Martin Barre

50 Years Of Jethro Tull

(Store For Music)

9/10

By Decibel Report - Nov 25, 2020

Regrettably, for the music business, 2020 will unquestionably be remembered for presenting a major viral event forcing the entire live music industry to press the pause button. Conversely, 2020 has also dropped the needle on no little number of milestone musical anniversaries; some of which count back to a pivotal turn of a decade when the sixties elided into the seventies.
One of these many 50th anniversary milestones isn’t really a commemorative release from 1970 at all, more a celebration of fifty years worth of unparalleled, eccentric and musically immersive body of works ever created in the modern blues, folk, progressive and rock genres. Jethro Tull, through the imaginative songwriting pen of Ian Anderson, melded storytelling narratives with a constant and canny ADHD change of musical stylings making their albums and almost every song standalone.
Yet, none of this would have impressed quite as much without the top drawer instrumental talents that passed through this legendary group; one of whom has been a constant, first album notwithstanding, presence throughout. Martin Lancelot Barre is that singular presence who has compiled a personal retrospective album of his favourite Tull tracks from the past 50 years.

For Tull fans who avidly collect every release, the first CD is a set of live choices reminding of The Beacons Bottom Tapes to be found in the Tull 25 Years box set, a rare collection which demands a premium price on both Discogs and eBay. Live At Factory Underground is an on-point choice of judiciously selected Tull classics beautifully arranged and played by Barre and his band of well-travelled modern-day minstrels and reminding of the power and passion of these songs when sharply executed this precisely in a live setting. A riffing of both thud and thunder - My Sunday Feeling, Hymn 43, Back To The Family, Steel Monkey - rubs elbows with a sophisticated sonic approach - Sea Lion, Teacher, Love Story - superbly showcasing Barre’s six-string finesse which branded Tull’s sound with his trademark fretwork.

Tacked onto the end of CD2’s interesting sequence of personal studio favourites -Under Wraps, The Waking Edge, Slow Marching Band etc - are four previously unavailable live bonus tracks with the rarely aired Warchild and Bungle In The Jungle expressing Barres’ Band modus operandi of giving the die-hard Tull fans what they really want!

It’s terribly sad to know that none of these songs will be played ever again by Anderson and Barre sharing a stage, nevertheless, this album does go some way in cauterising the wounds created by Jethro Tull’s enforced retirement.