Customer Reviews

Jethro Tull: Live at Madison Square Garden 1978 (DVD/CD)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Do this: buy this set. Insert the DVD into your video player. Choose 'Track select: Opening.' Then enjoy an hour of the most exceptional Jethro Tull footage heretofore released. Ask: When have you been so richly entertained for $20? But wait, there's more: add the audio tracks that precede and follow the DVD footage, and the companion CD you get, too.

We probably have this in common: the whole CD catalog, all the video released to date, the album where the band stands up, and the one that folds out as a newspaper. If I were to select a single favorite Jethro Tull product, it may very well be the concert telecast featured on this DVD. I simply can't recommend it more highly.

I bought this off of a UK site, worrying that the US would be ignored with this release. However you get it, just GET IT. If you're a Tull fan, you'll want this. The DVD is the complete 95 minute concert with only 50 minutes in video form and the rest of the show with photographs from the concert while the songs play live. The CD is a 78 minute version of the concert. Here's hoping Jethro Tull release more vintage footage in the near future.

I buy this DVD-CD yesterday ( Oct.7, 2009 ) in Istanbul.
I'm waiting this show's ( full ) video, since 1978.
Beleive it or not, this concert broadcast in Turkey sametime ! Not live broadcast in October 9, 1978 .. but same weekend ! On Oct.14, 1978 Saturday afternoon.... I couldn't beleive my eyes.
Oct.14, 1978 Saturday on TRT TV ( Turkish National Radio and TV ) Ian Anderson and Friends are coming in my house ! ( These years, Turkey has a one chanell TV and its Black & White ! )
I couldn't beleive my eyes and ears. I have a date with my girlfriend but I forget it... I freeze front of the TV ! ... Jethro Tull play "Thick As A Brick" in my Television ! Unforgetable moments in my life...
( I want to record it ( audio ) but I have no portable stereo recorder in TV room. I call my best friend an I tell him; "Please open your TV and please find a empty cassette and record it !" ... he use his sisters portable stereo recorder but he found only C60 cassette ONE SIDE !. Still, I save this cassette ! )

Maybe you know, this concert is the FIRST "Global Live TV Broadcast" ( with satellite )in the World History.

DVD contains 50 minutes live video of this amazing concert. Jethro Tull performance is best ( specially Martin ! )

Dear musiclovers, buy this DVD and watch the Jethro Tull magical moments in 1978.
Thank you IAN, at the end "MSG Live" in my hands. You carry me 31 years back.. with wonderfull memories.
Plese don't forget to check your dusty attic shelfs from time to time.

Thanks from Istanbul.

Bora Cetin
TULLTURK

I am a die hard Tull fan, and I am indeed going to buy this. But once again why does the video editor
have to take speed before he started to edit video?? It is like he isn't showing his value if he is not
blending camera images, and switching cameras at 1 ever 3 seconds! God, I hate that!!

It really degrades the performance because all we really want is to "Feel like we are there", but
give us a "Good seat", know the damn music so you know when to switch to lead guitar, drums, Tull.

It seems like the editor is some jackass from Cablevision that did the mixing because CV owns MSG??
This would make him the same dude that does camera coverage for the hockey games. OK, yes, there
you are switching angles every 3 500 milliseconds, but not for a concert.

Great concert. Normally when the video editing is this bad I pass. But when it is one of my Fav's
I have to live with it. I wouldn't hire this editor to edit my kids sweet 16 video. Jackass!
Took off two stars based on the unprofessional video editing, otherwise it would have been 5 stars.
Video Techs really are the scum of the music industry.

An abridged version of this concert has been floating around on video bootleg for at least 20 years. It's my favorite Tull bootleg of the 30 or 40 I have. They were ON FIRE on this night - I consider this their best live show ever.

If you are a fan of Tull's '70s-era music, do not hesitate. Buy this. You want it. I"m amazed and delighted that they decided to give it an authorized release. I'd give it 6 stars if I could.

During the early 70s, Tull concerts were a curious, explosive mix of heavy flute-driven blues rock, jazz influenced classical folk.... and comedy! kind of a rock concert-meets-circus, featuring non-rabbits, firemen, zebras, gorillas taking pictures of the audience, weather reports - at one point Anderson stopped the music during a ferocious hard rock passage to answer an on-stage "Tull-a-phone". As the music started again, without missing a beat, a soaking wet aqualung-clad scuba diver flapped across the stage in flippers to take the call. You never knew what would happen next... the shows were clever and funny, but the musicians were serious and rocked like no others - in my opinion, for a few years Jethro Tull was the most entertaining live rock band in the world. Throughout the early 70s they would come to town every summer on their US tours (Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, Passion Play, Warchild) and my high school friends and I looked forward to these concerts for months.

Now fast-forward a few years - to 1978 when this DVD was filmed. Many have stated that the "Heavy Horses" era was Tull's musical peak. I disagree. I think they had long since peaked and were by this point running out of ideas - so in the absence of strong new material they concentrated on honing and polishing their live performances to a note-perfect delivery of their repertoire. But the "surprise" factor - the creativity, humor and sheer wild-rock abandon that made their concerts such incredible experiences in earlier years - were all but gone. Still, it will be clear to anyone watching this DVD that Jethro Tull still put on an amazing performance in 1978, still peerless musicians in the rock arena.

I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD; Tull were as much fun to watch as they were to listen to. Maestro Anderson essentially conducts the group with his flute, leaping, twirling, spinning in perfect time with the music. But he's a camera magnet and the focus is almost exclusively on him while so much else is going on - like guitarist extraordinaire Martin Barre leaping onto the stage extension to riff it up during Locomotive Breath.

It's really only during the last few minutes of the show, as the balloons are heaved into the audience, that we get a glimpse of the old Tull energy - rocking out as John Evans, the group clown, abandons his organ to dive about and play air guitar.

Anderson wisely recorded a live album (Bursting Out) and filmed this concert in this same year because he knew the downhill slide was gaining speed and the end of their era was looming - already being labeled "dinosaurs" by the rock press, the "big tent" was about to come down. Two years later only Anderson and Barre remained to carry on the Tull name, and the glory days were over.

We're very fortunate to have this document of the powerful stage presence of this truly unique band.

This long awaited release will surely satisfy any fan of Jethro Tull. Electric performance from the band at the absolute peak of their live game! The version of "Thick as a Brick" featured here is the most dynamic and is my favorite video of all time, just a flawless, energetic performance of this classic. You also get the rest of the concert that was not filmed on audio, and sound quality is excellent! "Heavy Horses" in particular benefits from the remastering. A must have for Tull fans!

Seeing Jethro Tull live, several times during the 70's; it never ceased to amaze me, how diversified their music and stage presence was. The "Heavy Horses" tour, is but a small glimpse of 70's Tull, with their varied and unique releases, and accompanied tours all different from their previous ("War Child", "A Passion Play", etc). Large sports venues like MSG, were acoustically challenged, and still are to this day, yet is not an issue, surprisingly, with this technically well engineered DVD. You can hear every note, chord, and drum beat, with exceptional clarity. This rare VISUAL look at Jethro Tull, performing as this group of musicians, is a "Classic Event".
Should we thank Ian Anderson's God, that the international satellite broadcast, of Tull's 1978 MSG performance, is now available on DVD?
Watch and listen, to this excellent concert, in the comfort of your home. An audio only version is also included.

I bought this DVD for the classic and great footage of Ian doing "Thick as a Brick" live and wow is it sweet. Takes me back to the 1972 concert I saw them at in Tuscaloosa Alabama. They played the whole album..it was awesome especially since I had not ever heard of them or heard the music before. I've been a Tullie ever since. My only regret is that the whole concert did not make it on air...especailly the song "My God".
But the DVD is a keeper.

As a life long fan and having seen them numerous times dating back to the early 70's, this concert DVD/CD combo is a pretty good representation of what the concerts looked and sounded like back then. I think it's more of interesting look at the group at the time and the state of technology and television at the time. There is only 50 minutes of video, so the DVD part is quite limited by the television show it was appearing on in the UK. As for the CD part, it is very similar to "Bursting Out", so musically it is nothing new or different. For the long time fans who long for those days when the first chords of Aqualung, Cross eyed Mary and Locomotive Breath would bring an entire arena to its feet, this brings back some good memories. For those newer fans, it is a good sampler of what it was like when they were at their peak. I just wish someone had videotaped the entire concert.