Jethro Tull

MINSTREL IN THE GALLERY

TOO OLD TO ROCK’N’ROLL… TOO YOUNG TO DIE!

ALL EMI

This was Ian Anderson’s three-album atonement for his intemperate 1973 ‘retirement’ after press criticism. The sprightly War Child (1974) and the hauntedly excellent Minstrel In The Gallery (1975) bristle with ideas and a genuinely innovative flair for rethinking rock harmony, rhythm and texture (notwithstanding the former’s horrid string arrangements).

Too Old To Rock ‘N’ Roll… (1976), however, was a riposte too far; arid, self-regarding and mundane, it’s an unlikely prelude to the band’s 1977 masterpiece, Songs From The Wood.