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The 1972 is a year of grace for Jethro Tull: first comes the masterpiece 'Thick as a Brick' and not even a month later 'Living In The Past' arrives. Calling a collection "Living in the past" is an original idea in itself, even though in some ways it is not just the first "best of Jethro Tull".
It is a collection of songs up until then only available on 45s, it includes unreleased tracks and finally it is even a live album, as two tracks are recorded live. Only a band like Jethro Tull could invent something like that. After all, in 1972 Jethro Tull is riding the wave after the astounding success of 'Aqualung' and after several line-up changes, it seems appropriate to celebrate the band's first 5 years of activity.
First, guitarist Mick Abrahams leaves to make way for Tony Iommi (!) and then permanently for Martin Barre, then John Evans joins on keyboards but Glenn Cornick leaves the bassist position to Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond and finally drummer Clive Bunker gets married and hangs up his drumsticks, so Ian Anderson draws from his old group (the John Evan Band) and calls back the excellent Barriemore Barlow.
From a publishing point of view, this album is a mess: songs included on the American version of 'Benefit' are not released in Europe, they are found on the European version of 'Living in the past' and vice versa, and moreover, the British version differs from the ones listed above. If we then find ourselves with the first version released on a CD with three pieces excluded for space reasons, it seems necessary at this point to review the 2-cd version, the definitive one, where everyone's satisfied because all the songs from the different editions are present.
This version of 'Living In The Past' is wonderful, because, in addition to being in a cardboard case, it also contains a booklet that is identical to the original 33 rpm, with color photos and song credits. It’s a pity that it is so hard to find and especially so expensive (the price currently fluctuates around 80 euros).
Let's start with the first CD: A Song For Jeffrey, the first real manifesto of Jethro music that emerged from the bluesy 'This Was'. Love Story is a single also from 1968, with Ian making the mandolin sing with his magic touch. Christmas Song is a wonderful ballad, always with the mandolin in the forefront and with strings arranged by David (now Dee, sigh!) Palmer. The title-track is a famous 1969 single that reached number 3 on the UK charts. Besides being a big hit (mostly a hit in a 5/4 time signature!), it is also one of the most beautiful Jethro Tull songs. Driving Song is a 1969 B-side, which still shows some blues remnants but with a very catchy riff. Does the mythic Bourée really need an introduction, the most thrilling classical music rearranged in a rock key?
Moving on to Sweet Dream, a 1969 single, with a section of horns and an orchestra. It had quite a commercial success and is a track. Singing all day is an unreleased track and is a good rock piece with a bluesy bass and a slow interlude. Teacher was only released as a single in Europe and on the American version of Benefit in 1970. There is also a rare version without the flute but with the Hammond organ, where the singing and guitar vary from the original. It’s a classic old-style Jethro piece, with a wonderful interlude where the band goes wild. Witch’s Promise is a 1969 single, with two fantastic flutes played overlapping each other, and is another of the great classics. Inside we have already appreciated on 'Benefit', as well as Alive And Well And Living In, but they weren’t on the American version of 'Benefit'. Just Trying To Be is one of those beautiful acoustic pearls, inexplicably unreleased until 1970. Anderson’s voice is at its peak, the acoustic guitar is influenced by his exquisite touch, and the celesta played by John Evan fits in well.
The second CD opens with 2 live tracks at Carnegie Hall in New York, where Jethro performed, donating the proceeds to a community for recovering drug addicts. After Ian Anderson's hilarious introduction, John Evans starts the show with By Kind Permission Of, a long grand piano solo, with pieces of Schubert and Beethoven popping up here and there, in addition to the flute, finally culminating in a fantastic ending with the entire band participating. John Evan proves to be a phenomenal pianist. In Dharma For One the star is Clive Bunker, with a long drum solo, also proving to be technically skilled. Notice how this song is completely different from that of This Was, with the addition of a nice vocal part.
Wond’ring Again is undoubtedly the most beautiful song on the entire album: Chilling acoustic guitar, those few electric guitar notes placed perfectly, the keys superbly arranged. A unique magic until the end, where Ian ends with something similar to the Wond’ring Aloud that appeared on 'Aqualung' (but few know that Wond’ring Again was written first, in 1970). Hymn 43 and Locomotive Breath are the wonderful and aggressive songs taken from 'Aqualung'. What a voice and what flute solos! The acoustic ballad Life Is A Long Song is an unreleased piece from 1971 and marks Barriemore Barlow's debut on drums. Up the ‘Pool talks about Ian Anderson's youth memories spent in Blackpool, among guitar phrases. Dr. Bogenbroom begins with a classic harpsichord arpeggio and is a pleasant song. For Later is one of the first pure progressive tracks, a solid and well-composed instrumental, very difficult to play. Nursie is another one of those acoustic pearls that could have been part of 'Aqualung'. Beautiful and poignant, it revisits the theme already addressed in Cheap Day Return, namely Ian Anderson's sick father. This theme is also revisited in Thick As A Brick (What do you do when the old man’s gone, do you want to be him?).
In America, the album climbs to number 3 on the charts, in England to number 8. 'Living in the past', in its multiple versions, is a phenomenal record that one never tires of listening to over and over again.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 Love Story (03:07)
Going back in the morning time
To see if my love has changed her mind, yeah.
Going back in the morning time
To see if my love has changed her mind, yeah.
I know what I will find
That she is wasting time,
She could be picking roses.
Going back in the morning time
To see if my love has seen the light, yeah.
Going back in the morning time
To see if my love has seen the light, yeah.
Oh, I told her last night
She should improve her sight,
She could be painting the roof.
Going back in the morning time
To see if my love has come around, yeah.
Going back in the morning time
To see if my love has come around, yeah.
She offered me no sound,
Her head is in the ground,
She could be calling for winter.
04 Living in the Past (03:24)
Happy, and I'm smiling, walk a mile to drink your water.
You know I'd love to love you, and above you there's no other
We'll go walking out while others shout of war's disaster.
Oh, be forgiving, let's go living in the past.
Once I'd used to join in every boy and girl was my friend.
Now there's revolution but they don't know what they're fighting.
Let us close out eyes. Outside their lives go on much faster
Oh, be forgiving, we'll keep living in the past.
Oh, be forgiving, let's go living in the past.
Oh, no, no, be forgiving, let's go living in the past.
06 Sweet Dream (04:05)
You'll hear me calling in your sweet dream
Can't hear your daddy's warning cry
You're going back to be all the things you want to be
While in sweet dreams you softly sigh
You hear my voice is calling
To be mine again
Live the rest of your life in a day
Get out and get what you can
While your mummy's at home a-sleeping
No time to understand
'Cause they lost what they thought they were keeping
No one can see us in your sweet dream
Don't hear you leave to start the car
All wrapped up tightly in the coat you borrowed from me,
Your place of resting is not far
You hear my voice is calling
To be mine again
Live the rest of your life in a day
Get out and get what you can
While your mummy's at home a-sleeping
No time to understand
'Cause they lost what they thought they were keeping
Get out and get what you can
While your mummy's at home a-sleeping
No time to understand
'Cause they lost what they thought they were keeping
08 Witch's Promise (03:53)
Lend me your ear while I call you a fool.
You were kissed by a witch one night in the wood,
And later insisted your feelings were true.
The witches promise was coming,
Believing he listened while laughing you flew.
Leaves falling, red, yellow, brown, all look the same,
And the love you had found lay outside in the rain,
Washed clean by the water but nursing its pain.
The witches promise was coming,
And you're looking elsewhere for your own selfish gain.
Keep looking, keep looking for somewhere to be,
Well, you're wasting your time, they're not stupid like he is.
Meanwhile leaves are still falling, you're too blind to see.
You won't find it easy now, it's only fair.
He was willing to give to you, you didn't care.
You're waiting for more but you've already had your share.
The witches promise is turning,
so don't you wait up for him, he's going to be late.
09 Inside (03:49)
All the places I've been make it hard to begin
To enjoy life again on the inside, but I mean to.
Take a walk around the block
And be glad that I've got
Me some time to be in from the outside,
And inside with you.
I'm sitting on the corner feeling glad.
Got no money coming in but I can't be sad.
That was the best cup of coffee I ever had.
And I won't worry about a thing because we've got it made,
Here on the inside, outside so far away.
And we'll laugh and we'll sing
Get someone to bring
Our friends here for tea in the evening
Old Jeffrey makes three...
Take a walk in the park,
Does the wind in the dark
Sound like music to you?
Well I'm thinking it does to me.
Can you cook, can you sew?
Well, I don't want to know.
That is not what you need on the inside,
To make the time go.
Counting lambs, counting sheep
We will fall into sleep
And awake to a new day of living,
And loving you so.
10 Just Trying to Be (01:37)
There was a time when you were so young and walked in their way.
They made you feel they loved you all-seeing they say.
You're going wrong if their game you don't play
And that the song I sing will lead you astray.
Unfeeling, feel lonely rejection,
Unknowing, know you're going wrong.
And they can't see that we're just trying to be,
And not what we seem,
And even now believe that it's not real and only a dream.
12 Dharma for One (10:16)
Dharma, seek and you will find
Truth within your mind, Dharma.
Dharma, each to his own we say,
Together we'll end astray, Dharma.
Truth is like freedom, it doesn't fool me.
Be true to yourself, never think that you're free.
Dharma will come eventually.
13 Wond'ring Again (04:14)
There's the stillness of death on a deathly unliving sea,
And the motor car magical world long since ceased to be,
When the Eve-bitten apple returned to destroy the tree.
Incestuous ancestry's charabanc ride,
Spawning new millions throws the world on its side.
Supporting their far-flung illusion, the national curse,
And those with no sandwiches please get off the bus.
The excrement bubbles,
The century's slime decays
And the brainwashing government lackeys
Would have us say
It's under control and we'll soon be on our way
To a grand year for babies and quiz panel games
Of the hot hungry millions you'll be sure to remain.
The natural resources are dwindling and no one grows old,
And those with no homes to go to, please dig yourself holes.
We wandered through quiet lands, felt the first breath of snow.
Searched for the last pigeon, slate grey I've been told.
Stumbled on a daffodil which she crushed in the rush, heard it sigh,
And left it to die.
At once felt remorse and were touched by the loss of our own,
Held its poor broken head in her hands,
Dropped soft tears in the snow,
And it's only the taking that makes you what you are.
Wond'ring aloud will a son one day be born
To share in our infancy
In the child's path we've worn.
In the aging seclusion of this earth that our birth did surprise
We'll open his eyes.
14 Hymn 43 (03:17)
Our Father high in heaven smile down upon your son
who is busy with his money games - his women and his gun
Oh Jesus save me
And the unsung western hero he killed an Indian or three
And then he made his name in Hollywood to set the white man free
Oh Jesus save me
If Jesus saves well he better save himself
From the gory glory seekers who use his name in death
Oh Jesus save me
Well I saw him in the city and on the mountains of the moon
His cross was rather bloody he could hardly roll his stone
Oh Jesus save me
16 Up the 'Pool (03:13)
I'm going up the 'pool from down the smoke below
To taste my mum's jam sarnies and see our Aunty Flo.
The candyfloss salesman watches ladies in the sand
Down for a freaky weekend in the hope that they'll be meeting Mister Universe.
The iron tower smiles down upon the silver sea
And along the golden mile they'll be swigging mugs of tea.
The politicians there who've come to take the air
While posing for the daily press
Will look around and blame the mess on Edward Bear.
There'll be bucket, spades and bingo, cockles, mussels, rainy days,
Seaweed and sand castles, icy waves.
Deck chairs, rubber dinghies, old vests, braces dangling down,
Sun-tanned stranded starfish in a daze.
We're going up the 'pool from down the smoke below
To taste my mum's jam sarnies and see our Aunty Flo.
The candy floss salesman watches ladies in the sand
Down for a freaky weekend in the hope that they'll be meeting Mister Universe.
There'll be buckets, spades and bingo, cockles, mussels, rainy days,
Seaweed and sand castles, icy waves,
Deck chairs, rubber dinghies, old vests, braces dangling down,
Sun-tanned stranded starfish in a daze.
Oh Blackpool,
Oh Blackpool.
17 Dr. Bogenbroom (03:01)
I have one foot in the graveyard and the other on the bus,
And the passengers do trample each other in the rush.
And the chicken hearted lawman is throwing up his fill
To see the kindly doctor to pass the super pill.
Well, I'm going down, three cheers for Doctor Bogenbroom.
Well, I'm on my way, three cheers for Doctor Bogenbroom.
Well I've tried my best to love you all,
All you hypocrites and whores,
With your eyes on each other and the locks upon your doors.
Well you drowned me in the fountain of life and I hated you
For living while I was dying, we were all just passing through.
Well, I'm going down, three cheers for Doctor Bogenbroom.
Well, I'm on my way, three cheers for Doctor Bogenbroom.
19 Nursie (01:38)
Tip-toes in silence 'round my bed
And quiets the raindrops overhead
With her everlasteng smile
She steals my fever for a while
Oh, nursie, dear,
I'm glad you're here
To brush away my pain
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