Minstrel in the Gallery

Jethro Tull - Minstrel in the Gallery

Minstrel in the Gallery
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CD Details

Artist: Jethro Tull
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2002-11-05
Music Label: Capitol
Soundtracks:
  1. Minstrel In The Gallery
  2. Cold Wind To Valhalla
  3. Black Satin Dancer
  4. Requiem
  5. One White Duck/O10=Nothing At All
  6. Baker St. Muse: Pig-Me And The Whore/Nice Little Tune/Crush-Barrier Waltzer/Mother England Reverie
  7. Grace
  8. Summerdays Sands
  9. March The Mad Scientist
  10. Pan Dance
  11. Minstrel In The Gallery (Live)
  12. Cold Wind To Valhalla (Live)

Music reviews of Minstrel in the Gallery

Music Review: A Little Rock, A little Renaissance
Rating: 5 Stars

After "Aqualung" and "War Child" were such huge successes, I was worried that Jethro Tull had, as Frank Zappa phrased it, gone commercial. "Minstrel in the Gallery" corrected that notion. "Minstrel in the Gallery" returns Tull to their original self-defined genre.

I always get a kick out of people trying to fit Jethro Tull into any particular type of music, because they are just plain not anything. While they have elements of hard rock/metal, elements of pop, elements of progressive, elements of folk, elements of renaissance, and even a bit of classical here and there, they are all of the above and none of the above. They just are.

The opening track, "Minstrel in the Gallery", begins with hammering and noises that make it sound as though the group is on a stage that is being prepared for a play. The song then transitions into a bard-like minstrel song, and then takes off into a hard rock song. An excellent opening song that sets you up for the things to come.

"Cold Wind to Valhalla" won't fool you. There are some violins and flavor of folk/renaissance, but at around 1 minute and 45 seconds into the song it switches into overdrive and you realize you are listening to a solidly rock song. Excellent use of violins in this song to help the orchestration. Hard to believe that violins can be a hard-rock instrument.

You hear classic Jethro Tull in the beginning of "Black Satin Dancer", then some hard rock riffs, and you suspect what will come next in this song. And you would be right and wrong. This song is a sensual song with allusions of sexual foreplay and intense longing, perhaps even lust. Sometimes I felt some occasional elements of King Crimson, and then not. The hard rock elements intertwine with classic Tull and some occasional progressive flashes. A most excellent song.

Then you are lulled by the melancholy strains of "Requiem", as Ian Anderson and company sound more like Kansas or Simon and Garfunkel, and yet, the sound is still Tull. This song is meant to be listened to for the feel, and not for the words.

Then, as you move into "One White Duck/0^10 = Nothing at All" you realize that "Requiem" was a perfect transition between "Black Satin Dancer" and this song. I love this song, because it seems to have meaning, and seems to have no meaning, and you hover on the edge of understanding without understanding, though you think you should, and could, if you could listen a little longer and read the lyrics just one more time. But this song is, of course, classic Tull, and the lyrics do mean something, but they are art, and art is for the interpretation of the listener. Don't make too much of this song, and don't make too little. Just listen and love it.

Then, off to signature Tull, the extended, intertwined story-song, "Baker St. Muse". Here you have an intro about a muse, a very down-to-earth fellow crying out that Jethro Tull wasn't the commercial group that "War Child" seemed to make them out to be. We are in the gutter like we always were, singing about the things that haven't changed, and so on to the next part of our story...

The other songs are stories of the street, likely stories of the Baker St. Muse (aka Jethro Tull). These songs are very sexual. Today they might even get a warning label, even though there is no use of the crude words which seem so popular. There is no need; the point is well made without resorting to a limited, non-descriptive vocabulary. This group of songs finishes with "Mother England Reverie", which is a protestation that the singer is just a street player, a muse, and he'll never be anything but.

The CD finishes with a wrap-up song, "Grace", which is a marvelous little epilogue that not only finishes the CD, but also asks a simple, but layered question, "Hello breakfast. May I buy you again tomorrow?" In the context of the CD the question more likely means, can we be here tomorrow, can we still do what we are doing? And perhaps, in consideration of the other songs, will anyone care.

Sometimes I think of the songs, coming after the nearly-pop success of "Warchild", as being an apology for straying from the principles of Jethro Tull's music and style. Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps not. Regardless, listening to the seven albums before Warchild, and then "Warchild", and then "Minstrel in the Gallery", you realize that "Warchild" was not Tull's usual music, and "Minstrel in the Gallery" put them squarely back where they once were.

Jethro Tull has never been everyman's group. Never will. They occupy a unique place in modern music that will likely never be defined. This CD is solidly at the heart of the kind of music Jethro Tull is known for making. It is among the best of Jethro Tull.

This remastered version adds five additional songs of varying value, "Summerdays Sands," "March the Mad Scientist," "Pan Dance," a live version of "Minstrel in the Gallery," and a live version of "Cold Wind to Valhalla." This CD is worth having in your collection if you have yet to buy it. If you have it already and have a great stereo the remaster is also worth having. If you have it and you have a cheap stereo (like me), the remaster is probably not necessary unless you have to have the extra songs.
More Minstrel in the Gallery free music reviews:
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Description of Minstrel in the Gallery

24-bit digitally remastered reissue of 1975 album with 5 added bonus tracks Summerday Sands', 'March The Mad Scientist', 'Pan Dance', 'Minstrel In The Gallery' (live) & 'Cold Wind To Valhalla' (live). Capitol. 2002.

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