REVIEW: "This Was"

Jethro Tull
This Was
© 1968 Island

Jethro Tull’s music is known primarily for their incorporation of folk and traditional elements and the use of the flute by lead singer Ian Anderson. Their two most renowned albums, Aqualung and particularly Thick as a Brick are grand, prog affairs packed with concepts and musical experimentation. However, their beginning—seen here on their debut, This Was—was as a very different band.

This Was, for all it’s little flourishes, is ultimately a fairly straight-forward blues-rock affair. The folk elements and progressive concepts of later works are non-existent. In large part, this is due to the influence of Mick Abrahams, the band’s original guitarist who, wrote many of the album’s songs along with Anderson. After this album, he left the band due to creative differences and Anderson would never share songwriting credit again.

“Beggar’s Farm” (no video)


While the album is largely by-the-numbers, there is, nonetheless, a fair amount of promise shown. The vocals possess a dirty, ragged quality that works well, Abrahams’ aggressive guitar work is highly competent, and the heavy incorporation of the flute—though Anderson’s skills were somewhat more primitive at the time—is as unique an element in the blues-rock field as it would be in the prog-rock world.

“Serenade to a Cookoo” (no video)


The real question, however, is not whether this was a successful debut. Like Bowie’s David Bowie, it was—regardless of quality—enough to get the band a second album—Stand Up—which more accurately forecasted the sound of the band. The question is if the album still has relevance today. Unlike Bowie’s debut, which—for all its flaws—presented some of the chimerical quality and wit Bowie fans love, there is nearly nothing of the Jethro Tull of Aqualung on This Was.

“Dharma for One” (no video)


This makes it difficult to recommend the album in relation to Tull’s other works. It is almost better to think of this as an album by a different band altogether; the departure of Abrahams makes this interpretation quite accurate. No, an appreciation for Tull is not the accurate meter for this album, but rather an appreciation for blues-rock.

“A Song For Jeffrey” (fan video)


RECCOMENEDED IF… you enjoy bands such as Cream, The Yardbirds, and even early Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones. Fans and haters alike of Tull’s later work may appreciate this album on it’s own merits, or they may not; This Was is not the Tull they would have pre-conceived opinions of.

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