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For the past several years, Jethro Tull has been releasing expanded editions of their albums featuring new remixes by Steven Wilson. Coming on November 18, just under a year after the release of the last reissue in the series of 1976's Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die!, is a 2CD/1DVD version of 1969's Stand Up, entitled Stand Up: The Elevated Edition.
The sophomore album by the band, Stand Up was the first to feature music written completely by Ian Anderson (with the exception of one instrumental by Bach). It is also the first album to feature Martin Barre on guitar; original guitarist Mick Abrahams had quit the band after their debut over musical differences with Anderson. While still in the blues-rock vein of This Was, Anderson began to stretch his musical wings and take his writing in new directions which would eventually take the band to a whole new stratosphere. Released in August of 1969 in the U.K. and October in U.S., the album would become a hit with listeners. It went to #20 in the U.S., but hit the top of the charts in Britain. It remains the only Tull album to reach #1 in the United Kingdom.
The format for this new reissue of Stand Up follows the same pattern as the other entries in the series. It will include:
- Original album and bonus tracks (including the previously unreleased "Bouree") remixed in 5.1 surround and stereo by Steven Wilson
- 96/24 flat transfer of the original stereo master tapes
- 96/24 flat transfer of the original mono and stereo mixes of "Living In The Past" and
"Driving Song" - A live concert from Stockholm in 1969 where the band opened for Jimi Hendrix. Recorded only a few weeks after Barre joined the band, the concert includes songs from Tull's debut album ("A Song For Jeffery" and "My Sunday Feeling"), as well as two songs destined for Stand Up: "Back To The Family" and "Nothing Is Easy."
- Video of the band performing live in January 1969
- Presented in book sized packaging matching the other entries in the series that includes a 112-page booklet with an extensive history of the album, track-by-track annotations by Ian Anderson, plus rare and unseen photographs
- Includes the original album's pop-up book artwork designed by James Grashow
Stand Up was last reissued in 2010. There are several differences between this new version and the previous reissue. Most notably, the 2010 set featured a live show from Carnegie Hall in 1970 which has been replaced by the 1969 Stockholm show here. Also, the non-LP songs "Sweet Dream" and "17" are not included but that is because they were moved and appeared on the reissue of Tull's third album, Benefit, in this new series.
If you would like to continue your journey through Jethro Tull's catalog, we've got the tracklisting and preorder links below.
Jethro Tull, Stand Up: The Elevated Edition (Parlophone/Rhino, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 1 - Stereo Remixes by Steven Wilson
- A New Day Yesterday
- Jeffery Goes To Leicester Square
- Bouree
- Back To The Family
- Look Into The Sun
- Nothing Is Easy
- Fat Man
- We Used To Know
- Reasons For Waiting
- For A Thousand Mothers
- Living In The Past
- Driving Song
- Bouree - Morgan Version (Previously Unreleased)
- Living In The Past - Original 1969 Stereo Single Mix
- Driving Song - Original 1969 Stereo Single Mix
- A New Day Yesterday - BBC Sessions
- Fat Man - BBC Sessions
- Nothing Is Easy - BBC Sessions
- Bouree - BBC Sessions
CD 2- Live at The Stockholm Konserthuset (January 9, 1969)
- Introduction
- My Sunday Feeling
- Martin's Tune
- To Be Sad Is A Mad Way To Be
- Back To The Family
- Dharma For One
- Nothing Is Easy
- A Song For Jeffery
- To Be Sad Is A Mad Way To Be - first show version
- Living In The Past - Original 1969 Mono Single Mix
- Driving Song - Original 1969 Mono Single Mix
- Stand Up Radio Spot #1
- Stand Up Radio Spot #2
DVD - Audio and Video
Audio:
- Steven Wilson Remix in 96/24 PCM stereo
- Steven Wilson Remix DD/DTS 5.1 surround
- 96/24 flat transfer of Stand Up original stereo master tapes from June 5, 1969
- 96/24 flat transfer of original mono and stereo mixes of "Living In The Past" and "Driving Song"
Video:
- Video footage from Stockholm 1969: "To Be Sad Is A Mad Way To Be" and "Back To The
Family"
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Yes! I've been waiting for details on this reissue.
I've been pleased with all of Steven Wilson's work on the Tull catalog. "Stand Up" is a great album but the mastering left something to be desired, so the new mix could represent a substantial improvement. (I know Wilson strives to be faithful to the original mixes, but I do hope he eased up on the vibrato effect on Ian's vocal on "Look Into the Sun.")
Ian Anderson had said in interviews that there weren't a lot of outtakes from "Stand Up," so it's not surprising that there's only one new session track. But there are still some great bonus tracks here.
Judging from the bits that turned up on the 25th anniversary box set, the Stockholm concert is probably not as well recorded as the Carnegie Hall show, but at least it's from the correct period. The Carnegie Hall concert was recorded almost two years later during the "Benefit" tour.
I'm happy to see the mono singles included. With the inclusion of "Driving Song," all of Tull's early singles will have been released on CD in the original mono. I'd been waiting for that one because the mono mix is rather longer than the stereo remix found on the "Living in the Past" compilation (and on the 2001 and 2010 versions of "Stand Up").
The Carnegie Hall concert never belonged with "Stand Up," but I hate to see it go out of print. It could be a great addition to a book-style repackaging of "Benefit," or it could be a standalone CD, using the cover art created for the Record Store Day vinyl edition. I haven't heard of any plans to reissue the "Living In The Past" compilation, but a hypothetical expanded reissue could include the whole concert instead of the 20 minutes that were on the original album.
Well, to be fair, the 1970 Carnegie Hall concert was a multitrack recording(8-track to be exact). The Stockholm 1969 performance is direct to 1-track or 2-track radio concert and/or T.V. audio.
Oh, no question. Recordings of that era that were intended for broadcast are rarely studio-quality, partly because of cost and partly because it didn't occur to many people that these recordings would be preserved and commercially issued. What's the point of perfecting the sound if it's just going to come out of crummy little mono TV or radio speakers?
So it's no surprise that Carnegie sounds better. I'm just happy that the Stockholm tape exists at all. (And it HAS to sound better than the "Swing In, Rock In" documentary released with the Classic Artists DVD.)
Remember, that as with most artists from that era, that recording budgets were limited until a group or artist had a hit album. After that point, the record company permitted the group or artist more studio time, and then there was time(and the luxury) to record more outtakes and record more songs than were needed.
True, but sometimes the lack of extra songs is because of a lack of extra material, rather than time or money. (There were no extra songs recorded during the "Revolver" sessions, either.)
By the time of the "Stand Up" sessions, Tull had already had a top 30 hit single ("Love Story") and a top 10 album ("This Was"). I think Ian just hadn't written any extra songs. He was changing his songwriting style, and he was not yet a prolific songwriter. ("This Was" had two songwriters and still included some covers.)
Later on, when the time came to record the next single, he wrote "Living in the Past" to order, which suggests he didn't have a large reserve of material. The B-side, "Driving Song," sounds like a re-write of "To Be Sad Is A Mad Way To Be." Now that they'll be on the same album, it should be easy to compare them.
I keep hoping these reissues will be on blu-ray instead of DVD.