Discord & Rhyme: An Album Podcast

Discord and Rhyme is a podcast where we discuss the albums we love, song by song.

046: Jethro Tull - Stand Up (1969)

“It’s definitely in my top three Jethro Tull albums, alongside Aqualung and Songs From the Wood. And being the first of the three in a temporal sense it has a very special place in my heart, because it could have all gone downhill. It could have been a not very good blues album.”

Ian Anderson

Jethro Tull started their career as a hardcore blues band. Within a few years, they were a hardcore progressive rock band, writing album-long suites of extraordinarily complex music. While both of those eras are interesting, the brief period between the two - where the band had moved away from the blues, but hadn’t yet completely progged out - is some of the best music of its era. Sadly, it doesn’t get discussed nearly enough these days. In this episode, Phil, along with Ben, John, and Mike, dive into this era with 1969’s Stand Up - a contender for the best album Tull ever released. So - don your codpiece, jump on one leg, and join in the fun as we discuss one of the best (and most overlooked) rock albums of 1969 (along with several contemporary singles that, while not on the album proper, are far too good to ignore).

Miscellany

  • When adding the clips to this episode, Mike mostly chose to use Steven Wilson’s remixes, which, as you’ll hear Phil mention, are generally excellent. The exceptions are “The Witch’s Promise” (for reasons explained in the episode), the live version of “For a Thousand Mothers,” “Thick as a Brick” (because Mike still owns the old remaster), and the songs clipped during the history segment, where the original mono mixes were used to give it a nice sepia-toned flashback feel.

  • Phil *highly* recommends picking up the Steven Wilson remasters with the hardcover books if you see them. They were produced in limited quantities and are extremely excellent (both in terms of material and in terms of liner notes), so they’re definitely worth picking up if you see them for a reasonable price. One note - there are two deluxe editions of Stand Up available - the Steven Wilson one, with a 1969 concert as bonus material, and an older one with a 1970 concert as bonus material. Both concerts are excellent and both sets are well worth getting.

  • Mike also relistened to Benefit shortly after recording this episode, and it’s a lot better than he remembered it being. It might not be up there with Tull’s finest work, but it certainly deserves better than the dismissive grunt he gave it in the episode. 

Other links 

Discord & Rhyme Roll Call 

  • Phil Maddox (host)

  • Mike DeFabio (moderator, animal noises)

  • Ben Marlin

  • John McFerrin

  • Rich Bunnell (guest vocalist) 

Stand Up tracklist 

  1. A New Day Yesterday

  2. Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square

  3. Bourée

  4. Back to the Family

  5. Look into the Sun

  6. Nothing Is Easy

  7. Fat Man

  8. We Used to Know

  9. Reasons for Waiting

  10. For a Thousand Mothers

Stand Up-era bonus singles!

  1. Living in the Past

  2. Sweet Dream

  3. The Witch’s Promise

  4. Teacher 

Other clips used 

Jethro Tull:

  • Bungle in the Jungle

  • Aqualung

  • Inside

  • Sunshine Day

  • Serenade to a Cuckoo

  • Love Story

  • A Song for Jeffrey

  • For Michael Collins, Jeffrey, and Me

  • Thick as a Brick

  • We Used to Know/For a Thousand Mothers (live)

  • Locomotive Breath 

Others:

  • Johann Sebastian Bach - Bourrée in E Minor

  • Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Nutrocker

  • Roland Kirk - You Did It, You Did It

  • Eagles - Hotel California

Band/album personnel 

  • Ian Anderson – vocals, flute, acoustic guitar, Hammond organ, piano, mandolin, balalaika, mouth organ, production

  • Martin Barre – electric guitar, additional flute (tracks 2 and 9)

  • Glenn Cornick – bass guitar (all tracks but 5 and 7)

  • Clive Bunker – drums, percussion

  • Terry Ellis – production, cover concept

  • Andy Johns – engineer, bass guitar (track 5)

  • Dee Palmer – string arrangements and conductor (track 9)

  • John Williams – cover concept

  • James Grashow – cover art

Credits 

“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of: 

  • Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf

  • Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste

  • The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...

  • Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

  • Herbie Hancock - Hornets

  • Kraftwerk - Autobahn

  • Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen

  • Jethro Tull - Reasons for Waiting (this episode only)

You can buy or stream Stand Up and other albums by Jethro Tull at jethrotull.com or at the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon, but we recommend checking your favorite local/regional record store first. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and animal noises. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.

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