In 1987, Jethro Tull returned after a three-year break. Well, most of them, anyway. The largely negative response to the keyboard-heavy sound introduced on
The Broadsword and The Beast and further developed on
Under Wraps, as well as Ian Anderson's solo album
Walk Into Light, led Peter-John Vettese to quit the band in anger. Jethro Tull was down to three members: Ian Anderson, the everpresent Martin Barre on guitar, and Dave Pegg on bass. Anderson provided the keyboards, and three tracks had programmed drums. Drummers Doane Perry and Gerry Conway both returned to play on the remaining six tracks, though they were not credited as official members of the band.
Crest of a Knave (1987)Ian Anderson - Vocals, Flute, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Percussion, Keyboards, Drum Programming (tracks 1, 5, 9)
Martin Barre - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Dave Pegg - Bass Guitar, Acoustic Bass (track 4)
Gerry Conway - Drums, Percussion (tracks 3, 4, 6, 8)
Doane Perry - Drums, Percussion (tracks 2, 7)
Ric Sanders - Violin (track 6)
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Steel Monkey
3:39Farm on the Freeway
6:31Jump Start
4:55Said She Was a Dancer
3:43Dogs in the Midwinter
4:37Budapest
10:05Mountain Men
6:20The Waking Edge
4:49Raising Steam
4:05Bonus track (2005 Remaster)
Part of the Machine
6:54----------
With the departure of keyboardist Peter-John Vettese, guitarist Martin Barre really steps up his game here, and as usual, he is amazing. This is the most guitar-driven Jethro Tull album since the 70's. Ian's damned flute is here, dancing through several songs and taking the occassional solo, and there's some nice keyboard work (which I didn't realize at first was done by Anderson). I didn't even notice that some songs had programmed drums while most had "real" drums. Honestly, Ian was becoming quite proficient as a drum programmer.
Ian's voice is quieter now. I had no idea about the issues he'd been having; I just assumed that he was getting older and that this is what he sounds like now. More subdued but still very expressive, something like Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits. In fact, this album was often compared to Dire Straits, though apparently it was meant in a negative way. I took it as a compliment. I like Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler's "just enough tonality to call it singing rather than talking" style of storytelling, and a few of the songs take their time to play out and tell the story ("Farm on the Freeway", "Budapest", and others).
Martin Barre recalls
Crest of a Knave being "the album where a lot of things were of my invention. There are still chunks of the music where lan very much knew what he wanted, but I think my input was far greater on that album than on any other."
The Grammy ControversyIt's basically impossible to discuss this album without bringing up the "controversy" surrounding the 1989 Grammys. Also, this was the first Jethro Tull album to win a Grammy, so it would have come up anyway.
Fogies such as myself remember growing up with four music genres: Rock, Jazz, Country & Western, and Classical. Most towns only had one radio station, so it either had to mix things up, or pick a genre and stick to it. If you were lucky, you lived in an area where you had your choice of stations. But in the early days, all "pop", "rock", and even "heavy metal" fell under the basic "Rock" category. Country had their own station, and you maybe had a public radio station from the local college that played Jazz and/or Classical.
But by the 80's, music was fragmenting, and in 1989 The Grammys introduced a new category: "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental". Nominees were AC/DC for
Blow Up Your Video, Iggy Pop for "Cold Metal" (from
Instinct), Jane's Addiction for
Nothing's Shocking, Metallica for
...And Justice For All, and Jethro Tull for
Crest of a Knave.
Ian Anderson was surprised that they were nominated for this category, although if I had to guess, Martin Barre may not have been. I'd always considered Jethro Tull to be Prog more than Hard Rock, but think about "Aqualung", "Locomotive Breath", and even early stuff like "Teacher". Guitar-driven, great heavy riffs. Anyway, Tull's management didn't think they had any chance to win, and advised them to not bother attending, so they did not. Everyone was sure Metallica would win. They did not. Jethro Tull won for
Crest of a Knave.
To pull it mildly, people lost their shit. "Jethro Tull is not heavy metal!" True, but in all fairness, the category was "Hard Rock/Metal", an attempt to separate the heavier side of Rock, and as I said, there are Jethro Tull songs out there which could be considered Hard Rock. Also "Performance" could mean either a song or an album (which is why Iggy Pop had a
song nominated, while the other nominees were albums) and "Vocal or Instrumental" was even in there, suggesting that there could be other types of music performance. Let's face it, it was a stupid category. The very next year, they split it into "Best Hard Rock Performance" and "Best Metal Performance". At least they figured out that musical performances are either instrumental or include vocals.
When presenters Alice Cooper and Lita Ford opened the envelope, they were visibly surprised. When Alice read the winner, there was actual booing from the audience. Ian Anderson later said that he assumed it was one of those awards you give someone recognizing their body of work, and considered himself fortunate that he did not attend the awards, as "there's no way I could have accepted it under those circumstances."
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I missed most of the 80's, so when this album came out in 1987, I had no idea that Jethro Tull had gone through as much drama, trauma, and lineup turnover as they had in the years prior. I just knew that my life had stabilized to the point where I could once again buy the occassional album, CDs had replaced LPs as the medium of choice, and Jethro Tull had a new album out, so I bought it. My first Jethro Tull CD. I personally love this one. It's one of my favorite Jethro Tull albums. Is it Prog? Is it Hard Rock? I know it's not Metal, but I don't really care. Jethro Tull has always defied labels and genres.
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Ian says:"I was going out and doing Under Wraps live, and I ripped up my throat – I couldn’t sing and I thought maybe time was up and I’d blown my voice completely. I spent a year not doing anything but seeing throat specialists, so it wasn’t until the summer of ’86 that we went out and did some shows, including one in Budapest where I wrote the song of the same name. In America it was the early days of MTV and Steel Monkey got quite a lot of prominence. That album did well in the US and won the Grammy."
From
Every Jethro Tull album in Ian Anderson's own words