Song 121 (Jethro Tull--"Cold Wind To Valhalla")

 

It is another Sunday in my Jethro Tull eras from beginning to end and it took me a bit to decide which song from the 4th era of Tull I should pick. I really did not want to pick something off of the A Passion Play album because it would be a bit too abstract for today; maybe I will pick one in the future. The Warchild album has a few on it that would be good, but I finally decided on Cold Wind To Valhalla off of the Minstrel in the Gallery album. These three albums make up what is for me the 4th era of Tull (from 1973-75), it is considered their big leap into Folk/Progressive Rock or Elizabethian Folk/Rock. My previous picks from the first three eras can be found at: Songs 100, 107, and 114 in my blog. A Passion Play is probably one of my top three Tull albums of all time. It is a Rock/Opera concept album that deals with a concepts concerning life after death that is very abstract; it was recorded in just 17 days. The music and Ian's lyrics are extremely complex and are metaphorically and sometimes almost impossible to comprehend even after ten or more times of play. Because of this and the subject matter this album was hit hard by critics and caused the band to stop touring for a short while and a self-imposed cut off from the press, which caused the band's popularity to ebb. However, it did reach #1 on the charts. This is an excellent album and I would highly recommend it to anyone with an open mind or someone wanting something different and new. Warchild is very similar to A Passion Play subject matter wise, however, it has distinguishable individual songs and is a little more lighthearted at times. I highly recommend this album as well. Minstrel In The Gallery is a different, darker album, on side one there the songs have nothing really to do with each other. On side two, however, there is a concept piece of music called Baker Street Muse. This song, Cold Wind To Valhalla is very complex and interesting, it contains one of the more complex and intricate acoustic guitar lines. Many 'Tull fans have actually requested it to be added to their live playlist for many years. In an interview that I heard, Ian said that the song required radical tuning to the guitar and would have to be completely relearned because of its complexity. This song has it all from Jethro Tull: it starts out acoustically and goes heavy and everything in between. In this time period it is my opinion that Ian's lyrical ability was at one of his peaks; it shows in this song. Here is the studio version on YouTube. Here is an excellent "how to play the song" video on YouTube. +