Jethro Tull - Benefit (1970)

Dan:

I took a long time getting around to Benefit, Jethro Tull's third album, which was sandwiched between Stand Up and Aqualung. In his unassuming way, Steve made it available thinking I might enjoy it if I only listened to it. I was familiar with "Inside," which also appeared on the compilation album Living in the Past that I used to own in the early 1970s. 

After hearing Benefit a few times, I can safely say that it's my favorite Tull album for several reasons. First, It's an intelligent set of songs. My favorite is "Nothing to Say," which addresses an interesting issue in game theory: should I share my knowledge with someone else? Ian Anderson says no:

Everyday there's someone asking "What is there to do?"

Should I love or should I fight, is it all the same to you?

No I say I have the answer proven to be true,

But if I were to share it with you,

You would stand to gain and I to lose.

Oh I couldn't bear it so I've got nothing to say.

Nothing to say.

The reason for this selfish posture appears to be resentment over the misfortune that the questioner has brought upon us. Later, it becomes more apparent that the questioner is a hateful hypocrite:

Climb a tower of freedom, paint your own deceiving sign.

It's not my power to criticize or to ask you to be blind

To your own pressing problem and the hate you must unwind.

So ask of me no answer, there is none that I could give you wouldn't find.

I went your way ten years ago and I've got nothing to say.

Nothing to say.

Now that's a worthwhile lyric! Other gems with equally profound lyrics are "With You There to Help Me," "To Cry You a Song," and "A Time for Everything?"

My second reason is songcraft, with or without lyrics. Benefit rocks hard where necessary but never dissolves into pointless jamming. Everything fits together, whether it's rhythm, flutes and guitars, or thumping bass. This might very well be Jethro Tull's secret advantage over dozens of other bands that are loaded with great players, but which have trouble establishing a sound of their own. 

Finally, I like Benefit's clever album cover art. It shows cutout figures of the band members on stage in front of a window with the same band members looking on from behind. On the album's back cover, you see the same cardboard cutouts from behind, with their names written on their backs. Cute!

As a kid, I'd spend a lot of time studying the sleeves of the 12" LPs that I owned. Not just the notes, but the images as well. I hardly ever do that for CDs because they're so small. However, for the digital albums stored on my laptop computer, I took the pains to find the highest resolution artwork for the 2,400+ albums in that part of my collection. I occasionally scroll through the larger images just for entertainment. 

Steve:

Insights like Dan's above remind me that I miss out on a lot of potential music appreciation by not paying attention to lyrics. "Nothing to Say" is a heck of a piece of writing. Lyric-wise, the Jethro Tull piece to which I've given the most effort is "A Passion Play", a strange tale of the afterlife I'm told; but time and again I can't make heads or tails of it. So rather than dwell on this sad affliction of mine, I'll stick to talking about what I know.

Benefit sits right in the sweet spot of Jethro Tull's finest period, in my opinion (Stand Up through A Passion Play). It was one of the first Jethro Tull albums I bought; I first got interested in exploring the band's catalog after borrowing a copy of M.U. The Best of Jethro Tull from a friend. My favorite song from that compilation was "Teacher", which was included on the US version of Benefit (though not on the UK version, as I later learned; most subsequent reissues have thus omitted "Teacher" as a part of the album proper). I still love "Teacher" and am only mildly annoyed that the version included as a bonus track on the Benefit CD reissue is a different version that I don't like as much. Oh well, I still have M.U.

Other favorites on this album are "With You There to Help Me"; "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me"; and "A Time for Everything" - three very different sounding songs. "With You There to Help Me" could probably have been sequenced a little more effectively - as a vast 6-minute beast of a number, it doesn't feel like it belongs as "side 1 track 1"; it could have worked better as a side closer. It's spacious and psychedelic, using a very standard folk rock chord progression but going all out in the arrangement, with echoed flutes, quiet/loud dynamics, and Martin Barre's wailing guitar leads. "Michael Collins" has the effect of making me wistful and nostalgic, even though I have no idea what the song is about. Maybe it's time I read those lyrics again.