Customer Reviews
Try before you buy.... - By: Mr. M. D. Smith, 19 May 2007 
You rarely, if ever, find an album that pleases everybody, & perhaps because of this you may find reviews of this collection elsewhere saying "this is a weak song" "that's not up to standard" & so on. I prefer to take a slightly different view.
What you actuallly have here, (and I think Ian Anderson said as much in the sleeve notes), a kind of Jethro Tull "try before you buy" sales brochure introducing you to their back catalogue. The CD spans JT's illustrious career, starting with their single "Living in the Past" & progressing in a fairly non-chronological order through some classic Tull & some less obvious choices.
I think this gives Tull newcomers a chance to dip a toe tentatively into this unique band & get a feel for their various musical directions, prior to taking the plunge proper. Once you've found a track that grabs you, alll you need do is a little research to find out what album it came from, then go get that album if you want to find out more.
For example, if folk rock is "your thang", you may find "Heavy Horses" or "Songs from the Wood" do it for you, & as luck would have it, these are title tracks from their respective albums. Aqualung, with it's changing time signatures, is more prog rock & the album it's from went in an entirely different musical direction.
That's not to say you may not grow to like either style, but with such a diverse back catalogue to choose from, why waste time trying to get into something that doesn't quite do it for you at first listen? In this respect, it's almost an ideal "first" Tull album.
The other way of viewing this album, is that it's almost like a live Jethro Tull gig in layout. I bought this album after seeing Tull live in 2001, & for me, it's like having a Tull gig in my living room everytime I put it on, with the added benefit I can sit in a comfortable seat & don't have to queue for the bar! I put it on when I'm in the mood for some Tull, but don't necessarily want to hear a whole CD of similar songs - much the same feel as when you go & see a gig.
If you're a long time Tull fan, & have alll their previous albums, you might only want this CD if you feel you absolutely have to have everything they ever put out, in chronological order, for the sake of completing you collection. However, you might just want it to put in the car so you can have a bit of Tull without having to carry loads of CD's around with you.
Seen it all before - By: , 16 May 2001 
This CD is going to have a limited audience. Any Tull fan will already have these songs in both studio & live versions (albeit perhaps on good old vinyl) The track choices are not particularly good. 'Steel Monkey' was always poor, 'Roots to Branches' is one of the weakest tracks on the album, & 'Weathercock' knocks spots off 'Heavy Horses' - not even the Eddie Jobson live version is included. Tull's longevity is a source of personal delight, & I have great memories of 'Budapest' in 1991 & a certain young lady who was part of the stage show for that song, but this is not 'the Very Best' - except perhaps in the opinion of the compiler....oops!
Tull Compilation Album Hits The Spot - By: , 05 Apr 2001 Tull have been making records now for over 30 years. In alll of that time, however, there has never been a single cd which fully represented their entire distinguished recording career. The long wait is finallly over with the release of this disc. Featuring songs from their very early years, like "Song For Jeffrey," "Bouree" & "Living in the Past" up through their next to last studio album, "Roots to Branches," this cd constitutes an excellent sampler of the band's work. Long-time fans of the band will, of course, already have several copies of the songs on this disc, but the convenience of having them alll together more than makes up for it. My only quibble with the album is that it nowhere mentions Ray Davies & I believe that the inclusion of a more complete informative booklet on the history of the band & the songs on the album would have been a plus for those fans who already have these songs. Still, this is definitely a must have cd for new fans & old. Hopefully, in ten years time, we'll be able to look back on this cd & say, like the band did on their first album, "This was how [Tull] were playing then--but things change....don't they."
