My Favorite Albums – Living in the Past – Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull’s Living in the Past is a particularly unusual album because it was not a conventional studio album at all, but a double-LP compilation assembled in 1972 to bring together the band’s singles, non-album tracks, alternate mixes, outtakes, a few previously released album songs, and two live performances. It was released in the United Kingdom on June 23, 1972,

only a few months after Thick as a Brick, and in the United States on October 31, 1972. The material was recorded between July 1968 and May 1971, so the album effectively documents Jethro Tull’s development from its blues-rock beginnings through the increasingly sophisticated progressive-rock style heard on Aqualung and Thick as a Brick. Terry Ellis, Ian Anderson, and Jethro Tull are credited as producers.

Rather than simply being a “greatest hits” package, it was designed as something closer to a history of the group to that point, particularly useful because several of the British singles and other tracks had been difficult or impossible for American listeners to obtain on the band’s regular U.S. albums. Most of the songs were written by Ian Anderson, including

“Love Story,” “Christmas Song,” “Living in the Past,” “Driving Song,” “Sweet Dream,” “Singing All Day,” “Teacher,” “Witch’s Promise,” “Inside,” “Just Trying to Be,” “Wond’ring Again,” “Life Is a Long Song,” “Up the ’Pool,” “Dr. Bogenbroom,” “For Later,” and “Nursie.” “A Song for Jeffrey” also came from Anderson, although it dates from the original Jethro Tull lineup

and features Mick Abrahams on guitar. The major exception to Anderson’s songwriting dominance is “Bourée,” the band’s famous adaptation of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Bourrée in E minor” from the Suite in E minor for Lute, arranged by Jethro Tull. The live material, “By Kind Permission Of” and “Dharma for One,”

demonstrates another side of the group, with the latter especially emphasizing the extended instrumental interplay and Clive Bunker’s percussion work. The personnel heard across the compilation represent several stages of Tull’s history, including Abrahams, Glenn Cornick, Clive Bunker, Martin Barre, John Evan, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, and Barriemore Barlow. The album is particularly important

for its treatment of the early singles. “Love Story,” “Christmas Song,” “Living in the Past,” “Driving Song,” “Sweet Dream,” and “Witch’s Promise” received stereo remixes for the compilation, while “A Song for Jeffrey” and “Teacher” were also remixed. This helped transform what might otherwise have been a historical scrapbook into a surprisingly cohesive listening experience.

“Living in the Past” itself had originally been issued as a single in 1969, backed in Britain by “Driving Song,” and it had reached No. 3 on the British singles chart. The song was written by Anderson during Jethro Tull’s first American tour, and its unusual 5/4 rhythmic pattern gives it an immediately recognizable identity. Anderson later explained that the rhythmic idea was influenced by Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.”

The song’s lyrics present an ironic view of nostalgia and the desire for a simpler past, while simultaneously recognizing that the past is not necessarily as idyllic as people imagine. When the single was reissued in America in connection with the compilation, it became Jethro Tull’s first U.S. Top 40 hit, reaching No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972–73.

There are significant differences between the original British and American editions. The British double album contains “Inside” and “Locomotive Breath,” while the original American configuration substituted “Alive and Well and Living In” and “Hymn 43.” “Alive and Well and Living In” was particularly interesting to American listeners because it had not appeared on the U.S. edition of Benefit.

“Hymn 43” came from Aqualung, while “Locomotive Breath” was another major track from that album. The U.S. edition therefore altered the historical balance of the compilation somewhat, giving American buyers a version that incorporated material they were more likely to recognize while also introducing some previously unavailable material.

Later CD editions have changed the running order and track selection again, so “the Living in the Past album” can refer to somewhat different configurations depending upon the pressing or reissue being discussed. The live tracks are another major attraction. “By Kind Permission Of” and “Dharma for One” were recorded at Carnegie Hall in New York in November 1970.

“Dharma for One” is especially notable because it became a showcase for Bunker’s extended drum and percussion work, while “By Kind Permission Of” reveals how dramatically Tull could expand its studio material onstage. These recordings were originally edited for Living in the Past; the complete Carnegie Hall performance was eventually issued decades later as Live at Carnegie Hall 1970.

The compilation therefore serves as an early glimpse of the concert experience that was becoming increasingly important to Jethro Tull as its stage performances grew more ambitious. The cover and packaging were unusually elaborate for a compilation. The original gatefold double-LP package contained a substantial color photographic section of the band, with photographs

documenting different periods of its history. The design was credited to CCS, with photographs by Sam Emerson, Tony Loew, Brian Ward, Ed Caraeff, Ruan O’Lochlainn, Jackie O’Lochlainn, and Michael Graber. Rather than presenting a simple promotional portrait, the package reinforces the album’s purpose as a visual and musical scrapbook of Jethro Tull’s first several years.

The photographs include different lineups and eras, including early members Mick Abrahams and Glenn Cornick, drummer Clive Bunker, bassist Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, drummer Barriemore Barlow, keyboard player John Evan, guitarist Martin Barre, and Ian Anderson. The original physical edition is consequently much more elaborate than many later CD editions, which could not reproduce the enormous amount of photographic material with the same impact. Commercially, Living in the Past performed extremely well for a compilation.

It reached No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was certified gold, making it a major American success. In Britain, the album reached No. 8 on the Official Albums Chart, spending 11 weeks on the chart. Its success was particularly significant because it arrived immediately after Thick as a Brick, demonstrating that there was substantial demand for Jethro Tull material beyond the band’s current studio albums. The title track’s American success also helped give the compilation a second life as

something more than a retrospective. In effect, the record introduced a large amount of Tull’s earlier history to American listeners at precisely the time the band was becoming one of the most successful progressive-rock acts in the world. One of the great trivia points about Living in the Past is that it was already a retrospective while Jethro Tull was still relatively young. By 1972 the band had been recording for only about four years, yet it had accumulated enough singles, alternate versions, unreleased material, and live recordings to fill two LPs.

Another interesting feature is the changing personnel heard across the record: the listener moves from the Mick Abrahams-era “A Song for Jeffrey” through the Clive Bunker and Glenn Cornick period and into the lineup featuring Martin Barre, John Evan, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, and Barriemore Barlow.

It consequently functions almost like an audio timeline of the band’s evolution. The album also demonstrates why simply calling it a greatest-hits collection misses the point: much of its value comes from tracks that were not major hits at all, but which illuminate the musical development between the better-known albums. In retrospect, Living in the Past occupies an unusual place in the Jethro Tull catalog. It arrived after Aqualung and Thick as a Brick but reaches backward to the band’s earliest recordings, making it a bridge between the group’s first era and the more elaborate progressive-rock period that followed.

For someone discovering Jethro Tull through the major albums, it provides the missing singles and stray tracks; for someone familiar with the singles, it places them alongside album material and live performances; and for a longtime listener, it offers a remarkably detailed snapshot of the band before A Passion Play. Its title is therefore both appropriate and slightly ironic: the album looks backward, but it documents a band that was still rapidly changing.