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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2012 17:18:17 GMT
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Post by maddogfagin on Jan 11, 2012 18:43:00 GMT
The dates seem to be correct. Originally issued in the UK in both mono and stereo versions - the mono version was deleted after a few weeks.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2012 20:58:36 GMT
The dates seem to be correct. Originally issued in the UK in both mono and stereo versions - the mono version was deleted after a few weeks. Thanks Maddog. I wasn't so sure about the American date.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2012 20:59:58 GMT
Oh yeah, MONO RULES for THIS WAS.
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2012 13:23:50 GMT
more Canadian content; CBC Jethro Tull used to be a blues band - by Chris Martin on May 16, 2012 music.cbc.ca/#/blogs/2012/5/Jethro-Tull-used-to-be-a-blues-bandIn the rock ’n’ roll world, the blues seems to go two ways: it is where a band starts, or where a band ends up. In our blues blogs we have a nice piece on Mark Lanegan. As the lead singer of the Seattle based grunge band Screaming Trees, Lanegan’s career rose to prominence with the guitar-driven, post-punk sound. With age and maturity, Lanegan has refined his rock angst into a less abrasive yet more focused sound, encompassed in the blues. Back in the late ’60s it was the other way around. Take Jethro Tull, for instance. Flute-wielding Ian Anderson and crew have long been known for their intricately composed, folk-drenched, progressive, thinking-man’s rock. Rock operas, overtures and grandiose displays of verbose, literary storytelling have been the mode of Jethro Tull “almost” since the start of their career, now topping 43 years. Almost is the key word. The spanner in the works is their very first disc from 1968, entitled This Was. The album stands apart from the 20 albums that followed by virtue of it being essentially a blues album. Anderson is the sole Tull member who has been in the group from the start. Martin Barre has been the second longest-running member and lead guitar player since the band’s second release from 1969, Stand Up. Before Barre, however, the lead guitarist in Jethro Tull was Mick Abrahams. Abrahams came to Anderson’s attention while leading a blues band called McGregor's Engine. He lasted with Jethro Tull for only one album, departing in dispute over the decidedly non-blues direction Anderson had envisioned. For the bluesiest of Tull have a listen to "It's Breaking Me Up" from This Was. As most young disgruntled musicians do, Anderson and Abrahams have made amends and have supported each other musically in recent years. Abrahams is still a purveyor of the blues; Anderson is still not. Related: Steppenwolf Bill Wyman Shades of Blues
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Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2012 15:07:17 GMT
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Post by maddogfagin on Nov 2, 2012 8:54:37 GMT
US copy Nice to see these scans muzyckFor myself the opening bars of "My Sunday Feeling" still raise the hairs on the back of my neck and send me back down the years to somewhat innocent days. I still have my rather worn mono copy (the only way to listen to the album is in glorious mono imo) and it has pride of place in my Tull collection. I've also got an original UK pink Island Records cassette copy, that too is rather battered after many years of heavy usage in the car cassette player. Cheers
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Post by maddogfagin on Nov 4, 2012 9:59:58 GMT
It's a pity that there were no songs left unused from the recording sessions for This Was.
It's also a crying shame that, apart from the bootlegs of the BBC Radio 1 sessions, there are no audience recordings of the band at this early stage in their career, featuring Mick Abrahams.
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Post by journeyman on Feb 18, 2013 19:44:04 GMT
When you set this album apart of the rest of the band's repertoire, it really does stand out among the british blues scene of the day. Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, John Mayall and all them did make some good stuff here and there, but I can see how "This Was" would have been mightily refreshing--the introduction of the flute into british blues, some of the songs were much more experimental, and most of all they weren't trying to be purist in any way. A pretty solid album.
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Post by maddogfagin on Feb 18, 2013 20:16:22 GMT
When you set this album apart of the rest of the band's repertoire, it really does stand out among the british blues scene of the day. Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, John Mayall and all them did make some good stuff here and there, but I can see how "This Was" would have been mightily refreshing--the introduction of the flute into british blues, some of the songs were much more experimental, and most of all they weren't trying to be purist in any way. A pretty solid album. It was like a breath of fresh air journeyman. I love "This Was" and the opening riff to My Sunday Feeling still sends a shiver down my spine. My parents hated it - so it was all right with me ;D Strange you should post this today as I've been chatting today with a friend of ours who used to go to the same concerts as we did back in the late 60's/early 70's and the Star Club in Croydon was mentioned. We saw Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Tull etc at The Star and many acts at the Fairfield Halls including Derek & The Dominoes, Delaney & Bonnie, Pentangle, etc., and the original Fleetwood Mac at the Star and also at the Eden Park Hotel over in Beckenham. Great days, wonderful memories and something to tell the granddaughters - oh hang on, I've already told them and they weren't that impressed
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Post by maddogfagin on Apr 13, 2013 9:58:42 GMT
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Post by maddogfagin on Jun 15, 2013 9:50:49 GMT
A few worldwide "This Was" vinyl album covers. Italy (first pressing without MA on front cover).
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Post by Tull50 on Jun 15, 2013 18:53:37 GMT
This Was, Collector's editionCD - BookBook Cover Book Cover Pages 2-3 Book Cover Pages 4-5 Book Cover Pages 6-7 Book Cover Pages 8-9 Book Cover Pages 10-11 Digi-In 1-2 Digi-In 3-4 Digi-Out 1-2 Digi-Out 3-4
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Post by maddogfagin on Sept 9, 2013 13:05:21 GMT
Dr. Isiah Ross with his song Cat Squirrel.
Published on 31 Mar 2012 by Sophisticated Savage
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Post by journeyman on Sept 20, 2013 0:21:10 GMT
There are a few pictures in this thread (the posts are too long to reproduce by quote) where Clive Bunker does not have a mustache. Even though I have seen them dozens of times before, I never really registered that. He looks very different.
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Post by elberto on May 7, 2014 15:45:02 GMT
A new vinyl version of THIS WAS with new stereo mixes from 40th annyversary collector's edition will be released on june 2014 :-)
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Post by maddogfagin on May 7, 2014 15:50:52 GMT
A new vinyl version of THIS WAS with new stereo mixes from 40th annyversary collector's edition will be released on june 2014 :-) Interesting. Love the mono mix of This Was - can't beat some mono now and again
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Post by morthoron on May 8, 2014 2:57:29 GMT
When you set this album apart of the rest of the band's repertoire, it really does stand out among the british blues scene of the day. Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, John Mayall and all them did make some good stuff here and there, but I can see how "This Was" would have been mightily refreshing--the introduction of the flute into british blues, some of the songs were much more experimental, and most of all they weren't trying to be purist in any way. A pretty solid album. It was like a breath of fresh air journeyman. I love "This Was" and the opening riff to My Sunday Feeling still sends a shiver down my spine. My parents hated it - so it was all right with me ;D Strange you should post this today as I've been chatting today with a friend of ours who used to go to the same concerts as we did back in the late 60's/early 70's and the Star Club in Croydon was mentioned. We saw Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Tull etc at The Star and many acts at the Fairfield Halls including Derek & The Dominoes, Delaney & Bonnie, Pentangle, etc., and the original Fleetwood Mac at the Star and also at the Eden Park Hotel over in Beckenham. Great days, wonderful memories and something to tell the granddaughters - oh hang on, I've already told them and they weren't that impressed This Was was and is an underrated album, and I think quite a few Tull fans do not "get it", in that it does not fit with later Tull albums, and has a very different philosophy (thanks to Abraham's input). But as a bit of progressive blues (a term that many prog snobs refuse to ratify as a legitimate sub-genre) it holds up quite well in the creativity department. T his Was has its ups and downs, with more derivative material like "It's Breaking Me Up" (an Anderson song along the lines of Cream) and particularly "Cat's Squirrel", which was done better by Clapton et al on Fresh Cream with their epically spastic version (I used to play it on blues harp -- you need a set of lungs for that one, although "Rolling and Tumbling" from the same album is even worse}: Where This Was excels is in their departure from the basic British blues model. Taking a cue from the likes of John Mayall and Peter Green who, with Jeremy Spencer, mimicked Elmore Leonard for their first few albums, then expanded the blues format on Then Play On, Tull's version of Kirk's "Serenade to a Cuckoo" is still a revelation to hear, and is the direct precursor to later instrumentals like "Bouree". The simplicity of the blues in "Someday the Sun Won't Shine for You" (my favorite song on the album) is counterpointed by the more complex blues of "A Song for Jeffrey" and David Palmer's first foray into Tull arranging with the horn section of "Move on Alone". Speaking of the flute/blues harp combo, John Mayall had a great prog blues jam with both instruments at around the same time of This Was:
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Post by maddogfagin on May 8, 2014 9:18:13 GMT
There was certainly a lot of cross pollination between the British blues groups of the late '60s, early '70s. I always preferred Mick's version of "Cat's Squirrel" (but then I'm biased) over the version that Eric used to play. Having seen both musicians play "Cat's Squirrel" in concert I always found Eric's version a bit pedestrian for my own taste but Mick's was always as if he was putting his whole heart and soul into it. Personal preference I know but Big Mick always has and will win hands down for me. Of interest, the original "Cat's Squirrel" was sung by Doctor Isiah Ross and recorded back in 1959 - it was then called "Cat Squirrel" and is a classic.
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Post by morthoron on May 11, 2014 1:58:09 GMT
There was certainly a lot of cross pollination between the British blues groups of the late '60s, early '70s. I always preferred Mick's version of "Cat's Squirrel" (but then I'm biased) over the version that Eric used to play. Having seen both musicians play "Cat's Squirrel" in concert I always found Eric's version a bit pedestrian for my own taste but Mick's was always as if he was putting his whole heart and soul into it. Personal preference I know but Big Mick always has and will win hands down for me. Of interest, the original "Cat's Squirrel" was sung by Doctor Isiah Ross and recorded back in 1959 - it was then called "Cat Squirrel" and is a classic. Love Ross' original version of the tune, and he being a Delta bluesman moved to Detroit like John Lee Hooker, Victoria Spivey and Eddie "Guitar" Burns makes the song even more special. I prefer Clapton's version from Fresh Cream perhaps because the album in its entirety was as revelatory as The Beatles' Revolver in 1966. White guys weren't supposed to play the blues like that. As I inferred earlier, "Rollin' and Tumblin'" is one of the most spastic blues harp songs of all time. I remember playing that one in a bar for the first time (of course, with a Shure Green Bullet mic through a Fender Vibro-Champ tube amp for maximum harmonica distortion). The startled look on people's faces was priceless,.
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Post by maddogfagin on May 11, 2014 9:26:08 GMT
Love Ross' original version of the tune, and he being a Delta bluesman moved to Detroit like John Lee Hooker, Victoria Spivey and Eddie "Guitar" Burns makes the song even more special. I prefer Clapton's version from Fresh Cream perhaps because the album in its entirety was as revelatory as The Beatles' Revolver in 1966. White guys weren't supposed to play the blues like that. As I inferred earlier, "Rollin' and Tumblin'" is one of the most spastic blues harp songs of all time. I remember playing that one in a bar for the first time (of course, with a Shure Green Bullet mic through a Fender Vibro-Champ tube amp for maximum harmonica distortion). The startled look on people's faces was priceless,. The British blues "explosion" at that time was something to behold. My first introduction to the blues was via Cyril Davis and then progressed via import records of the great American blues singers such as Robert Johnson, Memphis Minnie, Leadbelly, Bessie Smith et al and home grown artists such as Alexis Korner (although born in Paris), John Mayall, Jo Ann Kelly and onwards to Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Steamhammer, PG's Fleetwood Mac and a host of others. It was while listening to the above that I came across a little known blues band named Jethro Tull . . . . .
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Post by morthoron on May 11, 2014 16:25:49 GMT
Love Ross' original version of the tune, and he being a Delta bluesman moved to Detroit like John Lee Hooker, Victoria Spivey and Eddie "Guitar" Burns makes the song even more special. I prefer Clapton's version from Fresh Cream perhaps because the album in its entirety was as revelatory as The Beatles' Revolver in 1966. White guys weren't supposed to play the blues like that. As I inferred earlier, "Rollin' and Tumblin'" is one of the most spastic blues harp songs of all time. I remember playing that one in a bar for the first time (of course, with a Shure Green Bullet mic through a Fender Vibro-Champ tube amp for maximum harmonica distortion). The startled look on people's faces was priceless,. The British blues "explosion" at that time was something to behold. My first introduction to the blues was via Cyril Davis and then progressed via import records of the great American blues singers such as Robert Johnson, Memphis Minnie, Leadbelly, Bessie Smith et al and home grown artists such as Alexis Korner (although born in Paris), John Mayall, Jo Ann Kelly and onwards to Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Steamhammer, PG's Fleetwood Mac and a host of others. It was while listening to the above that I came across a little known blues band named Jethro Tull . . . . . Whereas your formative rock years were the 60s, mine were the 70s, so I missed out on a lot the first go-round. But I learned to love Elmore James from the first few Fleetwood Mac albums, Muddy Waters via Johnny Winter, Sonny Boy Williamson from Ten Years After, Memphis Minnie and Willie Dixon from Led Zeppelin, T-Bone Walker from the Allman Brothers, Robert Johnson from The Stones and Cream (Albert King as well), etc. I got it all second-hand. But by '75/'76 I had as many authentic blues albums as rock albums. I remember the first blues albums I bought without a previous rock reference were from Hound Dog Taylor (man could jam with a cheap guitar and blown speakers!) and Mississippi John Hurt (always was partial to acoustic blues).
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Post by steelmonkey on May 11, 2014 21:21:00 GMT
I went backwards as well...Eric Burdon has a song called 'No More Elmore James' that he used to do live with a lecture to check out Elmore James....which I did.....an older friend in Denver made me listen to Mississippi John Hurt...I was hooked and bought the album right away...a double live that was recorded at the college I would attend 3 years later.
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Post by maddogfagin on May 12, 2014 8:13:05 GMT
I went backwards as well...Eric Burdon has a song called 'No More Elmore James' that he used to do live with a lecture to check out Elmore James....which I did.....an older friend in Denver made me listen to Mississippi John Hurt...I was hooked and bought the album right away...a double live that was recorded at the college I would attend 3 years later. Jeremy Spencer does a very fine line of Elmore James covers, at least he did with F'Mac back when, and certainly did a great job of introducing his music to us Brits starved, as we were, of authentic American blues. Incidentally, it is strange that there are only two authenticated photographs of Robert Johnson in existence - one of him wearing a pin stripe suit and the other one a close up of him which has been used as the cover of the albums that were issued of his music. A true legend.
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Post by morthoron on May 13, 2014 12:34:56 GMT
I went backwards as well...Eric Burdon has a song called 'No More Elmore James' that he used to do live with a lecture to check out Elmore James....which I did.....an older friend in Denver made me listen to Mississippi John Hurt...I was hooked and bought the album right away...a double live that was recorded at the college I would attend 3 years later. Jeremy Spencer does a very fine line of Elmore James covers, at least he did with F'Mac back when, and certainly did a great job of introducing his music to us Brits starved, as we were, of authentic American blues. Incidentally, it is strange that there are only two authenticated photographs of Robert Johnson in existence - one of him wearing a pin stripe suit and the other one a close up of him which has been used as the cover of the albums that were issued of his music. A true legend. There is a growing belief that Robert Johnson's voice was modulated higher during the recording process and that Johnson's voice was in fact much lower. Researchers believe that Johnson was recorded at 74.5 RPM rather than the 78 RPM in which his songs were released. Here's some attempts at correction: It does sound more realistic and more nuanced at this speed. A more realistic presentation to my ears. His voice always seemed strangely high, almost falsetto to me in the original recordings.
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Post by maddogfagin on May 13, 2014 13:11:00 GMT
There is a growing belief that Robert Johnson's voice was modulated higher during the recording process and that Johnson's voice was in fact much lower. Researchers believe that Johnson was recorded at 74.5 RPM rather than the 78 RPM in which his songs were released. Here's some attempts at correction: It does sound more realistic and more nuanced at this speed. A more realistic presentation to my ears. His voice always seemed strangely high, almost falsetto to me in the original recordings. Thank you - I'll enjoy listening to the youtubes. I suppose with the recording equipment available at the time etc., the speed could well have been an issue as was probably the mastering of the songs onto 78 rpm master discs as there wasn't the availability of recording tape then. Going back to the UK blues boom of the late 60s/early 70s, there were so many bands who always seemed to have the same source records with which they got their repertoire. It was the very few who took a chance and found other material to play and, thankfully, those bands stood the test of time. Chicken Shack, Savoy Brown, Ten Years After, Blodwyn Pig, The Yardbirds and many others are prime examples from this side of the pond. American bands and artists of that time which had a large following over here included Canned Heat, Delaney & Bonnie, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Paul Butterfield, Janis Joplin et al (far too many artists to mention) and of course Jimi Hendrix who was a US import to the UK for some time. So in reality I suppose we should class all of the above, and so many more, as being an international resource of the music ?
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Post by morthoron on May 13, 2014 13:45:55 GMT
There is a growing belief that Robert Johnson's voice was modulated higher during the recording process and that Johnson's voice was in fact much lower. Researchers believe that Johnson was recorded at 74.5 RPM rather than the 78 RPM in which his songs were released. Here's some attempts at correction: It does sound more realistic and more nuanced at this speed. A more realistic presentation to my ears. His voice always seemed strangely high, almost falsetto to me in the original recordings. Thank you - I'll enjoy listening to the youtubes. I suppose with the recording equipment available at the time etc., the speed could well have been an issue as was probably the mastering of the songs onto 78 rpm master discs as there wasn't the availability of recording tape then. Going back to the UK blues boom of the late 60s/early 70s, there were so many bands who always seemed to have the same source records with which they got their repertoire. It was the very few who took a chance and found other material to play and, thankfully, those bands stood the test of time. Chicken Shack, Savoy Brown, Ten Years After, Blodwyn Pig, The Yardbirds and many others are prime examples from this side of the pond. American bands and artists of that time which had a large following over here included Canned Heat, Delaney & Bonnie, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Paul Butterfield, Janis Joplin et al (far too many artists to mention) and of course Jimi Hendrix who was a US import to the UK for some time. So in reality I suppose we should class all of the above, and so many more, as being an international resource of the music ? It was one of those happenstance miraculous moments in musical history where a whole bunch of great young musicians from both sides of the pond took a dying musical form and resurrected it, and in the process gave new careers to the original masters who they venerated. In most cases, it wasn't white artists "stealing" blues songs from poor black performers; on the contrary, folks like Dylan (recorded with Victoria Spivey in her old age), Clapton (played with every blues artist out there), Fleetwood Mac (Blues Jam at Chess), Canned Heat (John Lee Hooker), Johnny Winter (Muddy Waters) and later artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan (Albert King) and Bonnie Raitt (Sippie Wallace) absolutely loved and worshipped the artists they strived to be like. Johnny Winter went out of his way to assure Muddy Waters kept making records (and if you haven't heard the deluxe version of Muddy 'Mississippi' Waters Live, you are in for a treat), Bonnie Raitt found Sippie Wallace and took her out of retirement and made sure she had a nest egg for her later years, and if you haven't seen the PBS special with Stevie Ray Vaughan jamming with Albert King watch it ASAP!
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Post by atomicsynth on May 16, 2014 1:58:39 GMT
I still have my rather worn mono copy (the only way to listen to the album is in glorious mono imo) and it has pride of place in my Tull collection. I've also got an original UK pink Island Records cassette copy, that too is rather battered after many years of heavy usage in the car cassette player. Cheers Mono is great! It is way harder to mix in mono than in stereo because it is critical in mono that instruments be given their own EQ space where stereo is way more forgiving.
The best argument I can ever make for Mono since Phil Spector somehow went and lost some credibility along the way is Paperback Writer by the Beatles. The 45 mono version jumps out of the speakers while every CD stereo version sounds thin in comparison. It didn't help either that the Beatles stereo mixes were terrible. George Martin said it was to promote analysis of parts (the extreme pans) but it is horrible to listen to.
They never cared about stereo either. John Lennon always said you haven't heard Pepper until you heard it in Mono.
I heard it and agreed. So much bigger.
I have often thought maybe I should try recording in Mono and did once on a test track and was quite surprised at the result (the track was useless music though thrown together just for experimenting). Still, I have become accustomed to Stereo over the years and really doubt I could give up working in it. It is a phenomena of those past days.
Now 5.1 or whatever the format 7.1. I heard it a few times and it's kind of weird. Really one cannot do extreme things in it. Well, I guess one could joystick pan things but it would be tedious to listen to.
Quad back in the day was odd also, as was the psychedelic era's penchant for odd spatial movement for headphone heads that has since thankfully been abandoned in favor of simpler mixes.
Thank you both for the post.
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Post by maddogfagin on May 16, 2014 8:29:46 GMT
Hi Chuck This Was is certainly a better listen in mono although since the re-issue a few years ago I have my doubts as to whether it is the same mix as the original mono vinyl. But then my ears are not what they used to be but I just get the impression that it's either a re-mixed mono or a new one taken from the stereo tapes and mixed to mono. I'd certainly recommend a listen to an original vinyl recording of This Was in mono - a joy to behold. Welcome to the Jethro Tull Forum. Lots to see and plenty to comment on MD/Graham
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2014 13:33:12 GMT
Hi Chuck This Was is certainly a better listen in mono although since the re-issue a few years ago I have my doubts as to whether it is the same mix as the original mono vinyl. But then my ears are not what they used to be but I just get the impression that it's either a re-mixed mono or a new one taken from the stereo tapes and mixed to mono. I'd certainly recommend a listen to an original vinyl recording of This Was in mono - a joy to behold. Welcome to the Jethro Tull Forum. Lots to see and plenty to comment on MD/Graham This Was - The weak point of the CD is the bright mastering. It's the mastering to CD that's different. As discussed recently: forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/jethro-tull-benefit-new-steve-wilson-stereo-and-5-1-remixes.315710/page-34#post-10433839I like the mono version best. The sound of Mick Abrahams' guitar is reinforced in mono. One caution: Vocal effect on "A Song for Jeffrey" distorts in mono. "A Song for Jeffrey"- that vocal effect is already pushed to the max on all stereo versions. I believe Peter Mew's overall bright mastering is the cause of the distortion. I would like both the stereo & mono deluxe versions to be less bright. My favourite "A Song for Jeffrey" sound wise is found on the MFSL "Living in the Past" CD. Lord Hawthorne posted - You should hear the original US mono single, heavily compressed, the effect actually works, it's "in your face".
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