Song 177 (Jethro Tull--"Rare And Precious Chain")

I have been picking a song from each Jethro Tull era on Sundays from their first to their current. For me, this is the 12th era, which consists of two 'Tull albums and two Ian Anderson solo albums; from about '94 to about '02. The previous eras can be found in this blog on songs: 100, 107, 114, 121, 128, 135, 142, 149, 156, 163, and 170.

This era was best known for the eastern and middle-eastern influences in the music; it's a very creative, artistic era. The album Roots to Branches was a very different album than I had ever heard before from 'Tull and took quite a while for me to warm up to it. It seemed a bit too cynical and dark at times, but it has good messages in the songs and sees a lot of play in my rotation to this day. J-Tull Dot Com was not as different from previous albums when compared to Roots to Branches, so it was a little less difficult for me to get used to. It has a lot of harder songs in it and is a bit more uplifting than Root to Branches in my opinion.
One aspect of these albums that I found odd was the large amount of love songs; it must have been part of the era. There were two Ian Anderson solo albums released during this time as well, The Divinities: Twelve Dances with God, and The Secret Language of Birds. Both these albums are okay, however the only one of these that gets play in my machine is Twelve Dances with God, which consists of modern classical music with themes from each of the world's major religions. Funny enough a video game that I played a lot, "Alundra," which came out two years later, had a level called "A Dance With Nirude," who was a minor deity of sorts in the game; I have always wondered if there was a connection.
Secret Language of Birds only sees very little play from me and I consider it to be his weakest solo album; it is somewhat similar to "J-Tull Dot Com" musically. The "stand outs" for me on Roots to Branches are: Roots to Branches, Rare and Precious Chain, Valley, At Last, Forever, and Stuck in the August Rain. On J-Tull Dot Com the standouts for me are: Spiral, Dot-Com, Wicked Windows, Hunt By Numbers, Bends Like A Willow, and Gift of Roses.
The band lineup only changed a bit in that during the recording of Roots to Branches when David Pegg left to go back to his band Fairport Convention full time. On the album, he was replaced by session bassist Steve Bailey of "Bass Extremes" on the other tracks. After this album Jonathan Noyce was made the permanent bassist.

Here is the studio version on YouTube.
Here is a live performance on YouTube.

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