IAN ANDERSON WAS AS THICK AS A BRICK

Forgive me if somewhere along the lines i have written a blog about the JETHRO TULL album THICK AS A BRICK, a one song conceptual progressive rock album that was the brainchild of the band's artistic axis and mainstay member IAN


ANDERSON, the most famous flute player in the history of rock. Tull's sound was rarely even remotely standard melodic rock fare, moreover a combination of english and celtic folk and the most primitive form of progressive rock.

My favourite Tull album will always be AQUALUNG, simply because it's the closest thing to hard rock and standard melodic structure that Anderson and company ever devised, THICK AS A BRICK was a rather self depreciating attempt by Anderson to manufacture as it were a progressive rock album following the release of AQUALUNG, which the UK music press sterotyped as being progressive rock, much to the chagrin of Anderson.

In his own words, AQUALUNG was never a progressive rock album, and doesn't sound like one, and that it was placed in that category at the time of its release in 1971 by the music press because at that time GENESIS and PINK FLOYD were the coolest thing to listen to.

THICK AS A BRICK is actually a parody if you listen to it carefully, and it features a medley of some very unstandard instruments in a mainstream rock band - like xylophone, timpani and lute.

AQUALUNG is better, but THICK AS A BRICK is fine if you like early GENESIS or hearing an eccentric blend of sounds to rival that of CAPTAIN BEEFHEART.

The front cover of the album courted some degree of controversy in the UK by vaguely displaying the underwear of a teenage girl, whose seated next to Gerald, the boy standing next to her who is the fictitious author of the poem that the album is based upon. Hey, it was the 70`s, dont knock it (laugh).