July 25, 1969 - Stand Up

On the same day that "Yes" was released, and 9 months after their debut album, Jethro Tull released their second album on July 25, 1969 titled "Stand Up". After the release of "This Was", guitarist Mick Abrahams left the band due to differences with frontman Ian Anderson. Anderson wanted to explore more musical styles, while Abrahams wanted to continue playing blues-style rock. As such, this album has a wider variety of songs than their debut, also due to the addition of new guitarist Martin Barre. Anderson also plays keyboards on this album. This starts what would become the typical Jethro Tull sound. 

Side 1 begins with "A New Day Yesterday", which is about how yesterday was great, but "it's an old day now". It has kind of a blues feel, with some cool bass from Glenn Cornick, a guitar solo from Barre and a flute solo from Anderson. The next song is "Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square", another song referencing Ian's friend Jeffrey. It has some conga-like drums from Clive Bunker and some more cool flute from Anderson. Up next is a rearrangement of a J.S. Bach song, "Bourée". It's an instrumental song led by some more wonderful flute and acoustic guitar. It also has a really great bass solo! Track 4 is "Back To The Family", a song about escaping the hardships of life and going back home. It's a slow guitar-led song that speeds up the pace at times for a rock bit with more flute. There's an awesome trade-off at the end between guitar and flute that sounds fantastic. Side 1 ends with "Look Into The Sun", a sad song that Anderson sings very well. He also plays piano and with Barre on acoustic guitar it sounds very sad indeed. It also has some cool electric guitar in the background.

Side 2 kicks off with "Nothing Is Easy", a rock song with a great rhythm section throughout. The flute and guitar alternate riffs, there's some great drumming from Bunker, and Barre has a couple more solos too. It all ends with an awesome flourish to a great song. The next song is called "Fat Man" and as Anderson sings, he doesn't want to be a fat man for various reasons. It's led by some quick acoustic guitar and more conga-like drums and Anderson really sounds like he's having fun singing it. Track 8 is a slower acoustic song titled "We Used To Know". It has some cool flute and a couple slow guitar solos from Barre that sound great. The next song is a flute/acoustic melody called "Reasons For Waiting". It sounds very nice and keyboards are added in the second verse. Strings are eventually added as well and it is a very beautiful song. The album closes with "For A Thousand Mothers", another rock song where Anderson really goes off on flute. This song is a great example of how a flute can really spice up what would otherwise be an average rock song, and why Jethro Tull are such a great band. The flute is amazing throughout this song and it sounds like it ends around the 3:20 mark. The band returns for one final minute of awesome instrumental music with all members playing some great stuff. A fantastic finish to a fantastic record.

That is the end of "Stand Up", and although Mick Abrahams was a good guitarist, I'm really impressed with the exploration beyond blues-rock on this album. Martin Barre seems an excellent replacement and it seems that Jethro Tull are only destined for bigger things. I think this album was definitely better than their first, and "This Was" was a pretty good album! See you "next month" for the debut of a band not from London, England! (Is that even possible? :p)

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