Jethro Tull - Living With The Past [2002] [DVD] [2001]

The disc is easy to navigate with all menu options clearly accessible and laid out on some nice background graphics making it very easy to choose from the many extras available on the disc.With the DVD comes a nice booklet describing the recording, production and other info about the DVD. I won`t attempt to describe every single track because we have all been to the shows so we know what to expect and they have been faithfully reproduced on the disc.

The live set itself is a a mixture of what you would expect on a typical 'Best of Tull' album, with a few more interesting ones thrown in. The songs are interspersed with short sections of interview dialogue, which on the whole is good and makes the DVD more interesting than just one song directly after another.

Highlights for me are the new studio versions of Life's a long song and Wondering aloud. Both are recorded live in the studio with a string quartet, piano and percussion. Ian Anderson's ability as a musician really shines through in these performances, particularly his overlooked ability as a fine player of acoustic guitar (because his flute playing is so good), and it is clear for all to see just how good a song craftsmen he is at his best, both melodically and lyrically. He really is seriously underated as a songwriter. Other parts worthy of mention are the performances with the original 60's line up with Mick Abrahams and co, doing versions of 'Some day the sun won't shine for you' and a few others from the 'This Was' album. I can't really fault the rest of the live performances, though I would have personally preferred to hear some of the more unusual material, that is only occasionally played in the live set, rather than all of the obvious favorites. Also, Ian Anderson's voice is clearly not what it was and he does show signs of difficulty in some of songs - but then I was expecting this as I've seen him play a lot over the last few years.

To conlude, for a Jethro Tull fan, I think this is a worthy addition to their collection, though there's a part of me that longs to have a DVD of live material from the bands 70's era....I can but hope....

Sound quality good,

However, the concert is spoilt during songs by cutting to other concert and rehearsal footage and uncalled for visuals. Result, it looks more like a (very long) pop video and just tricks the mind into thinking Tull are just miming to a backing track.

Where were the shoots of Martin Barre for his main guitar solos. Budapest and Sweet Dream being examples. Too many were missed by showing close ups of the keyboards.

Also, talking over tracks, such as Bouree and between tracks loses all the continuity of a concert.

Who ever directed this should stick with making poor home videos for their own personnel use only.

Definitely, the director requires a jump start.