Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick or A Passion Play?

"Really don't mind if you sit this one out"

I had to vote for "Thick as a Brick", for the simple fact that I like it better that "A Passion Play".

 

Thick as a Brick

 

Thick As A Brick.

 

OK It's settled

Side one of TAAB and side two of APP

 

Yeah, the 45 preceded the album by a couple of months. You can't imagine how weird it sounded hearing the segments without knowing the rest of the LP.

 

PP got my vote, but that's purely revisionist history. I always thought of PP and Yes' "Topographic Oceans" as the difficult offspring of their respective bands, Both albums took a critical bashing upon their release, yet the value of each has been revealed as time has passed. Then, as now, TAAB the more immediately likeable, PP needs time, and now more rewarding, for me at least.

 

Cool, I never really knew what the hell he was playing, just that I wasn't pleased with the switch.

 

Iwould love if MOFI REDID THICK AS A BRICK,or any tull albums

 

So that would be an interesting experiment.....

Play TAAB and PP alternatively, for someone that has never neard either album. After playing each, have the person rate which album they liked better. And then keep doing that, to see how many playes it takes for PP to be rated as the better liked album, as one would assume that TAAB would be more acessible initally...

 

The same for me. Last week I saw used MFSL Aqualung selling by 10000 rubles (about $ 415). The price impressed me.

 

This was easy - TAAB for me!

 

My vote goes to "Brick".

 

TAAB...but APP has definitely grown on me. Wasn't impressed with it at all when it first came out (unlike TAAB, which immediately blew me away...)

 

Er, the question was which one we prefer.

A PASSION PLAY is one of my favorite albums by anyone. I must have played it 200 times in high school, memorizing all the lyrics and driving everyone crazy with rotten renditions of "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles." The MFSL CD only adds to my love for this record.

TAAB is OK, but hoo-boy are there some deadly stretches in there.

 

I hear you. And some of those "readings" really come accross very poorly - you can barely hear the words!. And also they are not very good here at playing "free form" music (after the drum solo).

BTW, you do sound like a genuine aPP fan! I have always wondered if I am >that< enamoured with it, is it because of the overwhelming impression that this Montreal show left on me at a tender age, that tinted my appreciation of the album afterwards... Have all the big aPP fans been as much positively, if at all, influenced by one of those '73 stage presentations (the ones with the full Passion Play in it)?

 

I saw APP @ The Nassau Coliseum, on 10/1/73. The small segment of Brick that was played got a much better audience reaction than the full APP did, which wqs received rather lukewarmly. The Hare film went over like a lead baloon.

 

I like them both enough that I can't vote...

I was 12/13 when these came out, I had them, but at that age I wasn't too tuned in to rock criticism to know that A Passion Play was being panned. Not that it would have mattered much. Still doesn't.

Dale

 

Yes.... but if you just could have seen the concert a few more times.... then you would have come to like APP better... or so they say...

 

I voted for Thick as a Brick, but I think now after reading Yesstiles description of A Passion Play, that I'll give it another chance. Maybe I'll start with side 2 this time.

Ryan

 

As usual, I went for the underdog - A Passion Play. Thick I loved well, back in the day, but over the years Passion has come to seem the more listenable work. Of course, neither is a patch on Stand Up, Benefit, Aqualung or Minstrel In The Gallery, to me; I plump for song-oriented Tull, with more accessible lyrics.

Anyone who saw the Passion Play tour that year, saw the tightest show in all of rock at that time; excellent playing aside, the lighting, stagecraft and choreography would've done the Royal Shakespeare Company proud, I daresay.

 

I was at the show & you are describing Bowie & The Spiders From Mars.

 

I never liked that "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles" thing either, but the A Passion Play album has it's moments here and there.
However, APP doesn't compare to the brilliant Thick As A Brick for me, which I never seem to tire of. I love it, and the many instrumental passages and performances are brilliant. APP was always more of an acquired taste over time, and wasn't easy for me to get into when I first purchased the album. I have a MFSL disc coming and I will revisit it again along with TAAB. I recently acquired an original vinyl pressing with theater program and the presentation and concept I have to admire Ian for...but as for the music itself... no comparison, TAAB rules.

Interesting to note that the Thick As A Brick album was top five in the USA in 1972, while APP wasn't anywhere near as successful sales-wise.

 

August 1973 “A Passion Play” reaches #1 on the American charts.

 

Funny; that was the other show I saw that I thought of when posting that. Both tours were influential to how some of the better (and more financially well-heeled) rock acts would tour henceforth.

A side note: although much amazing technology (mechanical stages, VariLites, huge hi-def video screens, etc.) is utilised in shows today, many of these shows seem oddly static for all that; but there was a real magic in the best Seventies rock tours. Of course, I could be a bit cynical or blase, having been in the business for decades. (You know: "Things were so much cooler when I was young; Roger Dean staging...lasers..." Yeah, sure, whatever you say grandpa!)

 

Sometimes chart success and overall sales success are two different things though. An album can start off strongly, get to the #1 spot, and then drop off very quickly.