We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago……
It was a pimp on the critics. Ian Anderson had not liked how critics had responded to Jethro Tull’s last LP “Aqualung” as a “concept LP”. He responded by writing and recording ‘Thick As A Brick”, released in 1972.
The album art was designed like a newspaper, and the lead story was a fictional tale of a poem called ‘Thick As A Brick”, supposedly penned by an eight year old boy.
Anderson had written the lyrics and most of the music for the LP which is dense and filled with his sparkling flute. Martin Barre delivers his signature excellent guitar work.
The lyrics poke fun at the progressive rock music business and what Anderson called ” a bit of satire about the whole concept of grand rock-based concept albums”. It deals with topics like rebellion, war, sex, and life & death”. It’s not for the faint of heart.
The album is one long continuous piece with snippets of music tying the songs together. You will definently need to listen to this more than once to get what’s going on.
It went to #1 in the US…..despite critical slagging.
Was it the high point of their career? That’s for you to decide….
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