I remember too the general bad vibes from the critics around this album. This was not reflected in how the public itself received it though, at least back then, since it went to #1 (Bilboard) in America, and also sold terrifically well in Canada, and this on the tail of a full, pre-release, preview as a live concert event for one or two months... Plus the single edits which had played on FM radio... Given this, this was probably one of those cases where the critics "needed" to gang on a specific album by a very popular - but strightly ageing! - musical group...
Yep. I have 15 audience recordings of that tour and the reception was great despite the fact that the audience was "tortured" with 45 min of new, complex music at the beginning of the show....
Yes, in one of the tapes I've heard, parts of the audience even clap rhythmically during the Prelude dance, as if it was a hit! But then others have reported some booing in other parts, so I guess everything goes, especially with such large attendances...
I did as well. I saw them in Denver around mid July of '73. The warm up band I was not that familiar with at the time--Steeleye Span. The one sentence of lyrics that will never escape my bedraggled mind remains--"This is the story of the hare that lost it's spectacles!"
I did not like this album at first, but now I think it blows Thick As A Brick away. Not even close.I find it interesting that I believe Mr. Bungle basically plagiarized (not in a bad way- they were just teenagers) their whole shtick from this one album. It really was a hard album to get into, but once it creeps inside of you, it doesn't go away.
Sorry, I felt bad just saying that I didn't like the album on what was meant to be an appreciation thread. I didn't think that others would appreciate me listing everything that I find negative about it, which is why I kept it brief. I'll just watch this thread quietly in the hope that someone can convince me otherwise
I absolutely love this album. It takes the ideas that were started with TAAB and just goes crazy. The musicianship is fantastic. I really see no reason to hate the sax parts. It's an album with sax on. No problem. Complex, crazy, deep, oblique. Fantastic music.
IIRC, The Hare track was actually from the aborted Chateau album and got repurposed. If you think about it, if it were removed, then the ending of side 1 and the beginning of side 2 would have played much like the end of side 1/beginning of side 2 of TAAB. Maybe that seemed too similar for Ian's taste so they stuck something in between that was already handy to break the flow.
I think the hare on end of side 1 and the beginning of side 2 (it was split that way here in Germany/Europe) ist just brilliant. And it reasserts the fact that both sides belong together as one piece although the disc had to be turned. So opposed to the post before me for me the hare does the opposite of breaking the flow... The transition of the two sides of TaaB on the other hand break the flow big time for me and when I get a new master/mix of the album the first thing I do is editing that part out...
I didn't really fully get into Tull until the 5.1's came out. I had and liked Aqualung and Broadsword, but never explored further. The 5.1's have been a revelation. I prefer Passion Play to the pre-Brick albums, though they are all good. I reckon Brick and Passion are about even... But my favourite three would be Minstrel in the Gallery Songs from the Wood Heavy Horses I also think War Child is seemingly unappreciated
I avoided this album for at least 25 years. Its reputation and my history of shelling out precious pocket money on utter duds made it an obvious one to avoid. Then I caught The Hare Who Lose His Spectacles, which didn't exactly persuade. I finally took the plunge 10 years ago, with the Nightcap Chateau d'Isaster recordings providing a way in. After a couple of dutiful outings, it gathered dust on the shelf for a few more years. Then one day, a need for new classic era Tull finally persuaded me to give it a proper try. I put it on in the car and kept it on repeat until I could penetrate its density and begin to separate out tunes. And it didn't leave my car stereo for weeks. I now love it - and think they should have persevered with Overseer Overture in the set for many years. The sax I'm less enamoured with and Steven Wilson's mix helps with that, but once you get beyond the almost wilful density to the songs, it's basically Thick as a Brick on coke. Defiantly, brazenly and densely brilliant.
A couple of years ago I took on the exercise of splitting APP up into segments for listening on my phone and in the car. Usually I like to stick with an album as was originally presented, but I know this one so intimately it wasn't like I was spoiling the experience for me. And it appeals to my instinct to take things apart to see what makes them tick (I have a lifelong trail of broken clocks to prove it.) I only split it where there was a musically appropriate breaking point, like where the rhythm or key changes. This is what I came up with: Prelude [2:39] The Silver Cord [5:38] Memory Bank / Best Friends [6:16] Critique Oblique [4:35] Forest Dance #1 [1:34] The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles [4:10] Forest Dance #2 [1:12] The Foot of Our Stairs [4:46] Overseer Overture [4:20] Flight from Lucifer [3:57] 10.08 to Paddington [1:03] Magus Perdé [4:37]
From the start, I thought there was something odd about the closing "Magus Perde" segment of APP. The sound was thinner, harder, less dense, the rhythm very square and rigid, hardly a trace of swing. Later, when War Child came out, I recognize many of those qualities in that album. My conclusion: Magus Perde was possibly the last thing they recorded for APP, and was the sound blueprint for the next album.
The mobile fidelity gold disk also has these tracked sections: 1 Lifebeats 1:14 2 Prelude 2:14 3 The Silver Cord 4:29 4 Re-Assuring Tune 1:11 5 Memory Bank 4:20 6 Best Friends 1:58 7 Critique Oblique 4:38 8 Forest Dance #1 1:35 9 The Story Of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles 4:18 10 Forest Dance #2 1:12 11 The Foot Of Our Stairs 4:18 12 Overseer Overture 4:00 13 Flight From Lucifer 3:58 14 10.08 To Paddington 1:04 15 Magus Perdé 3:55 16 Epilogue 0:43 Jethro Tull - A Passion Play
My favorite Jethro Tull album. Complex music and a dark theme to it. I was too young to see this played live back in the 1970’s I wish I could have seen and heard that. Supposedly some lp copies came with a mask anyone have one of those I have never seen one offered for sale anywhere.
Always loved the album and have no clue why people hated it, the press slagged it and Ian scurried off, tail between legs.
Superb album - so many great ideas - love the concept - very clever/imaginative. It's my joint favourite Tull album on a par with Thick as a Brick. In a straight head to head between TAAB and APP TAAB wins the side one battle APP wins side 2. The last hymn is sung and the devil cries more…..
I think I may have consulted that track listing for the names. I thought some of their split points were musically awkward, so I omitted them. Sometimes there were short, like a few bars, of transitional music that I had to choose whether they sounded more natural as the end of one track or the beginning of the next. It was a fun exercise and I'm happy with my solution.
