Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play: Inside Two Long Songs

1. Life Is a Long Song: Providing a Context for Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play

1 In the late 1960s and early 1970s, British progressive rock bands such as King Crimson; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Yes; Gen­e­ sis;andJethroTullwereimbuingtheirmusicwithabroadenedhar­mon­ic palette, large-scale forms, polyphonic textures, avant-garde sensibilities, virtuoso technique, and the use of the latest advances in instrument and studio technology. All of these ingredients are in evidence on Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973). Each of these al­ bumsisonecontinuoussong–composedofnumerousvocalsectionsin­ terspersedwithinstrumentalpassages–lastingoverfortyminutes.Their complexyetaccessiblemusic,perplexinglyrics,anduniqueLPpackaging place them among the most creative albums in the history of rock music. Although they are quite innovative, one would not expect such oddities to achieve success with the mainstream popular music audience. Amaz­ ingly, they did. “Jethro Tull’s back-to-back Number One albums, 1972’s Thick as a Brick and 1973’s A Passion Play, are arguably the most uncom­ mercial and uncompromising albums ever to top the Billboard album chart.”1 So writes Craig Rosen, author of The Billboard Book of Number One Albums. Thick as a Brick reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 Album Chart in June 1972, where it remained for two weeks, and reached number five on the UK Albums Chart.2 A Passion Play hit num­ beroneforoneweekonBillboardinAugust1973.Howcanthese“uncom­ mercial and uncompromising” albums have been so popular? In the mid to late 1960s the Beatles and other bands fostered an atmosphere of artistic freedom within the music industry and created a new style of popular music in which active and concentrated listen­ Life Is a Long Song: Providing a Context for Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play One 2 Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play ing was valued. A simple comparison between an early Beatles album (Meet the Beatles! from 1964) and a later Beatles album (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band from 1967) illustrates how quickly this spirit of inventiveness arose. The first album is a collection of singles pri­ marily for dancing, while the second is an eclectic and experimental album made primarily for listening. The fact that both Beatles albums reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 Album Chart shows the drastic shift in artistic expression in popular and rock music from the mid to late 1960s. In this period the rock album was becoming quite an ex­ perimental art form, with bands and musicians like Pink Floyd, the Doors, the Velvet Underground, Miles Davis, and Frank Zappa taking it into uncharted territory. It was in this period, and because of this ar­ tistic freedom, that progressive rock arose as a distinctive style of rock music. Yet even in this time of creativity and innovation, it is still remark­ able that a band like Jethro Tull could release albums like Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play and see them become number one hits. The ability to compose extended pieces of music that are both challenging to the listener and accessible to the general popular music audience is something that few bands have accomplished. Of all the progres­ sive and experimental rock bands in the 1960s and 1970s–besides the Beatles–only the Jimi Hendrix Experience (Electric Ladyland, 1968), Jethro Tull (Thick as a Brick, A Passion Play), and Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon, 1973; Wish You Were Here, 1975; The Wall, 1980) had number one albums on the U.S. Billboard chart.3 Chart success was a little easier in England for these types of bands and musicians, with Jethro Tull (Stand Up, 1969), Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Tarkus. 1971), Pink Floyd (Atom Heart Mother, 1970; Wish You Were Here, 1975), Yes (Tales from Topographic Oceans, 1974; Going for the One, 1977), Rick Wakeman (Journey to the Centre of the Earth,1974), and Mike Oldfield (Hergest Ridge, 1974; Tubular Bells, 1974) having albums that reached number one on the UK Albums Chart.4 While such charts are not a critical assessment of music, they are a good indication of what is in vogue at a particular time. In the early 1970s it seems that the popular music audience was interested in listening to a forty-minute-plus rock song–perhaps if only for the novelty of it. Context for Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play 3 The Rise of Progressive Rock in the Late 1960s While the early days of progressive rock have been well documented by...