01	Thick As A Brick (part 1)						22:40
	02	Thick As A Brick (part 2)						21:10
	03	Thick As A Brick (Live At Madison Square Garden, 1978)			Recorded live at Madison Square Garden, New York, 1978			11:50
	04	Interview			Interview with Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, Martin Barre & Jeffrey Hammond.			16:30

Remaster
Date of US Release June 30, 1998
Recorded 1972
1 Bonus Track Recorded live 1978

Jethro Tull's first LP-length epic is a masterpiece in the annals of progressive rock, and one of the few works of its kind that still holds up 25 years later. Mixing hard rock and English folk music with classical influences, set to stream-of-consciousness lyrics so dense with the imagery that one might spend weeks pondering their meaning assuming one feels the need to do so the group created a dazzling tour-de-force, at once playful, profound, and challenging, without overwhelming the listener. The original LP was the best sounding, best engineered record Tull had ever released, easily capturing the shifting dynamics between the soft all-acoustic passages and the electric rock crescendos surrounding them. The sound on the original Columbia Records CD (not identified as such, but recognizable by a "VK" prefix in its catalog number) was harsh and thin, and left a lot to be desired in terms of richness the Mobile Fidelity audiophile disc (out-of-print) solved those problems, and the current Chrysalis disc is an improvement as well. [Thick as a Brick is also available in an import release.]


~ Thick As A Brick ~


An introduction to "Thick As A Brick"

With 'Thick As A Brick' Jethro Tull in 1972 released their first true concept album. It consists of a whole of several varying pieces of music, linked to each other with practically no intervals. Some of the musical themes are repeated in a different setting. Different musical approaches are combined: folk, rock, jazz and classical elements.

The lyrics consist of one long poem, written by fictitious child prodigy Gerald Bostock, who shares his socalled views on society with us. When looking more closely at the lyrics eleven differents 'acts' or parts can be distinguished, or, as Paul Tarvydas has put it "a series of vignettes which swirl about a central theme". It is the music itself that connects these acts. (On 'A Passion Play' it's just the other way around: on this album the story is the connecting factor, not the music!). The main themes are an elaboration and further exploration of the themes in 'Aqualung', as we will see below. The central theme of the album however is: a description of how society stifles individuality and pigeon-holes people to suit its own needs.

In spite of the fact that the lyrics were heavily criticized by the press, the album made the band very popular in Europe and America and is even by 'adversaries' considered as 'a classic case'.



"I've come down from the upperclass to mend your rotten ways"
Picture taken during the US leg of the Thick As A Brick tour in 1972, probably during the concert at the LA Forum, June 23 or 24.
(Original source unknown; digitally remastered by Steve Gugerty)



Annotations

On the album Ian's creativity is abundantly present. It is almost possible to 'see' him at work in his associative way of imaging ideas, that subsequently call up new images and how this all finally materializes in his poetic language. Interpreting the album therefore is hazardous. Just analyzing it by a cognitive approach will only bring up a very limited interpretation. To understand it better one will have to make use of a more associative/imaginative way of reading and thinking. Reading the lyrics than really becomes challenging and great fun. Like Paul Tarvydas I do not claim to know it all - far from it. But we both hope that our views on these beautiful lyrics - that btw do not contain any factual information - will eventually lead to a new or heightened sense of meaning. Have fun reading and bear in mind the advise of the jester: "Think for yourselves!".
* Jan Voorbij

The expression 'Thick as a Brick' means not very smart, dumb or in some cases apathetic, numb. Here are Ian's own words on the subject, from a US radio show: Ian Anderson, 23/12/91: 'In The Studio - Thick As A Brick': "'Thick as brick'; it really is a slang phrase from the north of England, where I spent my (well, some of my) growing-up years. To describe someone as being 'as thick as a brick' meant to describe them as being stupid, basically. You know, to be 'thick', as in 'thick-headed'; thick as a 'brick' being a small, dense object. So I was really talking about people being intellectually incapable of absorbing whatever it might have been put across in those slightly spoofish, bombastic terms in the lyrics of the album."
* Neil R. Thomason, Scc Vol. 10, Iss. 2, January 1999.



Part 1

is an introductory to the album and describes the nucleus of the problem. Ian poses himself like some kind of court jester and starts his criticizing right off with an insult, intended for a wider audience - for all of society's leaders, elders and parents.

Really don't mind if you sit this one out.
My words but a whisper your deafness a SHOUT.
I may make you feel but I can't make you think.
Your sperm's in the gutter your love's in the sink.
So you ride yourselves over the fields and
you make all your animal deals and
your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.

Right off the bat, Ian dismisses the whole bunch of them, presuming that they won't listen to what he's got to say. But also the masses that are so 'comfortably numb'. His voice, having an air of self-righteousness is just one, pitted against many. He says:'You (modern western society) are driven by lust and greed. The only way I can make an impression on you is to appeal to your basic senses. Your morals have sunk to the lowest point possible and your ability to think and to love has disappeared. You move through life without stopping to think, no better than mere animals. (The animal deals might refer to his feelings regarding American society- JV.) Those "wise men" you worship aren't so wise and all-knowing. Just to prove it, here's a question which they can't possibly answer - what does it feel like to be stupid? I.e. don't let others do the thinking for you. You are yourself responsible for that.'

And the sand-castle virtues are all swept away
in the tidal destruction the moral melee.
The elastic retreat rings the close of play
as the last wave uncovers the newfangled way.
But your new shoes are worn at the heels
and your suntan does rapidly peel
and your wise men don't know how it feels
to be thick as a brick.

In this metaphor Ian describes society's fickle virtues and morals by likening them to sand-castles. They easily crumble whenever a new fad (wave) hits. As each wave recedes in elastic-band fashion, nothing of the old fad is left in its wake (the close of the play) and a completely new moral fad is rebuilt. An irony is revealed to the listener - we, the listeners, know that waves repeat and knock down every sandcastle which is built. The subjects of this song - the elders, the unthinking public - just don't see this irony. Note the usual craftsmanship in Ian's choice of words: the word "elastic" describes the motion of the waves, yet at the same time alludes to the malleable (plastic/elastic) nature of fickle morals and religious beliefs. We also observe the first sighting of the concept of "The Play", a theme which Ian develops in later on 'A Passion Play', 'War Child' and 'Minstrel In The Gallery'. Whatever is shiny and new (i.e. a new moral/religious fad) quickly becomes dull and worn, just like a suntan which looks good on you, but only for a short while. The new shoes refer to new yet fickle ideas and beliefs people are apt to base their life on. Then, at the closing of this act, a warning: don't let your wise men do the thinking for you, they can't know everything. Think for yourself. Be independent in your analysis of the world, your religious beliefs and morals.



Part 2

Ian criticizes the quality of what modern western society imparts to its young, the one-sidedness of education that aims only at implanting morals, behaviour and capabilities that are needed to keep the society's system going.

And the love that I feel is so far away:
I'm a bad dream that I just had today
and you shake your head and
say it's a shame.

The perspective changes in this act: the subject here is a youngster, who has succumbed to integration into society. They've managed to brain-wash him. He used to feel " love", but he's rid himself of any sense of conscience. The sense of loss of his own individual identity troubles him and he complains about it, but those around him say "that's too bad, but don't worry about it". In spite of these reassurances he decides to dig down in his past to see how he has managed to lose his conscience. This self-examination makes clear it happened when he was still a child: he was not allowed to look at reality and to form his own opinions of it, nor was he encouraged to develop his own personal qualities. (The atmosphere of the music supports this search and reliving his past wonderfully.):

Spin me back down the years and the days of my youth.
Draw the lace and black curtains and shut out the whole truth.
Spin me down the long ages: let them sing the song.

The youngster has spotted himself, right at the beginning of his own life. He is following his own life-line to see where he became brain-washed. Right from the beginning, society imprints him as being a "man", a son who will stand up in life's competition:

See there! A son is born and we pronounce him fit to fight.
There are black-heads on his shoulders, and he pees himself in the night.
We'll make a man of him, put him to trade
teach him to play Monopoly and to sing in the rain.

He hasn't even made it through puberty yet: he still pees himself like a child, but he is getting zits like a teenager. This verse contains a summing-up of what society wants him to be: he must become a "man", he must be put to useful work, he must learn to play at Business (Monopoly) and he must love all of the things which define the current culture (Monopoly, the game, Hollywood-films ("Singing in the Rain"?), etc) and - on top of that - feel happy with it! It becomes clear to this youngster that he thus is corrupted, urged as he was to trade his own individuality for adjustment to society.



Part 3

We now enter the most complex part of the album, lyrically speaking. Here, the same subject is discussed, but from a different angle. What has our youngster actually done to assert his independence? Did he ever try? Let's see...

The Poet and the Painter casting shadows on the water
as the sun plays on the infantry returning from the sea.
The do-er and the thinker: no allowance for the other
as the failing light illuminates the mercenary's creed.

Once again Ian uses the image of water (sea/waves) as a symbol of new fads, fickle trends in society and its culture. Imagine: it is sunset at the "beach", the latest moral sandcastle has just been swept away and a new one is about to arrive. The Poet and the Painter - the embodiment of thinking, caring people - are there contemplating, ready to comment and keep people alert by means of their arts. However their influence on the masses is very limited, as we see the infantry, the mercenary's creed return, gloriously illuminated by the setting sun. It seems their sandcastle-morals once swept away are 'en vogue' again as they 'are returning from the sea'. Society seems not to be able to make allowance for both, do-er's and thinkers. In the end, only one wins out, and as the sun sets and the dark night approaches (!), we see that the victor is the Mercenary (the do'er) - the Mercenary's, not the Thinker's, the Artist's creed is illuminated for all to see and to follow.

The home fire burning: the kettle almost boiling
but the master of the house is far away.
The horses stamping , their warm breath clouding
in the sharp and frosty morning of the day.

Life goes on. The Master, father, who should be at home tending matters - doing the thinking and teaching - has gone off somewhere, now when he is needed so badly. Likely, he's gone off to war, taking his responsibilities like an upstanding citizen. Metaphorically, the youngster is reaching the stage of being able to think for himself - the home fire is burning: the child's mind is almost ready (boiling with ideas and plans for the future). He feels his growing mental power and wants to put it to effect. The vacuum that stems from the abscence of his father urges him to undertake action. Like a stamping horse that wants to go at work he is impatient, eager to start fulfilling plans and realizing ideas and 'moves with authority'. He lacks the mental support of an experienced person like his father. Yet, the father, the one who should be teaching the child to stand on his own, who should be stirring the pot and making sure that it cooks evenly, is effectively missing. If not physically, then he's mentally missing. The father has been feeding dogma to the child in his early youth but now the nature of his questions on life have changed, it becomes clear to him that his father never challenged him to think for himself.

And the poet lifts his pen while the soldier sheaths his sword.
And the youngest of the family is moving with authority.
Building castles by the sea, he dares the tardy tide to wash them all aside.

The youngster becomes aware of the fact that he can basically choose from two role-models: living his life like a poet or like a soldier (as his father does). Which one will he choose? He is trying out and thinking through a number of moral/religious issues, thus developing his own identity. Being young, he still thinks that he can beat the system by setting his own standards ('building castles') and repeatedly challenges the tide (of society) to break down his strong will.

The cattle quietly grazing at the grass down by the river
where the swelling mountain water moves onward to the sea:
the builder of the castles renews the age-old purpose
and contemplates the milking girl whose offer is his need.

While life goes on our youngster becomes a full-grown man (succumbs to lust from time to time) and since the castles he built were all swept away, he tackles his uncertainty by chosing to be a man like the soldier: identifying with society (renewing the age-old purpose), becoming part of the system, banning the poet out....

The young men of the household have all gone into service
and are not to be expected for a year.
The innocent young master - thoughts moving ever faster -
has formed the plan to change the man he seems.

He could - as we saw before - not turn to his absent father for support, nor to his peers, as the newest recruits to Society have all been shipped off to do Society's bidding. These are the choices which the child has. Use the pen and the mind or use the sword and brawn.

And the poet sheaths his pen while the soldier lifts his sword.

A dramatic moment in the story: the choice is made. Due to isolation and uncertainty he sees no other way-out than choosing for the sword and the brawn. The poet in him is dismissed, the soldier in him is the victorious one. And now that he finally made up his mind he is determinded to maintain the position he acquired while his father was absent. His hands are firmed by his choice so strongly, that when his father returns he battles him with his own arms: sword and brawn and chases him away.

And the oldest of the family is moving with authority.
Coming from across the sea, he challenges the son who puts him to the run.

So, at the closing of this part we see our youngster leaving the battle as a winner. But it is a Pyrrhic victory. He succeeded in maintaining his position, is fully aware of his power and abilities, but had to make choices that alienated him from his own individual identity and creative, caring capabilities.

I finally want to make a comment on the imagery Ian uses in this part of the poem that escaped other reviewers' notice thusfar. Apart from the metaphores he uses there is another layer, or maybe two: firstly, the images concerning the infantry, secondly: the rural setting of the story.

"...as the sun plays on the infantry returning from the sea....."
"...as the failing light illuminates the mercenary's creed....."
"...but the master of the house is far away...."
"...Coming from across the sea ......"

What we see here is that Ian appeals to what I would like to call a historical notion, very familiar to the people of Great Britain: warfare abroad and the turmoil that is the result of it. For over a thousand years young able men were drafted for all kinds of military expeditions ("...The young men of the household have all gone into service and are not to be expected for a year...."), e.g. the Crusades, the war(s) with France (1350-1450), the naval expeditions in the Elizabethan era, the colonization of large parts of the world, esp. in the 18th and 19th century, the First and Second World War, the post-colonial wars etc. This often led to social ("...but the master of the house is far away....") and severe economical problems, one of them being the re-integration in society of " ...the infantry returning from the sea....." (Ian will apply this image once more in 'Queen And Country' on the 'Warchild' album). In the context of the albums to follow it is interesting to notice that this whole part of the poem is placed in a rural setting. Especcially on 'Songs From The Wood' and 'Heavy Horses' we see that rural life is depicted as simple but harmonious, happy in a modest way.



Part 4

In the line of the Renaissance playwrights, Ian inserts an intermezzo in which he asks the listener c.q. spectator to take a stand and develop his own point of view. It seems as if Ian asks us: now that you have heard the story so far, what would you have done?

What do you do when
the old man's gone - do you want to be him?
And your real self sings the song.
Do you want to free him?
No one to help you get up steam
and the whirlpool turns you `way off-beam.

When it's your turn to take responsibility, do you fall back on tradition and repeat the mistakes of the past? Do you try to think for yourself? Or, do you rely on others to help you think? If so, you'll become brainwashed with the rest of the masses (the whirlpool which sucks you down to the lowest moral level) and you'll fall off of the beam. The balance beam - life is a balancing act, if you let greed and lust get the better of you, you'll lose that balance. (Click for continuation).

* Jan Voorbij

Part 5

In this part of the story the lyrics do not make a lot of sense, that is to say: no single coherent storyline is kept. But Ian keeps focus on the main point of the piece. First comes in a verse in which we hear how our youngster finally has arrived:

LATER.
I've come down from the upper class to mend your rotten ways.
My father was a man-of-power whom everyone obeyed.
So come on all you criminals! I've got to put you straight
just like I did with my old man twenty years too late.
Your bread and water's going cold.
Your hair is too short and neat.
I'll judge you all and make damn sure that no-one judges me.

He conducts himself in the same repressive way as his father did towards him. His father is an upper-class citizen (likely a Businessman from the Rat Race) who has learned everything about how Society should be from his father. I.e. society's ills feed and grow on themselves. History repeats itself. The youngster's creed is: 'Bread and water is good for you. Don't ask for anything else. Don't think outside the box'.

Than something strange happens. Ian seems to drop his guard of the pretense of telling a story. His personal opinions, sarcasm and satire break through in the next verses.

You curl your toes in fun as you smile at everyone,
you meet the stares, you're unaware that your doings aren't done.
And you laugh most ruthlessly as you tell us what not to be.
But how are we supposed to see where we should run?

Here he satirizes the selfcontentness of the elders of society, that have stopped accomplishing things with their lives and who in the same time do not stop flaming the youth for their ideals, without showing them an alternative for their own lifestyle to live by or supporting them to do so.

I see you shuffle in the courtroom with
your rings upon your fingers
and your downy little sidies
and your silver-buckle shoes.
Playing at the hard case,
you follow the example of the comic-paper idol
who lets you bend the rules.

Satire. This is the personification of the societal rituals, which Ian denounces - organized religion, over-bearing Law, silliness in parliament, etc. A Dickens-like character springs to mind: a fat, pompous, rich wigged judge waddling into a Victorian courtroom and proceeding to enact a series of redundant ritual motions, in an almost comical fashion....

In the next verse the jester is back and adresses us listeners directly, like he did in part 1 and 4:

So!
Come on ye childhood heroes!
Won't you rise up from the pages of your comic-books
your super crooks
and show us all the way.
Well! Make your will and testament.
Won't you? Join your local government.
We'll have Superman for president
let Robin save the day.

Sarcasm. He asks us: if the whole thing (society, culture, independent thinking) is getting to complicated for you, why don't you just let your 2-dimensional comic book super heroes lead you through life? Keep it simple and do not worry about it. (If you don't think for yourself, then that just might happen - you'll let politicians/clergy with hollow promises make your decisions for you.)

You put your bet on number one and it comes up every time.
The other kids have all backed down and they put you first in line.
And so you finally ask yourself just how big you are
and take your place in a wiser world of bigger motor cars.
And you wonder who to call on.
So! Where the hell was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday?
And where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you though?
They're all resting down in Cornwall
writing up their memoirs for a paper-back edition
of the Boy Scout Manual.

A new reference to our allegorical youngster who has risen to the top of the heap. What is he going to do now? The temptation of abusing power is there (the wiser - sarcastically - world of bigger motor cars). Now, after all these years of self-assurance, he finds that for the first time, he is not sure what to do. It's now time to think for himself. What helped him during difficult times as a child, the identification with comic-book heroes, does not work for him now. He must find new answers to new question and find them by thinking for himself. What the jester asks us here is: so, now that it's your turn to think , what are you going to do? Are you going to fall into the rut, or are you going to think outside of the box? Are you going to accept responsibility for your actions or are you going to pass the buck?

(Note: the is more information on Biggles available on the website of The International Biggles Association.)



Part 6

Our youngster finally is born into adulthood. He had intended to rebel against society, but thank God, they managed to keep him from that. And more important: he succumbed completely to the demands of society and is ready to pass them on to the next generation. As we saw before: society's ills feed and grow on themselves:

LATER.
See there! A man born and we pronounce him fit for peace.
There's a load lifted from his shoulders with the discovery of his disease.
We'll take the child from him
put it to the test
teach it to be a wise man
how to fool the rest.

The disease is that he wanted to fight the Establishment and as his generation slowly becomes the Establishment he becomes part of it himself. For our youngster, a fullgrown man by now, it is a relief that he doesn't have to be an activist for all of his life. He gives up. The responsibility (load) of being ever-vigilant against the Establishment is lifted from his shoulders. He drops his guard and gets sucked into becoming a part of the Establishment. As he becomes older, his intellect gains him respect, he becomes a "wise man" who other people look up to and eventually learns to abuse this power ( he fools - lies to - his constituents) and to make his own 'animal deals'.



Part 7

Both musically and lyricaly this part is a very awkward one. It is an intermezzo, were several tiny little musical pieces are started and broken off. Enigmatical quotations are cited, making no sense at all, except for two lines maybe:

QUOTE
We will be geared to the average rather than the exceptional.

This is the sign of our times. TV and other media, our educational systems, our political systems and our religious systems aim to please the lowest common denominator. This line just about summarizes the theme of Thick As A Brick.

God is an overwhelming responsibility.

Ian claims that a personified God doesn't exist. If you choose to believe that God exists then it becomes your responsibility to prove that God exists. You will have to avoid the temptation to abuse your power, your connection with that God and the trust that other "believers" put in you. That, indeed, is an overwhelming responsibility, which only a few people can carry off. (Note: This argument doesn't state that God is Dead. It only states that God is not a single entity with the power to save you from your own stupidity. It leaves room for the existence of God and religion. It just denounces the abuse of these concepts).



Part 8

Our principle character has acquired himself an important position. He describes with disdain his surroundings:

LATER
In the clear white circles of morning wonder,
I take my place with the lord of the hills.
And the blue-eyed soldiers stand slightly discoloured
(in neat little rows) sporting canvas frills.

In other words: 'I have become a part of the Establishment, a Wise Man. And the masses below me, are all conformists (neat little rows). They're all perfect (blue-eyed), a bit worse-for-wear after an evening of stereotypical partying (slightly discoloured) and they're all Hippies wearing the Hippy uniform of blue-jean canvas jackets with "Born-to-be-Wild blue-jean frills". '

With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention,
while queueing for sarnies at the office canteen.
Saying: "How's your granny?" and good old Ernie:
he coughed up a tenner on a premium bond win.

Another typical Ian Phrase-Twist, a simple word substituted into a common phrase. The original phrase is "snap to attention". The Hippies, thinking that they were anti-Establishment and Individualists, slouched to show their disdain for the Establishment. Unfortunately, all of them wore the same hair (long), the same uniform (jeans) and they all refused to fall into the Establishment line. Ironically, with respect to their peers, the Hippies were conformists. They fell into line, but instead of "snapping", they slouched in unison. And, they all make small talk whilst doing the same monotonous thing day after day. So, even the Hippies, who thought of themselves as free-thinkers, were not immune to the disease. They thought that they were "different" from their elders, yet they quickly conformed to each other and formed a new wave. The above mentioned 'sarnies' is British slang for sandwiches.

As for "good old Ernie" who won ten pounds: this refers to The Premium Savings Bonds, a government lottery, under the guise of a security, first introduced in 1956. It is a security in that interest accrues on each bond; it is a lottery in that the total interest is pooled and distributed to a random few, determined by a computer known as 'Ernie' (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment). This computer is located in Blackpool. (There is more detailed information on the Premium Savings Bond at: http://www.xrefer.com/entry/107493 )



Part 9

The legends (worded in
the ancient tribal hymn)
lie cradled in the seagull's call.
And all the promises they made are ground beneath the sadist's fall.

This beautiful poetic verse keeps puzzling me. I suspect, that it has to do something with the relation between nature and mankind. Legends can be described as stories passed on from one generation to another, telling the (hi)story of the trible, containing certain knowledge, experiences and wisdom that should not be forgotten and have a lot to do with group and individual identity as well. The hymns and ceremonies, based on these legends, are like a compass for mankind, giving direction for the future. We should bear in mind, that religion - no matter what kind - has it's own legends too. 'Cradled in the seagull's call' might refer to the fact that the morals in these legends can be found all around in nature (from which they often originate), if one is really willing to look for them. This theme reoccurs on 'Songs From The Wood' and 'Stormwatch' and is more worked out there. The image of the seagull is very interesting, since this bird is able to maintain itself under harsh conditions. There is a connotation of freedom. And: seagulls are always around, no matter what season or tide! The image might suggest, that these legends cannot be oppressed or taken away from people by any kind of tyrant or sadist. (compare e.g. the suppression of Jewish people by the Spanish Inquisition, or - more recent - the suppression of religious feelings and ideas in the former Sovjet Union). So nothing can stop man deriving energy, inspiration, ideas from it, that is if he is willing to make the effort. Is Ian saying here once again that we have to think for ourselves and examine anything that might help us growing mentally - religious beliefs or otherwise? Could it be that the promises in these legends regarding men's future will eventually make people stand up against any form of sadism and oppression? Are these promises and ideas the limitation any tyrant is confronted with in the long run?

Then our jester comes up with another swirl concerning the main theme:

The poet and the wise man stand behind the gun,
and signal for the crack of dawn.
Light the sun.
Do you believe in the day?
Do you? Believe in the day!
The Dawn Creation of the Kings has begun.
Soft Venus (lonely maiden) brings the ageless one.
Do you believe in the day?
The fading hero has returned to the night
and fully pregnant with the day,
wise men endorse the poet's sight.
Do you believe in the day?
Do you? Believe in the day!

It seems that the do'er and the thinker found eachother in some way: they joined forces to keep the power. Even the "good" people (the artists, the intelligentsia) end up taking sides and resorting to physical violence, in the end. They do so thinking that they can bring a "better" moral standard to the world. So, they take power in the hope that they can better the world. They promise a new day. Enter a new moral fad. The sun rises again and the cycle repeats.

The poet, now ruler, says 'Believe in my belief and a new day will dawn. I promise. The military (returning heroes) are now loyal to me - a new day will dawn. The wise men endorse my vision. I'm a Thinker, so I can do you no harm. But, believe in what I say. Rally around Me (and stop thinking for yourself, since I know how to think better than you do)". Ian has switched metaphors. Earlier, he was describing the ebb and flow of morals as waves on a beach. Now, he's describing them as the setting and rising of the sun. In this case, he probably wanted to emphasize the repeatability of history - the sun sets and rises with great regularity.



Part 10

The jester takes us to the finale: The Executive Summary. In an apocalyptical setting a last warning is given and people are summoned, urged for the last time to think for themselves.

Let me tell you the tales of your life
of your love and the cut of the knife
the tireless oppression, the wisdom instilled
the desire to kill or be killed.
Let me sing of the losers who lie
in the street as the last bus goes by.
The pavements ar empty: the gutters run red
while the fool toasts his god in the sky.

Think. History repeats itself. The pattern repeats itself: strong love, then strong hate, oppression, then "new" ideas, then bloodshed. Those who lose their life's balance, miss out on the beauty of life. Don't let yourself become an 'Aqualung'. War is perpetuated by those who abdicate their responsibility to Think. Wars are waged in the name of Religion and are perpetuated by the fools who can't see the connection.

So come all ye young men who are building castles!
Kindly state the time of the year
and join your voices in a hellish chorus.
Mark the precise nature of your fear.
Let me help you pick up your dead
as the sins of the father are fed
with the blood of the fools
and the thoughts of the wise and
from the pan under your bed.
Let me make you a present of song
as the wise man breaks wind and is gone
while the fool with the hour-glass is cooking his goose
and the nursery rhyme winds along.

The jester/Ian says: 'I have written off all of the elders. I appeal to those of you who can still make decisions about your own lives. You who are still building and toying with moral virtues (sand castles) which haven't yet been torn down by the tides of societal pressure.' Put your stake in the ground and resist! Think about why you wish to conform with the ills of society. Why do you fear breaking free of Society's constraints? Think about why our society continues to produce war and death! Why is it that our ancestors insist that their dogma is Truth? Why do we perpetuate our ancestors' sins? Their dogma feeds on war (fools who are willing to die for dogma), thoughts of the wise (those who know better than to die for a cause, but are willing to prostitute their knowledge to gain better standing in society) and, well, nothing else but liquid excrement (the bedpan, under one's bed). Listen to my thesis, expressed in this song (spoken by Ian, the jester). The wise men at your side do not care and are dumbfounded as well. They can't think about this topic, they can't respond, it's too deep for them. They turn away and show their ignorance (in the childish act of breaking wind (farting)) and then run away. The fool with the hour-glass (The Grim Reaper?), marking your time, hasn't figured out that you can outlive your life (by breaking the cycle of society) while the childish repetition of life, as normally played out, continues.

See! The summer lightning casts its bolts upon you
and the hour of judgement draweth near.
Would you be the fool stood in his suit of armour
or the wiser man who rushes clear.

This is your final chance to think for yourself. What will it be: brain of brawn? Fight or run away from it? What are you going to do/be when Judgement is upon you?

So! Come on ye childhood heroes!
Won't your rise up from the pages of your comic-books
your super-crooks
and show us all the way.
Well! Make your will and testament.
Won't you? Join your local government.
We'll have Superman for president
let Robin save the day.
So! Where the hell was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday?
And where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you through? They're all resting down in Cornwall writing up their memoirs
for a paper-back edition of the Boy Scout Manual.

You've noticed that the comic book heroes are not here to help you. Sarcasm: it must be because they're busy. In other words, the ideas and idols of your childhood are no good to help you out now. Once again: grow up think for yourselves.



Part 11

The poem comes to a close. Everything has been said now. It's up to you. The jester greets us with a reprise and leaves the stage:

OF COURSE
So you ride yourselves over the fields
and you make all your animal deals
#and your wise men don't know how it feels
to be thick as a brick.

* Jan Voorbij
My annotations are based on the essay "Thick As A Brick, lyric analysis" by Paul Tarvydas (1997). You will find the full unmodified text of his essay on Doug Smart's site 'Thick As A Brick'. I used the results of my own research, added acquired insights, information I took from interviews, comments of Neil Thomason and John Benninghouse and elaborated Paul's essay. Without his pioneering effort this would not have been possible.


Jethro Tull - "Thick As a Brick" (1972) There's never been a doubt in my mind that this is Tull's definitive masterpiece and one of the ten best progressive rock albums ever made. The whole album consists of just one 45-minute piece of pure delight. The piece sums perfectly up all the best with Jethro Tull at their most progressive. The lyrics on the album were supposedly written by a 12-year old boy named Gerald Bostock, but this was of course none other than Mr. Anderson himself. You can read the whole story in the newspaper-cover of the album. But back to the music. As I said, this is Tull at their ultimately best. The whole piece is very intense, complex and extremely well written, produced and arranged. Ian Anderson never wrote better and more inspired melodies, and the arrangements are pure perfection. One thing I noticed with this album is that the keyboard- playing of John Evan often sounds quite Tony Banks influenced. On "Thick As a Brick", Tull were simply the most perfect and best band in the world!



Thick as a Brick
Date of Release Apr 1972


AMG EXPERT REVIEW: Jethro Tull's first LP-length epic is a masterpiece in the annals of progressive rock, and one of the few works of its kind that still holds up 25 years later. Mixing hard rock and English folk music with classical influences, set to stream-of-consciousness lyrics so dense with the imagery that one might spend weeks pondering their meaning - assuming one feels the need to do so - the group created a dazzling tour-de-force, at once playful, profound, and challenging, without overwhelming the listener. The original LP was the best sounding, best engineered record Tull had ever released, easily capturing the shifting dynamics between the soft all-acoustic passages and the electric rock crescendos surrounding them. The sound on the original Columbia Records CD (not identified as such, but recognizable by a "VK" prefix in its catalog number) was harsh and thin, and left a lot to be desired in terms of richness-the current Chrysalis disc is an improvement as well. - Bruce Eder

1. Thick as a Brick (Anderson/Bostock) - 22:45
2. Thick as a Brick (Anderson/Bostock) - 21:05
3. Thick as a Brick [live] (Anderson/Bostock) - 11:48
4. Interview With Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, - 16:28


Jethro Tull
Thick as a Brick
Chrysalis (CHR 1003)
UK 1972

Ian Anderson, flute, acoustic guitar, violin, saxophone, trumpet, vocal;
Martin Barre, electric guitar, lute;
Barriemore Barlow, drums, timpani, percussion;
Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, bass, spoken word;
John Evans, organ, piano, harpsichord

Tracklist:
1. Thick as a Brick (Part 1) - 22:39
2. Thick as a Brick (Part 2) - 21:05

total time 43:44

conrad

This album is one of the true progressive rock classics. Even the newspaper style album cover has has become part of rock folklore. While not strictly original (John Lennon had already released a similar cover for Some Time in New York City), the cover is one of those nice extras that used to appear back in the seventies. There are fourteen pages of a pretend newspaper as the cover for the vinyl LP, which includes a (naturally good) review of the album.
Ian Anderson's sarcastic, earthy lyrics can be a turn off to some. I for one have to admit that I'm not entirely sure what the concept of this album is. If the lyrics follow any theme it is a cynical observation of small minded simplistic approaches to life's problems. The album consists of one track split over two record sides. Ian Anderson himself admitted that this was not his original intention, and most of the album started off life as part of more conventional length tracks. The quality of these songs is so good though, that had they remained as individual entities this album would probably have produced four or five all time classic songs for Jethro Tull.

The style is predominantly accoustic, with flute playing a very strong role in the sound of the album, but Martin Barre's heavier guitar style also gets a bit of a workout. The songs have been lovingly fitted together. Although the result is not always seamless, the album rises, falls and climaxes in such a way that it the album is clearly constructed as a forty minute suite of music rather than a bunch of songs stuck mindlessly one after the other.

Perhaps it's synergy, perhaps the songs by themselves are unusually strong but whatever the case, this is undoubtedly one of Jethro Tull's finest efforts and the first Tull album I would recommend anyone to buy.




Thick as a Brick


"Thick as a Brick" is perhaps Tull's definitive progressive rock album. Born from a desire to really produce a concept album after the rock critics so dubbed the previous year's "Aqualung," the record features a rock first: one continuous song on both sides. The music, and the lyrics, are challenging to the listener and reflect complex influences of folk, jazz, and rock. With "Thick," Anderson and company broaden rock beyond the limitations of the short song format.

Understanding "Thick" requires recognition of the popularity of Monthy Python in the early 1970's. Anderson meant for the album to be a send up of rock pretentiousness, critics, and the band itself. The album cover claimed, outrageously enough, that the lyrics had been written by an eight year-old boy, Gerald Bostock, and set to music by the band. Even today, Anderson still gets the occasional person asking about Bostock or commenting about the prodigy's advancing age.

While the "Aqualung's" lyrics are fairly straightforward, "Thick's" metaphorical tendencies " are intentionally intricate, obscure, and bewildering as part of the running joke. If there is any true central theme, perhaps it is the sociological experiences of gifted youngsters in the modern world with a touch of paternal relations again. The lyrical incohesiveness, far greater than "Aqualung," leads Craig Thomas, who penned Tull's 25th Anniversary Set booklet, to seriously question whether it is properly deemed a concept album. Rather, he views it more of an adaptation of the "kind of free-jazz...improvisations of the 1960." Indeed, several segments were recorded in just one improvisional take.

No discussion of "Thick"" is complete without noting the legendary 12-page newspaper, "The St. Cleve Chronicle" original cover packaging. Written by Ian, Jeffrey Hammond, and John Evan, the paper actually took longer to produce than the music. There are a lot of inside puns, cleverly hidden continuing jokes (such as the experimental non-rabbit), a surprisingly frank review of the album itself, and even a little naughty connect-the-dots children's activity.

The 1972 tour featured the entire album (with a brief break featuring comedy skits between sides). The tour established the band's reputation for often outlandish theatrical-type performances. By today's standards, the concerts were hardly major productions. But for the time, Tull was rather unique.

"Thick" hit #1 in the U.S. and arguably represented the band's height of popularity in America. Somewhat unfairly and commercially limiting as musical fashion changed, the album would define Tull as a progressive rock act.


Released: 1972; remastered (extra tracks), 1997; DCC Gold Disc 1997

Charts: 5 (U.K.), 1 (U.S.)


Thick as a Brick - A Side
Thick as a Brick - B Side
Thick as a Brick Live at
Madison Square Garden
1978*

* track not included in the original release.


The creative 12-page newspaper packaging took longer to produce than the album.

"Thick" was the first rock album to be one continuous piece of music.

Gerald Bostock turns 39 this year.

The "Bostock Curse," blamed on the album, continues today as the once proud St. Cleve fennel team has gone thirty years without a playoff birth.


What does Fluffy the Duck see in the connect-the-dots feature?
A scantly clad young woman.

Ian Anderson - flute, acoustic guitar, vocals, violin, saxophone, trumpet
Martin Barre - electric guitar, lute
Barriemore Barlow - percussion, tympani
John Evan - piano, Hammond organ, harpischord
Jeffrey Hammond - bass guitar, vocals

The limited "25th Anniversary Special Edition Thick as a Brick" features remastered sound and adds a 1978 live performance of a "Thick" edit as well as an interview with Anderson, Barre, and Hammond about the creation and legacy of the album

The original LP 12-page newspaper packaging is also a prized collector's item.












Lyric Analysis - An Essay
by Paul Tarvydas

I've always viewed the lyrics of Thick as a Brick (TAAB) to be a series of vignettes which swirl about a central theme. It would seem to me that Gerald Bostock was invented for the album cover, i.e. after the lyrics and music were written and, hence, Bostock did not affect the perspective of the original lyrics themselves. The main themes are an elaboration of the themes in Aqualung and are repeated in Roots to Branches. They are:

A young man, full of vigour and not yet beaten down by the system, "sees" what's wrong with society and can't believe that the elders don't see "it" also. I believe that Ian is this young man and that these ideas are illustrations of his opinions of what's wrong with the world.

In Aqualung, the album just before TAAB, Ian attacks organized religion. He also examines the loveless, godless dregs of society.

In Chateau D'Isaster, the "lost" album just after TAAB, Ian attacks the Rat Race - the business people whom he charicatures as various types of animals. He also comments on Free Will vs. God-driven pre-destiny by likening Life to a stage upon which the sole actor (you, me, us) goes out onto without a script and has to improvise.

In TAAB and Roots to Branches, Ian examines how society and organized religion spread (by imprinting children before they become old enough to think for themselves).

In general, I feel that Ian believes in free will and in the humanitarian aspects of modern religions - we can determine our own actions and we are charged with the responsibility to act with compassion towards ourselves, other people, animals and nature. He believes that it is wrong to rely on a personified deity ("God") - a god who will come riding in like the Great White Knight to "save" us from our own stupid actions. You can see this belief expressed throughout Aqualung, e.g. "He is the god of nothing, if that's all that you can see, You are the god of everything, he's inside you and me".

Ian feels that basic religion is good, but that abuse of Religion leads to many of the evils in our society. The major failure mode of organized religions is that they allow a class structure to form, with a personified deity at the top - a pyramid structure. This structure allows average people to abdicate their responsibility towards each other and towards nature, by "passing the buck" up the pyramid. This structure allows the opportunists to assume power by feigning to have connections which mere mortals don't have and by absolving the sins of the lower classes, thereby gaining their gratitude and loyalty. When one of these opportunists "goes bad", they can take a large "army" of believers with them to do their bidding. I believe that Ian was exploring these same themes in TAAB. In the following, I'll try to show how the lyrics fit these themes.

Thick as a Brick
A lesser writer might have called this song "Stupid" - for that is just what this phrase means. Who is it that he's calling stupid?

Act 1

Really don't mind if you sit this one out.
My word's but a whisper -- your deafness a SHOUT.

At'a boy Ian! Let's just start right off with an insult. I disagree with others (including Ian) who have postulated that this insult is aimed at the concert audience members who can't sit through a performance of quiet songs.

This insult is intended for a much wider audience - for all of society's leaders and elders. Vietnam was still daily news when TAAB was written. TAAB is just another 60's protest song (albeit, masterfully done). Right off the bat, Ian dismisses the whole bunch of them, the Elders - he presumes that they won't listen to what he's got to say. His voice (of self-righteousness) is just one, pitted against many.

I may make you feel but I can't make you think.
Your sperm's in the gutter -- your love's in the sink.

He says: 'You (society, et al) are driven by lust. The only way I can make an impression on you is to appeal to your basic senses. Your morals have sunk to the lowest point possible (the gutter) and your ability to think and to love has disappeared (gone down the sink).'

So you ride yourselves over the fields
and you make all your animal deals

'You move through life without stopping to think, no better than mere animals.'

and your wise men don't know how it feels
to be thick as a brick.

'And those "wise men" you worship aren't so wise and all-knowing. Just to prove it, here's a question which they can't possibly answer - what does it feel like to be stupid?' 'I.e. don't let others do the thinking for you. You're responsible for that.'

And the sand-castle virtues are all swept away
in the tidal destruction
the moral melee.
The elastic retreat rings the close of the play
as the last wave uncovers
the newfangled way.

Beautiful metaphor. Ian describes society's fickle virtues and morals by likening them to sand-castles - they easily crumble whenever a new fad (wave) hits. As each wave recedes (in elastic-band fashion) nothing of the old fad is left in its wake (the close of the play) and a completely new moral fad is rebuilt. An irony is revealed to the listener - we, the listeners, know that waves repeat and knock down every sandcastle which is built. The subjects of this song - the elders, the unthinking public - just don't see this irony. Note the usual craftsmanship in Ian's choice of words - the word "elastic" describes the motion of the waves, yet at the same time alludes to the malleable (plastic/elastic) nature of fickle morals and religious beliefs. We also observe the first sighting of the concept of "The Play" (the Muse, etc.) theme which Ian develops in later albums.

But your new shoes are worn at the heels
and your suntan does rapidly peel

Whatever is shiny and new (i.e. a new moral/religious fad) quickly becomes dull and worn, just like a suntan which looks good on you, but only for a short while.

and your wise men don't know how it feels
to be thick as a brick.

Remember - don't let your wise men do the thinking for you, they can't know everything.

Act 2


Ian discusses the mechanism by which society/religion imprints its morals on all citizens. The subject of this piece is no longer "Ian" - it is someone else, Jack, let's say, who has succumbed to integration into society.

And the love that I feel is so far away:
I'm a bad dream that I just had today --
and you shake your head
and say it's a shame.

They've managed to brain-wash Jack. He used to feel "love", but thankfully, he's rid himself of any sense of conscience. He complains about some sense of loss, but those around him say "Gee, that's too bad, but don't worry about it".

Spin me back down the years
and the days of my youth.
Draw the lace and black curtains
and shut out the whole truth.
Spin me down the long ages: let them sing the song.

Jack digs down to see how he's managed to lose his conscience. It happened way back when he was still a child - he was told lies, he wasn't allowed to look at reality and to form his own opinions of it. Another sighting of ideas-to-come! 25 years after writing "Draw the lace and black curtains", Ian wrote the song "Dangerous Veils" which expresses a similar theme using a similar metaphor. Jack "floats" back through time. In fact, I get the distinct impression that he's being led by the Ghost of Christmas Past - he's floating and looking down on his life. I get this impression because of the music associated with the "Spin me back" verse - I perceive it as a bit laid-back, floating (echo-y) and a segue to the next section of music. Your mileage may vary.

See there! A son is born --

Jack has spotted himself, right at the beginning of his own life. He's following his own life-line to see where he became brain-washed. and we pronounce him fit to fight. Right from the beginning, society imprints Jack as being a "man", a son who will fight for Right (no explanation of what that is).

There are black-heads on his shoulders,
and he pees himself in the night.

He hasn't even made it through puberty yet (he still pees himself like a child, but he is getting zits like a teenager).

We'll make a man of him
put him to a trade
teach him to play Monopoly and
to sing in the rain.

Above is the list of all things which Jack, a Good Citizen, must know. He must become a "man", he must be put to useful work, he must learn to play at Business (Monopoly) and he must love all of the things which define the current culture (Monopoly, the game, the classic films ("Singing in the Rain"), etc).

Act 3

We leave Jack, but continue discussing the same theme from a different perspective. Here, the subject (not Ian, not Jack) is going to try to assert his independence. Let's see what happens...

The Poet and the painter casting shadows on the water --
as the sun plays on the infantry returning from the sea.
The do-er and the thinker: no allowance for the other --
as the failing light illuminates the mercenary's creed.

This verse casts a sense of foreboding on things to come. It is sunset at the "beach". The latest moral sandcastle has just been swept away. The Poet and the Painter - the embodiment of thinking, caring people - are there at the seaside. You can tell that they are nearby, because their shadows fall on the water. Yet, the setting sun illuminates more brightly the war-mongers - they were swept away, but they're returning again (from the sea). Despair - why can't society make allowance for, both, do-er's and thinkers? In the end, only one wins out, and as the sun sets, we see that the victor is the Mercenary (the do'er) - the Mercenary's, not the Thinker's, creed is illuminated for all to see and to follow.

The home fire burning: the kettle almost boiling --
but the master of the house is far away.
The horses stamping -- their warm breath clouding
in the sharp and frosty morning of the day.

Life goes on. The Master, father, who should be at home tending matters - doing the thinking and teaching - has gone off somewhere. Likely, he's gone off to war, like an upstanding citizen. Or, metaphorically, the child is reaching the stage of being able to think for himself - the home fire is burning, the child's mind is almost ready (boiling with ideas). Yet, the father, the one who should be teaching the child to stand on his own, who should be stirring the pot and making sure that it cooks evenly, is effectively missing. If not physically, then he's mentally missing. He's feeding dogma to the child instead of challenging the child to think on his own.

And the poet lifts his pen while the soldier sheaths his sword.

And, after long thought, the poet is about ready to commence, whereas the soldier has just finished his slaughter (acting before thinking). These are the role-models for the child. Which one will he choose?

And the youngest of the family is moving with authority.
Building castles by the sea, he dares the tardy tide
To wash them all aside.

The child is trying out and thinking through a number of moral/religious issues. Being young, he still thinks that he can beat the system and repeatedly challenges the tide (of society) to break down his strong will.

The cattle quietly grazing at the grass down by the river
where the swelling mountain water moves onward to the sea:

While life goes on...

the builder of the castles renews the age-old purpose
and contemplates the milking girl whose offer is his need.
and the builder (a man with a trade) succumbs to lust...
The young men of the household have
all gone into service and
are not to be expected for a year.

The newest recruits to Society have all been shipped off to do Society's bidding...

The innocent young master -- thoughts moving ever faster --
has formed the plan to change the man he seems.

And all the while the child sees where this is all headed and still thinks that he's going to escape from the pattern.

And the poet sheaths his pen while the soldier lifts his sword.

These are the choices which the child has. Use the pen and the mind or use the sword and brawn. The poet has just finished a masterpiece, whereas the soldier is frothed up and ready to begin the slaughter again. This one-liner is a great example of Ian's ability to invert a phrase and make it fit the scene. I get a strong mental image from this one line. The poet (a monk in my case, for some reason ? ) has a wry and satisfied smile on his face as he holds his pen before him ready to sheath it at his side - a final drop of black blood (ink) about to drip off. He has made his "killing"; he has produced a masterpiece with just a pen and his thoughts. The soldier, envious of the poet's accomplishment is preparing to wage war to show off his own greatness. Your mileage may vary.

And the oldest of the family is moving with authority.
Coming from across the sea, he challenges the son who puts him to the run.

The child has chosen brain over brawn, which infuriates the father (a good citizen, having come back from the sea with the military). One on one, brain wins over brawn, youthful vigour wins over middle-age complacency. Let's name this child, arbitrarily, John. He re-appears later.

Act 4

A question to the listener:
What do you do when
the old man's gone -- do you want to be him? And
your real self sings the song.
Do you want to free him?

When it's your turn to take responsibility, do you fall back on tradition and repeat the mistakes of the past? Do you try to think for yourself?

No one to help you get up steam --
and the whirlpool turns you `way off-beam.

Or, do you rely on others to help you think? If so, you'll become brainwashed with the rest of the masses (the whirlpool which sucks you down to the lowest moral level) and you'll fall off of the beam. The balance beam - life is a balancing act, if you let greed and lust get the better of you, you'll lose that balance. Cecil the Sealion has entered the building...

Act 5

The following is a discourse between John and his father.

LATER.
I've come down from the upper class to mend your rotten ways.
My father was a man-of-power whom everyone obeyed.

John's father is an upper-class citizen (likely a Businessman from the Rat Race) who has learned everything about how Society should be from his father. I.e. society's ills feed and grow on themselves.

So come on all you criminals!
I've got to put you straight just like I did with my old man --
twenty years too late.

Everybody thinks that they're the ones who are right - we'll straighten out our parents, and then we'll straighten out our kids. I wonder if Ian regrets writing this line, now that he's 50? I certainly find myself sounding like my father did, but I know that he was wrong - and I'm sure that my kids are wrong? . By the time we're ready to straighten out our kids, we've lost that "fire in the belly", have started to conform to society and are sure that our kids should not be allowed to think differently than we do. Hmmm. History repeats itself.

Your bread and water's going cold.
Your hair is short and neat.

Father to John: 'Bread and water is good for you. Don't ask for anything else. Don't think outside the box'. In the 60's, short and neat hair was considered a sign of conformity (just in case you had to ask).

I'll judge you all and make damn sure that no-one judges me.

Power is the ability to judge others. When you lose the will to judge yourself, you've lost the battle for balance and get sucked down the moral whirlpool.

You curl your toes in fun as you smile at everyone -- you meet the stares.
You're unaware that your doings aren't done.

John, talking back to his father (John is probably one of those long-haired, anti-social criminals, alluded to above): 'Can't you see that you're so full of yourself, you are so self-confident that you have stopped accomplishing things with your life?'

And you laugh most ruthlessly as you tell us what not to be.
But how are we supposed to see where we should run?

'You judge us, tell us how not to act, but you don't give us an example to live by.' Here, Ian picks up where John left off and continues the tirade. Your mileage may vary, but I see this as the sort of "fade" between scenes and characters, which happens only in dreams. While the "conversation" is civil, it is possible to see John arguing with his father, but when the intensity rises, I see Ian's opinions poking through and taking over John's character - Ian drops his guard and drops the pretense of telling a story. He resorts to raw sarcasm and satire, straight from the heart. When Ian claims that these lyrics don't make a whole lot of sense, he's obviously commenting on the fact that he didn't try to keep to a single coherent story line. What he did do, though (and maybe he didn't even notice) was that he kept focus on the main point of the piece.

I see you shuffle in the courtroom with
your rings upon your fingers and
your downy little sidies and
your silver-buckle shoes.
Playing at the hard case, you follow the example of the comic-paper idol
who lets you bend the rules.

Satire. This is the personification of the societal rituals, which Ian denounces - organized religion, over-bearing Law, silliness in parliament, etc. I "see" a fat, pompous, rich judge waddling into a Victorian courtroom and proceeding to enact a series of redundant ritual motions, in an almost comical fashion.

So!
Come on ye childhood heroes!
Won't you rise up from the pages of your comic-books
your super crooks
and show us all the way.
Well! Make your will and testament. Won't you?
Join your local government.
We'll have Superman for president
let Robin save the day.

Sarcasm. Why don't you just let your 2-dimensional comic book super heroes lead you through life? If you don't think for yourself, then that just might happen - you'll let politicians/clergy with hollow promises make your decisions for you. If you choose to personify the concept of God, instead of taking God-ness into your own hands, then that's just what you're doing - going through life with the hope that some 2-d character is going to rescue you in the end.

You put your bet on number one and it comes up every time.
The other kids have all backed down and they put you first in line.
And so you finally ask yourself just how big you are --
and take your place in a wiser world of bigger motor cars.
And you wonder who to call on.
So! Where the hell was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday?
And where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you though?
They're all resting down in Cornwall --
writing up their memoirs for a paper-back edition of the Boy Scout Manual.

You have risen to the top of the heap. What are you going to do now?! The temptation of abusing power is there (the wiser (sarcastically) world of bigger motor cars). Now, after all these years of self-assurance, you find that for the first time, you're not sure what to do. It's now time to think for yourself. The cheap crutches (Biggles, sportsmen, comic-book heroes) who you used in the past are no longer there - it's your turn to think. So, now that it's your turn to think, what are you going to do? Are you going to fall into the rut, or are you going to think outside of the box? Are you going to accept responsibility for your actions or are you going to pass the buck?

Act 6

John is born into adulthood. He had intended to rebel against society.

LATER.
See there! A man born -- and we pronounce him fit for peace.
There's a load lifted from his shoulders with the discovery of his disease.

John's disease is that he wants peace, he wants to fight the Establishment. As John's generation slowly becomes the Establishment, John becomes part of the Establishment. It is a relief to him that he doesn't have to be an activist for all of his life, that his ideas are being accepted without struggle. The responsibility (load) of being ever-vigilant against the Establishment is lifted from his shoulders. He drops his guard and gets sucked into becoming a part of the Establishment.

We'll take the child from him
put it to the test
teach it to be a wise man
how to fool the rest.

The Establishment takes the "child" out of John - his sense of rebellion. As John becomes older, his intellect gains him respect, he becomes a "wise man" who other people look up to. He eventually learns to abuse this power (he fools - lies to - his constituents).

Act 7

QUOTE
We will be geared to the average rather than the exceptional

This is the sign of our times. TV, our educational systems, our political systems and our religious systems aim to please the lowest common denominator.

God is an overwhelming responsibility

This line just about summarizes the theme of TAAB. Ian claims that a personified God doesn't exist. There is no old man with white hair and a beard sitting just beyond the reach of our satellites and telescopes. If you choose to believe that God exists then it becomes your responsibility to prove that God exists. If you can't prove it, yet choose to continue believing, then it becomes your responsibility to rationalize His existence through other means. Worse, if you convince anyone else to go along with your belief in the existence of God, without proof, then you must perpetuate that "white-lie". Just like a liar, albeit well intentioned, you get deeper and deeper into trouble. You must start inventing Miracles and other mechanisms that indicate the existence of an all-powerful, personified being. And, most importantly, you will have to avoid the temptation to abuse your power, your connection with that God and the trust that other "believers" put in you. That, indeed, is an overwhelming responsibility, which only a few people (the true saints) can carry off. (Note: This argument doesn't state that God is Dead. It only states that God is not a single entity with the power to save you from your own stupidity. It leaves room for the existence of God and religion. It just denounces the abuse of these concepts).

we walked through the maternity ward and saw 218 babies wearing nylons
cats are on the upgrade
upgrade? Hipgrave. Oh, Mac.

I dunno. Maybe this is a reference to babies being born straight into societal conformity. Or, maybe it's just gibberish.

Act 8

John describes his surroundings (with disdain)...

LATER
In the clear white circles of morning wonder,
I take my place with the lord of the hills.

'I've become a part of the Establishment, a Wise Man.'

And the blue-eyed soldiers stand slightly discoloured (in neat little rows)
sporting canvas frills.

'And the masses below me, are all conformists (neat little rows). They're all perfect (blue-eyed), a bit worse-for-wear after an evening of stereotypical partying (slightly discoloured) and they're all Hippies wearing the Hippy uniform of blue-jean canvas jackets with Born-to-be-Wild blue-jean frills".

With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention,

And they all wear bulges to attract the ladies... Another Ian Phrase-TwistT, a simple word substituted into a common phrase. The original phrase is "snap to attention". The Hippies, thinking that they were anti-Establishment and Individualists, slouched to show their disdain for the Establishment. Unfortunately, all of them wore the same hair (long), the same uniform (jeans) and they all refused to fall into the Establishment line. Ironically, with respect to their peers, the Hippies were conformists. They fell into line, but instead of "snapping", they slouched in unison.

while queueing for sarnies at the office canteen.
Saying -- how's your granny and
good old Ernie: he coughed up a tenner on a premium bond win.

And, they all make small talk whilst doing the same monotonous thing day after day. So, even the Hippies, who thought of themselves as free-thinkers, were not immune to the disease. They thought that they were "different" from their elders, yet they quickly conformed to each other and formed a new wave.

Act 9

The birth of legends. How they are handed down. How good goes bad...

The legends (worded in the ancient tribal hymn) lie cradled
in the seagull's call.

Seagulls tend to feed on the detritus at the edge of the shore. They come flocking in when just one of them senses freshly dead food at the shoreline. Having witnessed the continuous ebb and flow of moral values, the seagulls seem to be the only ones who have retained the knowledge (the legends) of what has transpired at the shoreline. And all the promises they made are ground beneath the sadist's fall. All of the potentially good aspects of a particular moral fad are eclipsed when, inevitably, a sadist takes over and upsets the balance. People, who abdicate their responsibility to think, allow sadists to take power. The whole moral (fad) movement collapses (and is forgotten) when the sadistic ruler finally disappears.

The poet and the wise man stand behind the gun,
and signal for the crack of dawn.
Light the sun.

Even the "good" people (the artists, the intelligencia) end up taking sides and resorting to physical violence, in the end. They do so thinking that they can bring a "better" moral standard to the world. So, they take power in the hope that they can better the world. They promise a new day. Enter a new moral fad. The sun rises again and the cycle repeats.

Do you believe in the day? Do you?
Believe in the day! The Dawn Creation of the Kings has begun.
Soft Venus (lonely maiden) brings the ageless one.
Do you believe in the day?
The fading hero has returned to the night -- and fully pregnant with the day,
wise men endorse the poet's sight.
Do you believe in the day? Do you? Believe in the day!

The poet, now ruler, says 'Believe in my belief and a new day will dawn. I promise. The military (returning heroes) are now loyal to me - a new day will dawn. The wise men endorse my vision. I'm a Thinker, so I can do you no harm. But, believe in what I say. Rally around Me (and stop thinking for yourself, since I know how to think better than you do)." Ian has switched metaphors. Earlier, he was describing the ebb and flow of morals as waves on a beach. Now, he's describing them as the setting and rising of the sun. In this case, he probably wanted to emphasize the repeatability of history - the sun sets and rises every day with great regularity.

Act 10

FINALE: The Executive Summary.

Let me tell you the tales of your life of
your love and the cut of the knife
the tireless oppression
the wisdom instilled
the desire to kill or be killed.

Think. History repeats itself. The pattern repeats itself - strong love, then strong hate, oppression, then "new" ideas, then bloodshed.

Let me sing of the losers who lie in the street as the last bus goes by.

Those who lose their life's balance, miss out on the beauty of life. Don't let yourself become Aqualung.

The pavements are empty: the gutters run red -- while the fool
toasts his god in the sky.

War is perpetuated by those who abdicate their responsibility to Think. Wars are waged in the name of Religion and are perpetuated by the fools who can't see the connection.

So come all ye young men who are building castles!

Ian says: 'I have written off all of the elders. I appeal to those of you who can still make decisions about your own lives. You who are still building and toying with moral virtues (sand castles) which haven't yet been torn down by the tides of societal pressure.'

Kindly state the time of the year and join your voices in a hellish chorus.
Put your stake in the ground and resist!
Mark the precise nature of your fear.

Think about why you wish to conform with the ills of society. Why do you fear breaking free of Society's constraints?

Let me help you pick up your dead as the sins of the father are fed
with the blood of the fools and
the thoughts of the wise and
from the pan under your bed.

Think about why our society continues to produce war and death! Why is it that our ancestors insist that their dogma is Truth? Why do we perpetuate our ancestors' sins? Their dogma feeds on war (fools who are willing to die for dogma), thoughts of the wise (those who know better than to die for a cause, but are willing to prostitute their knowledge to gain better standing in society) and, well, nothing else but liquid excrement (the bedpan, under one's bed).

Let me make you a present of song as

Listen to my thesis, expressed in this song (spoken by Ian, the Minstrel).

the wise man breaks wind and is gone while

The wise men at your side are dumbfounded. They can't think about this topic, they can't respond. This topic is too deep for them. They turn away and show their ignorance (in the childish act of breaking wind (farting)) and then run away.

the fool with the hour-glass is cooking his goose and

The Grim Reaper, marking your time, hasn't figured out that you can outlive your life (by breaking the cycle of society)


the nursery rhyme winds along.

while the childish repetition of life, as normally played out, continues.

So! Come all ye young men who are building castles!
kidly state the time of the year and join your voices in a hellish chorus.
Mark the precise nature of your fear.

See above. Repeated for emphasis. 'Look at History. Think!'

See! The summer lightning casts its bolts upon you
and the hour of judgement draweth near.

This is finally it - it's Your turn to **** or get off the pot. What are you going to do/be when Judgement is upon you?

Would you be
the fool stood in his suit of armour or
the wiser man who rushes clear.

Think! Is it better to fight or to run? Brawn or Brain?

So! Come on ye childhood heroes!
Won't your rise up from the pages of your comic-books
your super-crooks and
show us all the way.
Well! Make your will and testament.
Won't you? Join your local government.
We'll have Superman for president
let Robin save the day.
So! Where the hell was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday?
And where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you through?

Sarcasm, again: 'I guess that it's a good idea to let super-heroes and figments of our imagination rule our lives, n'est pas?'

They're all resting down in Cornwall -- writing up their memoirs
for a paper-back edition of the Boy Scout Manual.

You've noticed that the comic book heroes are not here to help you. Sarcasm: it must be because they're busy. You have to make up excuses for why they're not here, instead of just admitting that they don't exist. God, like Biggles and Batman, is someone we read about in our childhood. Should we dogmatically carry these concepts on into our adulthood?

Act 11

Reprise. Postscript.

OF COURSE
So you ride yourselves over the fields and
you make all your animal deals and
your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.

If you've learned anything from this piece, it should be this - don't believe that someone else knows better than yourself what you think. P.S. I don't actually think that an artist, e.g. Ian, consciously decides to write with the detail I've expressed above. A true artist "feels" certain emotions and convictions, then writes/paints/composes items which "go with that flow". It is up to us, the appreciators of this art, to parse the original intentions of the artist and to express them in more rudimentary terms. To make them more accessible to the masses (including myself). A truly good artist will make his/her expressions interpretable in more than one way. My explanation of what I think about TAAB is but a snapshot of my state of mind, when stimulated by the music and lyrics of TAAB at this time. You will have a different snapshot. I will have a different snapshot a few weeks from now. I hope that my snapshot manages to convey a new or heightened sense of meaning to TAAB to you, today. If my snapshot leads you to new interpretations of this piece or parts of it, I'll be ecstatic. Think.

Paul Tarvydas, 1997
5 Bowness Court
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M9B 5Z8





Thick as a Brick

"Thick as a Brick" is perhaps Tull's definitive progressive rock album. Born from a desire to really produce a concept album after the rock critics so dubbed the previous year's "Aqualung," the record features a rock first: one continuous song on both sides. The music, and the lyrics, are challenging to the listener and reflect complex influences of folk, jazz, and rock. With "Thick," Anderson and company broaden rock beyond the limitations of the short song format.

Understanding "Thick" requires recognition of the popularity of Monthy Python in the early 1970's. Anderson meant for the album to be a send up of rock pretentiousness, critics, and the band itself. The album cover claimed, outrageously enough, that the lyrics had been written by an eight year-old boy, Gerald Bostock, and set to music by the band. Even today, Anderson still gets the occasional person asking about Bostock or commenting about the prodigy's advancing age.

While the "Aqualung's" lyrics are fairly straightforward, "Thick's" metaphorical tendencies " are intentionally intricate, obscure, and bewildering as part of the running joke. If there is any true central theme, perhaps it is the sociological experiences of gifted youngsters in the modern world with a touch of paternal relations again. The lyrical incohesiveness, far greater than "Aqualung," leads Craig Thomas, who penned Tull's 25th Anniversary Set booklet, to seriously question whether it is properly deemed a concept album. Rather, he views it more of an adaptation of the "kind of free-jazz...improvisations of the 1960." Indeed, several segments were recorded in just one improvisional take.

No discussion of "Thick"" is complete without noting the legendary 12-page newspaper, "The St. Cleve Chronicle" original cover packaging. Written by Ian, Jeffrey Hammond, and John Evan, the paper actually took longer to produce than the music. There are a lot of inside puns, cleverly hidden continuing jokes (such as the experimental non-rabbit), a surprisingly frank review of the album itself, and even a little naughty connect-the-dots children's activity.

The 1972 tour featured the entire album (with a brief break featuring comedy skits between sides). The tour established the band's reputation for often outlandish theatrical-type performances. By today's standards, the concerts were hardly major productions. But for the time, Tull was rather unique.

"Thick" hit #1 in the U.S. and arguably represented the band's height of popularity in America. Somewhat unfairly and commercially limiting as musical fashion changed, the album would define Tull as a progressive rock act.

Released: 1972; remastered (extra tracks), 1997; DCC Gold Disc 1997

Charts: 5 (U.K.), 1 (U.S.)

Thick as a Brick - A Side
Thick as a Brick - B Side
Thick as a Brick Live at Madison Square Garden 1978*
Interview with Anderson, Barre, and Hammond*

* track not included in the original release.

The creative 12-page newspaper packaging took longer to produce than the album.

"Thick" was the first rock album to be one continuous piece of music.

Gerald Bostock turns 39 this year.

The "Bostock Curse," blamed on the album, continues today as the once proud St. Cleve fennel team has gone thirty years without a playoff birth.

Connect the dots to see what Fluffy the Duck is watching in this "family fun" activity from the original newspaper (requires Acrobat Reader).

Check out a slideshow recreating the live performance of the entire record during the 1972 tour.


What does Fluffy the Duck see in the connect-the-dots feature?
A scantly clad young woman.

Ian Anderson - flute, acoustic guitar, vocals, violin, saxophone, trumpet
Martin Barre - electric guitar, lute
Barriemore Barlow - percussion, tympani
John Evan - piano, Hammond organ, harpischord
Jeffrey Hammond - bass guitar, vocals
The limited "25th Anniversary Special Edition Thick as a Brick" features remastered sound and adds a 1978 live performance of a "Thick" edit as well as an interview with Anderson, Barre, and Hammond about the creation and legacy of the album

The original LP 12-page newspaper packaging is also a prized collector's item.







JETHRO TULL - THICK AS A BRICK

Jethro Tull's fifth album gave them a worldwide break-through (although their fourth album "Aqualung" was already very known by music lovers).

Based on the "Thick As A Brick" poem written by the (at that time) 8 year old (!) Gerald Bostock this was the first progressive rock album I ever heard (through my dad). And it is probably my all time favourite album !

With 'Thick As A Brick' Jethro Tull in 1972 released their first true concept album. It consists of a whole of several varying pieces of music, linked to each other with practically no intervals. Some of the musical themes are repeated in a different setting. Different musical approaches are combined: folk, rock, jazz and classical elements.

The lyrics consist of one long poem, written by fictitious child prodigy Gerald Bostock, who shares his socalled views on society with us. When looking more closely at the lyrics eleven differents 'acts' or parts can be distinguished, or, as Paul Tarvydas has put it "a series of vignettes which swirl about a central theme". It is the music itself that connects these acts. (On 'A Passion Play' it's just the other way around: on this album the story is the connecting factor, not the music!). The main themes are an elaboration and further exploration of the themes in 'Aqualung', as we will see below. The central theme of the album however is: a description of how society stifles individuality and pigeon-holes people to suit its own needs.

In spite of the fact that the lyrics were heavily criticized by the press, the album made the band very popular in Europe and America and is even by 'adversaries' considered as 'a classic case'.

A Little Jethro Tull History:

In the latter months of 1967, four shaggy wannabe's congregated in the Southern UK town of Luton, Bedfordshire. The naпve, untutored talents of Ian Anderson, Mick Abrahams, Glenn Cornick and Clive Bunker tentatively coalesced to form the original Jethro Tull line-up. The group established themselves as the new resident band at London's famous Marquee club, albeit after a few false start identities ("Navy Blue", "Ian Henderson's Bag 'o Blues", Jethro Toe" and the certainly suicidal "Candy Coloured Rain"). By March 1968, they had built a following as the new face of the blues-based British underground music scene. Lines stretched around the block on a Thursday night when they performed at the Marquee. Following appearances in Hyde Park and at the Sunbury Jazz and Blues Festival in the summer of '68, the band gained wider recognition with the release of the album "This Was" which, whilst paying homage to the blues heritage which they all revered, hinted at the broader influences which were to become apparent in the post-Mick Abrahams times to follow. After personal and musical differences, original guitarist Mick Abrahams left and the Tull boys embarked, with the then unproven replacement Martin Barre, on the recording of the landmark album "Stand Up" at the beginning of 1969. Happily, the new record, "Stand Up" proved to be a great success, and lead the way to new opportunities in Europe and the USA. Ian Anderson's influences of classical, jazz, folk and ethnic music forms made the eclectic result an early landmark for the band, reaching number one in the UK album charts. Tull, initially in the shadow of Led Zeppelin and others, then began the explosive ascent to the lofty heights of US stardom, culminating during the next three years in the cover stories of Time and Rolling Stone magazines, five nights at the Forum in Los Angeles and three nights at Madison Square Gardens, New York. A few hit singles livened up the band's early career, amongst them, "Living in the Past", written during the first US tour early in 1969, to keep warm the reputation back home in the UK.However, it was the albums as a whole which provided the strength for the developing Jethro Tull, containing as they did, not one, but usually several classic rock radio-friendly tracks to keep the band's profile high between concert tours and new releases. "Aqualung", and the so-called concept albums "Thick as a Brick" and "A passion Play" confirmed the progressive rock tag which complemented other terms like "Art-rock", "Blues-rock", "Folk-rock", and "Hard-rock", depending on the critics' personal views of the often-complex musical thought trains of flautist and singer, Ian Anderson. The first rock act since the Beatles to perform at Shea Stadium, New York, Tull laid claim to the live concert throne in North America. Howard Stern studiously learned the lyrics to "Aqualung". Elton John set about regaining the title of most-people-played-to in major US cities. Bill Clinton wisely chose saxophone over the flute. With two US number one albums and world-wide chart and sales success behind them, the band began to remove itself from the more commercially-driven side of recording and touring. Through the latter 70's and into the 80's and 90's, their records and tours have proved throughout the world the enduring artistic credibility of a band continually able to reinvent itself. The band's popularity extended into parts of the world where rock music had not hitherto been encouraged and the Tull legend from Buenos Aires to Budapest took root, eventually to be rewarded by the many tours in places where other acts feared, or simply did not care, to tread. Drummer Doane Perry, and more recently, keboard-player Andrew Giddings and bassist Jonathan Noyce have brought their unique and valuable contributions to the line-up to join the ever-ready mainstay guitarist Martin Barre who, like Anderson himself, has provided the continuity and legacy of the earlier years. With 60 million albums sold and over 2500 concerts played in 40 countries, the band continue to record and perform, typically 100 shows to around 300,000 people each year throughout all the major rock and roll territories of the world. More tours and record releases are planned for 1999 and doubtless, hundreds of thousand of fans of all ages will thrill to the trill of flute, and twirl to the twang of string over humbucker. Critics will gripe and grumble, and contemporary radio will say, "Who? Thought they quit years ago to go fish-farming." Still, what do they know? Well, go tell them.

Dirk van den Hout





Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

Member: Cyclothymic Mood 7/8/03

It seems quite clear that prog enthusiasts primarily view Jethro Tull as a second-tier representative of the style. I believe the usual discussion runs along this line: Jethro Tull was a decent, late 60s, blues-based rock band with jazz overtones and an eccentric frontman (one Ian Anderson); after the departure of founding member Mick Abrahams, Tull became a bit more eclectic, offering a hard rock 'n' roll tinged with acoustic touches and world-music flourishes; Aqualung made the band an arena smash and an FM radio staple; it then enjoyed back-to-back number one releases in the United States Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play which were composed in the contemporary idiom of progressive rock; and subsequently, Tull returned to a more streamlined musicality, perhaps highlighted by the folk-rock musings of Songs from the Wood. That is the story, indeed, in the proverbial nutshell, except that it fails to capture the grandness of Tull's foray into progressive rock. And not only is Thick as a Brick exemplary of Jethro Tull's immersion into the genre - of the bands control over the compositional complexity and performance acumen typical for progressive rock - but it is exemplary for the entire era. Here's why.

Jethro Tull first and foremost did not take the progressive rock rubric too seriously or too much to heart. In fact, Thick as a Brick is in some ways a satire of the entire development of the genre. Ian Anderson has stated that his original intent, in response to the incorrect assertion that Aqualung had been a concept album, was to create the "mother of all concept albums", but as "a bit of a spoof". So, while the fans and sundry listeners do find Thick as a Brick a conceptual piece, it is clearly a laugh up the sleeve as well. The liner notes in the form of daily newspaper articles, no less - indicate that the lyrics are authored by one 'Gerald (Little Milton) Bostock', an eight-year-old poetic prodigy, who has won first-place in a writing contest. Alas, though, there is a scandal; Gerald's work is protested; the judge's revoke Gerald's prize; and the Thick as a Brick lyrics are deemed "obscure and verbose assertions". A conceptual non-concept: that is the joke of Thick as a Brick. Tull blurs the distinction between art and comedy, between impressive aesthetic display and mockery. Especially in contrast with A Passion Play, which is foreboding and marginally disjointed, Thick as a Brick is light in its refusal to be too well-lauded. And whereas something like Van der Graaf Generator's Pawn Hearts smacks of self-consciousness and existential absorption, Thick as a Brick seems quite playful, but all the while ambitious and clever.

Tull's line-up in 1972 had altered significantly since the previous year's success of Aqualung and the musicianship of the players certainly bears the stamp of progressive rock prowess. Thick as a Brick is possibly John Evan's finest hour, as the various keyboard solos and accompaniments fill the album: most notably, it is rare for any individual tone to repeat, except as reprise, and Evan's contribution is remarkably fresh, moreso because he does not play with an Emersonian grandiosity but strives to accent and complement. Barriemore Barlow - easily the unsung drum hero of progressive rock - lends subtle intricacies here and there but does not hesitate to pound out a menacing throb when requisite. Martin Barre as always is a study in understatement, but also he is the epitome of finesse and guitar tact. Ian Anderson of course commands the show and holds the loose ends together. The vocals range from weary resignation:

"Your sperm's in the gutter/your love's in the sink."

to exasperated imitation of the self-appointed aristocracy of modern humanity:

"I've come down from the upper-class/
to mend your rotten ways.
My father was a man of power/
whom everyone obeyed."

But there is also always a smirking transcendence throughout the tunes, as if to witness such sad mortality is of course to rise above it. Well, not always, but observation often makes attractive verse, and the idea that Gerald Bostock would understand, at eight, the follies of Homo sapiens is ludicrous, and wraps Ian's intensity in levity. The tricky acoustic guitar arpeggios, flute trills, and accurate ensemble playing merely point out a musician - and an entire band - at the pinnacle of its career.

The musical scenery of Thick as a Brick is quick shifting, like some quaking landslide. Tull gives us marches, dirges, a smattering of English folk music, aquatic sound effects, interludes, the occasional nasty rock 'n' roll outburst, pastoral quietude, and devilish jams: sheer mastery of forms. The long form of the album - the unbroken concatenation of song and instrumental segue - is a derivation from classical music, and it would perhaps be ridiculous and ill fitting if it weren't constructed so tightly. By and large, the album never drags or flattens; each new theme is vigorous and compelling, and draws attention forward into the next segment. Most enjoyable perhaps is the return to the Thick as a Brick guitar strum, the repeating motif, which is instantly recognizable but, slightly altered, lends to the music a new emotional emphasis, a different perspective on the overarching structure. The miracle of Thick as a Brick is somewhat its length but more importantly its continuity and consistency.

My idiosyncratic fondness for Thick as a Brick stems mostly from my love of a good, solid, sing-along melody. I sense a strain of holier-than-thou contempt in progressive rock as a genre, an attitude of elitism and snobbery, and that attitude often involves a dismissal of radio play and popular success, of simple harmonic congruence and compositional regularity. I am certainly one to enjoy the avant-garde and even doses of outright discordance (God bless you, Mr. Fripp!), but I regard as the best of the breed those more melodic prog bands that still retained an adventurous musical disposition and a desire for innovation. In short, I want my prog solos and extended flights into the tonal ether, but I also want a nice bit of tune. Thick as a Brick satisfies that craving. There is no lack of hummable snippets and I find that those short segments of pure pop songcraft blend well with the fanciful musings and skilled dexterity of prog instrumental music. I'm selfish: I need the experimentation and I need the melodic comfort, and Tull supplies me with both in Thick as a Brick.
The early 70s was the banner era for progressive (and what is now termed 'classic') rock and there were many gems in 1972, but I can always return to Thick as a Brick - like I might return to Dickens' Oliver Twist, or Kubrick's 2001 and find an excellence that really serves to crown the genre. I like it moreso because it is Jethro Tull, the (pseudo-prog, say the detractors) prog band, that taught the other boys how it should be accomplished.


c2001 - 2003 Progressive Ears
All Rights Reserved




bob

For years, I was under the impression that the little three-minute bit that opens this album was the entirety of "Thick as a Brick". So I couldn't figure out why so many prog fans raved about it. Then one day a local radio station played a condensed eight or nine minute version of the whole album. When that opening three minutes ended and the song really kicked into gear, I suddenly understood what everyone was going on about.
The album is mostly a high-energy affair, with various lyrical and musical themes returning with variations throughout the disc. The production is crystal clear, so that each instrument stands out in the mix. I particularly like the abundance of organ and piano. The melodies are mostly staccato blasts of notes, but they still manage to be memorable (you'll probably find yourself humming bits of the album after listening to it).

My exposure to Jethro Tull has been limited to this album, Aqualung, a hits collection and a couple other albums borrowed from friends. Thick as a Brick is easily the best of what I've heard, and one of my favorite prog albums in general.

6-27-03


conrad

This album is one of the true progressive rock classics. Even the newspaper style album cover has has become part of rock folklore. While not strictly original (John Lennon had already released a similar cover for Some Time in New York City), the cover is one of those nice extras that used to appear back in the seventies. There are fourteen pages of a pretend newspaper as the cover for the vinyl LP, which includes a (naturally good) review of the album.
Ian Anderson's sarcastic, earthy lyrics can be a turn off to some. I for one have to admit that I'm not entirely sure what the concept of this album is. If the lyrics follow any theme it is a cynical observation of small minded simplistic approaches to life's problems. The album consists of one track split over two record sides. Ian Anderson himself admitted that this was not his original intention, and most of the album started off life as part of more conventional length tracks. The quality of these songs is so good though, that had they remained as individual entities this album would probably have produced four or five all time classic songs for Jethro Tull.

The style is predominantly accoustic, with flute playing a very strong role in the sound of the album, but Martin Barre's heavier guitar style also gets a bit of a workout. The songs have been lovingly fitted together. Although the result is not always seamless, the album rises, falls and climaxes in such a way that it the album is clearly constructed as a forty minute suite of music rather than a bunch of songs stuck mindlessly one after the other.

Perhaps it's synergy, perhaps the songs by themselves are unusually strong but whatever the case, this is undoubtedly one of Jethro Tull's finest efforts and the first Tull album I would recommend anyone to buy.

1-7-03

c ground and sky




Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick

Released: 1972/ 1999
Label: Warner Bros/ Chrysalis
Cat. No.: MS 2072 / 2434-95400-2
Total Time: 43:50 / 72:06


Reviewed by: Tom Karr, March 2004
Once in great while, a band or artist takes a huge chance or makes a major shift in course. Jethro Tull knew the risks and rewards of taking chances. From their inception, Jethro Tull had been a chameleon. A new name every week, a blues foursome, a folk influenced rock quintet, and then a hard rocking headlining act, they knew about change. In April 1972, Tull would take the biggest leap yet. The previous year, Aqualung had reached #7 on the Billboard charts, and it was clear that the USA would be good to Ian Anderson and the boys. The best path would surely be to record and release another collection of heavy rock numbers featuring crunching guitar work, and rock steady beat's. Why alter the band's course now?

England had spawned yet another revolution in music. King Crimson had drawn some attention in the US, and now Yes was being talked about, "Roundabout" was on the radio and progressive rock groups were selling a lot of records in the States. In this time of radical social theories and new artistic freedom, with young people boldly and sometimes foolishly abandoning all norms as fast as they could identify and denounce them, Ian Anderson had things to say as well. Aqualung had been the canvas on which he sketched out his first direct attack on the establishment, skewering the church, but not the flocks. With its follow up, Thick As A Brick, he would take aim now at those in the pews.

Sending up the rest of the world which, in his view, deserved a few eggs thrown at it, he served up a blistering indictment of art and artists, the gentry and their genuflection, and anyone who else hadn't ducked quickly enough. Full of mockery, he blasted the condescension of age towards youth and the old ways in general. Lyrically, a shotgun rather than a scalpel, Thick As A Brick debuted at #1 in America. Now, only in his twenties, Ian was the bearded prophet, the pied piper leading the listeners of Jethro Tull, but where?

Most American kids had little idea, if any, of what it all meant, but they were ready to listen to the charismatic fellow who appeared to be angry at, well : something. Monty Python had appeared at about that same time and young people were, at the start of this second musical "English invasion," fascinated with the sound, the styles, the humor and language of Britain. We didn't get some of the jokes. We didn't understand some of the music. But we felt in our bones that this shaggy haired, posing poet had something important on his mind and, damn it, we would listen now and figure it all out later.

Thick As A Brick had so much going for it. Before you could even get it out of the wrap and on the turntable, you knew it was something different. The cover, a mock newspaper from the fictional community of St Cleve, was a signal that something out of the ordinary was waiting, and the clues in the "news" and the mysterious, unfathomable, lyrics that accompanied this amazing music made many a mind spin. Full of phrases and literary devices that baffled us, we were drawn in to a world that, while only across the sea, seemed to be existing in a time warp. How could this land produce such exciting new music while, if Ian's prose was telling the truth about England, continuing on as if in the previous century? And all these allusions! They formed concrete images, but without context. What poet? The infantry returned from where? Contemplating the milking girls offer? What age old purpose? Downy little sidies? And most of all, who the hell was Biggles?

Moving beyond the maze of images, the strange but somehow familiar allusions, there was that music! The lengthy suites of ELP, Genesis and Yes had expanded our idea of what rock music could encompass, but this, this surpassed everything. This was fourty four minutes of sheer exhilaration. Ever the risk taker, Ian Anderson would out think, out write, and out do them all, and of course, have a great laugh at everyone in the process.

Warner Bros. released the original in April 1972 and the CD reissue that I will write of came out in 1998. It is much improved in sonic character, clear as a pane of glass, the re-master a work of art in itself, worthy of the material it hones to a brighter shine. The separate voice of each instrument is distinct, the organ more biting, the acoustic guitar warmer, the flute less brittle than on the 1972 LP.

It is a more generous release as well. We will hear the masterpiece as Ian intended, without leaping to our feet as side one echos into the distance, running to the turntable to flip over the vinyl disc. We will hear this knuckle busting, finger stiffening monster whittled down to less than 12 minutes on stage at Madison Square Garden from their 1978 tour. We will revel in the knowledge gained from another bonus on this CD, interviews with Martin Barre, Jeffery Hammond and of course, the engine that powers the machine, Ian Anderson.

Written and rehearsed day by day, Thick As A Brick would grow, as if some embryonic creature. Several main themes were developed, and would be revisited again and again, each time ending in a musical change in course. This complex work challenged and stretched the compositional and technical abilities of all involved. The themes were laid out to stand as contrasts in texture and style, acoustic then electric, soft then loud, and the original LP, now tracks one and two, lent itself to another contrast. Side one began as a lilting ballad, slowly developing into an avalanche of instrumental fury and finally breaking apart, the remnants echoing into the void, whereas side two quickly plunged the listener into a pool of rushing, twisting rapids before pulling up and slowing the gait, and introducing a chamber ensemble, and then finally, reprising the major themes of the two sides, drawing us to the works conclusion. This is possibly the only "concept album" that is, in fact, totally integrated throughout, lyrically and thematically. I can think of no other work similar to this which is not actually a collection of songs with noticeable segues to unite them. All of this is captured and presented to its fullest extent on an outstanding CD reissue.

Despite already owning Thick As A Brick on LP and CD, this expanded and improved reissue was a necessity for me, and a necessity for any collection of progressive rock.

Rating: 5/5

More about Thick As A Brick:

Track Listing: Thick as a Brick (22:45) / Thick as a Brick (21:05) / Thick as a Brick [live] (11:48) / Interview With Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson (16:28)

Musicians:
Ian Anderson - flute, acoustic guitar, vocals, violin, saxophone, trumpet
Martin Barre - electric guitar, lute
Barriemore Barlow - percussion, tympani
John Evan - piano, Hammond organ, harpsichord
Jeffrey Hammond - bass guitar, vocals


Jethro Tull
Thick as a Brick
1972
Capitol

It seems quite clear that prog enthusiasts primarily view Jethro Tull as a second-tier representative of the style. I believe the usual discussion runs along this line: Jethro Tull was a decent, late '60s, blues-based rock band with jazz overtones and an eccentric frontman (one Ian Anderson); after the departure of founding member Mick Abrahams, Tull became a bit more eclectic, offering a hard rock 'n' roll tinged with acoustic touches and world-music flourishes. Aqualung made the band an arena smash and an FM radio staple; Tull then enjoyed back-to-back number one releases in the United States - Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play - which were composed in the contemporary idiom of progressive rock; and subsequently, Tull returned to a more streamlined musicality, perhaps highlighted by the folk-rock musings of Songs from the Wood. That is the story, indeed, in the proverbial nutshell, except that it fails to capture the grandness of Tull's foray into progressive rock. And not only is Thick as a Brick exemplary of Jethro Tull's immersion into the genre - of the band's control over the compositional complexity and performance acumen typical for progressive rock - but it is exemplary for the entire era. Here's why.

Jethro Tull first and foremost did not take the progressive rock rubric too seriously or too much to heart. In fact, Thick as a Brick is in some ways a satire of the entire development of the genre. Ian Anderson has stated that his original intent, in response to the incorrect assertion that Aqualung had been a concept album, was to create the "mother of all concept albums," but as "a bit of a spoof." So, while the fans and sundry listeners do find Thick as a Brick a conceptual piece, it is clearly a laugh up the sleeve as well. The liner notes - in the form of daily newspaper articles, no less - indicate that the lyrics are authored by one "Gerald (Little Milton) Bostock", an eight-year-old poetic prodigy, who has won first-place in a writing contest. Alas, though, there is a scandal; Gerald's work is protested; the judges revoke Gerald's prize; and the Thick as a Brick lyrics are deemed "obscure and verbose assertions." A conceptual non-concept: that is the joke of Thick as a Brick. Tull blurs the distinction between art and comedy, between impressive aesthetic display and mockery. Especially in contrast with A Passion Play, which is foreboding and marginally disjointed, Thick as a Brick is light in its refusal to be too well-lauded. And whereas something like Van der Graaf Generator's Pawn Hearts smacks of self-consciousness and existential absorption, Thick as a Brick seems quite playful, but all the while ambitious and clever.

Tull's lineup in 1972 had altered significantly since the previous year's success of Aqualung and the musicianship of the players certainly bears the stamp of progressive rock prowess. Thick as a Brick is possibly John Evan's finest hour, as the various keyboard solos and accompaniments fill the album: most notably, it is rare for any individual tone to repeat, except as reprise, and Evan's contribution is remarkably fresh, moreso because he does not play with an Emersonian grandiosity but strives to accent and complement. Barriemore Barlow - easily the unsung drum hero of progressive rock - lends subtle intricacies here and there but does not hesitate to pound out a menacing throb when requisite. Martin Barre as always is a study in understatement, but also he is the epitome of finesse and guitar tact. Ian Anderson of course commands the show and holds the loose ends together. The vocals range from weary resignation, "Your sperm's in the gutter, your love's in the sink," to exasperated imitation of the self-appointed aristocracy of modern humanity.

I've come down from the upper-class
to mend your rotten ways.
My father was a man of power
whom everyone obeyed.

But there is also always a smirking transcendence throughout the tunes, as if to witness such sad mortality is of course to rise above it. Well, not always, but observation often makes attractive verse, and the idea that Gerald Bostock would understand, at eight, the follies of Homo sapiens is ludicrous, and wraps Ian's intensity in levity. The tricky acoustic guitar arpeggios, flute trills, and accurate ensemble playing merely point out a musician - and an entire band - at the pinnacle of its career.

The musical scenery of Thick as a Brick is quick shifting, like some quaking landslide. Tull gives us marches, dirges, a smattering of English folk music, aquatic sound effects, interludes, the occasional nasty rock 'n' roll outburst, pastoral quietude, and devilish jams: sheer mastery of forms.

The long form of the album - the unbroken concatenation of song and instrumental segue - is a derivation from classical music, and it would perhaps be ridiculous and ill fitting if it weren't constructed so tightly. By and large, the album never drags or flattens; each new theme is vigorous and compelling, and draws attention forward into the next segment. Most enjoyable perhaps is the return to the "Thick as a Brick" guitar strum, the repeating motif, which is instantly recognizable but, slightly altered, lends to the music a new emotional emphasis, a different perspective on the overarching structure. The miracle of Thick as a Brick is somewhat its length but more importantly its continuity and consistency.

My idiosyncratic fondness for Thick as a Brick stems mostly from my love of a good, solid, sing-along melody. I sense a strain of holier-than-thou contempt in progressive rock as a genre, an attitude of elitism and snobbery, and that attitude often involves a dismissal of radio play and popular success, of simple harmonic congruence and compositional regularity. I am certainly one to enjoy the avant-garde and even doses of outright discordance (God bless you, Mr. Fripp!), but I regard as the best of the breed those more melodic prog bands that still retained an adventurous musical disposition and a desire for innovation. In short, I want my prog solos and extended flights into the tonal ether, but I also want a nice bit of tune. Thick as a Brick satisfies that craving. There is no lack of hummable snippets and I find that those short segments of pure pop songcraft blend well with the fanciful musings and skilled dexterity of prog instrumental music. I'm selfish: I need the experimentation and I need the melodic comfort, and Tull supplies me with both in Thick as a Brick.

The early '70s was the banner era for progressive (and what is now termed "classic") rock and there were many gems in 1972, but I can always return to Thick as a Brick - like I might return to Dickens' Oliver Twist, or Kubrick's 2001 - and find an excellence that really serves to crown the genre. I like it moreso because it is Jethro Tull, the (pseudo-prog, say the detractors) prog band, that taught the other boys how it should be accomplished. - JS