Jethro Tull is one of the great bands that seem to get a lot of extra love these days. Several of their great albums, including Thick As A Brick, and Aqualung, have already received a much-loved gloss and sheen by Steven Wilson. Of course, the band has a nice, large discography. But we also know that Steven Wilson has a short attention spans in regards to favorites in any band’s catalog. That’s true of ELP, where he chose to do only Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Tarkus, leaving the others up for others to deal with.
Fortunately, Steven Wilson is still enamored of Jethro Tull titles. There’s War Child, Tull’s 1974 release. That album contained their big hit, “Bungle In the Jungle”. Interestingly, while more fans relished the singles played over AM Top40s stations, there was never a widespread interest in Jethro Tull albums, Aqualung notwithstanding. Despite “Bungle In the Jungle”, War Child sold around half a million copies. Still, Gold sales aren’t to be sneered at (unless you’re a consistent Platinum-selling artist).
This year, in October, no less, is the 40th Anniversary of War Child. That gets celebrated with a makeover with Steven Wilson providing a new remix of the classic album in both stereo and 5.1 Surround. But, as is usually the case with these grand Anniversary reissues, there is more to the package than just a remix.
The 40th Anniversary Edition of Warchild will contain three previously unreleased bonus tracks, also mixed in Stereo and 5.1 Surround. Originally, the album was to followed by a film, and its accompanying soundtrack. Unfortunately, that project was shelved. With this new Edition, the film, and its soundtrack, will be made available in the new 2CD/2DVD Box. Of the film’s 10-track soundtrack, four of them will be remixed in Stereo and 5.1 Surround by Steven Wilson (the rest will be original quality).
The set will also present flat transfers of the original LP mix at 96k/24-bit, as well as the original Quadrophonic mix (with two bonus tracks) of the album. To help make this Box set REALLy special, there will be included an 80-page book with an article explaining the creation and production of Warchild, a film script synopsis, track-by-track analysis by Ian Anderson, and plenty of photographs, many of them rare and previously unseen.
In addition to the 2CD/2DVD Box, there will also be a single CD reissue of the album featuring the new Wilson Stereo remix.
The new 40th Anniversary Box version of Warchild will be released on November 24 via Rhino Records and Parlophone. A limited Edition vinyl LP will follow on January 13, 2015.
Calendar!
How about songs from the wood my favorite tull album
Not my favorite Tull album, but close! And I agree with you. Let’s just hope that Steven likes it too.