Jethro Tull - The Kelpie (1979)

Jethro Tull's twelfth studio album 'Stormwatch' was released September 1979, and is considered to be the last in the trilogy of folk-rock albums by the band, following 'Songs From The Wood' and 'Heavy Horses', but this time with lyrics that touch heavily on problems relating to the environment, oil and money. It was also the last Tull album to feature the classic line-up of the 1970's, as bassist John Glascock died from heart complications during the Stormwatch tour, and drummer Barriemore Barlow and keyboardists John Evan and Dee Palmer all left the band in the months after the tour had concluded in April 1980. Reception for the album was mixed, as the lyrics gave it a darker energy than previous albums, and the music bordered on heavy metal in places, but overall the fans approved. The 40th anniversary re-issue included a plethora of bonus tracks, with a complete 1980 live concert from Den Haag, and fourteen previously unreleased songs. Once I'd removed early versions of some of the 'Stormwatch' tracks and a live 'Sweet Dream', that left exactly 40 minutes of previously unheard material - just enough for a companion album to 'Stormwatch'. One of the bonus tracks was the original nine-minute take of Orion, but as the first four minutes were pretty much identical to the released version, I extracted the coda to make a stand-alone track, now titled 'Orion Revisited'. I also removed 'Rock Instrumental (Unfinished Master)', as that didn't really seem to go anywhere, and so what we're left with is a pretty good selection of songs that the band couldn't find a place for on the album at the time, but which are definitely worth hearing. I've titled it 'The Kelpie' (a mythical Scottish water spirit, often in the shape of a horse), after one of the songs, and that gave me the opportunity to use this magical painting that I found for the cover.      

Track listing

01 Crossword
02 Kelpie
03 A Stitch In Time
04 The Lyrikon Blues
05 A Single Man
06 Broadford Bazaar
07 Orion Revisited
08 King Henry's Madrigal
09 Urban Apocalypse
10 Man Of God