Flying Colours: The Jethro Tull Reference Manual

Rating:
Summary: The Title Says It All
Review: Flying Colours: The Jethro Tull Reference Manual is certainly welcome as there is an unfortunate dearth of books on Tull. In fact there were none in English all the way up until last year when we got the so-so and hard-to-get "Minstrels In The Gallery" (David Rees) and the repudedly excellent, but even harder to find, "Driving in Diverse." (Barbara Espinoza) Although I have not personally read the latter book, from what I know of it, it would provide the perfect complement to this book, as the focus of "Diverse" is on the Tull fans and the "essence" of Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull.

As for Flying Colours, what this book is "about" is being an extensive, almost exhaustively precise, accounting of all the albums, musicians, tours, and recordings of the group. The book is excellent as both a reference manual, and as an overview of the band. The author offers a general history of the band, as well as some background into what went into each album. As a matter of fact, you can almost say that the albums actually drive the book, as the author "plays off" the albums in describing what Jethro Tull is doing at the time of the recording, distribution, or marketing of each album. Russo extensively covers each album and tour as well as the biography of each band member who has ever played in Tull. If you want information on an album, on a Tull member, on a particular tour, or even a general subject pertaining to Tull's history - just look it up, it's in here. It is easy to reference and the author is nothing if not comprehensive.

With that said, the book has a notable flaw. How big the flaw is depends on what about Jethro Tull you are interested in. The flaw is that the author does not delve very far at all into the personality, demeanor, viewpoints, or essence of the bandleader, Ian Anderson. If you are expecting deep revelations about Ian, you will be disapointed - the tone of the passages about Ian are almost always that of a distant, and even slightly reverential, author. There is a notable lack of interviews overall. There is only basic insight into the songwriting, and much less insight into the essence of, and driving forces behind, the band members. One example to illustrate - is when Dave Pegg left the band in 1995. The author simply explains that this was mainly because "Pegg was disenchanted with the material on Roots to Branches" (the 1995 album with a rootsy Middle Eastern influence.) However, there is absolutely no explanation as to why Pegg, who is a folkster from Fairport Convention, was perfectly content to play on and contribute to such electronic/keyboard dominated albums as "A" or "The Broadsword and the Beast", which would seem to be far more removed from Pegg's interests than "Roots To Branches".

If you are a die-hard Jethro Tull fan, this is a must-have. I am, and so I devoured every single piece of this book. If you are more of a casual fan though, you should consider the strenghths and weaknesses of the book. If you are interested in general overviews, histories, albums, tours, and obscure B-sides, you should have this book. If you are hoping for Ian Anderson interviews, or deep revelations into the personality and psyche of the frontman and the significant band members, then you should skip this book, or try to hunt down a copy of "Driving in Diverse"

Rating:
Summary: The Title Says It All
Review: Flying Colours: The Jethro Tull Reference Manual is certainly welcome as there is an unfortunate dearth of books on Tull. In fact there were none in English all the way up until last year when we got the so-so and hard-to-get "Minstrels In The Gallery" (David Rees) and the repudedly excellent, but even harder to find, "Driving in Diverse." (Barbara Espinoza) Although I have not personally read the latter book, from what I know of it, it would provide the perfect complement to this book, as the focus of "Diverse" is on the Tull fans and the "essence" of Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull.

As for Flying Colours, what this book is "about" is being an extensive, almost exhaustively precise, accounting of all the albums, musicians, tours, and recordings of the group. The book is excellent as both a reference manual, and as an overview of the band. The author offers a general history of the band, as well as some background into what went into each album. As a matter of fact, you can almost say that the albums actually drive the book, as the author "plays off" the albums in describing what Jethro Tull is doing at the time of the recording, distribution, or marketing of each album. Russo extensively covers each album and tour as well as the biography of each band member who has ever played in Tull. If you want information on an album, on a Tull member, on a particular tour, or even a general subject pertaining to Tull's history - just look it up, it's in here. It is easy to reference and the author is nothing if not comprehensive.

With that said, the book has a notable flaw. How big the flaw is depends on what about Jethro Tull you are interested in. The flaw is that the author does not delve very far at all into the personality, demeanor, viewpoints, or essence of the bandleader, Ian Anderson. If you are expecting deep revelations about Ian, you will be disapointed - the tone of the passages about Ian are almost always that of a distant, and even slightly reverential, author. There is a notable lack of interviews overall. There is only basic insight into the songwriting, and much less insight into the essence of, and driving forces behind, the band members. One example to illustrate - is when Dave Pegg left the band in 1995. The author simply explains that this was mainly because "Pegg was disenchanted with the material on Roots to Branches" (the 1995 album with a rootsy Middle Eastern influence.) However, there is absolutely no explanation as to why Pegg, who is a folkster from Fairport Convention, was perfectly content to play on and contribute to such electronic/keyboard dominated albums as "A" or "The Broadsword and the Beast", which would seem to be far more removed from Pegg's interests than "Roots To Branches".

If you are a die-hard Jethro Tull fan, this is a must-have. I am, and so I devoured every single piece of this book. If you are more of a casual fan though, you should consider the strenghths and weaknesses of the book. If you are interested in general overviews, histories, albums, tours, and obscure B-sides, you should have this book. If you are hoping for Ian Anderson interviews, or deep revelations into the personality and psyche of the frontman and the significant band members, then you should skip this book, or try to hunt down a copy of "Driving in Diverse"

Rating:
Summary: Flying Colours is THE book to get about Tull
Review: Gregg Russo's book is thorough, concise, and very well researched. This book IS a reference manual. It contains a complete and well organized, easy to read and refernece discography, as well as info on videos, promo,radio and TV appearances and the most complete tour date listing ever (1965-Dec. 1999).Mr. Russo details all the band members' histories pre and post-Tull. He includes much peripheral information that I found most interesting. Flying Colours is incredibly thorough. I've been an avid follower and collector of Tull since 1973 and found the book most interesting and informative.The bulk of the book is a history with particular attention paid to official releases. My only complaint would be that not enough space was devoted to the band's live performances - since to me, live performaces is where Tull really shines. It appears as though the information about older live performances comes mainly from listening to the most well-known bootlegs and peoples' memories, rather than listening to the myriad tapes of shows circulating among traders. This is my only, and VERY small complaint about the book.I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone interested in the career of one of rock music's most original, and consistently interesting bands.

Rating:
Summary: Flying Colours is THE book to get about Tull
Review: Gregg Russo's book is thorough, concise, and very well researched. This book IS a reference manual. It contains a complete and well organized, easy to read and refernece discography, as well as info on videos, promo,radio and TV appearances and the most complete tour date listing ever (1965-Dec. 1999).Mr. Russo details all the band members' histories pre and post-Tull. He includes much peripheral information that I found most interesting. Flying Colours is incredibly thorough. I've been an avid follower and collector of Tull since 1973 and found the book most interesting and informative.The bulk of the book is a history with particular attention paid to official releases. My only complaint would be that not enough space was devoted to the band's live performances - since to me, live performaces is where Tull really shines. It appears as though the information about older live performances comes mainly from listening to the most well-known bootlegs and peoples' memories, rather than listening to the myriad tapes of shows circulating among traders. This is my only, and VERY small complaint about the book.I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone interested in the career of one of rock music's most original, and consistently interesting bands.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Good
Review: I was surprised that a writer that first wrote books about Manfred Mann, the Yardbirds, Frank Zappa and the Zombies would give Tull such a fair and in depth treatment. I thought this book was better that David Rees "Minstrels in the Gallery" book.
There are a lot of photos, some I've never seen before, which is saying a lot from this long time fan of the band. Unfortunately all the photos on the inside are in black and white.
There is more detail here about other members of the band (particularly John Glascock and David Palmer) than anyplace else. The orientation is toward the entire band, not just a focus on Ian Anderson. That doesn't mean it is short on information about Ian. It delivers there too.
There is a reference section in the back that is packed with more detailed information about releases, appearances etc. than you could possibly want. If the answer to a question about the history of the band can't be found here, I doubt it will be found anywhere else.

Rating:
Summary: A Must For Tull Fans
Review: Quite an enjoyable book that I always keep close by. I was very impressed with the range. Gig list, discography, and excellent 'behind the scenes' commentary regarding each album. The lack of color photos is a bummer, but that is my only complaint. I wish someone would put a book like this together on Genesis.

Rating:
Summary: A Must For Tull Fans
Review: Quite an enjoyable book that I always keep close by. I was very impressed with the range. Gig list, discography, and excellent 'behind the scenes' commentary regarding each album. The lack of color photos is a bummer, but that is my only complaint. I wish someone would put a book like this together on Genesis.

Rating:
Summary: This is the REAL Tull book - forget the others
Review: The author has compiled excellent information from the band and their record companies to produce the best reference guide on Jethro Tull. I'm not sure why people do not like real information that contradicts the common Tull misinformation, but the author has succeeded in taking the chance of presenting this data in a straightforward style. It's not a literary masterpiece, but this information cannot be presented any other way. After all, where else can you find out exactly when the band recorded or toured in the early days - especially since the dates and other information came from bassist Glenn Cornick's diaries? When such accurate sources like this are used in the book, you can't get any better. While one can nitpick here about accuracy without citing any examples, this is the only book that confirms concert dates by newspaper ads and reviews as well as going direct to the source. Great job.

Rating:
Summary: The Secret Language Of Nerds
Review: This book is accurately titled - as a reference manual it works well, it is absolutely overflowing with facts and figures. As a biography, its quite poor. If you're the type who needs to know that the Spanish edition of the single Witches Promise has the s missing from the title, then this is your book. But you should really get out more.

The biographical section has some interesting facts and photos of the "pre" Jethro Tull years, but the writing is stilted and frankly sounds like has been translated from another language and while the author has an encyclopedic knowledge of Tull's record releases and concert dates, he doesn't show any real understanding of the music - disco beats in Heavy Horses? I dont think so!

There are also a couple of errors - eg: the term War Child is derived from Roy Harpers song "Little Lady" on Lifemask not McGoohans Blues on Folkjokeopus.

Neither this book, or "Minstrals in the Gallery" show any insight into Andersons music, or shed any light on the guys modus operandi. Mr Russo has obviously put a lot of work into this book and if you know nothing about the band, a quick read wont do any harm, but my advice is that until Anderson comes up with an autobiography, stick to the albums.

Rating:
Summary: The Secret Language Of Nerds
Review: This book is accurately titled - as a reference manual it works well, it is absolutely overflowing with facts and figures. As a biography, its quite poor. If you're the type who needs to know that the Spanish edition of the single Witches Promise has the s missing from the title, then this is your book. But you should really get out more.

The biographical section has some interesting facts and photos of the "pre" Jethro Tull years, but the writing is stilted and frankly sounds like has been translated from another language and while the author has an encyclopedic knowledge of Tull's record releases and concert dates, he doesn't show any real understanding of the music - disco beats in Heavy Horses? I dont think so!

There are also a couple of errors - eg: the term War Child is derived from Roy Harpers song "Little Lady" on Lifemask not McGoohans Blues on Folkjokeopus.

Neither this book, or "Minstrals in the Gallery" show any insight into Andersons music, or shed any light on the guys modus operandi. Mr Russo has obviously put a lot of work into this book and if you know nothing about the band, a quick read wont do any harm, but my advice is that until Anderson comes up with an autobiography, stick to the albums.