THE VERY BEST OF JETHRO TULL

I used to listen to JETHRO TULL's LPs a lot up to 1975 and enjoyed much of the music. A few years ago I decided I should at least get one or two CDs to reacquaint myself, and my solution - sacrilege to a purist or TULL fan - was to buy "Jethro Tull - The Very Best Of" and my old favourite, "Thick As A Brick".

The first thing that struck me when I played this 20-track CD was the number of well-known tracks TULL produced over the years. I still occasionally hear 'Living In The Past', 'Locomotive Breath', 'Bungle In The Jungle' and 'Bourée' on mainstream radio, which is a lot more than can be said for most other Progressive Rock bands. I won't trot out the track list, as it's given above, but they're all excellent. The tracks on this album were re-mastered from the original tapes. However, be warned that three of them were edited to fit ('Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young To Die', 'Heavy Horses' and 'Minstrel In The Gallery'), and 'Thick As A Brick' is faded-out at the 3-minute mark. I can sense TULL fans grimacing at this point, but the three edits do not bother me, although the fade-out of 'Thick As A Brick' is a pity for those who know the complete piece and the fact that it is a complete LP-side (two LP-sides, actually, as it would have been one long track had the media technology been available in 1972). But then, as I stated above, the other CD I bought was "Thick As A Brick", so I'm not bothered by it.

So, who should buy this CD? Well, someone such as myself who only wants a one-CD collection of the band's better-known pieces. It might also serve as a good introduction to someone who has never heard JETHRO TULL before: a tester that would help to decide whether to invest in the band's albums. And finally, it might even appeal to TULL fans wanting a single CD for the Walkman (but then real fans would have all the albums and just burn their own 'best of' compilation, I suppose). Single-CD 'best of' releases for bands with long careers - especially Prog bands, who tend to produce longer tracks - are always going to be a compromise. If you can get around that, the music on this CD is excellent, so I'm going to give it 4 stars (Excellent addition to any Prog Rock collection) despite the edits. It's nearly 78 minutes of great Progressive Rock, after all.