MINSTREL IN THE GALLERY

I always loved the thumping bass lines to the title track of the JETHRO TULL classic rocker "Minstrel In The Gallery". Now it sounds like the entire band is playing right on top of me thanks to the remastering process that all of this superb classic rock has gone through. As Ian ANDERSON explains with his insightful liner notes, the five-part "Baker Street Muse" is an amalgamation of delicate strings with a hard rocking foundation. No doubt none of this is easy to pull off on a primarily acoustic album with the concern of maintaining your rock-oriented audience. Somehow, these creative chaps were able to do it with their typical style and class and keep everyone happy. The amazing bass player Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond went out with bang on this album, exiting never to return nor pick up a bass again, instead he would go back to picking up the paintbrush.

The band continued their momentum and put out yet another stunning album, riding the wake of the runaway success "Warchild", and still creating some waves on the merits of their present achievement. By making a surprise right turn musically and giving their audience an acoustically based album with an Elizabethan flair, the faithful were caught off guard, but pleased. Their core audience was accustomed to rocking out and changing direction was risqué for a band that had built their following on solid consistency. This would prove that they knew exactly what they were doing though as it was a success regardless of the risk involved. They were the progenitors of prog-rock and the anointed court jester himself, Ian ANDERSON, spun his web and cast his spell with some mystical and medieval satirical lyrics tainted with cynicism, fantastic flute playing, and his own unique vocal style. How do you polarize the pumpkin eaters? Who else could come up with lyrics like that? Better yet, what does it all mean? That was the beauty and mystery of their music and it still is.

I loved hearing this album basking in the glory of this pristine sound. There is one thing that really pissed me off though, why include bonus tracks with just snippets of live songs? On "Minstrel In The Gallery" and "Cold Wind To Vahalla," you just start getting into it and it fades out. I just do not get it; why bother? It ended this experience on a negative note but just the same, there was too much to like about this CD and it is still well worth getting.