Jethro Tull
This Was

Release Date: 1968 | Tracklist

“This Was” is the debut studio album of Jethro Tull that was released in 1968. The line up on the album is Ian Anderson, Mick Abrahams, Glenn Cornick and Clive Bunker. The album had also the participation of David Palmer.


Jethro Tull is a British progressive rock band that was formed in Blackpool, UK in 1967. The leader of the band is, and always was, Ian Anderson, who compose almost all the songs, sings, plays the acoustic guitar and the flute too. In the second half of the 60’s, the band toured various clubs with changing line ups. This quartet emerged as the first stable line up. The band’s name goes back to the English agronomist Jethro Tull. In 1968 the band released their first album.

With this release, Jethro Tull became as one of the first pioneer bands of the progressive rock music, with others such as Pink Floyd, Caravan, The Moody Blues, Van Der Graaf Generator, Procol Harum, Renaissance and King Crimson. Following the album, Abrahams decided left the band after a falling out with Anderson. There were a number of reasons for his departure, but the main reason was surely that he was a blues purist while Anderson wanted to explore many other forms of music. “This Was” was an album where Anderson shared some song writing duties with Abrahams. The album also contains the only Jethro Tull’s lead vocal not performed by Anderson on any studio album of the band, “Move On Alone”. Abrahams, who was the song writer of “Move On Alone”, provides the lead vocals on this track too.

The first Jethro Tull’s album clearly shows the roots of the band. It wasn’t for nothing that Anderson played in a band called John Evans Blues Band with later band’s members Jeffrey Hammond and John Evans. So it’s not surprising that many of the numbers presented still sound very bluesy, such as “It’s Breaking Me Up” or “Some Day The Sun Won’t Shine For You”, recorded only with guitar, vocals and harmonica. But, guitarist Mick Abrahams also feels committed to the blues/rhythm’n’blues, as shown, for example, by his arrangement of the traditional “Cat’s Squirrel”, which comes in an improvisation heavy hard rock blues guise, or “Move On Alone”. Anderson hadn’t yet taken over as the sole leader. Abrahams appears as a composer and a key shaper of the sound too. That probably explains the differences in sound.

“This Was” has ten tracks. “My Sunday Feeling” has some influences of blues and influences of jazz. It has a good energetic drumming well followed by the flute and the voice of Anderson used in a unique style. “Some Day The Sun Won’t Shine For You” is a typical short blues, slower than the previous track. Here, Anderson changes his flute by harmonica. It’s cool, but we have the feeling that we had already heard it before. “Beggar’s Farm” has good flute parts and where Anderson’s voice appears with a light drunken touch. It has a great combination of guitar and bass and a good rhythm section. “Move On Alone” is a simple song, a mix between jazz and blues. It’s short and nice but it seems to belong to the middle of the 60’s. “Serenade To A Cuckoo” is an instrumental. It’s one of the best moments on the album. It’s a great instrumental jazzier than blues. It has a great performance, mainly flute and guitar. “Dharma For One” is one of the most known Jethro Tull’s songs. It’s another instrumental where Bunker performed a great inventive drum solo. It has a much rock feeling than the previous songs. “It’s Breaking Me Up” is a traditional classic blues number. It has good harmonica performance. Like “Some Day The Sun Won’t Shine For You”, it’s also a real cool song but with the same feeling that we had already heard it before. “Cat’s Squirrel” is a traditional song arranged by Abrahams. Like “Dharma For One”, it’s also one of the most known Jethro Tull’s songs. It’s a good instrumental, a blues/rock song with a nice and interesting guitar work. Despite sounds a bit dated it remains a good song. “A Song For Jeffrey” is another well known track. It’s very good, one of the best moments on the album, really. It’s one of the first standard songs from the band that better represent the first musical period of Jethro Tull. “Round” is the smallest song on the album. It’s an instrumental, a simple track with catchy filler. It’s a short laid back tune with flute. But, it has nothing more of interest.


Conclusion: In part due to Abrahams’ influence, “This Was” incorporates a bit more blues and jazzy influences, than the following releases of Jethro Tull. It was only after “This Was” that was possible to see the progressive rock lines that later became as one of the best marks of the group. So, “This Was” is practically a blues/jazz album with very few or even nothing of progressive rock music on it. I can see some similarities between “This Was” and the debut albums of Genesis and Van Der Graaf Generator, “From Genesis To Revelation” and “The Aerosol Grey Machine”, respectively. All these three albums aren’t really great works, all have few progressivity and all have very little to do with what would be the future sound of those three bands. Besides, in my humble opinion, “This Was” is with “War Child” and “Too Old To Rock’n’Roll: Too Young To Die!” one of the three weakest studio albums released by Jethro Tull in the 70’s decade.


Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)

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