Search - Jethro Tull :: Little Light Music

A Little Lighted Stage and A Load of Great Songs

Eugenius Dobson | from a global perspective I'm right here. | 12/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A Little Light Music is a cool Jethro Tull concert experience that mostly redefines the songs rather than attempts to replicate them verbatim. I don't view the songs as truly 'unplugged ' versions, but rather slightly more toned down performances that come off sounding a little more intimate than your usual big hall concert presentations. Then again some do rock out, like This is Not Love and A New Day Yesterday for example, but then it's always good to have some variation of mood and tempo or it could all come off sounding like one long Kraftwerk song. In fact the rocking middle section that explodes from out of the otherwise quiet performance of From a Dead Beat to An Old Greaser is one of the many highlights for me on this record. Some songs are taken through an instrumental variation, either completely or partially, like the new acoustic instrumental introduction to Too Old to Rock and Roll, but the band always manage to carry off these changes with their usual professional charm, finesse, and playfulness. Even though the songs have been slightly altered they still feel just as warm and comfortable as a sweater pulled fresh from the dryer. The one new track, a Jethro Tulled version of John Barleycorn, is of course excellent. What a surprise, eh?

I have to admit that I prefer this live recording to the Bursting Out record, due to the playful variations presented here, and also for the inspired song selections. One White Duck has always been a favorite, and although that song doesn't sound too different from the studio version, as presented here the mood of the song is slightly more eloquent (at least it is to my delicately old and worn down ears.)"

Jethro Tull Unplugged -- Almost

kireviewer | Sunnyvale, Ca United States | 10/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"ALMOST GREAT. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF THEY LEFT OFF SOME BAD TRACKS.



This CD was originally released in 1992, but has been reissued as a "remaster". The original sound quality was very good, so I don't know if a remaster offers that much improvement. There is also very little audience noise, only a little cheering at the beginning and end of most songs. It is 77 minutes long.



This comes during Jethro Tull's "heavy metal" stage (around the time they actually won a Grammy for the best heavy metal band). The band at the time was Anderson, Barre, Pegg and Dave Mattocks on drums.



Most of the songs are played in a lighter style, with heavy use of acoustic instruments. But, there are electric guitars and some hard rocking sounds in places. The songs come from various concerts during the European tour to support the CD, Catfish Rising. So, this isn't one of those sit down, unplugged concert performances.



This CD is at its best when it sticks to the "unplugged" format. Many of the songs are much better here than the original studio releases. Under Wraps, and especially Rocks on the Road are so much better here and remeniscent of Jethro Tull's first three albums.



Also, the unplugged style allows for new and interesting versions of songs that have been overplayed and are already on every other Jethro Tull live album released. I almost did not buy this, because I did not need another live version of Living in the Past, Bouree or Locomotive Breath. But, here the songs are played in new and refreshing ways.



But, the best things on the CD are the really old songs like Life's a Long Song and especially A New Day Yesterday. A New Day Yesterday used to be the highlight of the early Jethro Tull concerts (before Aqualung was released). It is also the highlight of this album (although maybe not quite as good as how they played it in the early seventies).



But, this album does have a number of duds that should have been left off the album. These are the songs that they play in the hard rock style they were using in the late eighties. They have the screechy hard rock guitar and flute riffs that was the signature of the Tull sound of that time. They include the Eddie Van Halen guitar cliches. The worst is This Is Not Love.



Another positive on this CD is that the audience noise is kept to a minimum. There is almost no audience noise in the middle of the songs. But, the downside is Ian Anderson's talking between songs. It has a strange sonic quality to it, like it was done as a radio show.



There are some very beautiful tracks on this album. It could have been a perfect, Little Light Music CD to pop in your CD player and let play as background music for a gathering or dinner party. All they had to do was remove some of the bad, harder tracks and remove the talking between songs.



This is not quite a classic because of the bad tracks and the talking between tracks. But, there are still so many good songs that I had to give it 5 stars. You could edit this CD on a computer and still come up with 50 minutes of wonderful music."

A Little Live Tull Music

Alan Caylow | USA | 06/17/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

""A Little Light Music" is Jethro Tull's 1992 live album of semi-acoustic concert performances, recorded in such far-away places as Greece, Israel, Turkey, Czechoslavakia and Austria. Ian Anderson and company are in fine form, and their performances truly sparkle. Many Tull favorites are on this, including "Living In The Past," "Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll," "A New Day Yesterday" and "Locomotive Breath," as well as some lesser known tunes like "Under Wraps," "Rocks on The Road" and "This Is Not Love." The band even toss in an excellent version of "John Barleycorn," the old traditional song made famous by Traffic. There's also some very amusing inbetween-song banter from Anderson. My only criticism of "A Little Light Music" is that it feels a bit disjointed. The fade-outs inbetween the live tracks make it oh-so-obvious that these are *pieces* of various live concerts, so there's never a sense that you're listening to a complete show. I don't mind live albums that are recorded in various places---I just think that live material should be seamlessly edited together. It just sounds better to me, y'know? But other than that, this is an excellent Tull live album. Casual fans need not apply, but diehard fans of Jethro Tull should be quite pleased with "A Little Light Music.""