Jethro Tull - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert Madison Square Garden, New York USA 1978 | ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST

 Jethro Tull - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 10-9-1978

Paul says : Here's another album of Jethro Tull performing for the BBC. Like Volume 3, it's a BBC concert.

I didn't previously post this because most of it has been officially released as the album "Live at Madison Square Garden 1978." But then I thought what the hell, I want to present a full version of all the good stuff the band did for the BBC, and this is still from the band's best years. Besides, some songs from this concert were not included on the official live album, but I have them here.

Earlier in the year, the band released the album "Heavy Horses." The year before that, they released the album "Songs from the Wood." If you look at the crowd-sourced rateyourmusic.com, those are two out of the band's three best rated albums of their career (at least as I write this in 2025). So the band was doing great at the time. Their fortunes would decline in the early 1980s, however.

Although most of this on the official album, a couple of songs are not: "Pibroch (Cap in Hand)" and "A Single Man." They probably weren't included due to space limits of CDs. The official album without them is 78 minutes long, which is about as long as CDs get. This version is from a bootleg, but in terms of sound quality, it essentially sounds exactly as good as official live album.

At the time, only part of the concert was broadcast by the BBC, for the TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" instead of for radio. About 50 minutes was included on the TV version, from "Heavy Horses" through "The Dambusters March." Before "Locomotive Breath," lead singer Ian Anderson announced that the concert was almost over, saying "See you again next year." I thought that was odd, given that a fair number of songs were played after that. But then I realized he must have known how long the BBC broadcast portion would last, and he was saying that for people watching on TV. A couple of songs later, he told the audience to relax, that the broadcast was over.

This album is an hour and 14 minutes long. 

01 Sweet Dream Fanfare [Instrumental]
02 Sweet Dream
03 One Brown Mouse
04 Heavy Horses 
05 talk 
06 Thick as a Brick 
07 No Lullaby 
08 Pibroch [Cap in Hand] - Songs from the Wood
09 Quatrain [Instrumental] 
10 Aqualung 
11 talk
12 Locomotive Breath
13 The Dambusters March [Instrumental]
14 A Single Man
15 talk
16 Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll, Too Young to Die
17 talk 
18 My God 
19 Cross-Eyed Mary 

Jethro Tull once meant a great deal to me and loved their earlier stuff up to Aqualung and Thick As a Brick but somehow left them behind and yet have been listening again to them and not least because there are quite a few boots and ROIOs around . . . .