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Jethro Tull - Aqualung


Jethro Tull
Aqualung

   

A Passion Play is the artsiest artifact yet to issue from the maddeningly eccentric mind of Ian Anderson. Conceived for live performance as much as for disk, its ultimate presentation incorporates a short film, written, directed and edited by Anderson, in addition to the madcap hysteria of the stage show. Having not seen the play, I can only comment on the disk, which is a pop potpourri of Paradise Lost and Winnie The Pooh, among many other literary resources, not to mention a vast array of musical ideas derivative of influences as far-flung as Purcell, flamenco and modern jazz.

Viewed as a recorded oratorio, or as a prolonged "single," or as any in-between hybrid,
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A Passion Play strangles under the tonnage of its pretensions—a jumble of anarchic, childishly precocious gestures that are intellectually and emotionally faithless to any idea other than their own esoteric non-logic.

Like Thick As a Brick, the aesthetic of A Passion Play is desperate zaniness, but here it is carried to even further extremes. The scenario roughly parallels the Passion of Christ. This parallel is not made half as clear in the play's gibberish, pun-laden verses and double-entendres (e.g., the playing back and forth between "be" and "bee," and in phrases like "Man/son of man") as in the album's cutesy playbill-within-record-jacket, perused in relation to its presumptuous title. If one undertakes the thankless task of unraveling the text as it coincides with the playbill, the sequence of events takes the following vague outline. Ronnie Pilgrim, a supercilious atheist, describes his own funeral, then goes through purgatory, part of which is a movie rerun of his life. He is teased by the saints who say: "Or/are we here/for the glory/for the story for the gory satisfaction of telling you how absolutely awful you really are," and then both narrates and is imaginative participant in a shaggy-dog fable, recited to film, called "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles," which (accompanied by the album's most ponderous "incidental" music) is meant to sum up the mundanely single vision of his whole life.

There ensues a descent into hell ("a business office," according to the program), in which Anderson takes, among other roles, that of Satan, followed by a resurrection into the drawing room of a Magus Perde. I leave it for the devout Tull freak to argue the details, the myriad subtleties, contradictions and paradoxes of this banal putdown, since, to my mind, neither the text nor the music seems to justify further analysis. Except for the addition of the "Hare-Spectacles" narration, the structure of A Passion Play is as free-form as that of Thick As a Brick. In tone, it is the ultimate exaggeration of self-indulgent English whimsy, an intellectual tease inflated with portent but devoid of wonder—in its cumulative expression mean and trivial.

The only positive aspect of the album i

Yes were sleeker, Emerson Lake and Palmer were grander, and Genesis more ingenious. But Jethro Tull were the most frazzled British art rockers of their day. That is never more clear than on the flighty Aqualung, the band's biggest U.S. hit. The title piece begins with some hoary singing from frontman Ian Anderson before everything gets swept up into a fast forest groove. "Cross-Eyed Mary" ushers in the flute-over-drums textures that became a Tull hallmark; some funk anchors the verses, which dovetail into a cranky singalong chorus. There's a prevailing woodwind litheness throughout the album, cut by mad piano runs and the granite solidity of the drums. A tension is in the background - even quiet folk pieces such as "Cheap Day Return" seem to be under some kind of inescapable pressure. But it's on the hell-bent "Locomotive Breath" that Tull bring their frazzle front and center, its barrage of clip-clop rhythms doubling and tripling themselves before Anderson can glide off onto one of his harried flute excursions.

Aqualung was a bear to make, Anderson has said, because of the difficulty of hearing all the parts in a Seventies studio. Today, it's the sparse quality of Aqualung you notice - the handmade sound of a band working to convey the kind of anxiety that now gets slapped onto tape with much more booming technology but far less care.

JAMES HUNTER
(RS 879 - October 11, 2001)



Jethro Tull Records and CDs:
A
A Passion Play
Aqualung
Benefit
Broadsword And The Beast
Bursting Out
Catfish Rising
Crest Of A Knave
  Heavy Horses
Jethro Tull
Living In The Past
M.u. The Best Of
Minstrel In The Gallery
Original Masters
Rock Island
  Roots To Branches
Songs From The Wood
Stand Up
Stormwatch
Sweet Dream
Thick As A Brick
This Was
  Through The Years
Too Old To Rock N Roll
Under Wraps
War Child

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    Jethro Tull   A
Incl. Dvd Usa, Emm/chrysalis, 724359710303
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Cd. Release Date: 04/20/2004. Us, Chry, 724359710303, 04/20/2004
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Status: Available Label: Emm / Chrysalis Catalog: 97103 Genre: Emm / Chrysalis, 7243597103...
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Includes Dvd. By The End Of The 1970s, The Golden Age Of Progressive Rock Was Over, And Jethro Tu... Special Order
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Jethro Tull - A   Jethro Tull   A
Japanese 24-bit Remastered Reissue Of 1980 Album Packaged In A Miniature Lp Sleeve Features 10 Tr...
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    Jethro Tull   A
VG+/VG+ CD   75.64   F-seventies
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    Jethro Tull   A
Chrysalis Che 1301 / 1980
VG / NM LP   4.99   Musical Ener
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    Jethro Tull   A
Chrysali1301 Chrysali
VG+ LP   5.50   Weird Harold
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    Jethro Tull   A
Chrysalis,1301,co,ly rics Sheet,1980
VG M- LP   6.90   Brothers
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In Stock. Shipped Within 24 Hours. Confirmation Email After Shipping. Number Of Discs: 1. Germany...
used/gebra LP   6.63   Total Recall
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1980 Germany, Chrysalis, 202838
EX/NM LP   8.00   KARMA VINYL
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A - Jethro Tull   Jethro Tull   A
10 Track Lp. Ex Library Copy With Stickers To Sleeve Chrysalis, Cdl 1301
vg+ LP   8.18   Billys Vinyl
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Jethro Tull - A Album   Jethro Tull   A
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M-/VG LP   8.40   Music Obsess
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Uk Rock With Ian Anderson & Martin Barre, With Eddie Jobson Ger, Chrysalis, 202838320, 1980
VG+/VG++, LP   8.05   OCTOPUSMUSIC
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Chrysalis
VG+ M- LP   9.20   Finyl Vinyl
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10 Tracks, Chrysalis Recs., 1980, Cdl1301, Ex/vg, Light Marks,includes Inner Sleeve.
LP   9.33   VinylUK
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With Lyric Inner Sleeve Uk, Chrysalis, Cdl1301
EX EX LP   9.33   Steve Fisher
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Jethro Tull - A Record   Jethro Tull   A
Gone Are The Longtime Anderson Images Of The Vagabond/sage (the Group Is Clad In White Jumpsuits ...
NEAR MINT LP   9.73   coolforever
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Inc. Inner Sleeve Chrysalis, Cdl 1301, 1980
EX/EX LP   10.08   Wall of Soun
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Che 1301 (#2) With Original Inner Sleeve
VG+/VG+ LP   11.00   MightyVinyl
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Uk Sleeve Ex- With Inner Chrysalis, Cdl1301
EX LP   11.20   Sweet Memori
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Inner Orig Uk, Chrysalis, 1980
VE LP   10.73   lost chord
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Chrysalis, 80
Ex/M LP   11.20   Second Spin
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    Jethro Tull   A
EX/NM LP   11.20   Bside the
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    Jethro Tull   A
Ex-/Ex- LP   12.88   VinylnetUK
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    Jethro Tull   A
202 838 320 De, Chrysalis Records, 0094632130112, 1980
USED LP   12.93   Inandout
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Jethro Tull - A LP   Jethro Tull   A
Gatefold Cover, Lyrics On Gatefold Argentina, Chrysalis, 4865, 1980
vg++/nm LP   13.00   Sudamerica
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U.s Chrysalis
nex/ex LP   13.72   Acousticsoup
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    Jethro Tull   A
Cdl 1301
EXEX LP   12.86   Studio
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4258 cond Sleeve/rec: G/ G B-side: Special Order
LP   16.10   CDExpress
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Uk 10 Track Original Lp + Inner Blue Chrysalis Label P/s (cdl1301) Uk, Cdl1301
M-/M- LP   16.13   Encore
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Brazil
VG+ VG+ LP   17.25   sebo do disc
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Jethro Tull - A CD   Jethro Tull   A
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EX EX LP   18.00   WorldCollect
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Original Mexico, Chrysalis Chr 18
EX EX LP   18.00   Latin Collec
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Jethro Tull - A Single   Jethro Tull   A
Orig s Chrysalis Che-1301, 1980
NM- NM- LP   18.40   Earth Wave
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    Jethro Tull   A
Brazil, Chrysalis, 1048169, 80
vg+ LP   19.00   Faunus
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Crossfire/flyingdale Flyer/working John Working Joe/black Sunday/protect And Survive/batteries No...
Ex Ex LP   17.26   Vinyl Soluti
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    Jethro Tull   A
Excellent Later Lp Featuring Eddie Jobson Printed Insert Intact Cdl1301 Uk
VG LP   20.33   Ear of the
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    Jethro Tull   A
Ger, Chrysalis, 202 838, 1980
VG VG+ LP   22.16   ERA Records
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    Jethro Tull   A
-'80, Chrysalis(g)202 838
near mint LP   22.08   Black Rhythm
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Jethro Tull - A EP   Jethro Tull   A
Sealed 1980 Original Usa, Chrysalis, Che 1301
SS LP   33.00   Audiophileus
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    Jethro Tull   A
Lp Ml 4439, Chrysalis
EX Other   14.93   AVID
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    Jethro Tull   A
«1980 Album»||remast. + Live Dvd Eu, Emi, 2004
2CD   19.51   ARTMUSIC
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Jethro Tull - A Vinyl   Jethro Tull   A
Jethro Tull A (1981 Mexican 10-track Chrysalis Label Vinyl Lp Album With Titles In English & Spa...
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    Jethro Tull   A
Dj Chrysalis, Che-1301
VG+/ NM LP+CDR   43.68   Allvinyl
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  Artist   Title Condition   Format   Price   Seller Location
    Jethro Tull   A
Lp + Cdr Copy: Ex 1980 Chrysalis:che1301: This Is An Excellent Lp That We Will Acquire From One Special Order
NEW LP+CDR   55.95   cdBBQ
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Lp/cd Combo / This Item For Sale At Gdm Is A Vinyl Lp That We Will Acquire From One Of Our Recor... Special Order
m- LP+CDR   65.00   Going Digita
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    Jethro Tull   A
Digitally Remastered Cd W/ Orig. Artwork. We Use Pro Audio Equip. (not A Computer) To Transfer Th... Special Order
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    Jethro Tull   A
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NEW/NEU! ( CD Box Set   29.53   Total Recall
Germany  More Info   
    Jethro Tull   A (+ Inner)
Chrysalis (blue), 80
Ex/Ex+ LP   11.20   Second Spin
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    Jethro Tull   A (+slipstream -j)
Tocp-67288 / New Copy / Cd2 Tocp-67288 Japan Special Order
CD   100.29   CDExpress
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    Jethro Tull   A (+slipstream -jap Ltd+dvd)
2CD   70.99   Jump-In-Jack
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    Jethro Tull   A (12page Booklet)
Europe, Chrysalis-72435968990-6
mint mint CD   13.32   Apex Music
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