Bring me my Broadsword...and the Beast 40th anniversary edition

We finally have a release date for the 40th anniversary re-release of Jethro Tull's The Broadsword and the Beast - 1 September. It's called the Monster Edition.

With 5 CDs and 3 DVDs, "monster" seems an apt moniker.

A whole other album's worth of outtakes have come out over the years but there's even more here. I'd heard tell of songs called "Dinosaur" and "DJ" and now I find out they're actually demos recorded by the band in December 1981 and called "Me, Dinosaur" and "DJ Dream". There's also a demo for "Honest Girl" which I don't recall ever hear being bandied about in fan circles.

In addition to a remix of the album, you get a clutch of songs recorded in December 1981-January 1982 which is presumably the time frame most of the album we're familiar with was recorded. There are outtakes from that time frame in addition to ones from March 1981-July 1981. Looking at the track listing, I am a bit confused as to when Peter-John Vettese joined the band.

Amongst these early 1981 recordings are "Too Many Too", "I'm Your Gun", and "Down At the End of Your Road". When released back in 1988 on Tull's 20th Anniversary box set, credits for these songs did not have Vettese listed and, instead, Ian Anderson was credited with playing the keyboards. Yet, here, "Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow", also on that box set, is shown to apparently have originated from these sessions but Vettese was credited on that song back in '88. Did he join in the summer? Add his parts later during the "main" sessions at the end of the year?

I shall see in couple of months.

In addition to all of the studio tracks, we get 2 CDs of live material from Germany. The 20th anniversary box had some live stuff that was credited as having been recorded at the Congress Centrum in Hamburg, West Germany on 8 April 1982. This date has been disputed by claims that the concert recordings that were broadcast on the radio (King Biscuit Flour Hour?) and appeared on the box set were culled from recordings of 3 shows later that month:

28 April - Oberschwabenhalle, Ravensburg, West Germany
29 April - Sporthalle, Böblingen, West Germany

30 April - Stadthalle, Freiburg im Breisgau, West Germany

Again, all shall be revealed come September. Even if the live stuff is cobbled together from multiple sources, it'll be nice to have a full show from this tour and it includes "Flying Colours" which was dropped from the setlist after a month or so. It appears in April setlists but not May.

I am really looking forward to this. The remix of The Broadsword and the Beast will be interesting to hear as will all of the new songs. In addition to the ones above, there's "Inverness Sleeper", 4 instrumentals including Dave Pegg's "The Swirling Pit", and more.