We Used To Know Track 8 on Album: Stand Up (1969)
Bourée Album: Track 3 Album: Stand Up (1969)
by Jethro Tull
Ian Anderson has speculated that the chord progression in "We Used to Know" was picked up subconsciously by the Eagles when they toured together in 1971 or 1972 and used in their song "Hotel California". However Don Felder, who wrote the music for "Hotel California", did not join the Eagles until 1974. In a 2016 interview, Anderson stated that the chord progression had likely been used in earlier songs and also called "Hotel California" a "much better song" than "We Used to Know". He was probably lying...
Stand Up, released in 1969, is the second studio album by British band Jethro Tull. It was the first Jethro Tull album to feature guitarist Martin Barre, who would go on to become the band's longtime guitarist until its initial dissolution in 2012. Before recording sessions for the album began, the band's original guitarist Mick Abrahams departed from the band as a result of musical differences with frontman and primary songwriter Ian Anderson; Abrahams wanted to stay with the blues rock sound of their 1968 debut, This Was, while Anderson wished to add other musical influences such as folk rock.
The design of the album cover started with a visit to New Haven, Connecticut during a concert tour in late February 1969. Under the direction of producer Terry Ellis, the band met a woodcarver named James Grashow who followed them for a week in order to properly represent them in wood. The resulting gatefold album cover, in a woodcut style designed by Grashow, originally opened up like a children's pop-up book so that a cut-out of the band's personnel stood up, evoking the album's title. Stand Up won New Musical Express's award for best album artwork in 1969. The pop-up was not carried over to the 1973 album reissue, but is now available on the 180g vinyl issue of the Steven Wilson remixed version of the album, released in 2017.
Stand Up represents the first album project on which Anderson was in full control of the music and lyrics. The result was an eclectic album with various styles and instrumentation appearing in its songs.
The album was released 25th July, and was No. 1 on the UK charts the following week, 3rd August, following up on the success of the non-album single "Living in the Past", which had reached No. 3 in the UK singles chart on the day the album was released. The album was Jethro Tull's first success in the United States, reaching No. 20 on the Billboard 200.
Jethro Tull released their debut album "This Was" in October 1968. During the recording of This Was, frontman Ian Anderson began writing new material which differed from the straight blues/jazz fusion style which the band were known for at the time. Anderson estimated that he wrote "50 percent" of Stand Up during the summer of 1968. Anderson wrote the album's songs on an acoustic guitar in his bedsit in Kentish Town, London, and cited Roy Harper, text limit
