Song 156 (Jethro Tull--"Later, That Same Evening")

I have picking a song from each of the Jethro Tull eras on Sundays from beginning to end, the other eras are on songs: 100, 107, 114, 121, 128, 135, 142, and 149 in this blog.

For my 9th era of 'Tull in my opinion there is again one album: Under Wraps; it is probably their most hated album among fans, to put it bluntly. Very electronic and new wave in a way, the sound is quite different from almost every other album they released; I think that it was because it was an experimental album of sorts. While Under Wraps is different and became alienated by most 'Tull fans, it still has its charm; it is quite similar to the material written by many artists of the time period. Interestingly enough, on this album Ian actually gave up some of the creative process to Peter-John Vettese and Martin Barre.
As a side note, Ian Anderson's first solo album, Walking Into The Light was released the same year and is quite similar to this album in many aspects; it is almost a twin to it.
The only band member change from the previous era was Doane Perry (their current drummer) on drums, however, on the album they used a drum machine a lot, so he was not really featured there. Even though the album is not their best, there are a few tracks of note: "Lap of Luxury," "Under Wraps," "European Legacy," "Later, That Same Evening," and "Saboteur." After this album Ian's voice started to give out a bit because of how difficult the songs from this album were to sing, 17 years of touring without vocal training, and the electronics used exacerbated the problem; he never really sounded the same after this album.

A lot of the material for this album was based off of spy novels read by Ian while he was on the road, this song is probably the one on the album that epitomizes this. There is a lot I like about this song in particular, especially the bluesy feel to it. The verses are probably the strong point to the song itself because of how they blend the music and the narrative so well.

Here is the studio version on YouTube.
Here is a live performance from '84 on YouTube with the song Under Wraps as well, Later, That Same Evening starts at the 4:50 mark.

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