The Beacons Bottom Tapes

by Greg PratoThe 1993 Jethro Tull release, 25th Anniversary Box Set, was spread over four separate discs, with the third disc being titled ?The Beacons Bottom Tapes,' and featuring then-recent live renditions of Tull classics. Most of the original versions of these tracks managed to be vibrant, positively electric, and quirky. The renditions here are pretty darn flat, and like most of the latter-day Tull releases, are expertly played, but are so clean/perfect sounding that it's almost like an easy listening version of their early hard rocking classics. Seizing the opportunity to rework these tracks, some of them sound almost like completely new songs when compared to the originals -- "My God," "Aqualung," "A New Day Yesterday," etc. -- but again, do no match the charm of the original versions. One of the few times that this latter-day Tull manages to truly recapture their original rock n' roll flame is on the early ditty "My Sunday Feeling," but it's just too few and far between. Only diehards will need to hear these lackluster re-workings of once mighty rock classics.