01	This Is Not Love						03:57
	02	Occasional Demons						03:49
	03	Roll Yer Own						04:26
	04	Rocks On The Road						05:32
	05	Sparrow On The Schoolyard Wall						05:22
	06	Thinking Round Corners						03:32
	07	Still Loving You Tonight						04:32
	08	Doctor To My Disease						04:35
	09	Like A Tall Thin Girl						03:38
	10	White Innocence						07:44
	11	Sleeping With The Dog						04:26
	12	Gold-Tipped Boots, Black Jacket And Tie						03:41
	13	When Jesus Came To Play						05:03

1991 I.Anderson - M.Barre - D.Pegg - D.Perry
also A.Giddings - M.Pegg - J."Rabbit" Bundrick - F.Paterson


~ Catfish Rising ~

An introduction to "Catfish Rising"

In December 1990, three months after the last leg of the Rock Island tour, Jethro Tull started recording a set of new songs. Anderson had been working on several acoustic oriented songs, based on mandoline, acoustic and electric guitars, rather than on the keyboards, that had dominated the previous Rock Island and Crest Of A Knave: "What interests me more at this moment is to get back to music that grows on trees - instruments that you actually have to play, as opposed to sitting down and reading some 200-page manual in order to play a part" (1; p. 150).

Anderson's aim was to write and record a set of entertaining, lighthearted songs, with humour and warmth. Acoustic instruments were more suitable to obtain this than synthesised sounds. The result was a set of rustic, organic songs with an overall bluesy mood, though it definitely was not revisiting the blues. No '1990 This Was upgrade', as Anderson explains: "I love doing acoustic music that's got an attack to it, and that's what I tried to do on Catfish. To make basically acoustic songs, but a bit more agressive and pushy. Most of the songs were written on open tuning mandolins, so therefore they have a kind of bluesy feel about them, although they are not 'the blues' as such. I've taken those ideas and feelings and tried to go somewhere else with it, both muically and lyrically. I've made it a bit less Louisiana, and a bit more Surrey!" (2; p. 139).

That may be the case, but we do have on this album at least two evident blues songs at our hands: "Sleeping With The Dog" and "Still Loving You Tonight". And than there is the odd album title "Catfish Rising". The catfish is an image applied by many black American country blues singers, like Muddy Waters. Julie Hankinson hits the nail on the head when she states: "There is a logical connection there. The Mississippi Delta is a natural environment for catfish. They're a large component of Cajun/Creole cooking. Perhaps "rising" could be an allusion to the fact that the blues influence in Tull's music is once again rising" (3), as does Pamela: "The contents of Catfish Rising are not just blues, they are about turning again. Catfish are bottom feeders, so a catfish rising would be a fish coming up to the surface from the dark"(3).
(For more information on this subject, see below: "Night In The Wilderness")

The lyrics reflect the entertaining lightness Anderson sought for. No complex or incomprehensible verses this time. Never before were so many "boy/girl" songs recorded on one Tull-abum, some of them dealing with - as Espinoza calls it - marital discord and disillusionment: "This Is Not Love", "Doctor To My Disease", "Still Loving You Tonight", "Sleeping With The Dog", "Night In The Wilderness" (4; p. 93).
Other songs seem to deal with the discomfort of life on the road: "Roll Yer Own", "Rocks On The Road", "Like A Tall Thin Girl", "White Innocence", "Gold-tipped Boots, Black Jacket And Tie" and finally "When Jesus Came To Play". Though I wouldn't want to state that the lyrics to these songs are autobiographical, it is evident that Anderson's imagery was inspired by decades of touring the world.

The songs were recorded by the nucleus of Jethro Tull in those days: Anderson, Pegg, Perry and Barre and 3 different keyboard players: John Bundrick, Foss Paterson and Andrew Giddings, who would join Tull one year later when Maart Allcock was dismissed. On three tracks Matt Pegg took up the bass work for his dad Dave, who was unable to participate due to his involvement with Fairport Convention at the time.

Apart from the 13 songs on this album 5 more were recorded: "Night In The Wilderness" which was released on the "This Is Not Love"-single and "Truck Stop Runner", "Rosa On The Factory Floor", "Piece Of Cake", "Silver River Turning", released on "Nightcap" in 1993.

Judged by the standard set by the band in the two decades before, this album can be considered as a good yet not at all remarkable one.
"Catfish Rising" was released in September 1991.
* Jan Voorbij




Annotations


This Is Not Love

What is more depressing than a seaside resort in wintertime?
"Cheap hotel in some seaboard town,
closed down for the winter and whispered names" and
"Empty drugstore postcards freeze
sunburst images of summers gone."
Ian applies this image to portray a relation between two people that is coming to its end ("before we learned October's song"). Though the narrator remembers the good times they had together ("Think I see us in these promenade days"), he is aware that nothing can stop their breaking up: "Broken spells and silent gloom
ooze from that concrete honeycomb"
and the mutual reproaching has started:
"And how come you know better than me that this is not love".

The last stanza suggests that this couple went back to this seaside town were they had a great time together during the summertime, in the hope to renew their relationship. From the beach they can see their home town, where it all went wrong:
"Down to the sad south, smokey plumes
mark that real world city home.
Broken spells and silent gloom
ooze from that concrete honeycomb"
* Jan Voorbij



Roll Yer Own

Another "on-the-road-song", a humoristic one both lyrically and musically. This time the subject is masturbation, as Andy Jackson explains (and with humour too):
"Don't mean you got no money": doesn't mean you can't afford to pay for it down the local 'bordello' if you so desire. "Only that you got no opportunity to shake it with that friend of mine": you're lonesome, stuck in a hotel room late at night, etc. "When you feel the sudden need to unwind": unwind, hang loose, release pent-up, er, energy.
"You know what moves you in the wee hours
when there's nothing on the answerphone": Willie, ain't it?
"If you don't get enough of that electric love": porno on the TV? Vibrating bed? Electric toothbrush applied vigorously to the old chappie? Who knows . . . . . "Roll yer own" (note 'tremulous' voice) -- DIY. "When there's no one listening": bien sur!
"When those re-runs play": *still* no porno on the cable channel.
"Roll yer own, roll it when there's something missing
and those wild cats howl, running in the moonshine." :
damn, even the animals are doing it.
"You got to hit that spot": choke the chicken, manipulate the mango, etc etc. "When your hands are hot" -- a chilly hand does not a happy Willie make.
In other words, you gotta get your rocks off on the road, somehow. Otherwise you'll be sleeping with the dog.
* Andy Jackson

"Roll Yer Own" is certainly not about masturbation in general, but specificly about female masturbation. Back in 1991, the year the album was published, Ian had a guest appearance in an American Radio Show called Upclose. This show has been recorded and is published on CD (limited edition). During the show Ian told that he had been in a very embarrasing position a few weeks before as he was doing a BBC Radio 2 show on a radio channel that is, according to Ian "more aimed at, dare I say -and I hate to say the word- housewives". The host of the show, called Gloria Hunniford, didn't want to play "This Is Not Love". She said this would be a "little too rock" for her show and preferred to play Roll Yer Own. Then she asked Ian "to tell something about it". Ian tried to avoid the subject by making "frantic signs from the other side of the microphone", attempting to communicate: Let's get off this subject, just play the record. But Gloria kept persevering and eventually she was getting quite agitated because Ian wouldn't tell her. Then Ian finally said: "Gloria, I'm sorry, but you give me...I'm desperately searching for every word in my vocabulary to avoid using the words female masturbation live on BBC radio this time of the day". Gloria got mad and cried:"What! Get out of the studio!" So she threw Ian out of the place, in spite of the fact that he was pressed in to it.
* Fred Greve



Rocks On The Road

Lyrically speaking, this song is one of the most powerful in Anderson's recent work. It's also a very dark and sad one. On stage Anderson ironically introduced this song by saying it was about a travelling salesman. And of course it is, though we must not forget that in a sense he himself is a kind of travelling salesman, bringing music and merchandise to audiences, hopping from country to country. Apart from that it has a "autobiographical feel".
The discomfort of a life on the road, or "Rocks on the road", is sketched by telling the story of a travelling salesman who lives out of his suit case, travelling from city to city, from hotel to hotel in order to make a bug. He witnesses the same dreadful and depressing scenes everywhere, which comes to the fore in lines like: "Two young cops handing out a beating, know how to hurt and leave no mark" and "Hear a car full of young boys heading for a fight". (Note the explicit agression in these lines).

The song is featured by an overall feeling of alienation, of being out of place and of intense loneliness:
"There's a black cat down on the quayside" ( Please note that this cat symbolises Ian, like The Kipling Cat in "A Gift Of Roses" from J-Tull Dot Com)
"Ships lights, green eyes glowing in the dark" and
"Long distance telephone keeps ringing out engaged:
wonder who you're talking with tonight" (anyway, not to the narrator).

Our narrator tries to get away from the dreariness by hitting the bottle:
"Down in the half-lit bar of the hotel
there's a call for the last round of the day" and
"Have to pay for all my minibar madness".
This life eventually has exhausted him and brought him gradually in a state of depression: he is constantly vexed and irritated by futilities:
"Crumbs on the breakfast table.
And a million other little things to spoil my day".
He is aware of that and tries to tug himself out of this situation, first by heavy drinking - which apparently doesn't help - then by distracting himself:
"..... how about some heavy rolling" (these rocks on the road) and
"Now how about a little light music to chase it all away".
In the song these lines are masterfully followed and stressed by a relaxed jazz intermezzo.
* Jan Voorbij



Sparrow On The Schoolyard Wall

In this song a shy and withdrawn young woman is summoned to break out the state isolation she finds herself in by joining friends and live her life to the full. She is compared to a sparrow, an ordinary, nondescript little bird, so common that it isn't noticed by most people. The central drift of the song is expressed in the verseline:
"Don't stay forever in your limbo: Fly before you fall".
It is not exactly clear whether the narrator is addressing a friend or a loved one, or that he is a father encouraging his daughter to get a life. I tend to opt for the last possibility, for Anderson here so well depicts the self-chosen isolation originating from feelings of shyness, uncertainty or being ill at ease, that many young adolescents go through during their teen years.
* Jan Voorbij





Thinking Round Corners

This almost surrealistic song is a rock square dance with nonsense lyrics and is the result of word associations and word play. This collage of images reminds us of two songs in which Anderson applied this literary technnique: "Mother Goose" (Aqualung) and "Hot Mango Flush" (J-Tull Dot Com).
* Jan Voorbij

"... covet gold finery through the eyes of a Jackdaw, dressed to the nines".
Thinking Round Corners looks to me like a stream-of-consciousness lyric, a string of images without a great deal of meaning, just creating a mood. But, if you want to learn more about the Jackdaw and its use in various English sayings and fables, you can go here: The Dictionary Of Phrase And Fable -- and just do a search on the word.
* Andy Jackson



Like A Tall Thin Girl

According to Greg Russo this humorous song is about Doane Perry's longing for a waitress working in an Indian restaurant on Baker Street in London. Doane and Ian, who both heartily enjoy Indian cuisine ("I'd rather do a Vindaloo"), saw her at the restaurant when eating there during Doane's 1984 rehearsal periode for the Under Wraps tour (1, p. 150).



White Innocence

"White Innocence" is another of the "on-the-road" songs on this album. The main topic is not "lusting after sweet young women" as Barbara Espinoza states in her book (4, p.93), but loneliness and ambiguous, conflicting emotions.

It all starts when our narrator recognises the feeling of loneliness in a young woman he meets by sheer coincidence after performing at a rock festival. Note the double meaning of "drifted" in the line: "She drifted from some minor festival" and how the second line, that apparently refers to the festival goers in the third, stresses the condition SHE is in: "Didn't look like any summer of love".

He is moved by her beauty and her innocence: "Funny thing the charm of the young" and "See how she moved just like two angels (in white innocence)". It would be possible for them to help ending eachother's solitude for a while: "She was the hand to fit my glove" (...) "Did she see warm safety in my numbers to want to hitch a ride this way?". The conflict in his feelings arises when he becomes aware of the fact that he is sexually attracted to her on one hand ("Think I was sending out low-voltage electricity: played it right down for what it was worth"), while on the other hand he wants to take care for her. This subsequently embarrasses him: "Felt like I was taking her to market now to be sold as the last lot of the day".

Maybe the narrator realises that he is becoming a middle-aged man and watching this young woman may make him long for her ("There was the promise of early bed-time. There was the promise of heaven on earth"), he decides however not act upon it: "Funny thing, the wisdom of the lonely". This makes him more aware of his own solitude: "Funny thing, the distance of the lonely".

The lyrics contain two possible references to the year 1969: the "summer of love" refers to the summer of 1969, of the Monterey and Woodstock ("three days of love, peace and music") and other great rock, jazz and blues festivals in Europe and the USA. This year was the hayday of the hippy and flower-power era. Bear in mind that Jethro Tull toured the US for the first time during that specific summer.
The line "I was doing some, some watching, some waiting" might have been borrowed from the Moody Blues' "Watching And Waiting", a song from their album "To Our Children's Children's Children" (1969), sung in the same tempo as "White innocence". So we have three references here to the year 1969 in one song. Coincidence? I don't think so.
* Jan Voorbij



Gold-Tipped Boots, Black Jacket And Tie

This song about heading for a new direction and getting oneself together after a period of crisis: "Well, I'm turning again" (like the catfish: rising again?).
In the first stanza the crisis takes the form of a writer's block. The lack of inspiration prohibits the narrator to create which frustrates him immensely:
"I'm banered and bruised.
I got lines I can't use.
My head won't deliver.
Well, I'm sold down the river.
But I'm turning again."
* Jan Voorbij



Night In The Wilderness

"I'd put some spice in your rice.
You'd give me blues in the stew.
I'd give you catfish jumping.
You'd give me all this work to do".
It's still odd that the album title doesn't come back in one of the songs on the album. I remember hearing that a B-side that wasn't released otherwise was about catfish, but I'm not sure about that. 'Night In The Wilderness' was indeed recorded during the Catfish Rising sessions, but was omitted from the album for some reason. It was finally released on the 'Rocks On The Road' CD-single. The direct reference is in the second verse: I'd put some spice in your rice. You'd give me blues in the stew. I'd give you catfish jumping. You'd give me all this work to do. Who's got the cheque on this hot dinner? Who's got the tabs on the crab? Yes, it's another Tull 'food' song, though, as usual, it has little to do with food...
* Neil Thomason

I think the most famous appearance of a Catfish is in Muddy Waters' song Rolling Stone, the song that one of the best bands in the world is named after. A catfish is a common fish in the Mississipi delta. One of the catfish species is the Blue cat. When Muddy moved from the Delta to Chicago, he became one of the first to experiment with electric guitars instead of playing acoustically. I'm sure Ian, like all his British peers, listened a lot to Muddy Waters. Robert Plant "borrowed" complete lyrics from Muddy Waters' The Hunter. Same goes for Peter Green from Fleetwood Mac who used some lines from "Catfish" in "Oh Well". Clapton, John Mayall, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, and in fact every other rock artist owe quite a lot to the late great Muddy Waters. I think the original Catfish Blues was not written by Muddy Waters though. Catfish Blues is a traditional Mississippi delta tune. BB King also recorded it, on that record it's credited to King Josea.While it is pretty obvious that Ian listened to a lot of blues in the early days, it would be interesting to hear Martin talk a little more about his earliest influences. I reckon it's also the blues, for he says that he is always playing blues, whatever he plays. Could it be that there was a little double meaning, with a hint to Ian's fishy business in Scotland?
* Jeroen Louis

The article which appeared in "Guitar One" magazine written by Dave Rubin in conjunction with The University of Mississippi. entitled "Catfish Blues -The evolution of a classic lick" explains some more. Here is an extract of it. Why a Catfish? Bluesmen may have liked it as a metaphor for their own adaptability and survival, as catfish are hardy creatures that have been on earth a long time. Pan fried, they are a delicacy available to anyone with a fishing pole, which could help to explain the lyric:
"I wish I was a catfish, swimming in the deep blue sea.
I'd have al l these good lookin' women, fishing after me."
Whatever the exact interpretation of the content, the form of "Catfish Blues" is derived from one of those deep Delta guitar licks that goes back to the origins of the music.
The earliest version of "Catfish Blues" was recorded in 1941 by Robert Petway and shows no evidence of the licks that have come to define the song, having instead a syncopated chordal pattern that could literally be a precursor of funk. That same year, however, Tommy McClennam cut "Deep Blue Sea Blues" with the same lyric idea and licks that evolved to become the classic hook.
In 1950 Muddy Waters made "Rolling Stone" with the Catfish lyrics and a form of the lick in the intro that Hendrix would later refine and credit to Muddy. Then in 1951, John Lee Hooker, Bobo "Slim" Thomas and Muddy Waters all recorded versions of the Catfish theme within months of each other, making it impossible to decipher the exact chronology. Muddy Waters had a second version of Catfish Blues with "Still a Fool". In the late 60's Jimi Hendrix cut several versions of Catfish Blues as well as his original composition "Voodoo Child". He set the standard for future guitarists wishing to tap into the deep mojo associated with this hypnotic phase.
* Robert Jobson


Over 30 families of catfishes are recognized, together comprising over 2000 species. Siluriforms are most diverse in species and morphology in tropical South America, Africa, and Asia. However, catfishes live or have lived in the inland or coastal waters of all continents.
* John Lundberg


Cited works:

1. Greg Russo: "Flying colours: the Jethro Tull reference manual", Floral Park, N.Y., 2000
2. David Rees: "Minstrels in the gallery, a history of Jethro Tull", Wembley, England, 1998
3. Contributions posted at the TalkTull mailing list
4. Barbara Espinoza: "Driving in diverse: a collective profile of Jethro Tull", Kearney NE, 1999






Night In The Wilderness
(The song "Night In The Wilderness" was recorded by Jethro Tull during the
Catfish Rising - sessions in 1990-1991, but was not added to the album. It was
released on the CD-single "Rocks On The Road".)
I could he sitting on the left of you.
You'd be looking straight ahead.
If I was adrift right across from you,
you still would cut me dead.
I've had better deep discussions
with this plate of soft-shelled crab.

I'd put some spice in your rice.
You'd give me blues in the stew.
I'd give you catfish jumping.
You'd give me all this work to do.
Who's got the cheque on this hot dinner?
Who's got the tabs on the crab?

Another night in the wilderness:
should have been a night on the town.
Lesson in learning how to hold a conversation down.
I'm in splendid isolation, feel that heavy silence fall.
Got all this cut out for me to do.
Another night in the wilderness of you.

Here I am drinking you with my eyes.
You're looking at the gravy on my bib.
I go weak-kneed at the suggestion of you.
What's wrong with the cut of my jib?
Is there a lobster in the offing, or just a fifty dollar cheque?



Tentative Review #150
Jethro Tull
Catfish Rising
(released 1991)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Track: Rating:
1. This Is Not Love
2. Occasional Demons
3. Roll Yer Own
4. Rocks On The Road
5. Sparrow On The Schoolyard Wall
6. Thinking Round Corners
7. Still Loving You Tonight
8. Doctor To My Disease
9. Like A Tall Thin Girl
10.White Innocence
11.Sleeping With The Dog
12.Gold-Tipped Boots, Black Jacket And Tie
13.When Jesus Came To Play

Personnel:
Ian Anderson: vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, acoustic and electric mandolins, flute, percussion, "Drums and keyboards on acouple of things: you figure it out"
Martin Barre: electric guitar (as always)
Andy Giddings: keyboards on "This Is Not Love", "Rocks On The Road" and "Doctor To My Disease"
David Pegg: electric and acoustic bass guitars, except on tracks played by his son (see below)
Doane Perry: drums, absolutely no tambourine
John "Rabbit" Bundrick: keyboards on "Sleeping With The Dog"
Ross Paterson: keyboards on "White Innocence"
Matt Pegg: bass on "This Is Not Love", "Rocks On The Road" and "Still Loving You Tonight" (while father was washing hair)
Credits:
All songs written and produced by Ian Anderson.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comments:
Catfish Rising has a significant position in Jethro Tull's catalogue, but not an enviable one: it was the last studio album released during the band's extended rut, which began with either Broadsword And The Beast or Under Wraps (depending on who you talk to). After the band's creative juices suddenly started flowing again on Roots To Branches, their albums of the previous 12 years were revealed for what they really were: the sounds of a great band slumming. Mind you, many of us had already reached this conclusion well in advance.

I purchased Catfish Rising shortly after it was released, and was disappointed -- so many of the songs just seemed to plod aimlessly along, lacking any sort of purpose, and some tracks even lacked the sort of cheap entertainment value that could make a lack of purpose forgiveable. There was still some potential there, but the band didn't seem to know what to do with it! Although I've grown to appreciate some tracks on the album now, Catfish Rising still rates as a fairly weak Tull release overall -- sadly, the good bits aren't quite good enough to make that much of a difference.

So, is it the worst album of the group's career? I'm still not certain about this -- Crest Of A Knave was just as mediocre (though "Mountain Men" outshines anything on CR), and A Little Light Music equally plodding. But it's definitely a low water-mark on the group's record, and certainly not an album that I'd recommend to anyone just getting into the group.

In fairness, there are a good number of songs on this album that could have made decent filler material on a better release. Of these, the best of the lot is probably "Rocks On The Road", a folk-rocky track in which Ian laments the brutality of a traveling salesman's life. This track is especially notable for a surprise jazz break in the bridge (featuring the best playing on the album, by far) -- it also has one of the stronger bass lines on the work (by Matt, oddly), and a good showing from Martin. With new keyboardist Andy Giddings also making on a strong case for his talents (on one of only three tracks where he actually plays!), this track indicates the potential of this Tull lineup -- making the quantum leap on Roots To Branches a bit less surprising, in retrospect. Even so, though, it's far from perfect -- Ian's lyrics waver on and off from insight to banality, and the main body of the track never really takes off. With a bit of re-arranging, this track could be turned into something special; as it is, it's only the best of a weak litter.

"This Is Not Love" also embodies the weaknesses of the album, even despite being a half-decent song in its own right. This track has the best lyrics on the album, with Ian pulling out allusions that could have fit on Minstrel In The Gallery or Songs From The Wood. Consider:

"Empty drugstore postcards freeze sunburst images of summers gone. Think I see us in these promenade days before we learned October's song. Out on the headland, one gale-whipped tree; curious, head-bent to see. How come you know better than me that this is not love."

Great lyrics, but the delivery ends up being a bit pedestrian -- a development no doubt encouraged by a creeping "classic rock" ethos that surrounds the entire song. The vocal harmonies are great, and Giddings (again) puts in a good showing on Hammond ... but the track as a whole is just too close to the 1991 hard-rock industry standard for comfort. Barre and Anderson trade a few impressive flute and guitar licks about halfway through -- if only they could have based the entire song on this partnership.

Of the other tracks which basically work, two of them are enjoyable throwaways -- I'm speaking of "Sparrow On The Schoolyard Wall" and "When Jesus Came To Play". The former (with nice keyboard work from Ian, btw) has some decent music, some less so -- Barre's concluding solo is nothing to get excited about. The latter is a fairly standard folk-rock number, which somehow works in spite of its limitations. Despite some clever turns of phrase, neither track has particularly great lyrics. Decent songs, both, but not enough to carry a weak album.

Two other tracks fall into the category of "half-successful experiments". "Thinking Round Corners" has the potential for being a truly impressive song, and might still attain this status if Ian decides to finish writing it. As it is, it's a clever track (both musically and lyrically) that never lives up to its promise. "White Innocence" seems to be a token "throwback" track, the longest on the album and the most solidly rooted in a rich keyboard sound (courtesy of Mr. Paterson, who has also worked with John Martyn and Fish). Unfortunately, the lyric just isn't very interesting (Ian picks up a young hitchhiker, feels guilty about his subsequent arousal, drops her off ... over the space of seven minutes, there's not much drama in this). There's enough here to make it worth hearing once in a while ... but that's about it.

I was actually looking forward to skewering "Gold-Tipped Boots, Black Jacket And Tie" in this review, but listening to it again forced me to admit that it's actually not a bad track from a musical standpoint (the lyrics, though are terrible). The shuffle rhythm is enjoyable, in a harmless sort of way -- the flute and guitar/mandolin mixes work well too. Not a classic or anything, but decent.

The rest of the album is generally just mediocre. "Occasional Demons" has some nice lyrical ideas, but ends up sounding like generic rock. "Roll Yer Own" has some nice guitar touches (mostly from Ian), but it's really not easy to like a lyric this stupid (and it goes on far too long, even before the hidden reprise). "Doctor To My Disease" has a hummable chorus, but is otherwise a rather dismal piece of AOR wreckage -- Barre's guitar solo flirts with the sort of cretin-rock that was popular back in 1991. "Like A Tall Thin Girl" has a decent instrumental bit (with a cool mandolin/flute bit), and I can't help but appreciate any proggish song that sings the praises of Indian cuisine, but ... come on, how am I supposed to appreciate lyrics like this (let alone when sung in a smarmy tone)? "Sleeping With The Song", for its part, is a textbook plod-blues- rock track that never really amounts to much at all.

All of these tracks are pretty dire in their own way, but none are completely unlistenable. That honour falls to "Still Loving You Tonight", a godawful track that brings out all of the worst tendencies in retro-"classic rock". The song absolutely drowns itself in a Clapton- Michelob morass, reaching an absolute low on Ian's anguished belting on the song-title about halfway through. Why on earth the band decided to subject audiences to this rubbish in the subsequent tour isn't at all clear -- what is clear, though, is that the band managed to tap into one of the worst songs of their career here.

In retrospect, it's possible that the mediocrity of this album was the result of ongoing stagnation within the band. Dave Pegg doesn't get many chances to shine on this album, and some reports have suggested that he was more concerned with Fairport Convention than Jethro Tull at this point. Martin Barre, for his part, seems a bit too enamoured with a mainstream hard-rock sound, Doane Perry is competent but unspectacular, and Andy Giddings is hardly around enough to make any real difference. And Ian? Presiding over this situation, Ian doesn't seem to have muchto offer. Generally speaking, the band lives and dies by his efforts --and in this case, he seems either unable or unwilling to break up theband's basic inertia. Thankfully, this would change on Roots ToBranches ... but that was four years away.

There's enough good stuff here for diehard Tull fans to appreciate, but there's no reason I can think of for anyone else to buy it.

The Christopher Currie
(review originally posted to alt.music.yes on 25 Apr 2000)







Catfish Rising
Date of Release Sep 10, 1991

AMG EXPERT REVIEW: Jethro Tull's best album of the 1990's, a surging, hard rocking monster (at least, compared to anything immediately before or since) that doesn't lose sight of good tunes or the folk sources that have served this band well. The line-up this time out is Anderson on acoustic and electric guitars, flute, and electric and acoustic mandolins, Martin Barre on electric guitar, Doane Perry on drums, Dave Pegg on bass, and Andrew Giddings on keyboards. The real difference between this and most of the group's output since the end of the 1970's lies in the songs, all of which are approached with serious energy and enthusiasm-the lyrics are completely forgettable, but for the first time since War Child, the band sounds like they're playing as though their lives depended on it. "Sparrow On the Schoolyard Wall" is at least as good a song as "Bungle in the Jungle" or "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day," and while that ain't exactly "My God," it's still better than most other recent Tull albums have done. "Still Loving You Tonight" and "Sleeping with the Dog" recall the group's blues roots, albeit not quite in bluesy enough fashion. There's still some dross, as there would almost have to be on an hour-long album, but overall this is the group's best album since the end of the 1970's. - Bruce Eder

1. This Is Not Love (Anderson)
2. Occasional Demons (Anderson)
3. Roll Yer Own (Anderson)
4. Rocks on the Road (Anderson)
5. Sparrow on the Schoolyard Wall (Anderson)
6. Thinking Round Corners (Anderson)
7. Still Loving You Tonight (Anderson)
8. Doctor to My Disease (Anderson)
9. Like a Tall Thin Girl (Anderson)
10. White Innocence (Anderson)
11. Sleeping With the Dog (Anderson)
12. Gold-Tipped Boots, Black Jacket and Tie (Anderson)
13. When Jesus Came to Play (Andrson)

Ian Anderson - Guitar (Acoustic), Flute, Mandolin, Percussion, Drums, Guitar (Electric), Keyboards, Vocals, Engineer
Dave Pegg - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric)
Martin Barre - Guitar (Electric)
John "Rabbit" Bundrick - Keyboards
Andy Giddings - Keyboards
Foster Paterson - Keyboards
Doane Perry - Drums
Tim Matyear - Engineer
Matt Pegg - Guitar (Bass)
Mark Tucker - Engineer

CD Chrysalis F2-21863
1991 CD Capitol 21863
1991 CS Chrysalis F4-21863
1999 Capitol 21886
1999 CD EMI 21886