Jethro Tull: "A Little Light Music" - September 1992

Czech & Slovak Fan Club Jethro Tull at Lucerna, Prague - 10. May 1992 - with Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Dave Pegg & Dave Mattacks

"A Little Light Music", a live album by Jethro Tull, was released in September 1992.

In 1992, Anderson had two types of shows, the "Light & Dark Tour", with Andy Giddings on keyboards and Doane Perry on drums, and the aforementioned "A Little Light Music Tour", without Giddings and Perry, but with Dave Mattacks - borrowed from Fairport Convention - on drums and keyboards.

Between the two shows, the good Anderson chose the more acoustic and intimate one, the "Little Light Music" precisely, to be released as a double album.

Very particular setlist and different from the usual standards. The recordings were also taken in various locations.

The album also contains a cover of the classic John Barleycorn, which in the European version was sung in tandem with the Greek singer George Dalaras, renamed by us Tullians "Tony Dallaras"!

Of all a Pop...

Wazza

There comes a point in every artist's career when their repertoire is likely to literally come out of their ears. Without a doubt, it is difficult to please both the general fans, who in the end always want the four or five classic hits (people who warm up on Aqualung, Thick as A Brick, Boureé and Living

In The Past) and to please the most avid fans, who expect the proverbial "gems" and "gems", scattered here and there in the vast repertoire,  if not even the "newest" material, since the aforementioned classics have already been assimilated for a long time.

The fact is, that for the reasons mentioned above, Jethro Tull embarked on a world tour different from the usual, also due to the pressure of the public who demanded a conversion of Jethro to the fashionable "Unplugged" launched in the early 90s by MTV, that is that way of reinterpreting their live repertoires in an acoustic key. And that's what they did. This fact implied a clear change in 1992 not only from the point of view of the arrangements, but also in the line-up, albeit temporarily. Keyboardist Andy Giddings, who had recently joined Jethro Tull on the occasion of the recording of "Catfish Rising" (1991), was kindly invited to stay at home for the duration of the tour, while drummer Doane Perry asked for a break to look after his extra-Tullian affairs.

Behind the skins was therefore hired Dave Mattacks, at the time drummer of Fairport Convention, introduced by the then bassist Dave Pegg. Gerry Conway, the drummer at the time of "Broadsword And The Beast", also made a few fleeting appearances during the tour.

From the live recordings an album entitled "A Little Light Music" was taken, from the name of the acoustic tour of '92, in turn taken from a song from the previous album "Catfish Rising": to be precise it is the song Rocks On The Road (Now how about a little light music / to take it alla way/ Now how about some light music / to take it away /).

The first recorded dates were even discarded, due to the excessive nervousness of the whole band for the project: which is saying something for those who boast a consolidated live experience like Jethro Tull. On the album there are songs recorded in London, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Munich, Berlin, Prague, Zurich, Ankara, Jerusalem, Caesarea, Graz and Athens, where the Greek singer George Dalaras is a guest for a (useless) version of John Barleycorn and one of Ruby Tuesday, the latter cover fortunately not included in the album.

The use of semi-acoustic in Nursie and its arrangement, the choice of songs like From A Dead Beat To An Old Greaser, leave a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth. The sound of David Pegg's acoustic bass is unusual and gives a bizarre imprint to the songs, not to mention Ian Anderson's deputy, quite in difficulty with the new volumes, not to mention the waning vocal phase begins after the recordings of Under Wraps, although still quite acceptable (the coup de grace would have been received by falling from the stage and risking dying of thrombosis,  which affected her vocal situation until its current state). However, there are some great interpretations, such as the instrumental version of the acoustic gem Under Wraps # 2, rather than the excellent Life Is A Long Song and A Christmas Song. Epic are also the presentations of Ian Anderson, who jokingly "takes it out" with Martin Barre and David Pegg. Yet, overall it seems that the sound is really very sparse in some points, in addition to the general redundancy of some arrangements (the blues stirring of Look Into The Sun rather than the intro of Too Old To Rock'n'Roll Too Young To Die, to name a couple).

Anderson of Jethro Tull at Edinburgh Playhouse 1992

 

In short, I don't think I would have gone home very satisfied if I had gone to see a concert of this tour, even if many fans did not mind this phase at all. I'm not saying that you would have come back disgusted or disappointed, because the level of the show is certainly always excellent, but not even to jump for joy for the new change.

Perhaps a similar project would be much more suitable for today's Jethro Tull, since Ian Anderson has lost his voice almost completely. Focusing on a predominantly acoustic repertoire would be less demanding and would yield better results. But the real weakness of "A Little Light Music" remains perhaps the fact that the songs, in addition to being re-arranged, are less incisive than the originals, or even just compared to other live shows (look at the excellent Bursting Out of 1978 for example!). "A Little Light Music" is a project in the balance. Even the design of the cover, despite being graphically well studied, is a bit kitsch and perhaps the original logo made with the symbols of the staff is saved.

Jethro Tull will try again the following year with the mediocre Beacon Bottom's Tapes of the 25th anniversary box set, before realizing that the more faithful you are to the original, the more the public appreciates it. Fairly!