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44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Aptly Named: The Stormy Side of Jethro Tull, July 9, 2004
It was late autumn of 1979 and Tull was on tour again. I was sitting in some nondescript seats in the nosebleed section of the Pittsburgh Civic Arena (owing to my meager student's living wages) waiting to see my favorite band in the world. The stage was a setpiece of ship's rigging cast in blue and green lights -very dark and oppressive. The band was on a low note, as John Glascock had recently died and they were touring with a substitute bass player. As if that wasn't bad enough, an announcer came on stage to introduce the band, stating that J.T. had cancelled their last three shows because some idiot had thrown a glass bottle on the stage and a piece of glass had gotten into Ian Anderson's eye. Be warned!, this was their first night back and they weren't going to put up with any nonsense. The band took the stage to thunderous applause, and a bespectacled Ian came forward playing a flute intro. Not two minutes into the show, another moron threw a bottle onto this stage, and quick as a flash - Ian stopped the show! He clearly was pissed, and threatened to leave right away unless somebody pointed out who threw the bottle and had them expelled. Obviously, the jerk was quicky ushered out and the band was ready to start again, but not before David Palmer gave a proper dressing down to the audience, telling us all we'de better f***ing well sit in our seats and listen! What a start to the night!Well, the show went on very nicely from there, a great set that closely matched the "BURSTING OUT" album with some of the new songs scattered throughout. The band, consumate professionals all, played flawlessly, and the left the crowd satisfied, but it is no wonder Ian and Martin look back at this album and tour as a kind of dark period in their history. The album itself has a darker mood; the last album of the 70's, and the last Tull album for Barlow, Evans and Palmer. Moving subtley away from the folkish and dealing with more worldly and political themes, the album is an examination of the troubled times in which we were all living. But don't be put off by this darker mood, there are some GREAT tunes on this disc. The highlight for me was the evocotive DUN RINGILL, but other absolutely stunning tunes include SOMETHING ON THE MOVE, ORION, FLYING DUTCHMAN, and NORTH SEA OIL. The original album ended with David Palmer's sad but beautiful ELEGY, a song fittingly marking the end of an era. The bonus tracks on this edition include CROSSWORD, with some rocking guitar licks by Martin Barre; KELPIE, a more folkish tune with a rollicking flute passage that frequently finds it's way into Ian's solos even to this day; and KING HENRY'S MADRIGAL, another David (Dee) Palmer instrumental piece that really showcases the band's impressive playing abilities. As I said, a dark album, but satisfying nonetheless and worth every penny.
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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Darlings, are you ready for the long winter's fall?', August 28, 2004
I've been waiting for the remastered CD of this one for a long time. I had the original vinyl but managed to miss out on the earlier CD release, which I guess was available for about a week and a half sometime in the 1990s. At any rate, it's long been one of my three favorite Tull releases. Guess which ones are the other two.
Of course they're this one's two predecessors in Ian Anderson's 'English countryside' trilogy. He exuberantly and bawdily celebrated that countryside on _Songs from the Wood_, and took a hard-eyed look at its pragmatic realities on _Heavy Horses_; here, he rather gloomily presided at its funeral. And this is without doubt one of the darkest entries in Tull's long catalogue.
That's not only because it was devoted in large measure to environmental concerns. (Note to youngsters: in those pre-'greenhouse' days, the environmentalists' forecast du jour called for a new ice age.) It's also because this release marked both the end of the great 1970s Tull lineup and the impending death of bassist John Glascock. (Glascock had recorded just three tracks for this album before Anderson benched him for health reasons -- and took over the bass duties himself, unsurprisingly doing an altogether fine job.) The funereal atmosphere here is eerily appropriate to the developments in Tull's real-world life -- including especially David (now Dee) Palmer's majestic 'Elegy', which is easy to hear retroactively as a tribute to Glascock (even though it obviously wasn't originally intended as such).
_Stormwatch_ is great to have on CD. Even though I haven't had the vinyl in years, I still know every word and note of all my old favorites (especially the haunting 'Dun Ringill', but all the rest as well).
As I said, I didn't have the earlier CD release, so I can compare this one only to the vinyl LP. And as with the earlier remasters, there's a tremendous wealth of sonic detail here that was worn off the vinyl long ago. There's lots of nice work by the entire band here; in addition to the excellent performances we know to expect from Martin Barre, the remastering brings out e.g. some nice pianistics by John Evan and Palmer's fine string arrangements. But as on _Heavy Horses_, the main beneficiary is percussionist Barrie Barlow, whose work is _so_ subtle that it was the first stuff the needle scraped off. (Another note to youngsters: when Anderson sings that he's 'a needle on a spiral in a groove', he's referring to an ancient technology that irremediably damaged musical recordings through the mere process of playing them.)
Other comments have suggested that transient peaks may have been lost by recording these remastered tunes at too high a volume level. I can't tell from the sound (again, no earlier CD to compare it to) -- but as I watch the spectrum display I do see those levels peaking out alarmingly often, so there may well be something to this claim. Caveat auditor.
The extra tracks are nice too (and two of them are available on other Tull collections), but I won't comment on them since I assume no one is buying this CD especially for those. Me, I'd have paid the same price even if they hadn't been there at all.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great sonic upgrade of a Tull classic., April 18, 2004
This is definitely one of those titles in the Tull catalog that the fans feel strongly about. As I write this review, all of the other reviews currently posted are either 5 stars or 1 star reviews.
This is one third of Tull's late 70s output and the three albums released in 1977-79 represent kind of a trilogy for me, although they really don't relate to each other in any real or intentional way. Each of the three albums seems kind of seasonal to me, with 1978's "Heavy Horses" giving me a definite summer feel, 1977's "Songs From The Wood" feeling very autumn-like, and the lyrically dark and icily imaged "Stormwatch" from 1979 representing the cold, dark winter.
Anyone reading this probably already knows how they feel about the music, and my 5 stars obviously shows how I feel, so I'll just offer this information to any Tull fans who liked this album and are wondering whether or not to get this reissue. The mastering is much better than what was offered on the original CD release. Everything's cleaner and brighter and the music definitely sounds better than ever before. As with other Tull reissues, there are bonus tracks, the best here being the single "A Stitch In Time" and "King Henry's Madrigal" from the European "Home" EP. The booklet contains all of the lyrics, pictures of single and EP sleeves and concert memorabilia, and notes from Ian Anderson.
A first rate job from Chrysalis and Capitol.
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by Jethro Tull 
