Benefit

Jethro Tull | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• ASIN: B000008H1R
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (123 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,349,243 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Digitally remastered reissue of 1970 album includes four bonus tracks, 'Teacher' (Original UK Mix), 'Witch's Promise', 'Just Trying To Be' & 'Singing All Day'. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FOR THE BENEFIT OF TULL FANS, ONE GREAT ALBUM!!, April 12, 2005

By 

t'amant (WA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Benefit (Audio CD)

This is my favorite straight forward bluesy, rock, trippy Tull album. I listened to Benefit the most probably in the 70's (my teenage years), although I loved Stand Up, Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, Minstrel in the Gallery And Songs from the Wood about as much. Tull was one of my top bands then (and now) and I really feel that these albums are some of the best Rock has to offer. Benefit, as the best song-oriented album from the blues/rock stretch in my opinion, really stands out as the gelling of the Tull sound. Martin Barre found his confidence and ran with it while Ian Anderson really picked up the complexity level of his many contributions. Glenn Cornick's bass playing is outstanding and represents some of the best of the era, although this was his last gig with Tull. John Evan joins the band here and adds to the more layered quality and strangely seems to be the glue that binds that classic Tull sound. Other members seem to feed off of the new energy! Benefit feels to me very brooding and powerful...the psychedelic atmoshere is at a peak here as well. I am trying to describe why this album is one of the greats of all time to me, but words do little to describe the powerful emotional impact I feel for this one, for whatever reason...crank it up and feel for yourself! The Extra tracks are a great addition (Teacher was on the original American album) and the sound quality is at a new high. This is an essential recording of the era and a truly great bargain, although lyrics should have been included as well as better track notes (I like it better than Aqualung - newbies could begin here with confidence). Enjoy!!!

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still retains enough of the edginess and eccentricity, July 7, 2004

By 

loce_the_wizard "loce_the_wizard" (Lilburn, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Benefit (Audio CD)

"Benefit" remains my favorite Jethro Tull recording, likely for all the wrong reasons. First, this was the first session where Ian Anderson and his band mates embraced folk music over the blues-tinged sound of their earlier work. Next, Martin Barre sounds engaged, determined, and focused on guitar, and his strong effort here keeps the music well grounded (something that is a failing on some Tull recordings in my opinion). Third, John Evan's returns to the fold and adds some stellar work on keyboards that greatly enrichs the sound. Fourth, I liked Glen Cornick's bass lines better than those by any other Tull bass player. Fifth, Ian Anderson crafted some of his best lyrics for "Benefit," avoiding the ornate and tiring style on both his later and subsequent Jethro Tull recordings. Sixth, Mr. Anderson plays some inspired flute and contributes some excellent acoustic guitar that meshes wonderfully with Mr. Barre's amped up electric guitar.

This recording still retains enough of the edginess and eccentricity that caused Jethro Tull to stand out during the band's early years and that caught my ear way back when. I would recommend getting the remastered CD more for the improved sound quality than the bonus tracks (which aren't bad though).

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For the Benefit of All Who Care to Listen...., February 25, 2002

By 

Minstrel (Los Gatos, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Benefit (Audio CD)

Benefit marks the third and the last album of the early formative period of Jethro Tull. (The collection Living in the Past, released a couple of years later, is also from this period.) While the band's music has continually changed during this period, Benefit feels more a leap-forward than a gradual evolution. Much of the album sounds startlingly modern and experimental (particularly, Time For Everything, Play in Time) and must have sounded more so at the time of its release. The music is intricate and multi-layered, and yet somehow natural and organic, a feat that is well demonstrated in the opening song, With You There to Help Me. The crescendo of flute, keys, guitars (both acoustic and electric) and vocals is so carefully crafted, that one marvels at the cohesiveness of the piece. Yet, there is nothing gratuitous about it, with every note seeming to serve some higher aesthetic purpose. The use of instrumentation to convey texture and meaning to the song is indeed a novel aspect of the album. For instance, the introduction of the electric guitar in the otherwise acoustic Alive And Well and Living In provides a gritty feel to the song and serves to awaken the listener to the true import of the lyrics. But, the real revelation is Ian's voice and vocalizations. At times, stentorian and impassioned (Son, Nothing To Say) and, at times, tender and caring (Inside, For Michael Collins, Sossity), he bravely soars over the instrumentation and takes melodic centre stage. His lyrical themes do not depart significantly from previous material and, typically, focus on personal issues of life and love; however, the lyrics are more poetic and hint at the kind of imagery that Ian will turn to more in future work.

Benefit may lack the kind of individual masterpieces (except, perhaps, To Cry You a Song, which I don't much care for) that find everlasting life in "greatest-of" compilations or in live sets, but don't let this mislead you. This is THE album where Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson find their niche. Listen to it carefully, and you will see why Aqualung, Thick as a Brick and Passion Play had to happen.