Jethro Tull The Chateau D’Herouville Sessions 1972.
Jethro Tull
The Chateau D’Herouville Sessions 1972
(Chrysalis)
By Paul Davies
This widely documented, and previously released in other formats, ‘great lost album’ recorded in the summer of 1972 being beset by technical difficulties, equipment failures, bedbug infestation and food poisoning toxified Tull’s relationship with these songs. Dissatisfied with their experience, the band named these recordings ‘The Chateau D’Isaster Tapes’. They were meant to form the follow up to the massively successful Thick As A Brick album. Nevertheless, given the unfinished nature of the original songs this, potentially, would have been another landmark album if Tull were able to persevere and wrap up finished recordings. Despite the above obstacles, it’s no surprise that Anderson eventually set up his successful commercial studio business, Maison Rouge.
Previously reworked and released on the Nightcap album and Steven Wilson’s 2013 mixes for inclusion on the A Passion Play: An Extended Performance, these unfinished tapes sprouted many instances of early growth beauty. Side 4 proves such, on this vinyl edition, with tracks finally finding homes on future albums: Only Solitaire and Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day were placed on the Warchild album and The Story Of The Hare…on Passion Play.
And this is the difference with this double vinyl release compared to these previous outings. The same mixes stir a refashioned product, yet the songs still impress. With his penchant for satire in overdrive, Anderson lambasts music journalists whose, sometimes, negative views and reviews rile him on the excellent Critique Oblique. Scenario, Audition, No Rehearsal is a conceptual trilogy of tunes that also proudly fit in the Tull canon. The ‘medieval rock’ of Animelee (a direction Tull would further explore) plus Law Of The Bungle and Tiger Toon are a satirical mix of Pythonesque surrealism and Jethro Tull musicality possessing the unique Jethro Tull imprimatur. The songs remain the same just re-ordered in a new context.
To summarise, if the recording circumstances had flowed smoothly then the natural course of events would have altered Jethro Tull’s discography and, god knows, what its release title would have been?
Paul Davies