One more from the Road from Skynyrd is one heck of a live album. I think i angered an entire rival fraternity late one night when I opened my window and cranked 'Gimme Three Steps' on my sterio at almost full 80 watts per channel power (my speakers were very efficient). Needless to say, it got their attention. Members of both frats ended up wrastling around in the courtyard..
Strange as it may seem but I have not yet purchased Roots to Branches. Tull released that album shortly before i became a reborn Jethro Tull fanatic. The only songs i've heard from the album are the title track (Ian's lyrics have a strange relevance to 9 11) and 'Rare and Precious Chain'. I know it's just a matter of time until i purchase the CD. What i'll probably do is buy Roots to branches at the same time i purchase the next three Tull remastered CD's which are due in American stores sometime this month.
For me, Bursting Out remains the best live album from the best live progressive rock act in history. Tull rocked out like The Who, were as funny as the Kinks and were serious as Yes...
And what a setlist!!! I can't argue with any song on that setlist. They draw heavily on the classics - 'Minstrel In The Gallery', 'Too Old To Rock'n'Roll', 'Songs From The Wood', 'Skating Away', to name a few - trimming them down mercilessly to fit into the long program (that's not bad at all) and decorating them with tasteful gimmicks, like all those swooping keyboard noises in 'Skating Away' or bits of boogie-woogie on 'Too Old To Rock'n'Roll'. They even go as far as to resuscitate 'A New Day Yesterday', and deliver a fiery, crunchy version that suddenly comes to an abrupt stop halfway through and goes into Anderson's 'Flute Solo Improvisation'. It's worth owning the whole double CD for this piece of music alone. It really showcased Ian as the lord G-d of the instrument. Nobody can play like he does - those fast, pulsating puffs and whuffs are enough to thrill a stone. And when he occasionally descends into 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' and 'Bouree' on the way, wow... these are moments of Medieval Folk Catharsis. Beautiful, stupendous, exciting... what else? Nothing.
Other highlights include a severely abridged 'Thick As A Brick'. They didn't have the time (nor the wish, I think) to perform the suite in its entirety, so they just took a small bunch of segments, but they took most of the best ones, right? I don't think Martin Barre is as hot on this version as on the Madison Square Garden version from the same year (which is in the 20 Years Of Jethro Tull video), but he's hot. Hot enough. And, of course, the audience goes mad on the obligatory Aqualung crowd faves: 'Cross-Eyed Mary' is especially good, with Ian drowning the venue in his sea of flute sound, but 'Locomotive Breath' comes close (I like the version on A Little Light Music a little more, but then again, that one's a little more metallic, so guess it's a tie), and the title track is no slouch, either. Funniest moment: at the end of the show, Anderson reprises 'Aqualung', and changes the lyrics to sing 'goodbye, my friends, don't you start away uneasy', and then quickly realizes he has to mumble the next line, because he's got to sing 'you poor old sods, you see it's only me'; so he sings something like 'you poor old sons, you see it's only... could be anybody?' Heh heh. You poor old sod, you just made a spectacular live album!
Sorry, nope. (But thanks for playing our game.)
Waiting for Columbus - Little Feat. That's the one.