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This Was (1968) is the first album
Album

An album or record album is a collection of related Sound recording and reproduction or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites....
 by the rock
Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a form of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its roots lay mainly in rhythm and blues, Country music, folk music, gospel music, and jazz....
 band Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)

Jethro Tull are a United Kingdom rock music group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the songs, vocals and flute work of Ian Anderson , who has led the band since its founding, and guitarist Martin Barre, who has #Lineups....
. Recorded at a cost of only £1200 GBP
Pound sterling

----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory....
, the album received generally favourable reviews and sold well upon its release. In the documentary film of the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Festival

Woodstock was a music festival, billed as An Aquarian Exposition, held at Max Yasgur's 600 acre dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York from August 15 to August 18, 1969....
, portions of the songs "Beggar's Farm" and "Serenade to a Cuckoo" may be heard on the PA system, indicating the level of notice the album achieved in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. The album reached number 10 on the UK Album Chart.

Unlike their later albums, vocalist Ian Anderson
Ian Anderson (musician)

Ian Scott Anderson, Order of the British Empire is a Scotland singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the head of British rock and roll band Jethro Tull ....
 shared songwriting duties with guitar
Guitar

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
ist Mick Abrahams
Mick Abrahams

Michael Timothy 'Mick' Abrahams was the original guitarist for Jethro Tull . He recorded the album This Was with the band in 1968, but conflicts between Abrahams and Ian Anderson over the musical direction of the band led Abrahams to leave once the album was finished....
.






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Encyclopedia


This Was (1968) is the first album
Album

An album or record album is a collection of related Sound recording and reproduction or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites....
 by the rock
Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a form of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its roots lay mainly in rhythm and blues, Country music, folk music, gospel music, and jazz....
 band Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)

Jethro Tull are a United Kingdom rock music group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the songs, vocals and flute work of Ian Anderson , who has led the band since its founding, and guitarist Martin Barre, who has #Lineups....
. Recorded at a cost of only £1200 GBP
Pound sterling

----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory....
, the album received generally favourable reviews and sold well upon its release. In the documentary film of the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Festival

Woodstock was a music festival, billed as An Aquarian Exposition, held at Max Yasgur's 600 acre dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York from August 15 to August 18, 1969....
, portions of the songs "Beggar's Farm" and "Serenade to a Cuckoo" may be heard on the PA system, indicating the level of notice the album achieved in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. The album reached number 10 on the UK Album Chart.

Unlike their later albums, vocalist Ian Anderson
Ian Anderson (musician)

Ian Scott Anderson, Order of the British Empire is a Scotland singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the head of British rock and roll band Jethro Tull ....
 shared songwriting duties with guitar
Guitar

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
ist Mick Abrahams
Mick Abrahams

Michael Timothy 'Mick' Abrahams was the original guitarist for Jethro Tull . He recorded the album This Was with the band in 1968, but conflicts between Abrahams and Ian Anderson over the musical direction of the band led Abrahams to leave once the album was finished....
. Due to his influence, the album overall has more of a rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music first created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s....
 feel than the progressive rock
Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." The term "art rock" is often used interchangeably with "progressive rock", but while there are crossovers between the two genres, they are not identical....
 the band later became known for.

This album also contains the only Jethro Tull song not sung by Ian Anderson to be released on a studio album, "Move On Alone", where Mick Abrahams sings. David Palmer
Dee Palmer

Dee Palmer is a United Kingdom arranger and keyboardist best known for having been a member of the rock and roll group Jethro Tull . Palmer is a transwoman who was known as David Palmer for many years, including her stint with Jethro Tull....
 provided the horn arrangement. Sealion II, sung by bassist Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, appeared on 1993's Nightcap
Nightcap

Nightcap : The Unreleased Masters 1972-1991 is a Jethro Tull double CD album released on 22 November 1993 with older and previously unreleased material....
 outtakes compilation.

Abrahams left the group following this album in a dispute over "musical differences."

The album includes a cover version
Cover version

In popular music, a cover version, or simply cover, is a new rendition of a previously recorded, commercially released song.In its current use, it can sometimes have a pejorative meaning — implying that the original recording should be regarded as the definitive version, usually in the sense of an "authentic" rendition, and all...
 of the jazz tune "Serenade to a Cuckoo" by Roland Kirk, whose flute technique was an influence on Anderson.

"Dharma for One" was later covered by Ekseption
Ekseption

Ekseption was a Netherlands progressive rock ensemble with changing membership, active from 1967 to 1989, growing out of the bands The Jokers and Incrowd....
 and Pesky Gee!.

"Cat's Squirrel" was later used by Mick Abrahams in Blodwyn Pig
Blodwyn Pig

Blodwyn Pig were a United Kingdom blues-rock music band founded by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Mick Abrahams, after he left Jethro Tull in 1968 due to a falling out with Tull leader Ian Anderson ....
, Abraham's post-Jethro Tull band.

A deluxe two-CD fortieth anniversary edition was released in 2008. It contains the original mono version, a stereo version remixed from the original four-track session tapes, and bonus tracks.

Track listing

This Was was remaster
Remaster

Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began. The measure of its success depends on: 1....
ed in 2001 and released with three bonus tracks
Hidden track

In the field of Sound recording and reproduction, a hidden track is a piece of music which has been placed on a CD, Compact Cassette, Gramophone record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener....
.

Side one

  1. "My Sunday Feeling" (Anderson
    Ian Anderson (musician)

    Ian Scott Anderson, Order of the British Empire is a Scotland singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the head of British rock and roll band Jethro Tull ....
    ) – 3:43
  2. "Some Day the Sun Won't Shine for You" (Anderson) – 2:49
  3. "Beggar's Farm" (Abrahams/Anderson) – 4:19
  4. "Move on Alone" (Abrahams) – 1:58
  5. "Serenade to a Cuckoo" (Kirk) – 6:07

Side two

  1. "Dharma for One" (Anderson/Bunker) – 4:15
  2. "It's Breaking Me Up" (Anderson) – 5:04
  3. "Cat's Squirrel" (Traditional, arranged by Abrahams) – 5:42
  4. "A Song for Jeffrey
    Jeffrey Hammond

    Jeffrey Hammond was a bass guitar player for the progressive rock band Jethro Tull .Hammond adopted the name "Hammond-Hammond" as a joke, since both his father's name and mother's maiden name were the same....
    " (Anderson) – 3:22
  5. "Round" (Anderson/Abrahams/Bunker
    Clive Bunker

    Clive Bunker was a drummer for the United Kingdom band , Jethro Tull , between 1967 and 1971. Bunker left after Tull's release of their album, Aqualung , to get marriage....
    /Cornick
    Glenn Cornick

    Glenn Cornick was the bespectacled, first bass guitar player in the rock band, Jethro Tull .Cornick played bass in a number of bands before joining Jethro Tull, including Jailbreakers, The Vikings, Formula One, The Hobos, The Executives, and John Evan's Smash, and was one of Tull's founding members....
    /Ellis
    Terry Ellis (manager)

    Terry Ellis is a English people record producer and Music management best known for his early work with Jethro Tull , and as co-founder of Chrysalis Records in 1969....
    ) – 1:03

Bonus tracks

The 2001 remastered CD added three bonus tracks (which had been on the 20 Years of Jethro Tull
20 Years of Jethro Tull

20 Years of Jethro Tull is a boxed set which spans the first twenty years of Jethro Tull . It was issued onto five LP album: Radio Archives, Rare Tracks, Flawed Gems, Other Sides of Tull, and The Essential Tull....
 box-set) and extensive liner notes:
  1. "One for John Gee" (Abrahams) – 2:06
  2. "Love Story" (Anderson) – 3:06
  3. "Christmas Song" (Anderson) – 3:06


Credits


  • Ian Anderson
    Ian Anderson (musician)

    Ian Scott Anderson, Order of the British Empire is a Scotland singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the head of British rock and roll band Jethro Tull ....
    : Vocals
    Singing

    Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the human voice, which is often contrasted with regular speech. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist....
    , flute
    Flute

    The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge....
    , mouth organ
    Mouth organ

    The term mouth organ can refer to several types of musical instruments:*The harmonica*Asian free reed aerophone wind instruments consisting of a number of bamboo pipes of varying lengths fixed into a wind chest; these include the sheng , Khene, lusheng, Yu , Sho, and saenghwang....
    , "claghorn", piano
    Piano

    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
  • Mick Abrahams
    Mick Abrahams

    Michael Timothy 'Mick' Abrahams was the original guitarist for Jethro Tull . He recorded the album This Was with the band in 1968, but conflicts between Abrahams and Ian Anderson over the musical direction of the band led Abrahams to leave once the album was finished....
    : Vocals, guitar
    Guitar

    The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
    , nine-string guitar
  • Clive Bunker
    Clive Bunker

    Clive Bunker was a drummer for the United Kingdom band , Jethro Tull , between 1967 and 1971. Bunker left after Tull's release of their album, Aqualung , to get marriage....
    : drums
    Drum kit

    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbell s, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer....
  • Glenn Cornick
    Glenn Cornick

    Glenn Cornick was the bespectacled, first bass guitar player in the rock band, Jethro Tull .Cornick played bass in a number of bands before joining Jethro Tull, including Jailbreakers, The Vikings, Formula One, The Hobos, The Executives, and John Evan's Smash, and was one of Tull's founding members....
    : Bass guitar
    Bass guitar

    The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
  • David Palmer
    Dee Palmer

    Dee Palmer is a United Kingdom arranger and keyboardist best known for having been a member of the rock and roll group Jethro Tull . Palmer is a transwoman who was known as David Palmer for many years, including her stint with Jethro Tull....
    : French horn and orchestral arrangements


External links

(bonus tracks)
Hidden track

In the field of Sound recording and reproduction, a hidden track is a piece of music which has been placed on a CD, Compact Cassette, Gramophone record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener....
  • at Progressive World