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Rating: The Isle of Wight Festival held at the end of August 1970 was the English response to Woodstock, featuring some veterans of the American gathering such as Hendrix, The Who, Ten Years After, Joan Baez, along with exciting "newcomers" like Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, the Doors, and even the king of jazz rock, Miles Davis, fresh from the success of his electric album "Bitches Brew".
When Joni took the stage on Saturday afternoon, the sight of the crowd made her shiver, as if witnessing the assembly of extras in epic films like Ben Hur. The deafening whistles from the thousands of yellow, blue, and red dots even crowding the surrounding hills made her nervous, and for defense, she had only a guitar and her provocative voice. That same evening, the Doors performed, and unfortunately, Jim Morrison was by then a bloated and tired homeless man, a creature gloomily locked within himself. Another musician, already at the end of his life, was to perform on the final of the three days, it was Sunday, and late in the evening, there was a contest between Hendrix's roadies and those of Jethro Tull to set up the equipment first. And the Jethro won the battle but not the war. In fact, in the introduction to this album, Ian Anderson states that Wight wasn't the best concert of their lives, and I sincerely remain perplexed because both in terms of sound quality and performance, we are at absolute levels.
At that moment, Jethro Tull was at the peak of their popularity in England, and their second album "Stand Up" had topped the charts successfully combining folk with rock blues, but the brewing explosion of progressive music was spreading its sweet aromas, ousting guitars from the leadership of various bands and handing the scepter over to keyboards. But in the case of Jethro, the supremacy went to an unusual instrument for rock: Ian's flute, who with clear cynicism had gotten rid of rival Mick Abrahams, replacing him on guitar with the trusty Martin Barre.
At the Isle of Wight festival, the group was coming off their third album "Benefit," which had shown a certain phase of transition and adjustment, and indeed on that stage, Jethro Tull abandoned the intense folk of their studio work to unleash a performance of great electric intensity. Just listen to the opening "My Sunday Feeling" to realize the rock blues energy put on stage by the group, almost as if the tension accumulated during the preparation for the performance needed to be released with a good outburst. When Ian introduces a new song by introducing "My God," a shiver runs down your spine at the sound of those sick guitar chords and the blasphemous voice mocking that "God of nothing": Jethro manages to create live a pathos difficult for anyone else to achieve. There is no shortage of a "Bourée" even more jazzy with a magical interlude of distorted bass solo by Glen Cornick and the beautiful opener of "Benefit": a long "With You There To Help Me" led by John Evan's restored piano improvisations and Anderson's flute assaults. The same rendition of their masterpiece "Dharma for One" is charged with electric tension leading up to Clive Bunker's explosive drum solo while "Nothing is Easy" revisits the folk blues supported by the fine rhythmic work of bass and drums up to the final instrumental dance led at a overwhelming pace. The closing medley composed of "We Used To Know/For a Thousand Mothers" puts Martin Barre on the pedestal, and at one point, it feels like listening to the Who in the midst of Townshend's famous windmill guitar strums.
After a concert like that, the audience could go home and live off "musical interest" for a few years, but in the middle of the night, with humidity advising retreat into sleeping bags, there was still Jimi to listen to! And although he wasn't exactly a friend, try to guess who the flamingo Anderson dedicated this album to.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 My Sunday Feeling (05:20)
My Sunday feeling is coming on over me.
My Sunday feeling is coming on over me,
Now that the night is over.
Got to clear my head so I can see.
Till I get to put together,
That old feeling won't let me be.
Won't somebody tell me where I laid my head last night?
Won't somebody tell me where I laid my head last night?
I really don't remember,
But with one more cigarette and I think I might.
Till I get to put together,
Well that old feeling can't get me right.
Need some assistance, have you listened to what I said?
Need some assistance, have you listened to what I said?
Oh, I don't feel so good.
Need someone to help me to my bed.
Till I get to put together,
That old feeling is in my head.
02 My God (07:30)
People what have you done?
Locked Him in His golden cage
Golden cage
Made Him bend to your religion
Him resurrected from the grave
From the grave
He is the God of nothing
If thats all that you can see
You are the God of everything
Hes inside you and me
So lean upon Him gently
And don't call on Him to save
You from your social graces
And the sins you used to waive
The bloody Church of England
in chains of history
Requests your earthly presence
at the vicarage for tea
And the graven image
You know who
With his plastic crucifix
He's got Him fixed
Confuses me as to who and where and why
as to how he gets his kicks
He gets his kicks.
Confessing to the endless sin
With endless whining sounds
You'll be praying 'til next Thursday
To all the gods that you can count
03 With You There to Help Me (09:58)
In days of peace
sweet smelling summer nights
of wine and song;
dusty pavements burning feet.
Why am I crying, I want to know.
How can I smile and make it right?
For sixty days and eighty nights
and not give in and lose the fight.
I'm going back to the ones that I know,
with whom I can be what I want to be.
Just one week for the feeling to go
and with you there to help me
then it probably will.
I won't go down
acting the same old play.
Give sixty days for just one night.
Don't think I'd make it: but then I might.
I'm going back to the ones that I know,
with whom I can be what I want to be.
Just one week for the feeling to go
and with you there to help me
then it probably will.
06 Dharma for One (10:10)
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.
07 Nothing Is Easy (05:36)
Nothing is easy.
Though time gets you worrying
My friend, it's OK.
Just take your life easy
And stop all that hurrying,
Be happy my way.
When tension starts mounting
And you've lost count
Of the pennies you've missed,
Just try hard and see why they're not worrying me,
They're last on my list.
Nothing's easy.
Nothing is easy, you'll find
That the squeeze won't turn out so bad.
Your fingers may freeze, worse things happen at sea,
There's good times to be had.
So if you're alone and you're down to the bone,
Just give us a play.
You'll smile in a while and discover
That I'll get you happy my way
Nothing's easy.
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