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Jethro Tull: Benefit

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Chrysalis Records
Released: 1970.04.17
Time:
 42:51
Category: Progressive Rock
Producer(s): Ian Anderson
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.j-tull.com
Appears with: Ian Anderson, Martin Barre
Purchase date: 1994.08.24
Price in €: 14,99





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] With You There To Help Me (I.Anderson) - 6:17
[2] Nothing To Say (I.Anderson) - 5:12
[3] Inside (I.Anderson) - 3:49
[4] Son (I.Anderson) - 2:50
[5] For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me (I.Anderson) - 3:49
[6] To Cry You A Song (I.Anderson) - 6:12
[7] A Time For Everything? (I.Anderson) - 2:43
[8] Teacher (I.Anderson) - 3:59
[9] Play In Time (I.Anderson) - 3:48
[10] Sossity; You're A Woman (I.Anderson) - 4:30

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


IAN ANDERSON - Lead Vocals, Flute
MARTIN BARRE - Electric Guitar
GLENN CORNICK - Bass Guitar
CLIVE BUNKER - Drums

JOHN EVAN - Piano, Organ

TERRY ELLIS - Executive Producer, Cover Design
ROBIN BLACK - Engineer
RUAN O'LOCHLAINN - Cover Design, Cover Photos

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1970 LP Chrysalis 6400
1973 LP Reprise 6400
1990 CS Capitol 21043
1990 CD Capitol 21043
1995 CD Chrysalis F2-21043
1995 CS Chrysalis F4-21043
1996 CD Alliance 21043
1991 CS Alliance 21043



Released April ’70. Group leader Ian Anderson was experimenting with production techniques on this album.
His writing also touched on a number of themes that would be expanded upon for the ‘Aqualung’ album.
Mostly recorded in Dec.’69 and Jan’70, ‘Benefit’ was the band’s first album to feature keyboards – played by the band’s old school chum John Evans.
Evans completed the third Tull line-up when he joined Anderson, Barre, Bunker and Cornick. John Evans joined on a temporary basis for an eight month tour, and stayed for over 10 years!
During the ‘Benefit’ tour, Tull headlined some of the biggest concert halls in the US. The musicians diverse personalities and harsh schedules weren’t meshing. After the tour finished in Dec.’70, Glen Cornick left to start his own band.
‘Benefit became Tull’s first million-seller, reaching No.3 in the UK and No.11 in the US.

J-Tull.com



The popularity of Jethro Tull continues to amaze me, They draw good crowds, they get lengthy interviews and writeups in the rock press. They turn people on. I've got to think that Ian Anderson must be an extremely nice, cooperative, charismatic, or some such kind of cat, because I find his records pretty lame and dumb.
The new album, Benefit, is a sluggish bore—a kind of Anthology of Rock Muzak, performed dispiritedly and mechanically. Especially rhythm—each track creaks stiffly, but given the barren, derivative material Anderson has come up with, the wooden delivery is understandable. His idea of a song is to get some inexpressibly commonplace snippet of melody, repeat it, affix an inane riff or two, and let the boys pound it out—with some occasional and usually ill-advised chirping flute for "texture." To top it all, I find his singing (this time around) close to vile. But it's the cold, noisy, insensitive execution of the music (however vapid in and of itself) that provides the true and irremediable pall.
So who needs it? Lots of people, it seems. Has it come to pass that the rock audience is so jaded that a minute or two of flaccid "jazz" and some penurious gestures towards the "exotic" can effectively disguise blatant mediocrity?

JACK SHADOIAN - RS 64
© Copyright 2001 RollingStone.com



Benefit was the album on which the Tull sound solidified around folk music, abandoning blues as a major source. Beginning with the opening number, "With You There to Help Me," Anderson adopt his now-familiar the slightly mournful folk singer/sage persona--his acoustic guitar carried the melody, joined by Martin Barre's electric instrument for the crescendos. This would be the model for much of the material on Aqualung and, especially, Thick as a Brick, although the acoustic/electric pairing would be executed more effectively on those albums. Most of the songs here display pleasant, delectably folk-like melodies, with Barre's guitar adding enough wattage to keep the rock listeners interested. "To Cry You a Song," "Son" and "For Michael Collins, Jeffrey and Me" all defined Tull's future sound: Barre's amp cranked up to 10 (especially on "Son"), coming in above Anderson's acoustic strumming, a few unexpected changes in tempo, and Anderson spouting lyrics filled with dense, seemingly profound imagery and statements. As on Stand Up, the group was still officially a quartet, with future member John Evan appearing as a guest on keyboards.

Bruce Eder - All Music Guide



Das 70er Jethro Tull-Album Benefit geht in der Discographie der Briten zwischen dem revolutionären Stand Up und dem Meilenstein Aqualung ein wenig unter, muß sich bei näherer Betrachtung aber in keiner Weise hinter diesen beiden Scheiben verstecken. Im direkten Vergleich mit Stand Up fällt sofort die deutlich bessere, klarere Produktion auf, und der Gesang hat endlich den Stellenwert, der Andersons phantastischer, immer ein wenig spröder Stimme angemessen ist. Dazu kommen noch exzellente Kompositionen wie "With You There To Help Me", "To Cry You A Song" und "Sossity: You´re A Woman", die sehr geschickt abgefahrene Songkonstruktionen mit eingängigen Melodien verbinden und eine bei fast jedem Track durchschimmernde, wunderbare Leichtigkeit, die Jethro Tull später nur sehr selten wieder erreichten. Die Songs haben nichts Bombastisches oder Verquastes an sich, sondern präsentieren sich ausgesprochen schlüssig und homogen. Wer den Artrock der frühen 70er mal von seiner ganz luftigen Seite erleben will, sollte sich dieses Album in die heimische Sammlung stellen. Und Tull-Fans müssen Benefit -- genau wie alle anderen Outputs bis zur 82er Scheibe Broadsword And The Beast -- ohnehin besitzen.

Michael Rensen - Amazon.de
 

 L y r i c s


With You There To Help Me

In days of peace -
sweet smelling summer nights
of wine and song;
dusty pavements burning feet.
Why am I crying, I want to know.
How can I smile and make it right?
For sixty days and eighty nights
and not give in and lose the fight.
I'm going back to the ones that I know,
with whom I can be what I want to be.
Just one week for the feeling to go --
and with you there to help me
then it probably will.

I won't go down
acting the same old play.
Give sixty days for just one night.
Don't think I'd make it: but then I might.

I'm going back to the ones that I know,
with whom I can be what I want to be.
Just one week for the feeling to go --
and with you there to help me
then it probably will.


Nothing To Say

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.
Every morning pressure forming
all around my eyes.
Ceilings crash, the walls collapse,
broken by the lies
that your misfortune brought upon us
and I won't disguise them.
So don't ask me will I explain
I won't even begin to tell you why.
No, just because I have a name
well I've got nothing to say.
Nothing to say.

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.


Teacher

Well the dawn was coming,
heard him ringing on my bell.
He said, ``My name's the teacher,
that is what I call myself.
And I have a lesson
that I must impart to you.
It's an old expression
but I must insist it's true.
Jump up, look around,
find yourself some fun,
no sense in sitting there hating everyone.
No man's an island and his castle isn't home,
the nest is for nothing when the bird has flown.''

So I took a journey,
threw my world into the sea.
With me went the teacher
who found fun instead of me.

Hey man, what's the plan, what was that you said?
Sun-tanned, drink in hand, lying there in bed.
I try to socialize but I can't seem to find
what I was looking for, got something on my mind.

Then the teacher told me
it had been a lot of fun.
Thanked me for his ticket
and all that I had done.

Hey man, what's the plan, what was that you said?
Sun-tanned, drink in hand, lying there in bed.
I try to socialize but I can't seem to find
what I was looking for, got something on my mind.


Son

Oh, I feel sympathy. Be grateful my son for what you get.
Expression and passion. Ten days for watching the sunset;
when I was your age amusement we made for ourselves.
``Permission to breathe sir,'' don't talk like that, I'm your old man.
They'll soon be demobbed son, so join up as soon as you can.
You can't borrow that
`cos that's for the races and doesn't grow on trees.
I only feel what touches me
and feel in touching I can see
a better state 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.

It's advice and it's nice to know when you're best advised.
You've only turned thirty, so son, you'd better apologize.
And when you grow up, if you're good
we will buy you a bike.


For Michael Collins, Jeffrey And Me

Watery eyes of the last sighing seconds,
blue reflections mute and dim
beckon tearful child of wonder
to repentance of the sin.
And the blind and lusty lovers
of the great eternal lie
go on believing nothing
since something has to die.
And the ape's curiosity --
money power wins,
and the yellow soft mountains move under him.
I'm with you L.E.M.
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.

And the limp face hungry viewers
fight to fasten with their eyes
like the man hung from the trapeze --
whose fall will satisfy.
And congratulate each other
on their rare and wondrous deed
That their begrudged money bought
to sow the monkey's seed.
And the yellow soft mountains
they grow very still
witness as intrusion the humanoid thrill.


To Cry You A Song

Flying so high, trying to remember
how many cigarettes did I bring along?
When I get down I'll jump in a taxi cab
driving through London town
to cry you a song.
It's been a long time --
still shaking my wings.
Well, I'm a glad bird
I got changes to ring.

Closing my dream inside its paper-bag.
Thought I saw angels
but I could have been wrong.
Search in my case,
can't find what they're looking for.
Waving me through
to cry you a song.

It's been a long time --
still shaking my wings.
Well I'm a glad bird
I got changes to ring.

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.


A Time For Everything?

Once it seemed there would always be
a time for everything.
Ages passed I knew at last
my life had never been.
I'd been missing what time could bring.
Fifty years and I'm filled with tears and joys
I never cried.
Burn the wagon and chain the mule.
The past is all denied.
There's no time for everything.
No time for everything.


Inside

All the places I've been make it hard to begin
to enjoy life again on the inside,
but I mean to.
Take a walk around the block
and be glad that I've got me some time
to be in from the outside,
and inside with you.
I'm sitting on the corner feeling glad.
Got no money coming in but I can't be sad.
That was the best cup of coffee I ever had.
And I won't worry about a thing
because we've got it made,
here on the inside, outside so far away.

And we'll laugh and we'll sing
get someone to bring our friends here
for tea in the evening --
Old Jeffrey makes three.
Take a walk in the park,
does the wind in the dark
sound like music to you?
Well I'm thinking it does to me.

Can you cook, can you sew --
well, I don't want to know.
That is not what you need on the inside,
to make the time go.

Counting lambs, counting sheep
we will fall into sleep
and we awake to a new day of living
and loving you so.


Play In Time

Got to take in what I can.
There is no time to do what must be done,
While I do some thinking.
Sleeping is hard to come by,
So we'll all sit down and try to play in time,
and we feel like singing.
Talking to people in my way.
Blues were my favorite colour,
til I looked around and found another song
that I felt like singing.
Trying so hard to reach you;
playing what must be played, what must be sung --
and it's what I'm singing.
Talking to people in my way.


Sossity: You're A Woman

Hello you straight-laced lady,
dressed in white but your shoes aren't clean.
Painted them up with polish
in the hope we can't see where you've been.
The smiling face that you've worn
to greet me rising at morning --
sent me out to work for my score.
Please me and say what it's for.
Give me the straight-laced promise
and not the pathetic lie.
Tie me down with your ribbons
and sulk when I ask you why.
Your Sunday paper voice cries
demanding truths I deny.
The bitter-sweet kiss you pretended
is offered, our affair mended.
Sossity: You're a woman.
Society: You're a woman.

All of the tears you're wasting
are for yourself and not for me.
It's sad to know you're aging
Sadder still to admit I'm free.
Your immature physical toy has grown,
too young to enjoy at last your straight-laced agreement:
woman, you were too old for me.
Sossity: You're a woman.
Society: You're a woman.

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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