Jethro Tull - Stand Up (1969)

Named for an English agricultural scientist, Jethro Tull started out as a band rooted in a curious mix of jazz, American blues and English folk, but it wasn't until their second album, Stand Up, that they moved in a more progressive direction familiar with American fans of classic rock.  There is still debate whether Stand Up - which marked the debut of guitarist Martin Barre, replacing Mick Abrahams - was a giant leap forward for the band or the first step on a road to AOR-radio ruin.  The album was certainly more polished than their debut This Was, and its songs, composed by leader Ian Anderson, were idiosyncratic vignettes of romance, family associations, and life in general.  In short, Stand Up highlighted the eccentricities that Jethro Tull became famous for, for better or worse.  But those eccentricities can be endearing; Anderson has a caustic wit and a sarcastic sense of humor that has long made him one of the most interesting British rockers of all time.

Stand Up is an approach to rock and roll that would become the signature sound for Jethro Tull over time, but here, early in the band's career, it's fresh and innovative.  Much has been made of Anderson's hyperactive flute work and elongated vocal phrasing and Barre's heavy riffing - in abundance here - as the defining elements of the Jethro Tull sound, but a lot of credit for Stand Up goes to the original rhythm section of bassist Glenn Cornick and drummer Clive Bunker; their punchy, precise playing anchors the LP's freewheeling melodies perfectly.  (Both Cornick and Bunker would be gone by 1972.)  The explosive sound of "A New Day Yesterday," the opening track, and the tension of "We Used To Know," a reflection on harder times, show a strong band with impeccable chemistry.  Stand Up is balanced nicely by more subtle songs, such as the beautiful acoustically based ballad "Look Into The Sun" and the light-hearted "Fat Man," with Anderson playing (and playing with) a balalaika while jokingly expressing joy for being thin, while reciting the drawbacks to being fat and ironically acknowledging the one advantage of corpulence - "Roll us both down a mountain and I'm sure the fat man would win." Ha.

While Anderson's ambition  has periodically been coupled with unformed ideas over his career, here his mind and his music are focused.  The majestically orchestrated ballad "Reasons For Waiting" is one of the most humanistic songs in all of rock (So here's hope in your faith in impossible schemes / That are born in the sigh of the wind blowing by"), and with "Bourée," he manages to make a blues instrumental out of a Bach piece - how did he do that?  Anderson is certainly confident - the blistering "For a Thousand Mothers" is his answer to his family's doubts about his musical career - and he delivers his music forcefully all the way through.  Perhaps a little too forcefully.  Although Jethro Tull still had many fine moments ahead of them, Anderson would prove to be such a dominating figure that, except for Martin Barre, band members would come and go with such frequency that Jethro Tull would prove to be less of a group than a vehicle for Anderson's vision.  It's no wonder that so many people mistakenly thought that Jethro Tull was Anderson's name.