Jethro Tull - Life Is A Long Song EP (1971)

Jethro Tull is a band I've madly loved when I was a kid between 1971 and 1974, but then I rather gave up due to a musical evolution not fitting mine (except for the splendid Minstrel in the Gallery LP in 1975). But I've always considered Ian Anderson as a kind of genius, just a little less deified than Zappa, and much more my taste actually. I know there are not many forgotten Tull's songs but there are some EPs, singles' B-sides and radio sets, not forgetting good quality concerts, that deserve to be considered so. Here is a strangely forgotten EP, released between Aqualung (in March 1971) and Thick As A Brick (in March 1972). Featuring 5 unissued songs, it will do quite well in the charts in September 1971, reaching n°11, but I feel that many omit it when they think about the Tull's discography. It's a transitional record, quite acoustic, without the raw and hard sound and atmosphere of Aqualung but not yet completely in the progressive genre as will be Thick As A Brick (under the clear influence of Gentle Giant actually, and they will open for the Tull some months later). Although most pictures of the band dated 1971 feature Clive Bunker, he was gone after the Aqualung sessions and that year Barrie Barlow was the new member on drums (an old friend of Ian Anderson, a thing that will often do Anderson, even if his friend is not a good musician, but there he was). But I talk too much. Enjoy this EP here (reup). In streaming I put "Up The Pool", my fave of the lot, and I post a video from a promo clip done in 1971 of the title track.

Up the pool. I'm going up the `pool from down the smoke below to taste my mum's jam sarnies and see our Aunty Flo. The candyfloss salesman watches ladies in the sand down for a freaky weekend in the hope that they'll be meeting Mister Universe. The iron tower smiles down upon the silver sea and along the golden mile they'll be swigging mugs of tea. The politicians there who've come to take the air while posing for the daily press will look around and blame the mess on Edward Bear. There'll be bucket, spades and bingo, cockles, mussels, rainy days, seaweed and sand castles, icy waves. Deck chairs, rubber dinghies, old vests, braces dangling down, sun-tanned stranded starfish in a daze. We're going up the `pool from down the smoke below to taste my mum's jam sarnies and see our Aunty Flo. The candy floss salesman watches ladies in the sand down for a freaky weekend in the hope that they'll be meeting Mister Universe. There'll be buckets, spades and bingo, cockles, mussels, rainy days, seaweed and sand castles, icy waves, Deck chairs, rubber dinghies, old vests, braces dangling down, sun-tanned stranded starfish in a daze. Oh Blackpool, oh Blackpool.