Thick as a Brick
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thick as a Brick is the fifth studio album by the
English progressive rock band
Jethro Tull. Released in 1972, the album includes only one song, the title track, which spans the entire album.
Thick as a Brick was deliberately crafted in the style (and as a "bombastic" and "over the top"
parody[6]) of a
concept album. The original packaging, designed like a newspaper, claims the album to be a musical adaptation of an
epic poem by a (fictional) 8-year-old boy, though the lyrics were actually written by the band's
frontman,
Ian Anderson.
Album information
Thick as a Brick was Jethro Tull's first deep progressive rock offering, coming four years after the release of their
first album.
The epic album is notable for its many musical themes, time signature
changes and tempo shifts--all of which were features of the
progressive rock scene which was emerging at the time. In addition, the instrumentation includes
harpsichord,
xylophone,
timpani,
violin,
lute,
trumpet,
saxophone, and a string section--all uncommon in blues-based rock.
Band leader Ian Anderson was surprised by the critical reaction to the previous album,
Aqualung, as a "concept album", a label he firmly rejects to this day. In an interview on
In the Studio with Redbeard (which spotlighted
Thick as a Brick),
Anderson's response to the critics was: "If the critics want a concept
album we'll give the mother of all concept albums and we'll make it so
bombastic and so over the top."
[6] Ian Anderson has been quoted as stating that
Thick as a Brick
was written "because everyone was saying we were a progressive rock
band, so we decided to live up to the reputation and write a progressive
album, but done as a parody of the genre." With
Thick as a Brick, the band created an album deliberately integrated around one concept: a poem by an intelligent
English
boy (named Gerald) about the trials of growing up. Beyond this, the
album was a send-up of all pretentious "concept albums". (The
simile "Thick as a brick", in English, is an expression signifying someone who is "stupid; slow to learn or understand".
[7])
Anderson also stated in that interview that "the album was a spoof to the albums of
Yes and
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, much like what the movie
Airplane! had been to
Airport." The formula was successful, and the album reached number one on the charts in the United States.
On April 3, 2012, Ian Anderson released a long-delayed sequel,
Thick As a Brick 2,
on the EMI label, continuing the story of Gerald Bostock. The original
in a deluxe CD/DVD edition with a large book will be reissued by EMI on
November 6, 2012.
Live performances
Beginning in March 1972, the band performed most of the album
(excluding some of the edits on side 2) on tour for nearly a year. The
performances grew in length to about 90 minutes, as the original piece
was expanded with additional instrumental interludes and the
instrumentals "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Bouree." At the
conclusion of what was side one of the LP, a 5-minute "news and weather"
comedy routine was inserted, giving the band (and audience) a break
from the non-stop music. At concerts in Germany and Italy, the routine
was presented in the native language. The performance of side two of the
LP was expanded with the addition of a long drum solo. The remainder of
the set list (with occasional changes throughout the tour) consisted of
"Cross-Eyed Mary", "A New Day Yesterday", "Aqualung", "Wind-Up",
"Martin's Guitar Solo", "Locomotive Breath" and "Wind-Up (Reprise)."
"Wind-up" included an unreleased piece referred to by bootleg fans as
"The Hard Headed English General". Later live performances of "Thick as a
Brick" were a shortened version of the first side, as heard on the live
album
Bursting Out (1978).
Ian Anderson performed the entire album live on tour in 2012, the first complete performances since the 1972 tour.
[8]
Cover art and packaging
The original LP cover, which opens up as a 12-page newspaper.
The original LP cover was designed as a
spoof of a 12-by-16 inch (305 by 406 mm) multiple-paged small-town English
newspaper, entitled
The St. Cleve Chronicle and Linwell Advertiser, with articles, competitions, adverts, etc., lampooning the parochial and amateurish local
journalism
that still exists in many places today, as well as certain classical
album covers. Jethro Tull's official website states about the
mock-newspaper: "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 [written by Anderson under a
pseudonym], and even a little naughty connect-the-dots children's activity."
[9]
The "newspaper", dated 7 January 1972, also includes the entire lyrics
to "Thick as a Brick" (printed on page 7), which is presented as a poem
written by an 8-year-old literary
prodigy,
Gerald "Little Milton" Bostock,
whose disqualification from a poetry contest is the focus of the front
page story. This article claims that although Bostock initially won the
contest with "Thick as a Brick," the judges' decision was repealed after
a multitude of protests and threats concerning the offensive nature of
the poem, furthered by allegations of the boy's psychological
instability. Throughout the newspaper's many articles are subtly
scattered various references to the lyrics, to Gerald Bostock, to Jethro
Tull, and to other peculiar parts of the newspaper itself. The
satirical newspaper was heavily abridged for conventional CD booklets,
but the 25th Anniversary Special Edition CD cover is much closer to the
original, and the 40th anniversary boxed version contains a
nearly-complete replica of the original newspaper, missing only an
article spoofing former U.S. Tull distributor
Reprise Records.
Track listing
All lyrics written by "
Gerald Bostock" (
Ian Anderson), all music composed by Ian Anderson.
|
|
| 1. |
"Thick as a Brick, Part I" |
22:40 |
|
|
| 2. |
"Thick as a Brick, Part II" |
21:06 |
Differences among various CD releases
By 2012 the album received four major releases on CD: the first release (1985),
[10] the
MFSL-release (1989),
[10]
the 25th Anniversary Edition (1997), and the 40th Anniversary Edition
(2012). Whereas the first release and the MFSL-release run with
identical speed, the 25th Anniversary edition runs 0.5% slower
[citation needed]. The 1997 edition also has increased loudness (see
Loudness war) and does not feature Ian Anderson whispering "Yeah" after the coda of Part II.
The 40th Anniversary Edition was released in November 2012, and includes a CD, a DVD, and a book. The CD contains a new
mix of the album. The DVD contains a
5.1 surround sound mix (in
DTS and
Dolby Digital),
the new stereo mix in high resolution, and the original stereo mix in
high resolution. The album was also rereleased on vinyl at the same
time.
[11] This edition lists part one at 22:45 and part two at 21:07.
The website for the 40th anniversary edition lists these digital parts:
- Really Don't Mind/See There a Son Is Born
- The Poet and the Painter
- What Do You Do When the Old Man's Gone?/From the Upper Class
- You Curl Your Toes in Fun/Childhood Heroes/Stabs Instrumental
- See There a Man Is Born/Clear White Circles
- Legends and Believe in the Day
- Tales of Your Life
- Childhood Heroes Reprise.[12]
In pop culture
The song itself has been played on many classic rock radio stations
across the globe. Most opt to play the single edit, clocking in at
approximately three minutes. However, some prefer the longer 7-minute
version which contains the Side One main theme, "Come On Ye Childhood
Heroes", and the closing theme from Side Two.
In 1983,
Chrisye released a cassette called
Resesi (Recession) which had a cover inspired by the album. The album was rereleased on CD in 2004.
At the end of the
The Simpsons episode "
Girls Just Want to Have Sums",
Martin Prince sings "Thick as a Brick" until
Lisa Simpson hits him with a folding chair to shut him up. The actual song plays over the closing credits.
Car maker Hyundai used the song in one of their commercials in the early 2000s.
The 2012 follow-up: Thick as a Brick 2: Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock?
On 1 February 2012 Ian Anderson announced via the
official Jethro Tull website that there was to be a follow-up album,
TAAB2: Whatever Happened To Gerald Bostock?.
According to the Jethro Tull website, the sequel is "a full length
Progressive Rock 'concept' album worthy of its predecessor. Boy to man
and beyond, it looks at what might have befallen the child poet Gerald
Bostock in later life. Or, perhaps, any of us."
The album was released on 2 April 2012. It describes five different
scenarios of Gerald Bostock's life, where he potentially becomes a
greedy investment banker, a homeless homosexual man, a soldier in the
Afghan War, a
sanctimonious evangelist preacher, and a most ordinary man who runs a
corner store and is married and childless. The original
Thick as a Brick consists of only two long tracks comprising a single song, while
TAAB2: Whatever Happened To Gerald Bostock? lists 17 separate songs merged into 13 distinct tracks (some labelled as
medleys), although also all flowing together much like a single song. To follow the style of the mock newspaper on the original
Thick as a Brick, a mock online newspaper was set up, simply titled
StCleve.
Chart positions of the original 1972 album
Artists
- Ian Anderson – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, flute, violin, trumpet, saxophone
- Martin Barre – electric guitar, lute
- John Evan – piano, organ, harpsichord
- Jeffrey Hammond (as "Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond"): Bass guitar, Vocals
- Barriemore Barlow – drums, percussion, timpani
- David Palmer – Brass and string arrangements
References
External links
Download it for free from his website.
[2]
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