sound with a lot of goodies like MAYHEM MAYBE or OVERHANG. You even get UNDER WRAPS # 2 which was the only-very short- listenable song of this awful album.

-''The essential Tull''. Of course you are getting also the heavy weight songs of the band such as AQUALUNG or SONGS FROM THE WOOD , but none as the original of the regular albums as they can only be heard in a live context. This is the only place where you can hear also a live version of the great FARM ON THE FREEWAY from CREST OF A KNAVE.

I would compare this boxset to a museum dedicated to JETHRO TULL music through the ages with a lot of new historic artifacts no one was aware of. This is an album that can be seen as a wonderful introduction to the JETHRO TULL world for the newcomer as much as a real treat to the old faithful TULL fan. This is the cherry on top of the pie...62 songs for happiness!

Sadly, as i notice this set got only 2 reviews so far, this is now a rare collection hard to find nowadays. It hasn't been remastered yet like the rest of the JT catalogue, but hopefully will be sometimes in the future. There is a shortened edition of this boxset with a single CD including 20 songs from this boxset, but that doesn't have the same impact. So be patient and wait for a re-release of this collection like i do as my5 LPs set is kind of worn out now!

And we are not getting younger as next year will be the 40th anniversary of the band! maybe another treat for the old fans?? A wonderful band- a wonderful collection. Only........

5 STARS

I found this going through a huge collection of used vinyl in a 2nd hand store, and just had to have it especially since it is somewhat rare nowadays and because the shop had it priced rather cheap even though it was in excellent shape. This collection is a treasure trove of great, yet mostly rare, Tull tracks that were recorded through the years, from their humble beginnings when they were mistakenly credited as "Jethro Toe" on their first single (both the A side and B side are here), to BBC and live sessions, to non-album b-sides and EP tracks, collected all together in one amazing collection. The set is not ordered in chronological order, but a bit randomly, but the music seems to flow quite well from one track to another.

The LP version of this box set it set up a little different than the CD version, though all of the tracks are there (65 in total), mostly in the same order, but with some interesting track order changes. With the CD version, there are 3 loaded discs, but on the LP version there are 5 discs, named (categorized) in this manner:

Disc 1: The Radio Archives Disc 2: The Rare Tracks (Released But Only Just) Disc 3: Flawed Gems (Dusted Down) Disc 4: The Other Sides of Tull Disc 5: The Essential Tull

This all comes together with a 24-page book that has some excellent photos, artwork, a write up from Ian Anderson, details on a track-by-track basis, and a lot of commentary and history.

For a Tull fan, this box set is a definite treasure as it is also for a vinyl collector. But, I think even casual Tull fans will find plenty to love here. But it does require a bit of knowledge about the history of the band to make the best sense out of some of these tracks, and the book provides this. The sound is excellent, even on the earliest and also the live tracks. All around, this is an excellent collection, to be sure. Once you hear these tracks and become familiar with them, many will become classic and essential tracks for you. It's true a few might be throw aways, but for the most part, this is worth searching for, whether it's on CD or LP.