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Information about Thick As A Brick

Thick as a Brick
Enlarge picture
Thick as a Brick cover
Studio album by Jethro Tull
Released March 3, 1972 (UK)
May 10, 1972 (US)
Recorded December 1971 at Morgan Studios, London
Genre Progressive rock
Length 43:50 (22:45 LP side 1; 21:05 LP side 2)
Label Island Records (Original UK)
Reprise (original US)
Chrysalis/Capitol (US re-issue)
Producer Ian Anderson
Professional reviews
Jethro Tull chronology
Aqualung
(1971)		Thick as a Brick
(1972)		Living in the Past
(1972)
Alternate cover
The cover of the 1995 25th anniversary re-release. Note the vertically elongated front page image and the completely different leftmost panel.


Thick as a Brick (1972) is a concept album by the British rock band Jethro Tull. Its lyrics are built around a poem written by a fictitious boy, "Gerald Bostock" a.k.a. "Little Milton" (Ian Anderson himself). The album only featured one song, lasting over 43 minutes. To accommodate the album on LP vinyl, the seamless track was split on both sides of the record. The epic is notable for its numerous time signature and tempo changes (not uncommon to the newly emerging progressive rock subgenre of rock), as well as a large number of themes throughout the piece, resembling a typical classical symphony in this regard, rather than a typical rock song. Released in 1972, Thick As A Brick was Tull's first true prog rock offering, four years after the release of their first album. Not only was the musical structure complex, but many instruments uncommon in rock music were added. Whereas in prior numbers the band were content with guitars, drums, piano, Hammond organ, and Ian Anderson's signature flute, Thick As A Brick included harpsichord, xylophone, violin, lute, trumpet, and a string section (as well as acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums, bass, piano, and flute).

While the previous album, Aqualung, stretched the band's wings further from the blues of the first three albums, it was still basically mainstream rock. Band leader Ian Anderson was surprised by the critical reaction to the previous album Aqualung as a "concept album", a label he has firmly rejected to this day. In an interview on In the Studio with Redbeard (which spotlighted Thick as a Brick), Ian Anderson's response to the critics was "if the critics want a concept album we'll give them a concept album and we'll make it so bombastic and so over the top." With Thick as a Brick, the band created an album deliberately integrated around one concept: a poem by an intelligent English boy about the trials of growing up. Beyond this, the album was a send-up of all pretentious "concept albums". Anderson also stated in that interview that "the album was a spoof to the albums of Yes and Emerson, Lake and 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.

Cover

The original LP cover was a spoof of a twelve by sixteen inch (305 by 406 mm) multipage local newspaper with stories, competitions, adverts, etc., lampooning the parochial and amateurish local journalism that still exists in many places today. The "newspaper" also includes the entire lyrics to the song. The spoof newspaper had to be heavily abridged for conventional CD covers, but the 25th Anniversary Special Edition CD includes a partial facsimile; some content is missing, such as the original connect the dots activity and part of the "front page".

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Thick as a Brick" (part one) (Ian Anderson/Gerald Bostock) – 22:45

Side two

  2. "Thick as a Brick" (part two) (Ian Anderson/Gerald Bostock) – 21:05

25th Anniversary Edition bonus tracks

  2. "Thick as a Brick" (live at Madison Square Garden, 1978) – 11:50
  3. Interview with Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond – 16:30

Personnel

External links

  •  • [ e] Jethro Tull
Ian Anderson | Martin Barre | Jonathan Noyce | Andrew Giddings | Doane Perry
Mick Abrahams | Clive Bunker | Glenn Cornick | Barriemore Barlow | Jeffrey Hammond | John Evan | David Palmer | John Glascock | Mark Craney | Peter-John Vettese | Eddie Jobson | Dave Pegg | Gerry Conway | Maartin Allcock | Dave Mattacks | Tony Iommi
Discography
Studio: This Was | Stand Up | Benefit | Aqualung | Thick as a Brick | A Passion Play | War Child |Minstrel in the Gallery | | Songs From The Wood | Heavy Horses | Stormwatch | A | Broadsword and the Beast | Under Wraps | A Classic Case | Crest of a Knave | Rock Island | Catfish Rising | Roots to Branches | J-Tull Dot Com | The Jethro Tull Christmas Album Live: | Bursting Out | Live at Hammersmith '84 | Jethro Tull In Concert | A Little Light Music | Living with the Past | Aqualung Live Compilation: M.U. - The Best Of Jethro Tull - Vol I | Repeat - The Best of Jethro Tull - Vol II | Original Masters | | The Best Of Jethro Tull - The Anniversary Collection | Through the Years | The Very Best of Jethro Tull | The Essential Jethro Tull | The Best of Acoustic Jethro Tull Compilation containing previously-unreleased material: Living in the Past | Nightcap Box set: 20 Years of Jethro Tull | 25th Anniversary Box Set
A studio album is a collection of studio-recorded tracks by a recording artist.

It usually does not contain live recordings or remixes, and if it does, those tracks do not make up a majority of the album and are often called "bonus tracks".
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Jethro Tull are a Grammy Award winning English rock band that formed in 1967-1968[1]. Their music is marked by the distinctive vocal style and lead flute work of front man Ian Anderson.
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March 3 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1431 - Eugene IV becomes Pope.

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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1940s  1950s  1960s  - 1970s -  1980s  1990s  2000s
1969 1970 1971 - 1972 - 1973 1974 1975

Year 1972 (MCMLXXII
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Motto
"Dieu et mon droit" [2]   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
"God Save the Queen" [3]
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May 10 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1291 - Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England.

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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1940s  1950s  1960s  - 1970s -  1980s  1990s  2000s
1969 1970 1971 - 1972 - 1973 1974 1975

Year 1972 (MCMLXXII
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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A music genre is a term that describes the process of dividing popular music into categories. Some treat the terms genre and style as the same, and state that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language.
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Progressive rock, sometimes shortened to "prog" or "prog rock", is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s, principally from psychedelic rock, blues rock, folk rock, hard rock, classical music, and jazz fusion, but also from a wide-ranging
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The of this article or section may be compromised by "weasel words".
You can help Wikipedia by removing weasel words. Long playing (LP) albums, either 10 or 12-inch , "33" rpm (actually 33.
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The of this article or section may be compromised by "weasel words".
You can help Wikipedia by removing weasel words. Long playing (LP) albums, either 10 or 12-inch , "33" rpm (actually 33.
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In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. In everyday usage, a record label is also a company that manages such brands and trademarks; coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution,
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Island Records is a record label that was founded by British record producers in Jamaica. It was based in England for many years, but is now owned by Universal Music Group of the United States, and is operated through The Island Def Jam Music Group.
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Reprise Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group, operated through Warner Bros. Records.

Company history

Reprise was formed in 1958 by Frank Sinatra in order to allow more artistic freedom for his own recordings.
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Chrysalis Records is a British record label that was created in 1969. The name is an amalgam of its founders names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis.

Brief background


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Capitol Records is a major United States-based record label, owned by EMI, located in Hollywood, California. Its headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine.
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In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering
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Ian Scott Anderson (born August 10, 1947 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland) (also known as 'The Voice of Jethro Tull') is a Scottish singer, songwriter, guitarist and flutist best known for his work as the head of British rock band Jethro Tull.
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The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music, owned by All Media Guide. AMG was founded in 1991 by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine and mathematician Vladimir Bogdanov, Ph.D., as a guide for consumers. Its first reference book was published the next year.
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Type Music magazine
Format

Owner Jann Wenner
Publisher Wenner Publishing
Editor Jann Wenner
Will Dana
Founded 1967
Language English
Headquarters New York City, NY
Circulation 1.2 to 1.
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Jethro Tull are a Grammy Award winning English rock band that formed in 1967-1968[1]. Their music is marked by the distinctive vocal style and lead flute work of front man Ian Anderson.
..... Click the link for more information.
Aqualung
(1971) Thick as a Brick
(1972)

Aqualung is the fourth studio album by the rock band Jethro Tull, released in 1971. The first side of the LP contains a series of six character sketches, including two sketches of people of
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Living in the Past
(1972) A Passion Play
(1973)

Living in the Past is a double album quasi-greatest-hits collection by Jethro Tull which contains album tracks, unreleased songs, and a number of singles and b-sides that had initially only
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In popular music, a concept album is an album which is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical" (Shuker 2002, p.5). Most often they are pre-planned (conceived) and with all songs contributing to a single overall theme or unified story,
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Rock 'n' Roll (short for Rock and Roll), is a genre of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to the rest of the world. It later spawned the various sub-genres of what is now called simply 'rock music'.
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Jethro Tull are a Grammy Award winning English rock band that formed in 1967-1968[1]. Their music is marked by the distinctive vocal style and lead flute work of front man Ian Anderson.
..... Click the link for more information.

Lyrics

For other uses, see Lyrical.


Lyrics are the words to a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit.
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Poetry (from the Greek "ποίησις", poiesis, a "making" or "creating") is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible
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Gerald Bostock (born circa 1963) is the fictional author of the poem used as the lyrics for the 1972 Jethro Tull album Thick as a Brick. The album cover is designed to look like a small village newspaper, the St. Cleve Chronicle & Linwell Advertiser.
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