LIVING IN THE PAST

Until a couple of months ago I had not listened to this album since 1972. Although I had good memories of the music on this double-LP, which was released a few months after "Thick As A Brick", I had forgotten just how good an album it is. Although technically a compilation of non-album singles and other recordings from 1968 to 1971, there are only four tracks from previous studio albums so it was effectively a new release.

I happened to see the CD going for a pittance in a sale and bought it. Unfortunately it's a single CD and the track list is slightly different to the double-LP release: the four tracks 'Bourée', 'Teacher', 'Alive And Well And Living In' and 'Hymn 43' are missing, and the two tracks 'Inside' and 'Locomotive Breath' have been added. That still leaves over 74 minutes of great music on the CD, though. And the two latter tracks are crackers.

It's much more accessible than "Thick As A Brick" but, hey, each song is damn good. 'By Kind Permission Of' and 'Dharma For One' are live tracks from a 1970 concert at Carnegie Hall. As the name of the first of these might suggest, it's primarily a medley of classical pieces and jazz played by Evans on the piano (see if you can pick out the Debussy, Beethoven and Chopin), with flute accompaniment from Anderson. I suppose some might consider the track as filler (barroom piano), but I like this 10-minute track nevertheless.

I started writing this review thinking that I would rate this as a 4-star album (Excellent addition to any progressive music collection) but the music sounds so good to me that I just can't bring myself to give it anything less than 5 stars. When one has a TULL album with twenty-one excellent tracks (nineteen in the case of the CD) then how on Earth can I give it anything else? Glad I rediscovered this classic after all these years.