TODAY'S ALBUM: No.11 (5th November 2011)

'Thick As A Brick' 

by Jethro Tull
(1972)

Led by vocalist, guitarist and flautist Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull(named so after the famous 18th century agriculturist) were formed in the late-sixties with an initial line-up that saw Anderson augmented by Mick Abrahams(guitar), Glenn Cornick(bass) and Clive Bunker(drums). Having moved to London during the summer of 1967 and basing themselves in the satellite town of Luton, the poverty-stricken group spent the next few months gigging incessantly before being picked up by the Ellis Wright agency who, in turn, brokered the group a deal with Chrysalis Records. At this time Jethro Tull were basically an early-Fleetwood Mac style blues outfit with a slightly experimental bent, though they would gradually begin to move away from the blues after the failure of their 1968 Derek Lawrence-produced single 'Sunshine Day'. Frustrated by his inability to, in his own words, 'play the guitar like Eric Clapton', Anderson chucked in the six-stringer and picked up the flute, an instrument that would, alongside his infamous on-stage codpiece, come to define the Scotsman over the next four decades. 1968 would also see the release of Jethro Tull's debut 'This Was'. The album showed slight folk, rock and classical influences blended into a strong blues style and also showcased the dextrous guitar-style of Abrahams. A minor success, 'This Was' would cultivate a small-but-loyal fanbase that would grow substantially after the group's second album, 'Stand Up,' reached the number one spot on the UK album charts. It was subsequently followed by two further albums in the form of 1970's less-bluesy and more hard rock-styled 'Benefit' and the group's first international hit 'Aqualung',  from 1971. By the release of 'Aqualung' the Jethro Tull sound had altered radically, virtually leaving behind the Cream-inflected blues style of their late-sixties line-up and instead fully embracing the burgeoning progressive rock movement, a genre which gave both Anderson and his cohorts greater freedom to experiment and explore new and exciting musical avenues. Thus 'Thick As A Brick' would arrive in 1972 with Anderson tagging the album as 'the ultimate concept piece', a statement made by the Jethro Tull front-man due to the fact that the album contained just one single enormous song split into two parts(named, helpfully, 'Thick As A Brick Part One' &, unsurprisingly 'Thick As A Brick Part Two'). The album embraced elements of folk music, with Anderson's quicksilver flute-playing combining deftly with jagged guitars and melodic organ breaks, whilst also featuring highly experimental sections that moved the overall group sound even further away from their blues-drenched past. 
By now Mick Abrahams had moved on to pastures new, joining up with the blues outfit 'Blodwyn Pig', whilst both Glenn Cornick and Clive Bunker had also left the fold. They had, over the intervening years, been replaced by many of Anderson's former band-mates from the flautist's pre-Jethro Tull days, and by the time the group entered London's Morgan studios to start recording 'Thick As A Brick' the line-up consisted of Anderson(flute, vocals), Barriemore Barlow(drums), Jeffrey Hammond(bass), Martin Barre(guitar) and yet another ex-colleague of Anderson's in the form of John Evans(piano, keyboards, organs). This version of Jethro Tull would stay for the subsequent 'A Passion Play', an album that would cap off what is often referred to as group's 'progressive period'. 
At the heart of this period is 'Thick As A Brick' and it's mammoth, forty-five minute, two-part song that remains to this very day one of the most ambitious examples of the genre. Of the two sides it is perhaps 'Part One' that is the strongest, surging as it does from medieval-style, acoustic folk-ballad beginnings into blistering hard-rocking realms and onwards into fiendishly inventive progressive sections filled with twittering flutes and meaty organs. At the hub of everything lie Anderson's grizzled choir-boy vocals, navigating the listener through the myriad inter-changing musical chapters, and despite the lengthy running time and surreal lyrical content 'Thick As A Brick' remains resolutely fascinating throughout. The fact that the album made the number one spot in the US album charts showed just how varied an album it is, as well as demonstrating the considerable pull British progressive rock had on American audiences during the early 1970's. Alongside Pink Floyd, Yes, Led Zeppelin and Emerson Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull would, for a brief while, prove to be one of the most popular British acts in North America, selling millions of records and selling out packed-out concert halls and stadiums across the continent-sized nation. Their desire to create startlingly innovative music made up of many different genre's and styles marks them out as one of the more peculiar groups from progressive rock's golden age, and in 'Thick As A Brick' they have authored one of the genre's most endearing pieces and an album that perfectly sums up the versatility afforded to those musicians who operate within the enormous confines of this highly cerebral music.


Key songs: Thick As A Brick (Part One)