06-04-2014, 01:38 PM
Funny music story this time from 1971:
After the release of their successful "Aqualung" album, the band noted multiple critics who stated the songs one it were too long, the lyrics were just rambling words that didn't mean anything, and the entire thing just sounded too pompous and over the top, a prime example of the eccentricities of the progressive rock movement.
While many might brush that off, the band got together and decided to make sure their next album was an even more bombastic and utterly confusing concept album to drive the critics even battier.
So, their next album was "Thick as a Brick". Thick as a Brick consists of a single two part song (it was only two parts because one had to flip the record over to listen to the B side). Ian Anderson, the band's lead vocalist and flautist wrote all the lyrics, meant to confuse the listener with how over the top it was and how many big words it contained without actually conveying any message. He then credited the lyrics to a fictional 8 year old boy named Gerald Bostock.
When it came time to design the packaging, the band decided to create an entire 12 page small town newspaper, with Gerald Bostock's epic poem as the headline due to the uproar it caused in the school. The newspaper articles are all quite humorous and filled with subtle jokes at pop culture and music critics. Ian Anderson recalled that it actually took them longer to write all the fake articles and design the packaging than it took to write, record and produce all the music in the album.
Ironically, as it was meant to be perhaps the biggest joke in music history, the album became to be considered Jethro Tull's magnum opus, lauded as one of the best albums of all time by many critics and remains one of their best sellers. Sometimes that the way the cookie crumbles, I guess.
Take a listen to it in full:
After the release of their successful "Aqualung" album, the band noted multiple critics who stated the songs one it were too long, the lyrics were just rambling words that didn't mean anything, and the entire thing just sounded too pompous and over the top, a prime example of the eccentricities of the progressive rock movement.
While many might brush that off, the band got together and decided to make sure their next album was an even more bombastic and utterly confusing concept album to drive the critics even battier.
So, their next album was "Thick as a Brick". Thick as a Brick consists of a single two part song (it was only two parts because one had to flip the record over to listen to the B side). Ian Anderson, the band's lead vocalist and flautist wrote all the lyrics, meant to confuse the listener with how over the top it was and how many big words it contained without actually conveying any message. He then credited the lyrics to a fictional 8 year old boy named Gerald Bostock.
When it came time to design the packaging, the band decided to create an entire 12 page small town newspaper, with Gerald Bostock's epic poem as the headline due to the uproar it caused in the school. The newspaper articles are all quite humorous and filled with subtle jokes at pop culture and music critics. Ian Anderson recalled that it actually took them longer to write all the fake articles and design the packaging than it took to write, record and produce all the music in the album.
Ironically, as it was meant to be perhaps the biggest joke in music history, the album became to be considered Jethro Tull's magnum opus, lauded as one of the best albums of all time by many critics and remains one of their best sellers. Sometimes that the way the cookie crumbles, I guess.
Take a listen to it in full: