•
Rating:
Swan song for Jethro Tull, we are in 1979 and the band reaches the end of the line with an album that exudes creative exhaustion and detachment in interpersonal relationships. Considered the third of an openly Folk trilogy, actually, this album seems to me to recover the general sound explored in BURSTING OUT. Already in HEAVY HORSES Anderson had spoken of various misunderstandings, the collaborative magic found again in SONGS FROM THE WOOD had already faded and even more, the mood in STORM is low due to JOHN GLASCOCK's health problems, here present only in three tracks, ELEGY, FLYING DUTCHMAN and ORION... In fact, he never went on stage with the band, but he was able to perform live at least DARK AGES, already ready in a first arrangement in the HEAVY HORSES Tour.
The Album:
Anderson recalls how during that period he stayed at home reading newspapers and magazines, very engrossed in his affairs, and therefore attentive to the weather situation given his entrepreneurial commitment (Anderson is involved in salmon farming). He doesn’t speak of this album as desolate and cold; in his view, NORTH SEA OIL is a piece of great spirit; no track is meant to have a political background but at least a little cynical and sarcastic is indeed. Unfortunately, the band seems tired, perhaps also due to the various live commitments, and maybe that creative spontaneity has been somewhat lost; they focus a lot on instrumentals. It's evident that these songs have been too polished in the studio because listening to them live, they really gear up (ORION and SOMETHING'S ON THE MOVE). DARK AGES, already performed live, is slightly revised, given the worsening of bassist John Glascock's problems, Anderson himself thinks to replace him on bass, and live the task will fall to Dave Pegg. The whole album stands between rock and some acoustic lines, the dual keyboardist formula overshadows John Evan, who on a compositional level disappears precisely to make room for David Palmer. But the most dissatisfied seems to be Palmer himself, who at the time gave theory lessons to Anderson. The '70s sound is somewhat lost; they go a lot with synthesizers and simulators to create atmosphere; Evan recovers the piano. By now, you can feel the slightly cold and almost cerebral execution of the Live performances of that period, and in my opinion, the album suffers because of it. Anderson's voice sounds filtered and somewhat metallic, definitely a bit low and perhaps worn by the many concerts; his work on bass is excellent (note the double picking, which seems to be his trademark). Some insinuate that his track was slowed down to allow him to record without difficulty, nonsense, the reverb on his bass is due to it being sent into a slight Overdrive and with a bit of Flanger to roughen what seems to be a MUSICMAN BASS, which Glascock was using lately...
The instrumentals (a strong point of the band) could have been to the album's advantage, but instead, they end up increasing the general confusion. ELEGY is an honest, melodic-melancholic instrumental piece of composition MADE IN PALMER, which I think was composed in honor of his father, only later dedicated to the late Glascock, but it has little to do with Jethro Tull. WARM SPORRAN is almost a filler; from this album, the eclectic PROG themes disappear a bit since even Dark Ages seems like a piece from the HEAVY HORSES sessions, which also included WORKING JOHN, WORKING JOE, later re-recorded in the subsequent A.
It seems that the key piece existed and was a real Prog Suite with an impossible rhythm that drummer Barrie Barlow loved, APOCALYPSE, a piece composed by Palmer. Surely the fact that Anderson considered more than sufficient one song (ELEGY) in the name of the keyboardist (the piece was rehearsed) led to it being abandoned into nothingness, and the other songs of that period? A STITCH IN TIME comes from those sessions and will be released as a single along with SWEET DREAMS BURSTING OUT version, KING HENRY'S MADRIGAL is another instrumental with PEGG on bass I think arranged by Palmer again, it will end up on an EP that also takes tracks from SONGS FROM THE WOOD.
Weary album but still an album by JETHRO TULL so worth having to understand the development of sound and creativity. From this album on, there will be lineup changes and therefore in writing as well as in sound, great work for being a work but too weak to carry the JETHRO TULL name at all.
Live:
As far as I know, this album was completely abandoned already at the end of the Tour 79-80, where DARK AGES, ELEGY, OLD GHOST, HOME, ORION, DUN RINGILL, and SOMETHING'S ON THE MOVE were performed; later on, only DUN RINGILL had a little more space live, the others remained a meteor.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 North Sea Oil (03:11)
Black and viscous --- bound to cure blue lethargy
Sugar-plum petroleum for energy
Tightrope-balanced payments need a small reprieve
Oh, please believe we want to be
in North Sea Oil
New-found wealth sits on the shelf of yesterday
Hot-air balloon --- inflation soon will make you pay
Riggers rig and diggers dig their shallow grave
But we'll be saved and what we crave
is North Sea Oil
Prices boom in Aberdeen and London Town
Ten more years to lay the fears, erase the frown
before we are all nuclear --- the better way!
Oh, let us pray: we want to stay
in North Sea Oil
02 Orion (03:58)
Orion, won't you give me your star sign
Orion, get up on the sky-line
I'm high on my hill and I feel fine
Orion, let's sip the heaven's heady wine
Orion, light your lights:
come guard the open spaces
from the black horizon to the pillow where I lie.
Your faithful dog shines brighter than its lord and master
Your jewelled sword twinkles as the world rolls by.
So come up singing above the cloudy cover
Stare through at people who toss fitful in their sleep.
I know you're watching as the old gent by the station
scuffs his toes on old fag packets lying in the street
And silver shadows flick across the closing bistro.
Sweet waiters link their arms and patter down the street,
their words lost blowing on cold winds in darkest Chelsea.
Prime years fly fading with each young heart's beat
Orion, won't you make me a star sign
Orion, get up on the sky-line
I'm high on your love and I feel fine
Orion, let's sip the heaven's heady wine
And young girls shiver as they wait by lonely bus-stops
after sad parties: no-one to take them home
to greasy bed-sitters and make a late-night play
for lost virginity a thousand miles away.
03 Home (02:45)
As the dawn sun breaks over sleepy gardens
I'll be here to do all things to comfort you.
And though I've been away
left you alone this way
why don't you come awake
and let your first smile take me home.
The shadows in the park were longer yesterday
and Lady Luck stood still, waiting for the kill.
And on a jumbo ride
over seas grey, deep and wide
I flew for heaven's sake
and let the angels take me home.
Down steep and narrow lanes I see the chimneys smoking
above the golden fields ... know what the robin feels
in his summer jamboree.
All elements agree
in sweet and stormy blend ---
midwife to winds that send me home.
04 Dark Ages (09:13)
"Darlings, are you ready for the long winter's fall?"
Said the lady in her parlor, said the butler in the hall.
"Is there time for another?" cried the drunkard in his sleep.
"Not likely," said the little child. "What's done the Lord can keep."
And the vicar stands a-praying, and the television dies
As the white dot flickers and is gone, and no-one stops to cry.
Dark ages, shaking the dead
Closed pages, better not read
Cold rages, they burn in your head
The big jet rumbles over runway miles that scar the patchwork green
Where slick tycoons and rich buffoons have opened up the seam
Of golden nights and champagne flights, ad-man overkill
And in the haze, consumer-crazed, we take the sugar pill.
Dark ages, shaking the dead
Closed pages, better not read
Cold rages, they burn in your head
Jagged fires mark the picket lines the politicians weep
And mealy-mouthed, down corridors of power on tip-toe creep.
Come and see bureaucracy make its final heave
And let the new disorder through while senses take their leave.
Dark ages, shaking the dead
Closed pages, better not read
Cold rages, they burn in your head
Families screaming line the streets and put the windows through
In corner shops, where keepers kept the country's life-blood blue.
Take their pick, and try the trick with loaves and fishes shared
And the vicar shouts as the lights go out, and no-one really cares.
Dark ages, shaking the dead
Closed pages, better not read
Cold rages, they burn in your head
"Darlings, are you ready for the long winter's fall?"
Said the lady in her parlor, said the butler in the hall.
Dark ages, shaking the dead
Closed pages, better not read
Cold rages, they burn in your head
08 Dun Ringill (02:41)
Clear light on a slick palm
as I mis-deal the day
Slip the night from a shaved pack
make a marked card play
Call twilight hours down
from a heaven home
high above the highest bidder
for the good Lord's throne
In the wee hours I'll meet you
down by Dun Ringill ---
oh, and we'll watch the old gods play
by Dun Ringill
We'll wait in stone circles
`til the force comes through ---
lines joint in faint discord
and the stormwatch brews
a concert of kings
as the white sea snaps
at the heels of a soft prayer
whispered
In the wee hours I'll meet you
down by Dun Ringill ---
oh, and I'll take you quickly
by Dun Ringill.
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By Egli
"Stormwatch proves to be by far the best, in my opinion, of the entire folk triad, also thanks to a rediscovered fluidity of Anderson’s writing."
"Elegy is set against a more bucolic background, resulting in something very evocative, thanks to the interweaving of flute and acoustic guitar."
