Coinciding with its 20th anniversary, this in-concert rendition of Jethro Tull’s milestone work Aqualung was performed in front of a radio audience in Washington, DC with royalties going to homeless charities.
The generally faithful versions are rendered with a crystal-clear clarity and interspersed with Ian Anderson’s usual wit – spoken or indeed musical.
He substitutes the downbeat flute swirls of My God’s familiar resolution on the studio version for a series of faux-grandiose declamatory parps, ending with a pretend flub to puncture the jokily pompous vibe, followed by a muttered aside of “Shit!” to general amusement.
It caps off a tremendous version of this album centrepiece, with Andrew Giddings’ keyboard work doing an excellent job of recreating the Mellotron/vocal combo atmospherics of the original.
The piece also demonstrates Anderson’s flute-playing in a particularly dexterous phase. The irreverent attitude exemplified by the jokey sabotage helps them to avoid seeming precious – it even reinvents a couple of the tracks.
For example, the originally stomping Hymn 43 takes a detour in its first half into a far more traditional area, with the hard-nosed guitar and drums forsaken in favour of Martin Barre’s mandolin and bodhran-style percussive rhythms from Doane Perry. Heavier elements of the familiar version are reinstated halfway through, to superb effect.
Live warhorses, such as the title track itself and Locomotive Breath, retain their original arrangements; but the sharpness and verve of this line-up’s versions, aided and abetted by a new remaster, breathes new life into these aqualungs.
By this point, only Anderson and Barre remained from those who’d performed on the studio album. But the spirit of the 1971 original shines through like an old master’s painting freed from decades of grime – making this overhauled live document a nice companion piece to the recent Steven Wilson remix.
Aqualung Live is on sale now via InsideOut.
