Jethro Tull questions...

Well all of you have beaten me to it.. same comments on Stand Up, Benefit, and the RRK flute comment by Viridian.
I have 'em all on vinyl so I couldn't tell you what to buy on CD..

Crest of the Knave , man I am telling you Crest of the Knave!

I have nearly every album on either vinyl, cd or both, can't even remember the sonics since I haven't listened to them in so long. Happy to see this posted, have to include them in this weekend's listening sessions. Its all good, although the earlier the better for me. The critics nearly always hated them, used to call them Jethro Dull. It may have been Ian Anderson pissing off the press, he reportedly had a condescending attitude towards them.

Also saw them live back in 73, just after Passion Play was released, great concert. Ian Anderson was a madman on stage, a menacing presence. I remember pre-concert, this huge projection screen with the dancer from the cover of the Passion Play album. The lights in the house up, talking to friends, whatever, look up at the screen and you swear the dancer moved. You then watch the screen and the dancer moves just the slightest perceptable bit, over a period of fifteen, twenty minutes each movement slowly picks up in pace until just prior to them coming out on stage the dancer is moving in real time. Probably doesn't sound all that impressive, but having smoked a lot of that sweet stuff made it strangely surreal.

Something of interest:
I saw Tull live in a small auditorium in Frankfurt, Germany. This was like Feb or March 1970. The audience was about 70% US soldiers (me being one) and 30% German. Tull was fantastic and the Americans were clapping, yelling carrying on and smoking Mary Jane. The Germans displayed only polite applause.

Viridian is right.
I was lucky to have seen Tull when Stand Up was released- they opened for Blind Faith. D. and Bonnie on the same bill (which became Derek and The Dominoes.
Of course, the real treat was seeing Rhassan Roland Kirk on a beautiful sunny day on the U f O campus in Eugene. I though UFOs brought him and his band down to me.
Then (now I'm really bragging) about 20 years later I met Ken Kesey and mentioned the Hoo-Hah Festival which featured Rhassan, and, was put together by Kesey. He told me I was the only person he had ever met who was there!!!