review by thomas

Let me say right now that if you love Tull in the early seventies and still don’t have this album… get it. For you who don’t know anything about this album, the material (19 songs on CD [on which my review is based] and slightly more on LP and cassette) is from 1968 up to 1971 and comes in chronological order. Some well known “Tullers” like the title track, “Sweet Dream”, “Locomotive Breath” and “Witch’s Promise” (listed as “Witches Promise”) comes side by side with more obscure – but equally fantastic – ones like “Driving Song”, “Singing All Day” and “Dr. Bogenbroom”.

Almost every song stays within the 2-3 minutes frame. The exception being two 10-minute live tracks from 1970: “By Kind Permission of”, basically a song for a solo piano, and a very reworked “Dharma for One”, now including lyrics. These live tracks are however not so good, neither is “Song for Jeffrey” (which I think is the only song from 1968). The only version of it that I like is to be found on the 25-years anniversary “Aqualung” album. In the end you get almost fifty minutes of Tull in great shape.

A more valid collection of singles A’s and B’s, outtakes, rarities and live tracks is hard to find, I can assure you that.