Jethro Tull, Greenwich Village, 1970 and…

On a warm Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1970, I was hanging out with my two older brothers in the West Side of Greenwich Village. Being of good cheer, and it being such a nice day, I decided to spend some of my available cash on a record album.

I thought this preferable to spending it on my gorgeous Chinese girlfriend. That will give you an idea as to where my priorities were in those days.

The album I purchased that fine afternoon was Jethro Tull’s Stand Up. Loved it from the get go.  I was happy enough with the music to purchase Benefit and This Was in the weeks that followed. My music world was just fine, thank you very much, and I was one happy guy.

Then came a sudden opportunity to see them at the Fillmore East in the spring of ’71.  A friend from my English class asked if I liked Tull – which received the  obligatory  OhYeah response.  Turns out her friend couldn’t go, had two seats, didn’t want to go alone, would I keep her company, blah, blah, blah… I jumped at the chance.   

So I met Evelyn at the New Utrecht Ave. subway station the following evening, and off we went. It was my first trip to that legendary venue, although at first sight legendary was not the word which came to mind. It looked like a worn down movie theatre to me, and even had an old marquee.  The atmosphere was awesome though, and we both found it easy to relax. Evelyn left the seats for a few minutes and came back with two yogurts (I kid you not) a few minutes before the opening act was introduced.

Cowboy was the opening act, and they nearly got booed off the stage. I’d never seen a band treated like that and thought the crowd behaved terribly.  I saw artists treated much worse later on, so in retrospect, the crowd just wanted to see Tull, and any opening act was going to get a bit of a razzing.  That’s life in show biz.

When Tull did take the stage, I did not know what was going on.

Someone other than Glen Cornick was holding a bass guitar.  They also had a fifth member, who went right to the keyboards. 

My disappointment was immediate, and the band’s play did not make me feel any better. I would not say it was shit, but it was pretty damn close, in my opinion.  From Stand Up they played Nothing is Easy, and nothing else. The only thing I recall from Benefit were a few puffs of With You There to Help Me. The rest was an unfamiliar jumble. So pissed was I, the Fillmore print program was trashed with extreme prejudice the next day. 

Wished I hadn’t done that. I would love to have that program today.

I saw the band three more times (at Madison Square Garden) over the next two years. For two of those shows, I spent a pair of incredibly cold nights sleeping out in front of the Garden to secure good seats.  The first time, I was not entirely sure of what a cold night could do to a person, and found out the hard way. The preparation was better the second time out. Not only were we sleeping on concrete in temperatures around ten degrees Fahrenheit, but if you made the mistake of not bringing reading material, the only thing to see was the building across the street, which just happened to be the main branch of the NYC Post Office. It was (is) a depressing, monolithic structure.  To this day, the motto engraved along the side of it is imbedded in my mind’s eye:

NEITHER SNOW NOR RAIN NOR HEAT NOR GLOOM OF NIGHT SHALL STAY THESE COURIERS FROM THE SWIFT COMPLETION OF THEIR APPOINTED ROUNDS

Part of my butt still hurts. I don’t believe it has ever thawed. “It’s a badge of honor.” Said the man shyly.  

That first Garden concert took place in late 1971. By that time, Clive Bunker was out and Barrymore Barlow was in. I remember Anderson introducing Jeffrey Hammond – Hammond on bass guitar, as well as Barlow on drums.  Aqualung was the album of the year for most of the JT faithful.  Big entrance, the crowd goes wild as they appear on the stage, Anderson settles the crowd and starts strumming his acoustic guitar on the opening number – and we can’t hear a damn thing.

The sound system at MSG clearly had its issues that night. Issues of that type proved to be a common occurrence at the Garden.

Overall, I was disappointed, for one reason or another, with all of the Jethro Tull shows I attended.  By the time I purchased Passion Play, my interest in the band’s music had moved in other directions.

Still, I love those early recordings, and they remain close to my heart. If you are not familiar with the albums issued prior to Aqualung, have a listen to a few of those tunes here:

A link to Bouree, from the Stand Up album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnAXrcx5gP4

A link to We Used to Know, also from Stand Up: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EBQ-ljFlt4

With You There to Help Me from the Benefit Album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzolhxyvO9E

Here is a link to Love Story from the Living in the Past compilation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GW-uS9B5B8

One Other Note:

I attended the concert at MSG in 1971 with three other people – Dan, Dolores, and her sister Veronica (Ronnie).  We lost Ronnie around 9 years ago in a tragic accident. This page is dedicated to her.

Veronica (Ronnie) Matarazzo  (December 9, 1957 – December 20, 2005) 

Rest in Peace. 

August 16, 2014

jazzmanblue

The main Post Office across from MSG