Jethro Tull
Live At Madison Square Garden 1978

THE REVIEW

Madison Square Garden. One of the largest arenas in the world, host to countless events: it is home to the New York Knicks in basketball, it has seen Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali fight, and enjoyed performances by Frank Sinatra and Led Zeppelin.

However, on October 14, 1978, it was the arena that witnessed one of the best concerts in the history of Rock music. That day, a British band, which had achieved worldwide success with the albums "Aqualung" and "Thick As A Brick", that after "A Passion Play" had risked failure and finally bounced back with excellent albums like "Songs Of The Wood" and "Heavy Horses", landed in New York. I'm talking about the English group Jethro Tull, and that October day in 1978, they were about to enter Eternity.

The English sextet was composed on this occasion of leader Ian Anderson, the brave knight Martin Barre on guitar, the "octopus" Barriemore Barlow on drums, the magical keyboard duo David Palmer and John Evans, and Tony Williams on bass (replacing John Glascock, who was dealing with health issues that would unfortunately lead to his death the following year).
The concert was broadcast live worldwide across oceans for the first time. It seems unnecessary to underline the commitment of the British group, but it is always a great opportunity to remember the beauty of the music and lyrics that Jethro Tull are capable of creating, led by the charismatic Ian Anderson primarily, but without forgetting the essential contributions of the other members.

The setlist includes the classic tracks from the Tull discography, influenced especially by the last two albums, namely "Heavy Horses" and "Songs From The Wood" (both from 1978 and which, with "Stormwatch" from the following year, form the so-called folk trilogy of the group).
Cheerful tunes open the concert, when the scene is taken by Barre's biting guitar and the riff of "Sweet Dream", a "dreamy" and evocative song that reflects the hard and bluesy sound of the group's early '70s.
Robert Burns and his poem "Ode To A Mouse" are the inspiring sources of the evening's first folk piece: "One Brown Mouse". The third song also belongs to the same album and is a classic of the group, one of those anthology songs that help understand the greatness of such artists: "Heavy Horses", the praise of workhorses in an era increasingly dominated by machines. Here too, Martin Barre opens the dance, and the song presents melancholic traits and breathtaking tempo changes.
The real live broadcast, however, begins now. This was just a preview (just to warm up the audience). Because every Jethro Tull concert is not complete without their absolute masterpiece, and I'm not talking about "Aqualung", I'm talking about a song that begins with a light acoustic guitar motif, which talks about a child prodigy who wins a literary prize. I'm obviously talking about "Thick As A Brick", the famous suite, from which the salient pieces are extracted and assembled into a masterful shortened version, between rock rides and folk interludes. Pure delirium.
So too with "No Lullaby", another track from "Heavy Horses" of Scottish origins. And finally, the stage is all for Ian Anderson and his Magic Flute, in a solo that has entered the collective imagination of the Jethro Tull figure. Who isn't hypnotized listening to Bach's classical echoes or the popular melodies of the Piper of Dunfermline?

At this point, the concert is fully launched, as couldn't be expected better: it is an absolute success. And so the Tull can play with the songs, performing a reverse version of "Songs From The Woods" (first the music, then the sung four-voice version), in which Barriemore Barlow also improvises as a flautist!
The fans, however, are still awaiting the Jethro Tull "piece" par excellence, and so after introducing the magnificent six, "Quatrain" starts, the musical march interrupted by Barre's historic riff: it is the time of "Aqualung", telling the story of a homeless man. Absolute masterpiece and Barre gifts us an excellent solo.
The band leaves the stage, but we realize it's just a ruse when we hear John Evans' piano. The train whistle, Barre's overwhelming guitar with Evans, Barlow's percussion leading into the riff of "Locomotive Breath"! What emotion, what joy! It's wonderful to narrate the flow of life in this way, using the analogy of a runaway train with these notes. Anderson's flute solo reaches unimaginable complexity peaks. Additionally, a version extended with the performance of the "Dumbuster March" and a phenomenal drum solo by Barrimore Barlow (John Bonham will say of him: "He is the best drummer in the history of Rock").
There is also time for the nostalgic "To Old To Rock 'N' Roll, To Young To Die", the manifesto of a generation that no longer knows what its purpose is, and for a combined version of "My God" and "Cross Eyed Mary". Superb Tull.

In summary, how else to define as fantastic a concert where Ian Anderson dazzles with the flute, where Martin Barre is in top form, where there are two people like David Palmer and John Evans creating fascinating atmospheres, and where there's a rhythm section carried forward by Barriemore Barlow and Tony Williams.

Thank you, Jethro Tull