TULL: The Broadsword and the Beast 40th anniversary Monster Edition September 1st

[Progatron]

I've got the boxes for TAAB, A, and Benefit. What am I missing?

This Was, Stand Up, Aqualung, A Passion Play, War Child, Minstrel, Too Old to RNR, Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses, and Stormwatch.

[mozo-pg]

This Was, Stand Up, Aqualung, A Passion Play, War Child, Minstrel, Too Old to RNR, Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses, and Stormwatch.

Wow! I missed the boat.

[StarThrower]

Wow! I missed the boat.

I'm pretty sure Stormwatch is still in print. And maybe This Was. But the rest are sold out.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Fingers crossed for a reprint of SFTW and especially War Child one day, as I was dumb and am now filled with regret.

[Dunamis]

I have been wise enough (he-hee) to buy all Tull boxes from the beginning, so right now I have 13.

[Rajaz]

This is really cool, Broadsword & the Beast is one of my top 3 Tull albums.

I wonder if Walk Into Light that Ian released the following year in '83 will get the same treatment as this one? That's too much wishful thinking, the bombastic keyboards by Peter-John Vettese follow the same vein.

[Progatron]

I wonder if Walk Into Light that Ian released the following year in '83 will get the same treatment as this one? That's too much wishful thinking, the bombastic keyboards by Peter-John Vettese follow the same vein.

I would love to see a combo release of Walk Into Light and Under Wraps, a la the Passion Play/Chateau tapes set. I'm a huge fan of WIL, personally.

[StarThrower]

I don't dig the drum sound on Broadsword. I hope they got rid of that awful reverb and updated the sound. Other than that I like the tunes, the synths, and the dark mood of the album.

[dropforge]

Can't. Wait.

[Bytor]

I don't dig the drum sound on Broadsword. I hope they got rid of that awful reverb and updated the sound. Other than that I like the tunes, the synths, and the dark mood of the album.

I'm with you on this. And not just the drum sound. The overall drumming lacks drive like a Barlow and Craney brought.

[Geoff O'Donoghue]

I'm a huge fan of WIL, personally.

I also really like Walk Into Light. I was surprised at the path IA took when I first heard it but it's so atmospheric - I think he totally pulls it off. Based on WIL I was open to IA trying a similar approach under the Tull banner but, on most of the songs, it just doesn't seem to work. I suspect it's largely the drums that are the problem - there's just too much going on, they're too prominent and too harsh sounding. I do wonder how it would sound with a drummer replacing the machines. From memory, IA seemed to suggest in an interview that re-doing UW with real drums would not be cost-effective. But IA has worked closely with Steven Wilson for a while now and SW has a track record in getting Gavin Harrison to replace drum machines on some early PT songs. I suspect that GH could deliver quality replacement drums for UW in a couple of days at his home studio.

[mkeneally]

The writing on Under Wraps is really good - I would welcome the addition of real drums if it helped make the songs more approachable to people, but I also suspect that the right remix of the existing drum tracks could potentially do wonders for peoples’ perception of the album. It’s a real interesting album.

[Mister Triscuits]

It’s a real interesting album.

It took me a long time to realize this, but Under Wraps is my favorite of Tull's '80s albums. It's very weird and experimental, and the experiments aren't 100% successful, but in a way that's half the fun. I've always hated the idea that anything that's quirky and "wrong" in prog needs to be fixed to make it sound more mainstream. Let Under Wraps be Under Wraps, clattering Linn Drum and all.

[TheH]

Walk into Light is a very good album, would also like that one to get a book set treatment

[pb2015]

Walk into Light is a very good album, would also like that one to get a book set treatment

I'd be surprised if they think there is enough interest. If they do an Under Wraps set they could fold it in there though, maybe.

[StarThrower]

I'd be surprised if they think there is enough interest. If they do an Under Wraps set they could fold it in there though, maybe.

The songs are excellent, imo. And I've never had an aversion to the synths and drum machines. I've owned the album since the 80s and ever since I heard Fly By Night, I thought it sounded amazing. I just wanna turn it up!

[Progatron]

I'd be surprised if they think there is enough interest. If they do an Under Wraps set they could fold it in there though, maybe.

Yes, this would be the only viable way I think. As I mentioned earlier, it would be like adding in the Chateau tapes to the Passion Play set (which is one of the best of the lot IMO).

The songs are excellent, imo. And I've never had an aversion to the synths and drum machines. I've owned the album since the 80s and ever since I heard Fly By Night, I thought it sounded amazing. I just wanna turn it up!

Agreed about the songs and the synths. I think Ian's music - at that time, anyway - really lent itself to the moody synth textures of the day. This is one of those albums that I always have to pull out whenever we get talking about it!

[arturs]

The writing on Under Wraps is really good - I would welcome the addition of real drums if it helped make the songs more approachable to people, but I also suspect that the right remix of the existing drum tracks could potentially do wonders for peoples’ perception of the album. It’s a real interesting album.

The proof of the quality of the UW tracks can be found in this concert video. Starting at about 8 minutes in they do: Under Wraps, Later That Same Evening, Nobody's Car, and Apogee

After some classics they return to the new material and do: Fly by Night, Made in England, European Legacy.

I really hope UW gets the deluxe treatment and including Fly by Night would be a great addition.

[Geoff O'Donoghue]

Thanks so much for posting that video link Arturs. I was completely unaware that IA had included WIL tracks in the UW tour repertoire - although I perhaps should have realised as he has done this with later solo material on Tull tours.
I have the Raw Fruit official release of the 9 Sept 84 Hammersmith show but of course that is nowhere near complete, containing only 8 tracks. That release is from a BBC broadcast and I started wondering if the complete recording was available - I found a very intriguing YouTube video (audio only) of the whole two hour show. The video's uploader refers to the "rare Double Album LP" but google doesn't give any results for a 2LP release of this show. Does anyone know anything about this? I would love to get a non-YouTube download of this.

[Guitarplyrjvb]

The thing that amazes me about Ian Anderson, aside from the richness of his music, is how prolific he is. All of these reissues have a TON of extra tracks that weren't on the mainstream releases. Much of it is as good as what was released on the mainstream albums. Perhaps his only rival in the prog world is Frank Zappa who is in a class by himself as far as work ethic.

[TheH]

Problem will be that he stated that they don't have much extra stuff recorded for later records. So let's see where this series goes.
I could live with extra live stuff video or audio.

[mozo-pg]

This Was, Stand Up, Aqualung, A Passion Play, War Child, Minstrel, Too Old to RNR, Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses, and Stormwatch.

I do have the full catalog in the Japan mini-lp format.

[BarryLI]

Listened to WIL this morning for the first time in forever, the songs were good, the synth sounds didn't bother me considering the time it was recorded but the production was murky as hell, I kept fiddling with the dials but help was not to be had, sigh.

[arturs]

Thanks so much for posting that video link Arturs. I was completely unaware that IA had included WIL tracks in the UW tour repertoire - although I perhaps should have realised as he has done this with later solo material on Tull tours.
I have the Raw Fruit official release of the 9 Sept 84 Hammersmith show but of course that is nowhere near complete, containing only 8 tracks. That release is from a BBC broadcast and I started wondering if the complete recording was available - I found a very intriguing YouTube video (audio only) of the whole two hour show. The video's uploader refers to the "rare Double Album LP" but google doesn't give any results for a 2LP release of this show. Does anyone know anything about this? I would love to get a non-YouTube download of this.

And thank you for posting this. I too have the lame 8-song version but this is the real deal. It's got the original full setlist (note they cut out some of the new material by the time the tour hit the USA) and Ian's still got his voice! This show would be the perfect addition to an UW box.

[roylayer]

Wow! I missed the boat.

Me too! I've managed to snag Benefit, A, This Was, Stormwatch, and TAAB (reissue) over the past year. The rest are out of my price range.

I either didn't know or didn't care about them when they were originally released. They are so incredibly well done! I wish that I had all of them now. I'm looking forward to Broadsword even though it's one of my lesser favorites and is more expensive than some of the other collections.