Stand Up [PA]

Performer: Jethro Tull
Distributor: Caroline Distribution

Notes: Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson (vocals, guitar, balalaika, mandolin, flute, mouth organ, Hammond B-3 organ); Martin "Lancelot" Barre (electric guitar, flute); Glen Cornick (bass); Clive Bunker (drums, percussion). Additional personnel: David Palmer (arranger, conductor). Producers: Terry Ellis, Ian Anderson. Principally recorded at Morgan Studios, London, England. Includes liner notes by Ian Anderson. People often forget that Tull started out as a forward-looking blues-rock unit not dissimilar to contemporaries like Cream and Led Zeppelin. While the blues influence is heard most clearly on the debut THIS WAS, its successor STAND UP still shows some of those traces. Tracks like "A New Day Yesterday" and "Nothing Is Easy" are the prime examples of this hard-hitting, bluesy riff-rock approach. Elsewhere, though, the boys begin to show some of the folk, jazz, and classical influences that would soon make them a leading exponent of progressive rock. "Bouree" is a flute-led instrumental track that combines Ian Anderson's improvisations with melodic bass work that's alternately jazzy and classical-influenced. The melancholy folk-rock feel of "Look Into the Sun" makes for an emotionally affecting, introspective ballad. The light-hearted "Fat Man" incorporates folk influences with an Eastern-sounding balalaika melody. STAND UP is a portrait of a band in transition, on its way to bigger things, but it's still eminently enjoyable.

Rolling Stone (12/13/69, p.54) - "...quite marvelous....[Ian Anderson] revels a melodic gift on this album...a fuller awareness of the coloristic possibilities of the flute, and a catholicity of taste....a meticulously crafted work, which deserves careful listening..." Q (11/01, p.139) - 4 out of 5 stars - "...One of prog rock's neglected classics..."

Led by the charismatic, flute-wielding Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull began as a somewhat Led Zeppelin-like, bluesy hard-rock band. Before long the balance tipped to courtly, Elizabethan-sounding progressive rock tinged with folk and marked by tricky time changes and long suites. Though they were masters of the concept album (THICK AS A BRICK, AQUALUNG), Tull was able to churn out hook-laden hard-rock riffs that guaranteed them a permanent place on classic-rock playlists the world over.

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