Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Jethro Tull
Label: EMI Records
Release: 1987
Rating: 3.5/5
“Crest Of A Knave” is both the story of the biggest joke in Jethro Tull history and the story of the resurrection of a band that was already clinically half-dead. After the dismal “Under Wraps” (1984), an electronic synth experiment, and a tour that left frontman Ian Anderson nearly voiceless, they rose from the ashes like the mythical phoenix. It’s also a peculiar tale of the idiocy of the modern music industry, which, despite its general cluelessness and corruption, finally made one right call, one that still stirs up tempers in the annals of popular music. Who could forget the famous and downright bold decision by the jury at the 1987 Grammys to name “Crest of A Knave” the best heavy metal album of the year, while the big favorites Metallica were left to swallow their pride? Since Jethro Tull never dreamed of such a half-sci-fi scenario and were unreachable at the time, Alice Cooper accepted the award on their behalf and barely got out alive from the enraged metalheads, who were already threatening to bring the hall down in a fit of fury. And so a band that had never gotten the recognition it deserved from music critics finally received an award that was really a stand-in for a lifetime achievement prize. The clownish Ian Anderson still cracks jokes about the whole episode now and then, an episode that got people thoroughly interested in the legendary band again and fueled their artistic rebirth. Of course, apart from a few hard rock guitar moves, Jethro Tull never played heavy metal, and “Crest Of A Knave” is no exception: musically it’s a return to their roots and an important turn for the better.
On “Crest Of A Knave”, Tull went back to their traditional hard/folk rock elements and successfully fitted them to the production and technology of the day. Guitarist Martin Barre got a lot more room for his distorted flights again, and the keyboards are more or less symbolic, played by Ian himself. Another hugely important change was the arrival of a real drummer, the American Doane Perry, who is still in the band today and carried on their tradition of superb drummers. Gerry Conway (now with Fairport Convention), who had been a member of the band in the past, helped out on some tracks, but here he’s just a session player. Funnily enough, both Gerry and bassist Dave Pegg are reunited today as members of Fairport Convetnion. Although some tracks still feature programmed drums, they’re recorded far better this time than before. Ian’s voice, one of the unique, long-standing trademarks of their sound, got off the worst; it lost its former suppleness and a good chunk of its charisma. The band made smart use of the fact that his voice had become strangely similar in color to Mark Knopfler’s (Dire Straits), and most of the songs have that barroom vibe usually associated with that hugely popular band and its frontman.
Opening energy-charger “Steel Monkey”, a pretty basic hard rocker, could jokingly be described as the product of a meeting between ZZ Top (rhythm section) and Dire Straits (vocals and guitar). Ian’s wound-up, programmed drum machine carries Martin’s hard rock riffs, which keep this otherwise average song from ever losing its intensity. You can hear right away how Ian’s voice has changed and leans toward Mark Knopfler in color. If the jury only heard this one, it’s no wonder they came away thinking of Tull as a hard rock/metal band. “Farm On A Freeway” is far more ambitious, a nearly classic Tull creation in which, after a long time, we can finally hear real drums again, played by the excellent Doane Perry, and for the first time on the album Ian’s flute too, which he rather “neglected” on the previous record. A mellow pub rock opening flows through a great transition on guitar and flute into an emotional middle section, where we get to witness superb interplay between Martin’s riffing and Ian’s flute antics, all of it laid over a complex rhythm. Definitely one of the album’s better moments. The romantic “Jump Start” sails successfully between folk and hard rock thanks to its barroom vibe. Again we get great embellishments on Ian’s acoustic guitar that move into more energetic instrumental passages, with duels between flute and guitar. The excellent Pegg/Conway rhythm section keeps pace with Martin’s hard rock solo excursions the whole way.
“She Said She Was A Dancer” is a very atypical romantic Cold War ballad for the band, and the resemblance to Dire Straits hits its peak here. The main “culprit” is once again Ian’s “wrecked” voice, which fits perfectly into the midnight atmosphere of some Eastern European dive. A totally basic rhythm, bluesy guitar and Ian’s minimalist keyboards add up to a sacred simplicity that will please every romantic soul. Even though it’s such a radically atypical Tull creation, in my eyes that’s exactly its main charm, and I think they shouldn’t be the least bit ashamed of it, since it’s one of their most beautiful romantic ballads, of which, to be honest, there aren’t exactly plenty. A playful flute leads us into “Dogs In The Midwinter”, another solid folky hard rocker, where only the programmed drums bother me a bit; otherwise it’s a joy to hear a freshly inspired band that managed to adapt its traditional elements to new challenges. Ian’s flute carries the central melody nicely, while Martin hasn’t had this much room for his artistry in ages. The best piece and the only classic on the album, one they still play live regularly today, is without a doubt the emotional Cold War suite “Budapest”, a veritable prog rock epic, a complex, layered song full of all kinds of emotion, with which Tull proved they were still capable of making timeless work. A superb opening arrangement on acoustic guitar and Ian’s “Knopfler” vocals start weaving the drama, which is ramped up by Martin’s razor-sharp guitar slices that create a special kind of magic in combination with the flute. The instrumental middle section also brings a string of very tasty acoustic bits that sit perfectly with the mighty rhythm and a delicate violin part from Ric Sanders (Fairport Convention). Ian’s flute solo is one of the best he made in the 80s, while personally I’m most blown away by that delicious Celtic keyboard passage right before the calm section, when the drama settles down a little. Here Martin shows off his command of the acoustic guitar too. Toward the end the main motif returns and builds into the finale through excellent passages on electric guitar. This is without a doubt the piece that finally put Tull back among the “living” and showed that there was really no need to fear for their fate anymore.
“Mountain Men” is an energetic, melodic folk/hard rocker with a pinch of ethno, where Ian’s keyboards play a considerable role. It would definitely be pretty boring if not for the sharpened passages on electric guitar and an interesting, totally unexpected instrumental twist, followed by a very lovely, melodic harmony between vocals, guitar, flute and massive rhythm that easily grabs the listener and holds on until the end. “The Walking Edge” has a slight ethno flavor at first too, mainly thanks to the instrumental intro on keyboards and acoustic guitar, until it turns into a solid folk rock semi-ballad, where the instrumental sections impress most, with Pegg’s bass nicely drilling through the guitar passages and the calm, even sleepy mood. Closing track “Raising Steam” could be described as the less ambitious twin of “Steel Monkey”, where they once again sound like some popular hard rock band of the time. Martin’s guitar hasn’t sounded this menacing in ages, and Ian finally managed to program the drums so they don’t annoy. Even though, like “Steel Monkey”, it’s a pretty solid hard rocker, I’m slightly bothered by its more than obvious commercial charge and the lack of that real Tull spirit. Still, there’s a very pleasant surprise in “Part Of The Machine”, the bonus track from the reissue, which in my opinion is one of their best songs that never made it onto an album. Great folk/hard rock, free of any commercial pushiness, with an excellent Celtic motif on flute and acoustic guitar and voluptuous passages on electric guitar. Celtic folk and hard rock motifs trade places one after another, and had it made the album, it might even have been its most dynamic piece. A real shame they left it off.
“Crest Of A Knave” is no big step forward in the musical development of a band that left its golden years behind at the end of the 70s, but it’s a very important album regardless, since it pulled them out of the mud of electronics and put them back on the prog rock map. Musically I certainly can’t place it among the Tull classics, but I can fairly count it among the key albums in their history, the ones that brought them their biggest commercial success and are still among their most beloved today. This almost unbelievable rebirth was never going to go unnoticed, and besides winning back the fans who had already written them off, the band managed to catch the attention of a new generation of listeners, even if they needed the publicity that controversial Grammy brought them, a Grammy that should really have been handed out for lifetime achievement and for their contributions to musical innovation and their enormous influence on the development of new musical directions. From that standpoint, “Crest Of A Knave” fully earned its trophy for best heavy metal album of the year. And the metalheads dressed in mourning black burst into tears at these words.
Lineup
Ian Anderson – vocals, flute, acoustic guitar, keyboards, programmed drums, percussion
Martin Barre – electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Dave Pegg – electric bass guitar, acoustic bass guitar
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Doane Perry – drums on 2 and 7
Gerry Conway – drums on 3, 4, 6 and 8
Ric Sanders – violin on 6 and 8
Production
Ian Anderson
Tracklist
1. Steel Monkey (3:40)
2. Farm On The Freeway (6:31)
3. Jump Start (4:55)
4. Said She Was A Dancer (3:43)
5. Dogs In The Midwinter (4:38)
6. Budapest (10:05)
7. Mountain Men (6:20)
8. The Waking Edge (4:50)
9. Raising Steam (4:06)
Album length: 48:48
Bonus track on the 2005 reissue:
10. Part Of The Machine (6:53)
