I can remember interviewing Justin Hayward in early 2006, just after my dad died and me and old Justin started reflecting back on things like Mike Pinder and the ‘60s and when I asked Justin what his favorite music is, he said something to the effect that it was the music he grew up with. Somehow that concept of things pretty much sums up my feelings both about the early Moody Blues and early Jethro Tull albums and high on the list of early rock classics from the ‘60s remains Tull's 1969 Stand Up album. I can even remember back that crisp autumn day I bought the Lp, I was walking home with my proud copies of Stand Up and Songs For A Tailor by Jack Bruce. It would be one of those nights—forget about “homework” if you catch my drift. Back when I interviewed Ian Anderson in 2008—part of which was a cover story for the now deceased 20th century guitar mag—me and Ian got to talking about mono versus stereo. Not contrary to the excellent 2008 mono CD reissue of This Was Jethro Tull, in my opinion, by 1969, the major players in U.K. rock (Anderson included) had worked out the kinks in the (now) currently raging mono raining supreme over stereo in the '60s debate—with to my mind mono ruling just a year before in 1968. To bring out that point on the 3 disc 2010 remaster of Stand Up, give a listen to both stereo version of and a rarely heard mono version of (what in retrospect became) the single from Stand Up, Anderson's orchestral classic “Living In The Past”, recorded while Tull was on tour in 1969 in New Jersey and San Francisco. Looking back on 1968 becoming 1969, “Living In The Past” was clearly one of the first rock songs to really maximize the full stereo effect. With Stand Up, Tull founder Ian Anderson became, historically, one of the key English songwriting geniuses who, in 1969 was able to adapt to and as such, maximize that newly emerging world of stereo in the rock world. So to sum up students, mono was the ‘60s and (by 1969), stereo was the ‘70s! Pure and simple. The excellent business skills of Chrysalis Records founder Terry Ellis gave Anderson an incredible amount of artistic freedom on what many say is the first real Tull album—the band that started post-Bloodwyn Pig guitarist Mick Abrahams. Anyway, on the evergreen Stand Up, Anderson’s band of newcomers, including soon to be guitar god, Martin Barre, and the groundbreaking rock rhythm section of Glen Cornick and Clive Bunker is the quartet that, in my opinion, truly defined who Tull was and became at their best. Okay, throw in John Evan on grand piano and I’ll be happy! Anyway this 2010 triple Tull threat features the entire Stand Up album, newly remastered, along with eleven bonus cuts on CD 1 while disc 2 and 3 features Tull’s historic, never fully released 1970 Live At Carnegie Hall show—which is here in its entirety on disc 2 (on CD) and again in DVD audio on disc 3, which, also features a quite in depth, 2010 DVD video interview of Ian Anderson. Heck, EMI did a great remake / remodel and they even reproduced that little Tull art design pop up "Stand Up" image of the band, thirty years before the internet made the term pop-up famous! www.JethroTull.com

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