Really Don't Mind If You Sit This One Out...
My words but a whisper, your deafness a shout...
I've been on a bit of a 60's/70's kick the last few days, and have rediscovered the musical experience that is the concept album, amongst other things. I'm going to be posting a few things over the next ... whenever, and hopefully will give those that haven't experienced some of these wonderful bands a chance to discover them, and those who already know them to perhaps rediscover the innovation, the originality and brilliance of the musical environment of the era. It really was a time of great change in popular music, with many influences converging and melding into truly original music.
It was a time when you really did have such a wide variety of brilliant artists all releasing such wonderful work -
And I thought I'd start with one of my favourite bands, Jethro Tull. Progressive/Folk/Rock at its very best in my opinion, especially their work during the 70's. There's just something about Jethro Tull that gets to me - I love their musical brilliance, I love their energy, I loved Ian Anderson's madness (and codpieces). I love his very original flute technique and, of course, his voice - he's the musical equivalent of Alan Rickman in my opinion - his voice just does unspeakable things to me, and I could listen to him all day. Such a timbre, and his phrasing and singing style is all his own. They vary a great deal in their music, but they still manage to maintain that Jethro Tull flavour - so you can almost guarantee you'll find something of theirs that you'll like.
I'll start with this one - perverse of me, as he plays flageolet not flute in this, but I love it - The Whistler, from Songs from the Wood, one of their short tracks that was very popular, and then go on to a few others that give you an idea of what they do if you've not heard them before, and then, for those brave souls who want the whole experience - I've included the full Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play - both 40 odd minute concept albums. Put on your good headphones, as they're in true stereo, and try them - you may find you love them, as I do.
One of their heavier songs, from the album Aqualung - Locomotive Breath. Fantastic bluesy intro, great flute, wonderful vocals... still my all time favourite track from that album, which is fantastic.
Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day from their album War Child
Well, now comes the gooooooood bit!
The concept albums - Thick as a Brick was initially intended to be a bit of a parody of concept albums after their previous album, Aqualung was dubbed as one when they didn't consider it so. Thick as a Brick was fantastically packaged, and was in the form of a newspaper which claimed that Jethro Tull had made the album around the poem of an eight year old boy called Gerald Bostock. It had a twelve page newspaper included with it - all very well done, and a little pythonesque - not surprising, as Monty Python was a huge cultural influence at the time. Thick as a Brick 2 is getting released in April 2012, based around what would have happened in little Gerald Bostock's life after his brush with fame - he'd be 50 this year. Ian Anderson says that people still ask him about Gerald, not realising that he was a fictional character, which inspired him to write the sequel.
If you want to know more about it, you can look it up on wikipedia, or go to the Jethro Tull site, which has a very good rundown on both this and A Passion Play - http://www.j-tull.com/discography/thickasabrick/index.html along with all of their releases. Just go to the drop box at the top left hand corner, and pick an album.
Thick as a Brick.
And A Passion Play - begins with a man watching his own funeral, then his journey through the afterlife, with his eventual reincarnation - Another fantastically packaged album - it came with a theatre program of 'the play', with biographies of all the actors (band members with pseudonyms), and other bits and pieces - you can view them on the site link I gave earlier. I hope you give this a try - I actually think it's one of their best.
Hope you enjoyed these. More postings of this era to come.
PS - Sorry for the overuse of the word 'fantastic' - lack of sleep is my excuse. Exhaustion from insomnia has led to a distinct dent in my vocabulary - which isn't fantastic at all.
I've been on a bit of a 60's/70's kick the last few days, and have rediscovered the musical experience that is the concept album, amongst other things. I'm going to be posting a few things over the next ... whenever, and hopefully will give those that haven't experienced some of these wonderful bands a chance to discover them, and those who already know them to perhaps rediscover the innovation, the originality and brilliance of the musical environment of the era. It really was a time of great change in popular music, with many influences converging and melding into truly original music.
It was a time when you really did have such a wide variety of brilliant artists all releasing such wonderful work -
And I thought I'd start with one of my favourite bands, Jethro Tull. Progressive/Folk/Rock at its very best in my opinion, especially their work during the 70's. There's just something about Jethro Tull that gets to me - I love their musical brilliance, I love their energy, I loved Ian Anderson's madness (and codpieces). I love his very original flute technique and, of course, his voice - he's the musical equivalent of Alan Rickman in my opinion - his voice just does unspeakable things to me, and I could listen to him all day. Such a timbre, and his phrasing and singing style is all his own. They vary a great deal in their music, but they still manage to maintain that Jethro Tull flavour - so you can almost guarantee you'll find something of theirs that you'll like.
I'll start with this one - perverse of me, as he plays flageolet not flute in this, but I love it - The Whistler, from Songs from the Wood, one of their short tracks that was very popular, and then go on to a few others that give you an idea of what they do if you've not heard them before, and then, for those brave souls who want the whole experience - I've included the full Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play - both 40 odd minute concept albums. Put on your good headphones, as they're in true stereo, and try them - you may find you love them, as I do.
Click to viewOne of their heavier songs, from the album Aqualung - Locomotive Breath. Fantastic bluesy intro, great flute, wonderful vocals... still my all time favourite track from that album, which is fantastic.
Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day from their album War Child
Well, now comes the gooooooood bit!
The concept albums - Thick as a Brick was initially intended to be a bit of a parody of concept albums after their previous album, Aqualung was dubbed as one when they didn't consider it so. Thick as a Brick was fantastically packaged, and was in the form of a newspaper which claimed that Jethro Tull had made the album around the poem of an eight year old boy called Gerald Bostock. It had a twelve page newspaper included with it - all very well done, and a little pythonesque - not surprising, as Monty Python was a huge cultural influence at the time. Thick as a Brick 2 is getting released in April 2012, based around what would have happened in little Gerald Bostock's life after his brush with fame - he'd be 50 this year. Ian Anderson says that people still ask him about Gerald, not realising that he was a fictional character, which inspired him to write the sequel.
If you want to know more about it, you can look it up on wikipedia, or go to the Jethro Tull site, which has a very good rundown on both this and A Passion Play - http://www.j-tull.com/discography/thickasabrick/index.html along with all of their releases. Just go to the drop box at the top left hand corner, and pick an album.
Thick as a Brick.
And A Passion Play - begins with a man watching his own funeral, then his journey through the afterlife, with his eventual reincarnation - Another fantastically packaged album - it came with a theatre program of 'the play', with biographies of all the actors (band members with pseudonyms), and other bits and pieces - you can view them on the site link I gave earlier. I hope you give this a try - I actually think it's one of their best.
Hope you enjoyed these. More postings of this era to come.
PS - Sorry for the overuse of the word 'fantastic' - lack of sleep is my excuse. Exhaustion from insomnia has led to a distinct dent in my vocabulary - which isn't fantastic at all.