Jethro Tull at Radio City Music Hall

Jethro Tull at Radio City – 49 Years Ago Today (!)

On this day, 49 years ago (!), I saw Jethro Tull at Radio City Music Hall. Hard to believe it’s been that long. I was 16 years old, three months shy of my 17th birthday.

Back in high school, my two favorite bands were Jethro Tull and The Kinks. This tour was in support of Songs from the Wood, which had just come out — a return to form for Tull, in my opinion. They’d released War Child in ’74 (which I liked) and Minstrel in the Gallery the next year (also solid), but Too Old to Rock ’n’ Roll, Too Young to Die didn’t quite hit me the same way. I tried to convince myself it was a good album, but back then, I really didn't connect with it. Songs from the Wood, though — that one brought me back into the fold.

Tull’s music has aged remarkably well. I still listen to Stand Up, Benefit, Aqualung, Thick as a Brick (my all-time favorite), and A Passion Play pretty regularly, and they sound as fresh now as they did back then — maybe even better. (I've given Too Old to Rock n Roll several more tries, but still, it doesn't resonate.)

I don’t remember every detail from that night (it was 49 years ago, after all), but I do remember that our seats were pretty good and that Ian Anderson tossed huge inflated balls into the crowd — a perfectly eccentric touch for a perfectly eccentric band.

I recently found the setlist online, and it was a terrific one — a mix that traced their history pretty nicely up to that point.

Wond'ring Aloud

Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day

Jack-in-the-Green

Thick as a Brick

Songs From the Wood

Conundrum (tour instrumental; features a drum solo)

To Cry You a Song

A New Day Yesterday (with flute solo, incl. Bouree, Living in the Past)

Velvet Green

Hunting Girl

Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll, Too Young to Die

Minstrel in the Gallery

Cross-Eyed Mary

Aqualung

Guitar Solo

Wind-Up

Back-Door Angels

Locomotive Breath

Back-Door Angels (reprise)

Looking back, that show feels like one of those moments when you don’t realize how special it is until decades later.