Prog Album of the Week - Week 2 (06/16/2013): Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick (1972)

Welcome to the second week of r/progrockmusic's Album of the Week! Last week we discussed King Crimson's In The Court of the Crimson King and that was lovely. I really don't mind if you sit this week out, but I'd love it if you joined in on the discussion. So! Come all ye young prog fans, dust off your record players and lets get this week's Album of the Week discussion started! Before we do that, though, some business:

This week (specifically, yesterday) I posted a thread discussing what direction we'd like the Album of the Week to go in and the general response was that we continue on a relatively similar road: we'll cover several classics and (hopefully) seamlessly ease into some of the less accessible albums soonish.

So, then, we'll keep up with the classics for an indeterminate number of weeks until Saint Fripp whispers in my ear and tells me it's time to move on to smaller and worse^^^justkidding things, at which point we'll delve into the depths of the unknown.

Until then, though, (and without further ado), let's all get listening to a classic prog album. Which one, you ask?

Well, it's often cited as the band's greatest work and a crowning achievement of the genre. The band who started out bluesy but found their progressive sound shortly after; an album whose commercial success at the time would be envied even by the likes of such prog giants as King Crimson and Yes - yup, I'm talking about Jethro Tull. And, as I'm sure you've guessed by the mystically encrypted lyrics, the album in question is Under Wraps!

Just kidding.

http://imgur.com/tjjv4hW ###Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick (1972)

Track Listing

1. Thick As A Brick (part 1); 2) Thick As A Brick (part 2).

• The album on YouTube
• Wikipedia page
• Rolling Stone review (5/5)
• George Starostin Review (13/15)
• Lyrics

####Potential Discussion Questions:

• Thick as a Brick was an obvious milestone in the genre. What did Ian and co. bring to the table musically as well as lyrically?

• How would you personally rate the album?

• Sidelong compositions were increasingly popular in the prog world: Tarkus, Lizard, Nine Feet Underground, Supper's Ready... but Thick as a Brick was more daring in that it was a single song that occupied both sides. How badass was that?

• Jethro Tull was an enigmatic little British group. How did their sound evolve from the pure jazz and blues of This Was to the bombastic, epic, beautiful, evocative sound of Thick as a Brick?

• Are there any moments on the album you consider particularly strong or particularly weak (i.e., favourite/least favourite moments)?

• The album (song) reached #1 on the Billboard Top 100 charts, uncharted territory for most prog songs, let alone a single 45 minute one; what contributed to TAAB's commercial and critical success?

^contributions, ^comments ^& ^corrections ^are ^welcome. ^Message ^/u/BenBenBenBe. ^Sorry ^for ^the ^long-winded ^into; ^I ^couldn't ^help ^meself.