01	With You There To Help Me						06:19
	02	Nothing To Say						05:14
	03	Alive And Well And Living In						02:48
	04	Son						02:51
	05	For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me						03:51
	06	To Cry You A Song						06:15
	07	A Time For Everything?						02:44
	08	Inside						03:49
	09	Play In Time						03:49
	10	Sossity; Your'e A Woman						04:42
	11	Singing All Day (Bonus Track)						03:07
	12	Witch's Promise (Bonus Track)						03:52
	13	Just Trying To Be (Bonus Track)						01:37
	14	Teacher (Original UK Mix) (Bonus Track)						03:49

~ Benefit ~

An introduction to "Benefit"

The year 1970 was a very important one for Jethro Tull. The band had really arrived after their three US tours in 1969, supporting Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac a.o. Now they had their first headlining tour in the US, but the heavy schedules, third-class hotels, transport and food were taking their toll, and the band members were frequently ill. Martin Barre said that year: "We haven't stopped working this past year. It's like a conveyor belt thing, making records, going through America, it's endless". Ian himself said: "I enjoyed the concerts but everything else I really hated, because it seemed such a terrible way of life. Every tour was 'the last one'. My only recreation was writing the songs, which at least injected some meaning into a hotel room".

And that is exactly were most of the material for the new album was written: 'Benefit', released in May 1970, for which the keyboard-services of old friend John Evans were called upon and who would join the band lateron. The album - in combination with the heavy touring caused Tull's commercial breakthrough in the US and became an immediate success. Even more than 'Stand Up' the album moved away from the blues ( which would not be 'revisited' until 'Catfish Rising' in 1991). Like on 'Stand Up' the album contains ten songs and acoustic and rock songs alternate, but there is an important new feature that would make its way to every future album from then on: the combination of rock and acoustic parts within the songs. We can almost see Ian experiment with this idea in songs like 'Son' and 'Alive And Well And Living In'. According to Craig Thomas in his liner notes in the 25th Anniversary box set Tull began to use this electric/acoustic dichotomy in their music to represent "... the clash between individual and society, rural and urban, between happiness (however qualified) and disillusion..."


As for the lyrics: we see a further development. They are more poetic, there is more imagery. Apart from the beautiful balad-like love song 'Sossity', they do reflect the disillusions with hard life on the road and a sense of dislocation, as if Ian grew up in a generation he felt he didn't belong to. This last aspect emerged from Ian's dismay for having to play for people under the influence of drugs and alcohol: "It's a little disturbing playing to people who are, to quote, turned on. It's difficult to know how to play to them. It's disturbing to know that they must to some extent imagine that I personally, and the other fellows in the band, are just the same as them, you know?" (Hit Parader interview, 1969). Like Frank Zappa he hated to perform for a crowd of loaded hippies. Ian remained a strong spokesman against drugs and alcohol for the duration of his career. We find his first critical remarks on that matter in 'Christmas Song'. He stated he avoids intoxication because he feels it interferes with his creative process and that he needs to remain clear-headed to accomplish the kind of self-analysis that he considers at the cornerstone of his writing. Judson Caswell suggests that this attitude acted to distance him from his audiences and from his contemporaries: "unable to express these sentiments overtly without ostracizing much of his audience, his opions towards drugs were 'bottled up' and arose as bitterness and anger in his music toward the general culture of the times. (This bitterness is very explicit on 'Aqualung', as we will see - JV). He also speaks disdainfully and condescendingly of the pace and greed of America in interviews at this time".

Among Tull-fans , 'Benefit' is generally considered as a good but not remarkable album. I think that is unjust. Regarding the context and period it was conceived and released and taking in account the band's further development, it is a very important album. With 'Benefit' the band was both musically and lyrically speaking on the threshold of consolidating their own style which is so evident on what I therefore tend to consider as the first real Tull-album: 'Aqualung'.


Annotations

With You There To Help Me

According to Greg Russo this song is about Jennie Franks, a secretary in Chrysalis' publishing department, whom Ian would marry later that year. The lyrics reflect the pressure of the heavy touring schedule and his longing for being home.


Nothing To Say

How many times do we remain silent, fearing that our questions/answers/comments will be misinterpreted or crushed upon heavy disagreement? Too many times - as this song says, in a metaphorical way. "Nothing to say" because the narrator's (it's a model, a stereotype, whatever you call it, he's basically a representative of the human race) ideas and own thoughts are being pushed and pulled by exterior pressures, specially (maybe even uniquely) social ones. Society doesn't want to know what individuals think or comment; we are all just wheels in a very complex and large machine - there's no space for personal freedom. (This is a subject that Ian has addressed many times before and afterwards, in songs like "Thick as a Brick" or "Uniform".)
"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."
The narrator believes that he can only appreciate his ideas in inner reflection; society offers no answers for him and twists anything new that he would offer - individuality and self-centred selfishness is the only exit.
The narrator feels that society builds its own prison and programs its own decay - and he refuses to acknowledge and be accoustumed to that ("...the walls collapse, broken by the lies that your misfortune brought upon us"). "Freedom" was built by Men itself; therefore it could be a "deceiving sign", many times offered in a virtuous manner, and ultimately turns out into a even worst idea prison than before, maybe even collapsing when its foundations aren't as solid as they should be (therefore the "tower" metaphore). Men usually deceives himself ("deceiving sign"), and the narrator feels helpless and alone when addressing the problem: he has neither the power or the authority to present answers or note flaws, he is not a born leader or a messiah, he doesn't know anything that anybody couldn't find out on their own ("it's not my power to criticize or to ask you to be blind") - the problems within the human race ("... your own pressing problem and the hate you must unwind").
So, what's the use of crying out loud into the sneering crowds? He himself is a part of the "mechanism" ("...I went your way ten years ago") and nobody is actually ready to fully understand and apply the answers. And so he has "nothing to say".
* Alberto Ferreira


Alive And Well And Living In

This is one of the 4 great love songs from Benefit, written for Jenny (the others being "With You There To Help Me", "To Cry You A Song" and "Inside"). This one has Jenny at home alone, while Ian is away, presumably on tour, but desperate to get home - see the afore mentioned songs. It is one of the very few songs in which Anderson shows any vulnerability:
"She's quite content to sit there listening to what he says,
how he didn't like to be alone.
And if he feels like crying, she's there to hear him."
The title comes from a figure of speech that was quite common back then, e.g. "Che Guevara is alive and well and living in Havanna". Could also be a pun - alive and well and living in, as in inside as (opposed to outside - see the lyrics to "Inside").
* Matthew Korn

This one could possibly be about Ian's mother. One thing for sure, it is a sensitive portrait of a woman who is trying to hold herself together while her life is falling apart: "Nobody sees her there, her eyes are slowly closing. If she should want some peace, she sits there, without moving, and puts a pillow over the phone." There is emphasis on the isolation that she lives in, as well as her need to sublimate her own feelings: "And if she feels like dancing, no one will know it." She is stifled by the control that her husband, who is emotionally needy, exerts over her: "She's quite content to sit there listening to what he says, how he doesn't like to be alone. And if he feels like crying, she'd better hear him." Also, there is an indication that the situation will not change: "No reason to complain and nothing to fear, they always will be."
* Julie Hankinson



Son

One of the songs that details the troubled relationship Ian had with his parents, esp. his father. Most of it consists of lectures that a father would deliver to his son. In response, the son closes himself off from his father and resolves to leave home:
"I only feel what touches me,
and feeling, touching, I can see
a better place to be in.
Who has the right
to question what I might do,
in feeling I should touch the real
and only things I feel."
The last stanza shows an interesting twist, in that the son is 30 years old. Perhaps this is Ian's way of stating that if his father could have dominated his life at the age of 30, he would have done so. It's followed by an especially patronizing statement: "When you grow up, if you're good we will buy you a bike."
* Julie Hankinson.



A Time For Everything

This must surely be one of Ian Anderson's earliest retrospective songs. "A Time For Everything" is about looking back at all those years gone by from the perspective of advanced middle age: "Fifty years and I m filled with tears". (Oddly enough, Ian Anderson must have been in his early 20's at the most when he wrote this song. Perhaps that explains the fact that it contains only two verses: was I.A. a little short on the subject matter at the time?). The song is about the musings of one who is considering the wastefulness of his life, the reflections on what could have been: "Once it seemed there would always be a time for everything" as opposed to what has been: "Ages passed I knew at last my life had never been". He could have achieved so much, he is saying. But all his early aspirations were lost along the way: "I'd been missing what time could bring". However, musings aside, the song ends in a pragmatic vein and the singer seems to come to terms with the need to put an end to pointless reflections: "Burn the wagon and chain the mule" he says. The wagon and the mule, being the vehicles on which he has slowly shuffled along through the passage of time. "The past is all denied", that's it! What was is no longer relevant. The closing line of the song put the lid of acceptance on the issue: "There's no time for everything. No time for everything".
* Ron Unna


For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me

The above mentioned feeling of alienation and dislocation is reflected in the refrain:
"I'm with you LEM though it's a shame that it had to be you.
The mother ship is just a blip from your trip made for two.
I'm with you boys, so please employ just a little extra care.
It's on my mind I'm left behind when I should have been there.
Walking with you."
Michael Collins was one of the three astronauts who made the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in July 1969.While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended in the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and walked the surface of the moon, Michael Collins stayed behind in the orbitting Command Module.


Jeffrey was Jeffrey Hammond, who is earlier mentioned in "A Song For Jeffrey"and "Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square" and who in 1971 became Tull's new bass player. In the paper "Songs From The Wood" it is suggested that perhaps Ian felt that as Jethro Tull became more popular and John Evans joined the band on keyboards, Jeffrey and the simpler 'good old days', when they were just starting out in the music business, were left behind.
* Jan Voorbij



To Cry You A Song

To Cry You A Song is about Ian on a flight (literally) back home and having to put up with all sorts of agravations such as not having enough cigarettes, being air sick (maybe?) and being held up by customs (who can't find what they're looking for, of course).
Eventually he arrives home and finds Jenny peeping through curtains drawn, rattling on safety chains (on the door) and taking too long (he can't wait any longer):
"Lights in the street,
peeping through curtains drawn.
Rattling of safety chain taking too long.
The smile in your eyes was never so sweet before.
Came down from the skies to cry you a song."
* Matthew Korn



The only remaining mystery for me in "To Cry You a Song" are the verselines "Closing my dream inside its paper-bag, Thought I saw angels but I could have been wrong". I suppose the "dream" could be anything at all, and the "paper bag" could even be metaphorical. In the Rolling Stone interview of July 1971, Ian Anderson claimed he avoided all drugs except tobacco and coffee. If true, then the scenario leading up to the reunion with the lover really is just him being on a plane back to England as he anticipates "getting down", and "how many cigarettes did I bring along" refers to tobacco. Of course, the words "flying high", "cigarettes", and "dream inside [a] paper bag" may have been chosen so as to mis-imply marijuana, since he had to suffer customs "Search in my case, can't find what they're looking for, waving me through.....".
* Dale Chock

"How many cigarettes did I bring along" might mean: 1. Do I have enough cigarettes for the flight/road home (a daily concern for smokers btw) or, 2. How many taxfree cigarettes did I buy? Will the customs-officers make me pay? And the "paper bag"? Does it contain things he bought at the airport? And if so, what makes him "dream"? Glossy magazines full of beautiful women ("Angels") ?

There is another possible explanation to the line "Closing my dream inside its paper bag". In Brian Rabey's unpublished book "It's For You! The Magic And Musical Mayhem Of Jethro Tull", he describes Ian developing his stage act: ".... and to round thing out completely he used to carry all his belongings in a paper carrier bag from Woolworth's. He kept his harmonicas, flute and a couple of wooden flutes tucked away inside along with sandwiches and Coca Cola in a hot water bottle".
Jeffrey Hammond is cited on their early gigs at the Marquee club in London: "I remember the one thing I was always keen about was the brown carrier bag which I used to use a lot and he (Ian) ended up using one on stage along with the hot water bottle".
Finally Glen Cornick recalls Tull's successful appearance at the Sunbury Jazz & Blues Festival: "One thing I should mention is that one of the band's other props at the time was a paper carrier bag that Ian kept his flute, his harmonica and that claghorn in. So the stage was all set and the audience didn't know which order the acts were playing in. (...) John Gee was about to go on stage and announce us and he picked up the little paper bag and walked out onto the stage with it and the entire audience stood up and cheered. Every single person recognized the bag which was really phenomenal because we had no idea that people knew us that well".

So that settles the "paper bag question". But how about "closing my dream"? Since we know what the contents of this bag was, I assume the dream has to do with Ian's ambitions as a musican, dreaming of developing his own personal style, becoming a significant composer and performer.
* Jan Voorbij



Inside

Benefit is a dark album in many respects, as everyone points out, but its really about being in a dark tunnel (metaphorically) and seeing the light at the end, so in that respect its an optimistic album. Inside is about the light at the end of the tunnel.
With You There to Help Me, Alive and Well and Livin' In, To Cry You A Song and Inside could be seen as a suite of songs dedicated to Ian's wife Jenny, with Inside as a sort of happy ever after ending. Whereas in With You There To Help Me, Anderson asks "Why am I crying, I want to know..." and in Alive And Well: ".. if he feels like crying, she's there to hear him.." and in To Cry You a Song he "came down from the skies to cry you a song", in Inside he is "sitting in the corner feeling glad, got no money coming in, but I can't be sad, that was the best cup of coffee I have ever had, and I won't worry 'bout a thing, because we've got it made - here on the inside, outside so far away" - the most perfect evocation of love and contentment you are ever likely to hear. Hence Inside is a song about finding refuge both physically and spiritually.
* Matthew Korn



Play In Time

The song shows Ian's struggle for finding his own way of musical expression in the lines
"Blues were my favorite colour,
'til I looked around and found another song
that I felt like singing".
In an interview he stated: I quickly became dissatisfied with what we were doing. I found it hard to go on stage and convincingly be a polite shade of black. What really got me was that I was singing something that was essentially stolen. And it wasn't just stealing music, it was stealing somebody's emotions and point of view, almost pretending to have an awareness of what it means to be black."
* Ian Anderson: "Trouser Press Magazine - Autodiscography, October 1982.



Sossity

"Hello you straight-laced lady..."
The term should be strait-laced, as in a lady's corset, meaning tight, as opposed to straight laced, which really means nothing. As few people wear corsets these days, the understanding of the term seems to have been lost. This spelling error is in the lyric book, which Ian has checked, so I suspect Ian himself got it wrong, if I may be so presumptuous.
* Martha Klassanos

I always thought one who is straight laced to mean that they are set in their ways, old fashioned, not taking chances in life, routine, non-progressive - perhaps prudish in the context of Sossity the song.
According to my Webster's, "strait-laced" is the preferred spelling with "straight-laced" as the alternative. Definition #2 is: Excessively strict in manners, morals or opinion.
* Robert Jobson & Iva






Jethro Tull - Benefit

Released: 1970/2001
Label: Chrysalis - Capitol
Cat. No.: 35457
Total Time: 49:34


Reviewed by: Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck, July 2002
Jethro Tull's third release was Benefit. Indeed the third time is the charm. Ian Anderson's vocals were getting stronger and more dominating, while his flute playing maintained its unfailing authority. Anderson remarks in the liner notes that his writing was getting darker and that he realized thirty two years later that he was being cynical in reference to being on the road and away from home. His feelings regarding the music industry were coming through as well.

"To Cry You A Song" was the strongest introduction to the fresh and new formula that they would continue to follow and develop for the rest of their long and fruitful careers. Although the group's love of blues and jazz remained evident, they were leaning heavier towards more rock and folk arrangements, which allowed them to reach a much wider audience. "Inside" was another song that was to rapidly become a trademark of the Jethro Tull sound with Anderson's flute taking a lead role and Martin Barre strumming a soft acoustic guitar in the background. Although Barre rarely remained in the background on any song, he was now more comfortable in his new surroundings and showed all of his colors on this album.. This new formula was to delight listeners worldwide. The group's diversity pleased those that loved to rock and the other segment of listeners that enjoyed the more folk, classical, and ethnic sounds that they had offered on their previous release Stand Up. Ian Anderson was becoming the true court jester onstage and the consummate leader. This was a position that was solidified on this album and one that he would never relinquish.

The bonus tracks give an interesting glimpse into the future and a peak into the upcoming golden age of Jethro Tull.

More about Benefit:

Track Listing: With You There To Help Me (6:19) / Nothing To Say (5:14) Alive And Well And Living In (2:48) / Son (2:51) / For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me (3:51) / To Cry You A Song (6:15) / A Time For Everything? (2:44) / Inside (3:49) / Play In Time (3:49) / Sossity; You're A Woman (4:42) / Bonus Tracks: Singing All Day (3:07) / Witch's Promise (3:52) / Just Trying To Be (1:37) Teacher (Original UK Mix) (3:49)

Musicians:
Ian Anderson - glute, guitar, harmonica, piano, horn, vocals, mouth organ
Martin Barre - flute, electric guitar
Clive Bunker - drums, hooter
Glen Cornick - bass






Benefit

"Benefit" became Tull's first million-seller, barely missing the Top Ten charts in the U.S. The album features a "harder, slightly darker feel" (Ian's words) than Tull's earlier works and clear hints of cynicism cresting with the following album: "Aqualung."

Group leader Ian Anderson begin experimenting with production techniques, including the famed "backwards-played" flute on "With You There to Help Me" which would become a concert joke as Ian turned his back to the audience to play the opening notes. This track, and others, reflect Ian's budding romance with a Chrysalis secretary who would become Ian's first wife. The experimentation, however, gives the album a very late 60's/early 70's feel which may sound dated and unapproachable to the modern rock ear. Yet, many Tull fans consider it among the band's greatest works. Elsewhere, "Son" continues Ian's parental relations theme from "Stand Up."

Mostly recorded in December 1969 and January 1970, "Benefit" was the band's first album to feature keyboards - played by the band's old school chum John Evan. Evan completed the third Tull line-up when he joined Anderson, Barre, Bunker, and Cornick. John Evan joined on a temporary basis for an eight month tour and stayed for over 10 years! John's classical training and stage presence would be central to Tull's 1970's personna.

During the "Benefit" tour, Tull headlined some of the biggest concert halls in the U.S. However, the musicians' diverse personalities and harsh schedules were not meshing. After the tour finished in December 1970, Glenn Cornick left to start his own band, 'Wild Turkey."

Three songs became noteworthy, not necessarily for their quality. "To Cry You a Song," with the lyrics "flying so high" helped fuel the myth that Anderson was a serious druggie. In reality, Anderson never did drugs and some critics felt his music developed a bitterness towards the prevailing youth culture.

"Teacher," became a fan favorite in the U.S. though the band felt it was a throwaway song and Ian wrote it as a B-side. Ian, to date, professes distaste for this tune reflecting disillusionment with formal education, a theme arising in future songwriting as well. The U.K. version on the remastered copy is a very different arrangement with far less flute. The flute was added to the U.S. release as the record company felt Tull needed a pop single featuring the flute.

"Play in Time" was a direct message to critics and supporters preferring Tull's earlier, abandoned blues-orientated approach ("blues were my favourite colour until I looked 'round and found another song that I felt like singing") and would be the first in a series of tunes over the years expressing Ian's indifference to critical opinion.


Released: 1970 Remastered 2001

Charts: 3 (U.K.), 11 (U.S.)

With You There to Help Me
Nothing To Say
Alive and Well and Living In*+
Son
For Michael Collins, Jeffery and Me
To Cry You a Song
A Time for Everything?
Inside
Play in Time
Sossity: You're a Woman
Singing All Day*
Witch's Promise*
Just Trying to Be*
Teacher + (UK mix)*

* track added to the 2001 remastering and not included on the original release.
+ "Teacher" was on the original U.S. release. "Alive and Well and Living In" was on the original U.K. release.

The "Benefit" tour included the famous U.K. Isle of Wight festival, often called the "English Woodstock."

"Benefit" was Glenn Cornick's last and John Evan's first with Tull.

"Teacher" would become a staple of U.S. classic rock radio yet Anderson loathes it.

Who is Michael Collins in "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey, and Me" ?
Collins was the third astronaut on Apollo 11, the one who did not get to walk on the moon.


Ian Anderson - flute, acoustic and electric guitars, vocals
Martin Barre - electric and acoustic guitars
Clive Bunker - percussion
Glenn Cornick - bass guitar
John Evan - piano, Hammond organ





conrad

Benefit is seen by many as a little disappointing compared to other Jethro Tull albums of this era. Sandwiched as it is between Stand Up and Aqualung, it's easy to see why, but this curious album has qualities not to be found on either of these other records.
The opening track is a strange piece which takes a few listens get used to. It opens with Ian Anderson's "backwards played" flute and a nice minor chord sequence on the piano. Certainly fans of Martin Barre should like the opening number, as it contains one of his best guitar solos. It's a very nice atmospheric piece, which is unfortunately not indicative of what is to come.

While there are a couple of pieces which are a little more adventurous, the bulk of the album has not moved on from the sound of Stand Up, and the quality has probably dropped a notch. There are, however, two other standout pieces on this album. "Inside" is a fine piece of light rock, with a strong flute presence, a fastish tempo, and some of Anderson's least sarcastic lyrics. Martin Barre plays a subtle but effective rhythm line, and Geln Cornick has a nice walking bass line. "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me" is a touching song about being left behind on the big trip. Michael Collins was the astronaut on the Apollo XI mission who didn't get to walk on the moon, and Jeffrey was a schoolfriend of Anderson's who wasn't in Jethro Tull. The mood is wistful but with a somewhat upbeat chorus.

The addition of John Evan on keyboards was responsible for a filling out of the Jethro Tull sound. It also gave them more scope to create different moods within their standard setup, though they did not take full advantage of his services for this album. This is an interesting album in the development of Jethro Tull, and has some very good moments. The best, however, was yet to come.

2-18-03