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Crest of a Knave
Studio album by Jethro Tull
Released	September 11, 1987
Recorded	Early 1987
Genre	Hard rock; Progressive rock
Length	48:50
Label	Chrysalis
Producer	Jethro Tull
Professional reviews
	Allmusic link; George Starostin (overall rating: 6/15) link;
Jethro Tull chronology

Crest of a Knave is a studio album by British rock band Jethro Tull. It was released in 1987.

The album relied more heavily on Martin Barre's electric guitar than the band had since the 1970s which made the album the more popular among Tull fans as many of them disapproved of the electronic/synthesizer direction followed by Jethro Tull in the early and mid-1980s. However, several tracks still featured drum machine instead of a live drummer. Keyboardist Peter-John Vettese was now absent and it was Ian Anderson who contributed the synth programming. The album sleeve only listed Ian Anderson, Martin Barre and Dave Pegg as official band members.

The album was a critical and commercial success. Jethro Tull went on to win the 1989 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental. It was highly controversial as many did not consider the album or even the band to be hard rock or heavy metal. Furthermore, they beat heavily favoured Metallica (…And Justice for All) and critics' choice Jane's Addiction (Nothing's Shocking). Under advisement from their manager, no one from the band turned up to the award ceremony, as they were told that they had no chance of winning. In response to the controversy, the band's record label Chrysalis took out an advert in a British music periodical with the line, "The flute is a (heavy) metal instrument!" In 2007, the win was named one of the 10 biggest upsets in Grammy history by Entertainment Weekly.^[1]

The style of Crest has been compared to that of Dire Straits, in part because Anderson no longer had the vocal range he once possessed (the result of then-recent throat surgery). Tull's frank treatment of sexuality was unabated, however. The album contains the popular live song "Budapest", which depicts a backstage scene with a shy local female stagehand.^{[original research?]}

[edit] Track listing

All tracks by Ian Anderson

"Steel Monkey" - 3:39
"Farm On The Freeway" - 6:31
"Jump Start" - 4:55
"Said She Was A Dancer" - 3:43
"Dogs In The Midwinter" - 4:29
"Budapest" - 10:05
"Mountain Men" - 6:20
"The Waking Edge" - 4:49
"Raising Steam" - 4:05

The original vinyl edition didn't feature songs "Dogs In The Midwinter" and "The Waking Edge". Otherwise the song order was the same.

[edit] Bonus track

The 2005 remastered CD added a bonus track and extensive liner notes:

"Part of the Machine" - 6:54

[edit] Personnel

Ian Anderson - vocals, flute, acoustic and electric guitars, percussion, keyboards, drum programming on tracks 1, 5, 9
Martin Barre - electric and acoustic guitars
Dave Pegg - bass guitar, acoustic bass on track 4
Doane Perry - drums on tracks 2, 7
Gerry Conway - drums on tracks 3, 4, 6, 8

Guest Musician:

Ric Sanders - violin on track 6

[edit] References

^ ""Grammy's 10 Biggest Upsets"" (http). EW.com. 2007. http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,1567466_20010834_20010795_0,00.html. Retrieved February 13, 2007.

[edit] External links

[0] ""Grammy's 10 Biggest Upsets"" (http). EW.com. 2007. http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,1567466_20010834_20010795_0,00.html. Retrieved February 13, 2007.

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Contents

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Bonus track

[edit] Personnel

[edit] References

[edit] External links