This DVD/CD package is an absolute must have for any Jethro Tull fan; finally a concert DVD from the classic 1970s period and the closest thing possible to having a video version of Tull's live album `Bursting Out.'
Sporting the cover of the CD/DVD set is a very strange looking Ian Anderson with a typically normally looking Martin Barre. Anderson looks like he is getting ready to do something perverted with his flute again. Glad to know 31 years on nothing much has changed in that respect. Live At Madison Square Garden (CD/DVD) is one of several live Jethro Tull DVD's that have become available over the last few years. I am glad that I didn't miss this one because it's a real gem. It contains a 93 minute concert recording in 5.1 DTS (96/24) surround sound (+Dolby Digital 5.1 & LPCM 2.0) and within all of that is 50 minutes of video footage from the groundbreaking (an often over used term in music but in this case true) of an international broadcast via satellite on October 9, 1978. The CD is a 78 minute edited stereo version of the concert. The only difference in tracks between the two is the "Bagpipe Intro" on the DVD and obviously the visual impact of a live Jethro Tull performance that is so strikingly brought to life again.
Jethro Tull's first album, THIS WAS, recorded and released in 1968, shows a band that is a far cry from their better-known incarnation as a prog rock outfit in the late 1970s. Instead, Tull come across here as a solid and talented blues band with elements of jazz, folk, and psychedelia thrown in. The band's sound was heavily influenced by guitarist, singer, and songwriter Mick Abrahams, whose bluesy singing and leads distinguish this disc in Tull's discography. Frontman Ian Anderson also shines with tunes like "Some Day the Sun Won't Shine for You" and the excellent cover of Rashaan Roland Kirk's "Serenade to a Cuckoo."
Jethro Tull's first LP-length epic is a masterpiece in the annals of progressive rock, and one of the few works of its kind that still holds up decades later. Mixing hard rock and English folk music with classical influences, set to stream-of-consciousness lyrics so dense with imagery that one might spend weeks pondering their meaning – assuming one feels the need to do so – the group created a dazzling tour de force, at once playful, profound, and challenging, without overwhelming the listener. The original LP was the best-sounding, best-engineered record Tull had ever released, easily capturing the shifting dynamics between the soft all-acoustic passages and the electric rock crescendos surrounding them.