THIS WAS

When checking my albums after having moved fr0om my old house, discovered that some CD's were missing and "This Was" is one of this albums, so being one of my favourite albums, went to the store and couldn't find anything except the "2008 Expanded "Deluxe" Remastered" version for which I don't care, being that I wanted the old simple version of "This Was in the way JETHRO TULL recorded it originally, not a box set with songs repeated two or three times, but nothing more was available so I went for it, after the owner took it to 50% it's price because he had it for several months with no interest.

With my new acquisition, went to my house and read the reviews of Prog Archives, and really surprised me the low ratings, seems that people don't understand that this JETHRO TULL is not the same Folksy one of "Thick as a Brick", but an excellent Blues band that deserves to be listened.

The album starts with "A Sunday Feeling", a fantastic Blues in which the peculiar sound of Ian's voice is obvious, the guy seems born for the this genre rather than for Folk (something that would change with the pass of time), and the use of the flute makes a good innovation for the era.

But the song wouldn't be complete without the outstanding guitar of Mick Abrahams, who really provides the Blues atmosphere to the track, fantastic opener if you don't expect a pastoral song.

"Some Day the Sun won't Shine for You" is an exceptional Southern Blues by a British band, with Ian Anderson demonstrating his versatility with a nostalgic harmonica performance, even the vocals are simply delightful, if I didn't knew this is JETHRO TULL; I would believe we're talking about a Mississippi band.

"Beggar's Farm" is an early transitional song, the first steps that JETHRO TULL gave towards their definitive sound, but still ascribed to Blues. Again the guitar of Abrahams really rocks, creating the perfect atmosphere, and the final flute section is breathtaking.

"Move on Alone" is a nice rack but not among the best in the album, some sort of light Blues with poppy orientation, so lets move to the jazzy "Serenade to a Cuckoo", a song in which they play some sort of ambient Jazz with a fantastic flute performance that finds a point of encounter with Classical music. another interesting performance.

"Dharma for One" is some sort of Psyche song in which all the members are allowed to jam a bit, and of course Clive Bunker plays one of his most memorable drum solos, JETHRO TULL was still in an internal fight between Ian Anderson and Mick Abrahams to decide what road they should take, and this eclectic material is a prove of this situation.

"It's Breaking me Up" and "Cat Squirrel" are two more excellent Blues, the first one more paused in the line of Classical Blues with harmonica and the second one closer to Blues based Rock with another impeccable guitar work by Abrahams.

"Song for Jeffrey" is pure aggression, with everything the recently born band had in the armoury, but now you can see the seeds of later TULL blended with Southern Blues, simply

The album ends with the short soft and jazzy "Round", nice ,music but only 1 minute long, works as a coda for the album and for the first Bluesy phase of JRTHRO TULL.

As usual, will ignore the bonus material, despite there are real masterpieces like "Teacher", but I like to review an album the way the artist released it originally. Of course I enjoy all the album, but my concern is to review the albums in the way I heard them back in the 70's.

Even when this is not what TULL fans will expect, I love this album from start to end, a good and well elaborate Prog Blues album with excellent moments that deserves 4 stars.