Benefit (album)

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Benefit
Studio album by Jethro Tull

Publication
(s)

1970

Label (s) Chrysalis

Format (s)

LP , MC , CD

Genre (s)

Progressive rock

Title (number)

10 + 4

running time

UK: 41:25 (LP), 53:50 (CD with bonus tracks) International: 42:49 (LP), 55:14 (CD with bonus tracks)

occupation
  • Glenn Cornick - electric bass

production

Ian Anderson

Studio (s)

Morgan Studio London

chronology
Stand Up
(studio album 1969) 		Benefit Aqualung
(studio album 1971)

Benefit is the third studio album by the British progressive rock band Jethro Tull . Jethro Tull played the album with Ian Anderson , Martin Barre , Clive Bunker and Glenn Cornick as well as John Evan as a guest musician in the winter of 1969/70. The lyrics and compositions come, as is usual with Jethro Tull, by Ian Anderson, who also produced the album together with Terry Ellis .

history

The band recorded the album in December 1969 and January 1970. John Evan was a guest musician on some recordings and then became a permanent member of the band. Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond , who is mentioned by name in the titles For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me and Inside, as well as on the previously released Tull albums, became bassist for Jethro Tull in January 1971. The benefit tour included an appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, where Jethro Tull performed in front of 600,000 people. In 1969 Jethro Tull had made three tours of the USA and had become quite popular. With Benefit , a Tull album was also very successful in the USA for the first time. A slightly different version was published there and in many other countries, with Teacher instead of Alive and Well and Living In. It was also Inside made to the A-side. Other versions were later released. The British version first appeared in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1973. From 2001 onwards, several CD versions were released. In 2013 an expanded "De-Luxe" edition, mixed by Steven Wilson , was released.

album

The pieces contain elements of rock , progressive rock and partly folk in a varied sequence . Martin Barre's electric guitar and Ian Anderson's acoustic guitar can occasionally be heard simultaneously. Anderson uses the flute as a rock instrument. All pieces are written in minor keys . The lyrics are poetic and partly sardonic and correspond more than on the previous albums to the singer-songwriter style that the Tull lyrics have shown since then. Several texts deal with the circumstances of Anderson's life at the time, especially his relationship with Jennie Franks, his future first wife. The name of the album means something like 'benefit', but it can also mean 'benefit' or 'profit'. The album has no title track. The only note is the thanks to guest musician John Evan on the back of the record cover, whose contribution is commented with ... for our benefit.

LP version

With You There to Help Me is a longer, rocking mid-tempo piece with a piano / flute intro. It is about Ian Anderson's longing for Jennie Franks, which he felt on the long international tours. But he is sure that the relationship with Jennie will be successful. Nothing to Say is also rocking , only slower and with a conspicuous hookline of the electric guitar, Anderson sings about the fact that it is better to be silent and reflect inwardly, since society would only talk to death and criticize his contributions.

In the piece Alive and Well and Living In , the piano initially dominates; further instruments are added in the course of the piece. The harmonies in the prelude and the stanzas are not very catchy. It is about a woman (again Jennie Franks is meant) who is often on her own, but is satisfied with it. Occasionally her boyfriend - Anderson - is there to whom she likes to listen and who does not want to be alone. At the beginning, Son is a rock piece, in which the electric guitar is in the foreground in addition to the vocals. The middle part is song-like and is accompanied by the piano, the end is increasingly rocky. The song is told from the father's perspective (by Ian Anderson) and describes - as it actually existed back then - a difficult father-son relationship that is clouded by the numerous reproaches of the father. For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me is a folky track at the beginning, accompanied by acoustic guitar and piano. With the use of the electric guitar, the piece becomes increasingly rocky, but at the end it returns to the starting motif. The piece portrays the feelings of the Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins when circling the moon without his companions as well as Anderson's own feelings of forlornness and alienation.

The piece To Cry You a Song is about the singer himself, who is only on the flight back to London and finally at the front door, where his girlfriend is waiting for him. During this time he keeps thinking of her and singing a song for her. The piece is rocky and stands out due to its hookline and a solo, which are played by the electric guitar. A time for everything? starts out folky, but becomes increasingly rocky. First flute and piano dominate, then the electric guitar is in the foreground. Anderson - 22 years old at the time - sings as a 50-year-old who looks back on his past, laments the waste of life and realizes that by no means “everything has its time”.

In the play Inside , Anderson tells that he travels a lot, but prefers to be in his own surroundings, with a cup of tea, friend Jeffrey and a woman (again, this is Jennie), with whom he eventually goes to bed. The piece is structured quite simply, characterized by the high basic tempo and Anderson's flute playing. Play in Time is a catchy hard rock piece in which the rock blown flute is in the foreground. Ian Anderson describes his relationship to the blues and explains why, unlike in the past, he sings his songs in his own style. Sossity; You're a Woman is a hymn piece that is accompanied by acoustic guitar, flute, organ and percussion . It is about society (actually: society ), which is depicted as an aging, tearful woman in a tight corset .

Bonus title

The CD versions released from 2001 contain four bonus tracks. Singing All Day , Witch's Promise , Just Trying to Be and Teacher are from 1969 and were first released on Singles and 1972 on Living in the Past . The original UK version of Teacher is the final track on the CD albums.

Singing All Day is a song-like piece that is accompanied by the electric guitar and the flute, among other things. The singer sings "about nothing" all day and waits for a woman who does not appear. The Witch's Promise is a folky piece that starts with acoustic instruments and becomes increasingly rocking, but without an electric guitar. The addressee was seduced and cheated by a "witch" and has lost his free will as a result. In the second part of the text, the “witch” is advised not to wait for the man.

Just Trying to Be is a short song that is accompanied by acoustic guitar and celesta . The singer appeals to a young man not to be a follower , but to develop his own personality. Teacher is a rock song with a jazzy interlude in which the electric guitar and flute again dominate. A man, the "teacher", visits the singer at home and persuades him to have fun with him outside. The "teacher" has fun doing it, but the singer is dissatisfied.

Cover

The cover shows the four musicians of the then regular line-up as stand-up figures playing their instruments on a stage. Anderson stands on one leg in his typical flute playing position. In the background, the four musicians - two on each side - look at the viewer through a two-part window. The frame is formed by a stylized door frame at the top and on the sides, with the band's lettering in the middle. In front of the Anderson figure, which is also in the middle, near the lower edge of the cover, there is the word “Benefit”.

On the back you can see the same photo of the four musicians looking through the window; the figures can now be seen from the back, as a white area, each labeled with the name of the musician and the note bend here (bend here). In front of it is a frame that is apparently identical to the other frame. The band name, album title and information about the title and contributors are in a column on the left.

If you open the album, you can see a black and white concert photo in the West German edition from 1973, on which Ian Anderson is shown in two different positions singing or playing the flute, while the other three musicians (without Evan) and the audience without editing are shown.

effect

The album peaked at number 3 in the UK and number 7 in the US. At Allmusic the album received three out of five possible points. The music magazine Rolling Stone described the album as "boring", "listless and mechanically played" and as an expression of "screaming mediocrity".

Others

In the GDR, the Jethro Tull album The Best was released in 1978 with the same cover as Benefit, although on this album only Teacher and Play in Time are from Benefit and the cast also includes John Evan as regular musicians, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond and Barriemore Barlow .

Track list

International version 1970 (without Sweden)

page A

  1. With You There to Help Me  (6:15)
  2. Nothing to Say  (5:10)
  3. Inside  (3:46)
  4. Sun  (2:48)
  5. For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me  (3:47)

Side B

  1. To Cry You a Song  (6:09)
  2. A time for everything?  (2:42)
  3. Teacher  (3:57)
  4. Play in Time  (3:44)
  5. Sossity; You're a Woman  (4:31)

UK version 1970

page A

  1. With You There to Help Me  (6:15)
  2. Nothing to Say  (5:10)
  3. Alive and Well an Living In  (2:43)
  4. Sun  (2:48)
  5. For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me  (3:47)

Side B

  1. To Cry You a Song  (6:09)
  2. A time for everything?  (2:42)
  3. Inside  (3:46)
  4. Play in Time  (3:44)
  5. Sossity; You're a Woman  (4:31)

Extra title

The revised CD was also released in the two versions listed above and also contains these four titles:

  2. Singing All Day  (3:07)
  3. Witch's Promise  (3:52)
  4. Just Trying to Be  (1:37)
  5. Teacher - Original UK Mix  (3:49)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Description at jethrotull.com (English), accessed on February 14, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b c Description of the album from Allmusic , accessed on November 28, 2011.
  3. ↑ a b Cover of the 1973 issue of CHR 6307 516.
  4. ↑ a b c d e background information on album and songs at cupofwonder.com (English; archive version)
  5. ↑ Benefit in the UK charts , accessed on February 3, 2016.
  6. ^ Benefit at Allmusic , accessed on November 28, 2011.
  7. ↑ 1970 album review at rollingstone.com, accessed November 29, 2011.
  8. ↑ Cover of the LP Jethro Tull - The Best (Amiga 8 55 666).
Jethro Tull
Mick Abrahams • Don Airey • Martin Allcock • Barriemore Barlow • Martin Barre • Clive Bunker • Paul Burgess • Gerry Conway • Glenn Cornick • Mark Craney • John Evan • Andrew Giddings • John Glascock • David Goodier • Jeffrey Hammond • Tony Iommi • Eddie Jobson • Dave Mattacks • Jonathan Noyce • John O'Hara • Florian Opahle • Dee Palmer • Dave Pegg • Doane Perry • Peter-John Vettese • Tony Williams
Studio albums

This Was • Stand Up • Benefit • Aqualung • Thick as a Brick • A Passion Play • War Child • Minstrel in the Gallery • Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! • Songs from the Wood • Heavy Horses • Stormwatch • A • The Broadsword and the Beast • Under Wraps • Crest of a Knave • Rock Island • Catfish Rising • Roots to Branches • J-Tull Dot Com • The Jethro Tull Christmas Album