"Stormwatch" was released on September 14, 1979

"Stormwatch", the Jethro Tull album that closes a cycle, was released on September 14, 1979.

No cover was more prophetic: Anderson peering with binoculars at an approaching storm... which will come with the death of John Glascock, and then the internal quarrels that led to the dismemberment of the band.

Of all a Pop...

Wazza

Swan song for Jethro Tull: we are in 1979 and the band comes to an end with an album that exudes creative fatigue and detachment in interpersonal relationships. Considered the third of an openly Folk trilogy, it actually seems to me that this album recovers the general sound explored in BURSTING OUT. Already in HEAVY HORSES Anderson had talked about various misunderstandings, that collaborative magic found in SONGS FROM THE WOOD had already vanished and even more the mood in STORM flies low due to the health problems of JOHN GLASCOCK present here only in three tracks, ELEGY, FLYING DUTCHMAN and ORION... In fact, he never went on stage with the band, but he was able to perform live at least DARK AGES, already ready in a first arrangement in the HEAVY HORSERS-Tour.

The Album:

Anderson remembers how at that time he was at home reading newspapers and magazines, very busy with his business and therefore attentive to the weather situation given his commitment to the entrepreneurial field (Anderson deals with salmon farming). He doesn't talk about this record as desolate and cold and according to him NORTH SEA OIL is a piece of great spirit, no song wants to be political but at least a little cynical and sarcastic yes. Unfortunately, the band seems tired perhaps also because of the various live commitments, and perhaps that creative spontaneity has been lost a bit, they focus a lot on instrumentals. That these songs have been filed too much in the studio can be heard because listening to them live they mesh great (ORION and SOMETHING'S ON THE MOVE), DARK AGES already performed live is a bit revised, given the worsening of the problems of bassist John Glascock Anderson himself takes care of replacing him on bass, live the task will be up to Dave Pegg,  the whole album is supported by rock and some acoustic lines, the formula of the double keyboardist overshadows John Evan who on a compositional level disappears just to make room for David Palmer, but the most dissatisfied in the end seems to be Palmer himself, who at the time gave theory lessons to Anderson himself, the 70s sound is a bit lost,  we go a lot to synthesizers and simulators to create atmosphere, Evan recovers the piano, now you can hear a bit of the executive and almost brainy coldness of the Live of that period and in my opinion the album suffers from it.

Anderson's voice seems filtered and a bit metallic, certainly a bit low and perhaps tried by the many concerts, his work on bass is very good (note the double picking, which seems to be one of his trademarks) someone insinuates that his track has been slowed down in order to allow him to record without difficulty,, the reverberation of his bass is due to the fact that it has been sent into slight Overdrive and with a little bit of Flanger to make bad what looks like a MUSICMAN BASS, the one Glascock used lately...

The instrumentals (strong point of the band), could have been in favor of the record, instead they end up increasing the general chaos, ELEGY is an honest melodic-melancholic instrumental piece of composition MADE IN PALMER that I think was composed in honor of his father, only later dedicated to the late Glascock, but with Jethro Tull he has little to share,  WARM SPORRAN is almost a filler, from this album the eclectic PROG themes disappear a bit since Dark Ages itself seems to be a piece of recovery of the HEAVY HORSES sessions of which it seems was also part WORKING JOHN, WORKING JOE then reprised in the following A.

It seems that the highlight existed and it was a real Prog Suite with an impossible rhythm that drummer Barrie Barlow liked so much, APOCALYPSE, a song composed by Palmer, surely the fact that Anderson considered a song (ELEGY) in the keyboardist's name more than enough (the song had been rehearsed) meant that it was abandoned into thin air,  and the other songs of the period?? A STITCH IN TIME comes from those sessions and will be released as a single together with SWEET DREAMS version BURSTING OUT, KING HENRY'S MADRIGAL is another instrumental with PEGG on bass and I think always arranged by Palmer, it will end up in an EP that also takes up pieces of SONGS FROM THE WOOD.

Tired record but still JETHRO TULL record so to have to understand the development of sound and creativity. From this album onwards there will be changes in line-up and therefore also in writing as well as sound, excellent work for a work but too weak to carry the name JETHRO TULL in short.

Live:

As far as I know, this album was completely abandoned already at the end of the 79-80 Tour, where DARK AGES, ELEGY, OLD GHOST, HOME, ORION, DUN RINGILL, and SOMETHING'S ON THE MOVE were performed, later live only DUN RINGILL had a little more space, the others instead remained a meteor.

North Sea Oil – transcribed by Tulliano Sergio Ponti