20 YEARS OF JETHRO TULL (THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION)

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.