Last updated August 10th, 1998
"Critic of the black and white, it's your first night.
The Passion Play gets in the way, spoils your insight."
-- Jethro Tull, A Passion Play
Of all the albums recorded by Jethro Tull, Aqualung is arguably the most important,
both lyrically and musically. In many regards, this is the Jethro Tull album that is most
keenly associated with the band, and the tracks "Aqualung" and "Locomotive Breath"
continue to receive airplay the world over even to this day. While many consider this
album to be a concept album, Ian Anderson has strongly denied this, although there is a
definite concept to each side of the record. The "AQUALUNG" side of the record is about
the various lower classes of society, and much has been made of Ian Anderson's
comments on that subject (and you can look them up on your own time), whereas the
"MY GOD" side of the album is very much a comment (or series of comments) about
religion, and some even felt that this music was heresy. For what it's worth,
Aqualung is a brilliant, if somewhat misunderstood record, that provides some
insights into the human condition,
One of the key elements to bear in mind about this album is that bassist Glenn Cornick
had left the band before this album was recorded, and Jeffrey Hammond (the Jeffrey
referred to on three Tull pieces on the earlier albums) joined the band just in time to record
this album. Aqualung is a strong album musically, and presents an interesting
dichotomy with acoustic and electric rock 'n roll songs - and some such as "Aqualung" and
"My God" with combinations of the two. My two personal favourite tracks on this album
happen to be "Mother Goose" and "Wind Up" but the rest of this album is very good, and
tracks such as "Locomotive Breath" and the above mentioned "Wind Up" highlight John
Evans's keyboard work. Without a doubt, Aqualung is an essential part of
anyone's Tull collection, and is a music whose sheer vitality and strength of will can still
be heard on this album today.
While the Aqualung album may not have been a concept album, there was no
doubt in anyone's minds that Thick As A Brick was. Ian Anderson had said at
one point that, "if they want a concept album I'll give them one" and this is the music that
followed up the successful Aqualung record. Basically, Thick As A Brick
is one 45-minute song. The lyrics on the album are intentionally critical and pompous
(supposedly being written by a precocious eight-year-old). The most unusual and
innovative element of the album in some ways was the packaging; the album is contained
in a spoof of a newspaper called the "St. Cleve Chronicle," with pages of letters,
advertisements, and very insular, small village-style news items, all the elements of which
were drawn from and based on the musical lyrics of the album. Personally, I have to
consider some of the material to be hit-or-miss, simply because depending on which side
of the Atlantic one lives on, one might not have understood some of the references, the
humour, and the sense of pastiche that Ian Anderson, John Evans, and Jeffrey Hammond
(who wrote most of the "copy") were trying to convey in the pseudo-newspaper. The
packaging of the record didn't hide the fact that Thick As A Brick is one of the most
musically adventurous rock albums ever produced.
Thick As A Brick marked the album debut of Barrie(more) Barlow, who replaced
Clive Bunker. Bunker had departed the group to get married, and Barrie Barlow stepped
into the gap he left just in time to record the new album, Thick As A Brick. The
album consists of a series of various pieces of music that are linked to one another with
virtually no intervals, and the music of the album encompasses a variety of influences
and themes (including folk and classical). In some cases, several of the musical themes
are repeated and even made deliberately dissonant compared to earlier versions of that
theme. While the lyrics of the album are very heavy and rife with all manner of interpretation,
the central theme of the album is that of the influence of society on the individual, and how
we are shaped by society. Regardless of that fact, Thick As A Brick is a brilliant
album, both musically and lyrically, and built nicely on the popularity of the band in the
aftermath of Aqualung. I am extremely fond of this album, and it is right up there
in my top five "favourites of
Tull" list. The year that Tull recorded this album was the year I got to see them for the
first time in a live show, and so for that reason alone, this album holds even more special
memories. Regardless of that, however, Thick As A Brick is one of the most
definitive albums the band ever recorded, and ranks right up there with Aqualung
in that regard. It may even be one of the most important albums in the history of rock 'n roll.
Several months after the release of Thick As A Brick, Chrysalis decided to
release this first compilation album of Tull material. Living in the Past is a
double album that was meant to be appealing to new fans of Tull, who had discovered
the group during the previous year's musical peak, while at the same time providing
some material that would also appeal to the Tull fans who already knew the band and
its music. The album was packaged in a lovely covered package, with photographs
and some notes about the music contained within. Personally, I have always been fond
of the Living in the Past album, and consider it to be one of the really lovely "best
of" kind of albums, and contains a terrific variety of songs. To make matters more
interesting, this album contains the first live recordings of Tull, "By Kind Permission Of"
and "Dharma For One," taken from the November, 1970 benefit played at Carnegie Hall
in New York. Both of these tracks highlight the instrumental strengths of the early Jethro
Tull, but there is some very good other material on this album.
The mix of music on Living in the Past is quite intriguing in some ways, but is
also somewhat confusing. "Love Story," "Living in the Past," "Sweet Dream," and
"Witch's Promise" were all singles that had been released earlier in the band's career,
and were put on this album as a treat for established Tull fans, as were the tracks from
the EP that was released in 1971 - "Life is a Long Song," "Up the 'Pool," "Dr. Bogenbroom,"
"For Later," and "Nursie." The album also included some B-sides of singles, such as
"A Christmas Song" and "Driving Song," as well as some previously unreleased tracks,
such as "Singing All Day," "Just Trying To Be" and "Wond'ring Again." And then
there are the differences between the U.S. and UK versions of the albums, complicated
by the differences in the CD versions. The Mobile Fidelity anniversary double CD of
Living in the Past was finally released, and this CD set included *all* of the
material from all the versions of the albums and the CDs. A compleatist lifesaver, that.
One of the Tull CDs that I am very, very fond of. In all honesty, this album is one of my
favourites for some of the lyrics. "A Christmas Song" seems to me to be about the excess
commercialism of Christmas, and "Driving Song" is about the hectic life the band was
leading during their tours. The album has a mix of everything that the band had done
to this point, illustrating some of the strengths (and even the weaknesses) of the group
and its music. Lyrically, all of the singles and the EP tracks are lovely pieces in their own
way, and I am very fond of "Living in the Past," "Sweet Dream," and "A Christmas Song."
While there are those who would argue that it was too early for such an album, this
collection of Tull is a very good, solid set of music from the band.
In many respects, A Passion Play is the superb follow-up album to Thick As
A Brick, and is a concept album as well. Unlike on Thick As A Brick, Ian
Anderson and his minstrels took things much more seriously. This album differed from
its predecessor in that this time out, Ian Anderson tells the coherent story of one Ronnie
Pilgrim's death and judgement, his visit to heaven and hell, and his rebirth. Although it
is presented as one long song, the album is really a series of loosely strung together set
pieces that are very complex, both musically and lyrically. On Thick As A Brick,
it was the music that made the album feel like a single work; on A Passion Play
it's the story that ties things together. The most unique aspect of this album, however, is
the fact that the band almost didn't record this album...or perhaps they did, in a way that
is totally at odds with what is on this record. The infamous Chateau D'Herouville business
is documented in other sources (most notably in David Rees's Minstrels in the Gallery:
A History of Jethro Tull, and I will not go into that here. Suffice it to say, some musical
bits and pieces of lyrics from the Chateau D'Herouville sessions were inserted or added
to what became A Passion Play, but this album is by far one of the most brilliant
early works of Tull.
The music of A Passion Play is somewhat different than the earlier Tull, simply
because there are some additions to the Tull sound. John Evans plays synthesizer, in
addition to his regular instruments, and Ian Anderson plays the saxophone. It is that
saxophone that gives A Passion Play a unique sound, something that was done
again on the next album, WarChild, but which has not been heard on a Tull
album since. More's the pity, really, since it added a whole new dimension to the Tull sound,
and provided for some remarkable instrumental pieces in the Passion Play. The album
is also known for Jeffrey Hammond's bizarre moment, the interval between the second
and third parts of the "play" entitled "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles." This piece is
a surreal bit of humour that provides for an interval in the opus, and has a Monty
Python-esque feel to it, but I didn't particularly find it to be more than a humourous
diversion from the album's central piece, even if it does have a simple moral: look to
yourself for answers. When it comes down to it, "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles"
doesn't have the sophistication of the music and lyrics of the rest of the album, but some
would argue that this is a good thing.
A Passion Play is my favourite Tull album, and is one that stands with
Aqualung in terms of the sheer energy and vitality of the band, and brilliant lyrical
ability of Ian Anderson. It is an album that should not be dismissed lightly, and whose
content requires more than one listening to fathom. And when all is said and done, music
that makes people think a little bit about it is a good idea, isn't it?
WarChild was, in many ways, an odd follow-up album to A Passion Play,
and yet in some strange way, it continued the theme of the previous album, although in a
slightly more normal album format as opposed to a single track composed of intertwined
pieces. Originally, the idea was that the basic premise, that of the choices that we face
after death, was going to be a film project. Due to a variety of factors, the film project was
abandoned, and the WarChild album was recorded instead. The group album
was recorded together with the orchestral film score, in which David Palmer had been
heavily involved, and this gave the album a whole new feel and sound that Jethro Tull
had not had before. The album is made even more interesting by the fact that two of
the aborted Chateau D'Herouville tracks, "Only Solitaire" and "Skating Away on the
Thin Ice of the New Day," were added to the lyrical compositions.
WarChild is a sometimes rollicking, sometimes moody musical odyssey, and the
band shows the continued evolution that marked Jethro Tull and its sound during this time.
The orchestral work on this album gives it a somewhat different feel to earlier Tull albums,
but is a welcome change and shows the music of Tull as being diverse. Ian Anderson
played the saxophone on this album once more, adding to the feel of continuity between
A Passion Play and this album, and the lyrics of the album have a serious, yet
whimsical, feel to them, and offer poignant comments on various issues. "WarChild"
itself appears to be an anti-war song, while "SeaLion" and the very light sounding "Bungle
in the Jungle" are commentaries on society and the quality of life. Other tracks, such as
"Queen and Country," "Ladies," and "Two Fingers" certainly provide different perspectives,
and make for a nicely rounded album of music, and a decent follow-up to A Passion
Play. My two favourite pieces from this album are "Back-Door Angels" and "Two
Fingers"; these are pieces which, for me, highlight the musical (and lyrical) strengths of Ian
Anderson, and while not making it my favourite Tull album by any stretch of the imagination,
lend this album a place in the Tull chronology that is certainly of an "honourable mention" at
times of choosing one's favourite Tull albums.
Jethro Tull's ninth album, Minstrel in the Gallery, is probably one of the best Tull
albums recorded in the 1970s, and likely is the epitome of the Tull sound for this time frame
as well. This album marked a departure in the way Tull had recorded their albums, since
this was the first album recorded in their newly purchased mobile studio. As David Rees
has pointed out in his excellent book, Minstrels in the Gallery: A History of Jethro
Tull, this period was not one of the smoothest or happiest for the band. Of note was
the fact that Ian Anderson was in the process of divorce from his first wife, Jenny, and
there was something of a lack of harmony among the band members. The album got its
name from the fact that it was recorded in the mobile studio, which had been placed in
a gallery (as pictured on the back of the album). I assume that even though Tull (the
band) would be the "minstrels" of the piece, the album title only has one minstrel in it
since Ian Anderson had written all of the songs on the album.
Be that as it may, what makes Minstrel in the Gallery such a good Tull album is
that it has something for everyone in it. The album contains rock pieces, acoustic songs,
classical aspects (the wonderful David Palmer is back with string arrangements), and a
mix of rock and acoustics in some of the more brilliant pieces on the album such as "Black
Satin Dancer" (a truly moving piece, and one of my favourite tracks on the album) and the
title song. The second side of the vinyl version of the album harks back to the concept
album days of Thick As A Brick and A Passion Play, with a multi-part
suite called "Baker Street Muse." The song is a terrific piece that appears to deal with Ian
Anderson's time spent living in the Baker Street area, and his pursuit of a lady (who may
or may not be Shona, later to become his wife). The rest of the album is not shabby,
however, and presents a wide range of music, even if there is a somewhat introspective
feel to the songs. The beautiful "Black Satin Dancer' and the lovely "One White Duck/
010 = Nothing at All" stand out on the record, in addition to "Baker Street
Muse," and it would be easy to lose "Cold Wind to Valhalla" in the other strong pieces.
The real strength of the album is the fact that the listener can get swept away in the
music on "Minstrel in the Gallery. Tull succeeds rather well with this album,
and play the "minstrels" to perfection.
Continue on to A Tull For the Seventies, Part Two
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This page first went on-line July 15th, 1998