Customer Reviews

Jethro Tull: Jack in the Green - Live in Germany 1970-93

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a nice video for a Tull fan, although it seems odd they would release this when there's no official DVD of their classic golden age throughout the 70s! Despite the "1970-1993" subtitle, most of this DVD comes from the mid-80s Tull with Peter Vettese on keys.
The first 1/2 or so is a show from the Broadsword & The Beast tour. Sadly, despite Ian's liner notes of the elaborate pirate ship stage show, this (and the rest of the disc) has no stage "show" to speak of save musicians playing instruments. The set list (although abbreviated - only about 7 proper songs) is a nice mix of then-new, classic early 70's, and (a treat for us fans who've missed this material in recent Tull performances) some gems from the late 70's. Ian's voice was still great. Martin's guitar is rather shreddingly metal. Gerry Conway's rather basic drumming on the new material is countered with some nice playing on the classic stuff - he adds his own percussive touch to Heavy Horses, not Barrie Barlow but fine drumming nonetheless. Peter Vettese gets a chance to show off his chops in an extended keyboard solo, which is welcome. Dave Pegg, of course, is there to provide his excellent bass skills and some backing vocals. A note - I'm pretty sure it's an abridged version of Heavy Horses, though! There is a nice instrumental jam of "Black sunday" at the end of the show.
The next batch of performances come from a few years later: 1986, where Gerry Conway has been replaced on drums by Doane Perry (who would go on, with a few breaks, to be Tull's longest-standing drummer). The real shock here is how much Ian's voice has deteriorated - unfortunately Tull's least popular album "Under Wraps" also strained Ian's voice (he's never been the same since, although sometimes better than others). It's a shame because thy do some great songs: an (also abridged) rocking version of Hunting Girl, a long (10-minutish) bit of Thick As A Brick, and one of their best early-80's songs "Black Sunday" (this time with vocals). (There's also an OK version of the OK songs "Too Old To Rock'n'Roll, Too Young To Die"). The treat here, though, is some nice instrumental jams - Pegg brings out some of his Fairport folk for a bit, and Martin does a guitar showcase that really gets good when Ian's flute and the band come in. One final note on the '86 stuff - the camera tends to wander off and waste time showing the sound engineers and people walking through the audience for no apparent reason!
Then there's a couple tunes from '93 of old material. A performance of "My Sunday Feeling" sounds great - Ian's voice may be weaker now, but he's using it to best effect at least, and then-new keyboard player Andy Giddings sounds great. The other song from this era is a fun acoustic performance of an old blues standard (at least that's what it sounds like - I'm unfamiliar with the song). The band in these two songs seems to really be enjoying themselves!
The DVD ends with some early TV footage, from 1970. "With You There To Help Me" goes into the (unlisted) John Evan showpiece "By Kind Permission Of" (which would have been a selling point for me - don't know why it's not listed on the DVD case!). Followed by a rocking "Nothing Is Easy" (with a false start) which just ends suddenly mid-way when someone makes a mistake!
It all seems to be TV recordings - only the 80's stuff is actual concert footage, and there's various song titles and program text up on the screen throughout.
Not a bad release, especially for the various jam and improv bits, although it seems a shame we don't get to see the stage show!

This dvd of Jethro Tull live in Germany is, in a word, GREAT. This contains some of the clearest footage of Tull in concert I have ever seen.
And what a treat to see the "Broadsword and the Beast" era Tull on a concert video.And the sound..well, it's very clear and precise, and what more could a Tull fan ask for? In my opinion, the footage of the Broadsword tour is worth the price alone. Highly recommended to any Jethro Tull fan.

I own this on VHS and converted it to DVD. An excellent show from German TV in 1982 with multi camera angles, etc. The Broadsword LP live. Eventually I'll probably buy the official release to make up for the mediocre quality my VHS had. Any Tull fan will be happy.

This "Jack in the Green" DVD was filmed in Germany at various times over a 20 year period, and manages to capture a fantastic band playing some of their best music.

The audio and video quality is surprisingly good for the time period in which it was shot. Tull's front man, Ian Anderson, is full of energy and his voice is strong (something that later became a problem for him). He is a truly amazing performer, and is in rare form on this disc. Martin Barre, Tull's lead guitar player, is also featured and, once again, displays that he is one of the underrated guitarists of all time.

Jethro Tull has always been very popular in Germany, and the shows reflect their enthusiasm for playing there and the fans' appreciation for the band.

This is definitely worth a purchase, because you will want to watch it again and again.

This is a 'must have' for Jethro Tull/Ian Anderson enthusiasts. The quality of the audio, and especially the video, is very good, and the selection of numbers is wide-ranging and representative of the breadth of Tull's music.
Buy it -- you'll be glad you did.

For years I have been waiting for a good DVD of the classic Jethro Tull to be released. And, while this comes close, I'm still waiting. But at least it's not an example of the worst of the type - you know what I'm talking about, a classic band releases a concert DVD and you check it out only to find it's one or two original members and a bunch of young guys you've never heard of and it was recorded 6 MONTHS AGO!!! I hate that, especially since you KNOW there is classic footage of said band available!! And yes, I know the 1970 Isle of Wight concert is available but, to me, it's not true classic Tull either, it's just a little TOO early.

Jack in the Green is a pretty good Jethro Tull live DVD, but don't let the "recorded between 1970 - 1993" fool you. The overwhelming majority of this DVD is from the 1980s, you get exactly one song from 1970 and one song from 1971.

The largest part is the 1982 RockPop concert that has been available in bootleg and import versions for over 25 years. But it is a pretty good set list (Hard Time, Heavy Horses, Sweet Dream, Aqualung and Locomotive Breath) and you do get a pristine copy with excellent video and your choice of DTS or Dolby 5.1.

You also get `Hunting Girl' from 1986 and 4 songs from a different 1986 concert, including a Thick as a Brick medley that is slightly different from the usual 13 minute version that we usually get (Bursting Out, Essential, etc) and a version of `Black Sunday' that is superior to the one that opens the movie Slipstream.

So, in my opinion, this is probably the best Jethro Tull that is currently available on DVD, if you are looking for something a little more than 3-4 years old. (And I won't even mention the `New Day Yesterday' DVD. One thing that REALLY pisses me off is when they interrupt the videos with more interviews. If I buy the thing for the music they darn well better let me finish the videos!!!) So why do I say close but no cigar and only give this 4 stars? Easy, the perfect Jethro Tull IS out there!!! In 1988, to go along with the 3 disc `20 years of Jethro Tull' Box Set, Virgin Video released a similarly titled VHS that IS the greatest visual record of Tull that exists!!

A 90 minute Stereo Hi-Fi tape, `20 Years of Jethro Tull' the video contains live versions of Think as a Brick, Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses, Aqualung and Locomotive Breath, ALL from 1977 and featuring the classic line-up of Barriemore Barlow, Jeffery Hammond Hammond, John Evans, Martin Barre, etc, etc. It also has conceptual videos of The Whistler, Steel Monkey, Jump Start and many more. Why this MASTERPEICE isn't on DVD is a mystery known only to the eggheads that control Jethro Tull properties, of which I am sure Ian Anderson is one of. I gave up on them pulling their collective heads out and used a capture card to put it on a DVDr myself, but would still pay good money for a pro-release in 5.1. Until that happens my DVDr, and this Jack in the Green DVD, will have to do.

Pure Gold Vintage Tull. First, we have a DVD without breaks or comments during songs - Full Songs are Great. I find other DVDs with the comments and chatter mid-song a distraction.

The picture quality is excellent, even with the picture expanded. For the age of the film stock I was surprised at the clarity, even in the brighter scenes. I noted a prior review which indicated the picture quality was grainy - Mine was not through a 480P DVD player (Does not upconvert) and a 1080I 50 inch TV.

As some reviewers point out, the surround sound is a bit off - But with some tweaking of your system, the sound is excellent. The dolby 5.1 does sound somewhat muddy. The DTS soundstage has good high notes, but the low bass was just a little quiet. The stereo soundtrack actually sounded pretty good, but still needed slight improvement.

I tried a few other sound modes in stereo with different decoder settings and was still not completely satisfied. I found the best setting was to set the DVD audio to DTS 5.1, and then set my amp to 7 ch stereo - WOW - what a difference. The sound filled the room perfectly and the sub-woofer was ripping.

Never to Old to Rock and Roll....

j.

I've been a Tull fan most of my adult life and have all of their commercially released albums and CDs as well as their DVDs. I was fortunate enough to be in the Air Force stationed in Germany during this period from 1983-88 and was at the "Out in the Green" concert (although we dubbed it the "Out in the Rain" concert and I still have the ticket stubs). I also was fortunate enough to have attended the Rocksummer 86 concert which was outstanding.

The first 9 songs on the DVD are from 82 and feature Ian when his voice was still strong. "Hunting Girl" is the only song from the 1986 "Rocksummer" tour followed by a slightly different version of Thick As A Brick from the "Out in the Green" show.

Skip to 1993 next and one of my favorite Tull songs "My Sunday Feeling". You can tell Ian's voice has deteriorated some and he struggles to hit the high notes. The last two songs from 70 - 71 from the Beat Club feature "With you There to Help Me" and (as previously mentioned) fades into "By Kind Permission Of" which sounds almost identical to the Living in the Past rendition.

Overall, for a Tull fan, this is a must have for your collection. For the casual listener, a mixed bag. While there are great songs featured, the last song, "Nothing is Easy" is just a rehearsal and Ian has some type of pain in his left side causing him to stop in the middle of the song. They try to play it through again, but they get about half way through, then Ian holds his ribs and says he can't play it. Fade to black. When I watched it I was thinking, what the hell was that? Why bother including a half hearted attempt at a rehearsal song? They might as well have feature the guy sweeping the floor after the show. They definitely should have left that on the cutting room floor and included a live or at least a complete rehearsal song. Also as previously mentioned, the camera work leaves a bit to be desired. Not the quality, the picture is excellent, but why keep showing 20 seconds of the audience watching the show and people going in and out?

Overall, an outstanding DVD but the editing, at least for me, left a bit to be desired.

Great quality video. A must have for true Jethro Tull fans. Some great footage of Tull in past years. They haven't lost it!

This video is a really great show. Ian never seems to quit. Always a fantastic performance by Jethro Tull. A timeless treasure to please all fans of this great band.