Heavy Horses

Heavy Horses was the first album recorded by Jethro Tull at the newly constructed Maison Rouge studio in Fulham, London, a custom built recording studio which was funded and owned by Ian Anderson.^[4] Much of the album was recorded at night, as Anderson felt that daytime hours at the studio needed to be left open for potential business clients. Keyboardist Dee Palmer recalled her diary entries at the time of recording as saying that "I'd start at 7pm and go home at 7am!"^[4] Heavy Horses was the first album on which Anderson began to experience vocal issues, the beginning of an affliction which would become more serious in the 1980s and later develop into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Anderson's vocals sound more nasal and gruff on some of the album's tracks as a result, particularly on the title track.^[4]

As with the band's previous album Songs from the Wood, other members of the band beyond just Anderson were involved in writing music for the album, with guitarist Martin Barre writing portions of the title track and "No Lullaby" and Palmer writing string arrangements for most of the album as well as the instrumental bridge of "...And the Mouse Police Never Sleeps".^[4] Darryl Way of Curved Air guests on the album, playing violin on the title track and "Acres Wild".

Several songs were recorded but then abandoned or otherwise cut from the album during the recording sessions, including the B-side "Beltane", a completely finished song titled "Everything in Our Lives" and an early acoustic version of "Jack-a-Lynn", a song which would later be re-recorded during sessions for the band's 1982 album The Broadsword and the Beast. Many of the unreleased songs recorded during the album's sessions were later released on the 20 Years of Jethro Tull anniversary compilation in 1988 and the 40th anniversary "New Shoes" edition of the album in 2018. Upon remixing of the album for the 40th anniversary edition, it was discovered that the original masters of "Moths" and "Rover" were slightly sharp, likely as a result of a faulty tape machine. The remixed versions of the tracks included on the re-release of the album were slightly pitched down to correct this.^[4]

While continuing the folk rock style of Songs From the Wood, Heavy Horses sees a tonal shift into more earthly and realist themes of country living, compared with the fantasy and mythology of the previous album. Anderson was again inspired by daily life at his recently purchased country estate in Buckinghamshire, saying that "I was living in the same house in the same place, and getting a bit more involved in farming and other rural stuff... so the horse-hoeing husbandry of the original Jethro Tull era was in the back of my mind."^[4] Several of the album's songs were directly inspired by Anderson's personal life at the estate: "...And the Mouse Police Never Sleeps" was partially inspired by his cat Mistletoe, "No Lullaby" was written as an "anti-lullaby" for his son and "Rover" was partially inspired by his dog Lupus. Other songs on the album such as "Weathercock" and the title track paint a cold and practical picture of country living, with the latter track described by Anderson as "a lament for the passing as working animals of those magnificent beasts, the heavy farm horses."^[4] Other track's lyrics were inspired by literature, such as "One Brown Mouse" inspired by the Robert Burns poem "To a Mouse" and "Moths" inspired by the John le Carré novel The Naïve and Sentimental Lover.^[4]

Anderson stated that the recording of the album came at a time when other artists were moving towards the new trends in music, and the band decided they did not want "to appear as if we were trying to slip into the post-punk coattails that were worn by The Stranglers or The Police."^[3]

Rolling Stone's contemporary review was positive, calling the instrumental arrangements lavish and stating that Heavy Horses and the folk genre, as a follow-up to Songs from the Wood, suited Jethro Tull perfectly.^[8] The Globe and Mail thought that the band was coasting, but praised "Anderson's enigmatic writing style and his one-of-a-kind voice".^[9]

AllMusic calls Heavy Horses one of the prettiest records of the band, praising both Martin Barre's and John Glascock's playing as Robin Black engineering and the special participation of Curved Air violinist Darryl Way.^[5]

1978 original release

2003 bonus tracks

On 2 March 2018 Jethro Tull released a five-disc ‘bookset’ version of Heavy Horses with a 96-page booklet that includes a track-by-track annotation of the album and its associated recordings by Ian Anderson. It is similar to the band's other 40th Anniversary reissues, with the first disc containing another Steven Wilson stereo remix followed by ‘associated recordings’ including seven previously unreleased tracks. The second and third discs contain 22 previously unreleased live tracks, recorded at the Festhalle in Berne Switzerland during the European leg of their 1978 Heavy Horses Tour, from 28 May 1978, remixed to stereo by Jakko Jakszyk. The set also includes DVDs.

Jethro Tull

• Ian Anderson – lead vocals, flute, acoustic guitar, additional electric guitar, mandolin
• Martin Barre – electric guitar
• John Evan – piano, organ
• Barriemore Barlow – drums, percussion
• John Glascock – backing vocals, bass guitar
• Dee Palmer – keyboards, portative pipe organ, orchestral arrangements

Additional personnel

• Darryl Way – violin (on "Acres Wild" and "Heavy Horses")
• Shona Anderson – photography
• Robin Black – sound engineer
• James Cotier – photography

• Jethro Tull - Heavy Horses (1978) album releases & credits at Discogs.com