This Was (1968)
13 tracks, 47 minutes (2001 CD version)
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To compare two bands that have probably never been compared ever before, Jethro Tull are a bit like Maroon 5, who we talked about the other day. They both came out of the gates with a really strong album, but over the next few years, changed their sound rather dramatically.
Jethro Tull are now known as folk rock icons, albeit with a much heavier emphasis on the rock than the folk, but their debut album, This Was, is in quite a different realm. There are lots of cues from psychedelic rock and what would go on to be prog rock, and there are definitely elements taken from UK folk too, but what really sets this album apart from their later work is the heavy influence from blues and jazz. It’s these that really permeate every single track, whether they’re full-on country blues such as ‘Some Day the Sun Won’t Shine for You’ or the driving rock of ‘Dharma for One’ whose psychedelic elements bear a lot of resemblance to jazz fusion.
The unique blend of styles on this first album comes out of the fact that they had two main creative forces in the group at that time: singer and flautist Ian Anderson and guitarist Mick Abrahams. Anderson was definitely a jazz head and you can tell that by his tone, often imitative of Rahsaan Roland Kirk; Abraham was the one that brought the heaviest of the blues to the table.
You know by now that jazz and blues are two of the styles that most reliably hit me in the right spot, which is probably why this album is the one that does it for me. It’s not just those elements, of course; I love how they’re entwined with the rest of the sound in a way that sounds completely effortless. The way that a cover of Kirk’s ‘Serenade to a Cuckoo’ – an absolutely wonderful, flute-based instrumental track that I think is even better than the original – can sit alongside the heavy prog of something like ‘Cat’s Squirrel’ is a testament to that. The whole thing has a proper 60s production to it that really roots it in its time (in the best possible way) and it has performances to match: acidic, wry wit and intense musicianship all wrapped up in an exceeding amount of cool.
Shortly after This Was, Abrahams left the group after a falling out with Anderson over the musical direction and went on to found the group Blodwyn Pig (a lovely bit of bizarre music trivia is that, after Abrahams left, his first – if short-lived – replacement in Jethro Tull was Tony Iommi, lead guitarist of the band that were soon to be Black Sabbath). Blues stopped being a main element of their sound, and jazz fell by the wayside eventually too, to be replaced by more obvious folk roots, which then were faded out themselves in favour of a more standard rock sound.
It’s proper stereotypical to say of any artist ‘oh, I preferred their earlier work,’ not to mention strange, when we also – rightly, I think – expect artists to evolve in their work over time. Yet it’s such a common sentiment, and here I am saying the same thing twice in only a few days. There must be some reason for that mind-set, that has probably been discussed by better minds than mine. Answers on a postcard…
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