As I make my way through the Royal Shakespeare Co. DVDs, I’ve realized that I hadn’t ever watched Olivier’s Hamlet, Henry V or Richard III. Also that another reason to do so, is Wm Walton’s scores. It’s all great stuff which does not require judgment from me, so I forbear to comment at present.
I’ve been revisiting (especially) two Jethro Tull albums: Thick As a Brick and Passion Play. Without pretending that they are somehow perfect, I simply love them both still. Their imperfections (which I consider kind of beside the point)do not mar the overall impact. And most of all, I admire Ian Anderson’s nerve and I applaud the bold result. Both albums are (especially after the critically acclaimed watershed album Aqualung) rather on the abstruse side. Queer beast that it can be, the “rock press” fixes on an idea and pats itself on the back for the idea upon which it has fixated. E.g. they lauded Aqualung as a great “concept album.” Hang on, quietly murmured Ian Anderson, I thought it was just a collection of songs. And further thought, I’ll give them a concept album. The conceit of Thick As a Brick (which succeeds as much as a baffling hoax as a concept album) is an extended poem putatively written by a precocious 14-year-old and which is snubbed by a local poetry contest. The resulting album is not going to be everybody’s cup of Assam (heck, I should not be surprised if it came near to alienating some Tull fans, but as a You thought that was a concept album, eh? riposte, it’s undeniably bold. It were overstating the matter to call the album symphonic, yet much of the musical material on the album springs from the folksy opening, whereof Anderson thought sufficiently highly to include it, as “Thick As a Brick Edit #1” on the compilation album M.U. The Best of Jethro Tull. There are passages which return rhythmically varied, and overall, it is more musically ambitious than your average pop music album. Likewise A Passion Play, whose superficial gravity is delightfully punctured by the whimsical children’s-story entr’acte, “The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles.” As with Thick As a Brick, Anderson curated extracts to include on both M.U. The Best of Jethro Tull & Repeat— The Best of Jethro Tull Vol. II.
Other idle pursuits this Christmastide include a deep-ish dive into Vincent Price, and celebrating Zappa’s 85th birthday.
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