Heavy Horses (1978)
Ian Anderson - Vocals, Flute, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Mandolin
Barriemore Barlow - Drums, Percussion
Martin Barre - Electric Guitar
John Evan - Piano, Organ
John Glascock - Bass, Backing Vocals
Dee Palmer - Piano, Portative Pipe Organ, Orchestral Arrangements
Darryl Way - Violin on "Acres Wild" and "Heavy Horses"
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...And the Mouse Police Never Sleeps
3:11Acres Wild
3:22No Lullaby
7:55Moths
3:24Journeyman
3:55Rover
4:17One Brown Mouse
3:21Heavy Horses
8:58Weathercock
4:02----------
The second in the so-called "Folk Rock Trilogy" of albums, this one actually feels a bit more folksy than
Songs from the Wood. Still, as I mentioned in the writeup for
Songs from the Wood, I don't hear a drastic change in the music, just a different mix of acoustic and electric instrumentation, this time leaning a bit more to the acoustic side. Martin Barre's electric guitar doesn't make itself known until the third track, "No Lullaby", but as with "Pibroch (Cap in Hand)" from the previous album, it both opens and closes the track, and the track itself is an eight-minute mini-epic. So once again, it's not like Jethro Tull has forsaken the prog; they've just changed the mix a bit. The arrangements are often lush and complex, thanks to Dee Palmer's keyboards and orchestrations, giving the album an overall prog feel, even if the instrumentation leans more towards that found in folk music. It still sounds very much like Jethro Tull to me.
Ian Anderson had by this time purchased a house out in the country, and the subject matter reflects that a bit. The title track refers to the draft horses traditionally used to plow the fields and pull the carts. We also have songs named "Acres Wild", "Moths", "Weathercock" and two with the word "Mouse" in the title. As is often the case, Ian was just writing about what was on his mind, in this case his new farmhouse and reconnection with nature. This perhaps is also why the album has such a folksy, acoustic sound to it.
In terms of production, the album sounds much like
Songs from the Wood, and has a similar composition in terms of songs and song length. Mostly shorter songs, but also a couple of mini-epics (the aforementioned "No Lullaby" and the title track at eight and nine minutes, respectively), although the shorter songs here are markedly shorter, with two around the four-minute mark and the rest shorter than that. The result is interesting. The songs have some complexity and often many layers to them, but with so many shorter songs and lighter instrumentation, the album feels a bit sparse overall. When I get to the end, I sometimes think "Was that it?" But at around 40 minutes, it's an average-length album for its time. The 2003 CD version adds two songs, "Living in These Hard Times" (3:10) and "Broadford Bazaar" (3:38), and for reasons unknown, the version of "Rover" is different from the original LP.
Heavy Horses reached #19 on the Billboard Album Chart, and #20 in the U.K.
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Ian says:"You have to remember, this was at the time punk's final embers were burning out and you had bands like The Police and The Stranglers, who were, collectively speaking, a bunch of old hippies. The brave new world of punk rock had perhaps become commercialised at that point. But bands like those two used punk as a means to get their foot in the door, just as I did with the blues in 1968.
"So from our perspective then, it wasn't that we were vindicated that this new, intrusive music form had somehow ousted us from the public eye and approval, it was just a parallel event. I don't really recall being moved as a music maker by any of those changes in music that were going on. I knew what it was about and I rather liked some of it, but it was entirely separate to what I was writing. I didn't want to try to catch up or be influenced by it. We were still making Jethro Tull albums at that point."
From
Every Jethro Tull album in Ian Anderson's own words
Topic: The Jethro Tull/Ian Anderson Discography (Read 37761 times)
