THIS WAS

THIS WAS was the first album relesed by one of my all time favorite bands JETHRO TULL back then in 1968 ( almost 40 years old..scary!!). JETHRO TULL has build a monumental catalogue of wonderful music through the ages, wonderful albums for the ages!! There is only one JETHRO TULL, there have never been clones of JETHRO TULL, because the music, their sound, their voice , ...and their flute were so unique , it' impossible to copy.

This is not blues, this is not Jazz, this is not folk, this is not hard rock,this is not britsh country, this is not prog, this is JETHRO TULL, the only band that has assimiliated every kind of music, only to produce something unique; the JT sound.

Did i mention the name of IAN ANDERSON yet? this is the genial scot architect behind this venture and should be remembered as one of the best composer of the second part of the 20th century: he had everything, a voice, an ability to play many instruments, and canny creativity to come up with wonderful music year after year.Just imagine the world of ROCK without JT!

At the time of the release of TIME WAS, Great Britain music scene was under the blues boom.This was the time of CREAM, FLEETWOOD MAC (Peter Green version), JOHN MAYALL. Even the Beatles were recording some kind of blues (YER BLUES remember!) Of course, if you wanted to make it as a successfull band back then, it was a wise idea to play blues; you know, follow the trend! Unless your name was SYD BARETT or KEVIN AYERS, it was the recommendable thing to do!

And among many new bands coming out in 1968, JETHRO TULL came out with a --relatively--blues album! the best way to succeed,i guess. Also it is worth noticing that at this time JETHRO TULL was a band with 2 heads!! Yes, IAN ANDERSON is well present, singing, playing his flute and composing but he had to share the spotlight with no slouch guitarist MICK ABRAHAMS, the bluesman of the band. This is the first time-and last time- that IAN ANDERSON would share writing credits with someone else. To give you an idea, there are 4-no less- instrumentals like CATS SQUIRELL giving ABRAHAMS plenty of room to show his skills.

So what do we have here? a very interesting album, with a lot of blues of course, but also with a lot of signs that tell us which way JETHRO TULL would go in the future. Just listen to A SONG FOR JEFFREY , the JT sound is there already. There are ABSOLUTELY no bad tracks on this album; each one of them is pleasure to listen to such as the jazzy cover of SERENADE TO A CUCKOO from R. KIRK to the energetic MY SUNDAY FEELING.

TIME WAS a blues album?? yes, of course but it was already more than that!! that was already JETHRO TULL, a lot of Andersoneries, a lot of flute, a lot of what will makr JT great!!

One more thing: JETHRO TULL is the only band that have all their albums released in remastered CDs with WORTHY ''bonus'' tracks. Almost each one! and TIME WAS in no exception ; THE 3 additional tracks are wonderful music, especially CHRISTMAS SONG! This is one of the JT album i listen to often, and still with a great deal of pleasure!

Don't you wish someone would release in 2007 music like that? let's be honest! TIME WAS and it was great!

3 STARS for original labum i would give 3.5 to 4 stars because of the bonus tracks , so will be..

4 STARS!

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