Steven Wilson keeps the Jethro Tull reissue gravy train rolling along with
another expanded installment, this one of 1976’s Too Old To
Rock ‘N’ Roll: Too Young To Die! A concept record — this
one about an aging rocker — the reissue gets the full spread of two
CDs and two DVDs, with the usual accoutrements, including 18 previously
unreleased bonus tracks, various associated recordings, a flat transfer
of the original LP mix, a 1976 quad mix, an alternate version of the album
recorded during a British television special (presented here in both audio
and video) and remixed in DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, and Dolby
Digital Stereo by Steven Wilson. The original album couldn’t be totally
remixed because multi-track recordings for several songs are missing.
To follow up 1975’s Minstrel In the Gallery, Jethro
Tull originally set out to stage a musical about an aging rock star. Halfway
through, they ditched the idea and used the songs the ninth Jethro Tull
studio album, Too Old To Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young To Die!
It was the first Tull album to feature bassist and backing vocalist John
Glascock, and while it was tied together by a common theme, each of the
songs, including the title track, “Quiz Kid,” “Crazed Institution,”
“Big Dipper,” “From A Dead Beat To An Old Greaser,”
all stand pretty much on their own. Back in 1976, Too Old To Rock
‘n’ Roll: Too Young To Die! didn’t exactly burn up the charts,
but listening back to the songs and watching the videos, it still harkens
back to a time when Jethro Tull was one of the reigning kings of rock and
roll.
