Jack in the Green: Live in Germany

Buy This Item Jack in the Green: Live in Germany by Eagle Rock Ent  Available from Amazon  $8.99  on 8-26-2008     I own this on VHS and converted it to DVD. An excellent show from German TV in 1982 with multi camera angles, etc. The Broadsword LP live. Eventually I'll probably buy the official release to make up for the mediocre quality my VHS had. Any Tull fan will be happy. Reader Reviews This is a nice video for a Tull fan, although it seems odd they would release this when there's no official DVD of their classic golden age throughout the 70s! Despite the "1970-1993" subtitle, most of this DVD comes from the mid-80s Tull with Peter Vettese on keys. The first 1/2 or so is a show from the Broadsword & The Beast tour. Sadly, despite Ian's liner notes of the elaborate pirate ship stage show, this (and the rest of the disc) has no stage "show" to speak of save musicians playing instruments. The set list (although abbreviated - only about 7 proper songs) is a nice mix of then-new, classic early 70's, and (a treat for us fans who've missed this material in recent Tull performances) some gems from the late 70's. Ian's voice was still great. Martin's guitar is rather shreddingly metal. Gerry Conway's rather basic drumming on the new material is countered with some nice playing on the classic stuff - he adds his own percussive touch to Heavy Horses, not Barrie Barlow but fine drumming nonetheless. Peter Vettese gets a chance to show off his chops in an extended keyboard solo, which is welcome. Dave Pegg, of course, is there to provide his excellent bass skills and some backing vocals. A note - I'm pretty sure it's an abridged version of Heavy Horses, though! There is a nice instrumental jam of "Black sunday" at the end of the show. The next batch of performances come from a few years later: 1986, where Gerry Conway has been replaced on drums by Doane Perry (who would go on, with a few breaks, to be Tull's longest-standing drummer). The real shock here is how much Ian's voice has deteriorated - unfortunately Tull's least popular album "Under Wraps" also strained Ian's voice (he's never been the same since, although sometimes better than others). It's a shame because thy do some great songs: an (also abridged) rocking version of Hunting Girl, a long (10-minutish) bit of Thick As A Brick, and one of their best early-80's songs "Black Sunday" (this time with vocals). (There's also an OK version of the OK songs "Too Old To Rock'n'Roll, Too Young To Die"). The treat here, though, is some nice instrumental jams - Pegg brings out some of his Fairport folk for a bit, and Martin does a guitar showcase that really gets good when Ian's flute and the band come in. One final note on the '86 stuff - the camera tends to wander off and waste time showing the sound engineers and people walking through the audience for no apparent reason! Then there's a couple tunes from '93 of old material. A performance of "My Sunday Feeling" sounds great - Ian's voice may be weaker now, but he's using it to best effect at least, and then-new keyboard player Andy Giddings sounds great. The other song from this era is a fun acoustic performance of an old blues standard (at least that's what it sounds like - I'm unfamiliar with the song). The band in these two songs seems to really be enjoying themselves! The DVD ends with some early TV footage, from 1970. "With You There To Help Me" goes into the (unlisted) John Evan showpiece "By Kind Permission Of" (which would have been a selling point for me - don't know why it's not listed on the DVD case!). Followed by a rocking "Nothing Is Easy" (with a false start) which just ends suddenly mid-way when someone makes a mistake! It all seems to be TV recordings - only the 80's stuff is actual concert footage, and there's various song titles and program text up on the screen throughout. Not a bad release, especially for the various jam and improv bits, although it seems a shame we don't get to see the stage show!

Jack in the Green: Live in Germany Available from Amazon Price: $8.99 Updated on 8-26-2008.

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