A PASSION PLAY: AN EXTENDED PERFOMANCE

Jethro Tull

Prog Folk

4.87 | 86 ratings

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Ian Anderson's one-upmanship in this follow up album to Thick As A Brick, A Passion Play, has much in common with Yes's Tales From Topographic Oceans from the same year. Both albums come after the bands' arguably finest artistic achievements, TAAB and CTTE. Both are concept albums featuring complete suites of music on each album side. Both are instrumentally highly adventurous and very, strong lyrically, but have their critics questioning the obtuseness of the lyrics. Neither have a clearly defined narrative (some argue there is a narrative flowing through APP) making live performance of the complete albums difficult for audiences to appreciate (Yes get round this by playing one side of the music in live performance. I'm unaware Jethro Tull ever performed APP again after the initial concert tours). The release of both albums caused dissention within the ranks of the bands. Rick Wakeman didn't like the music of TFTO. After Chris Welch of Melody Maker savaged the music of APP Ian Anderson himself expressed misgivings in his work. And with the Tull and Yes fans, these are either love it or hate it albums.

There, the comparisons end. A Passion Play is very dark, written in the minor keys. It shares an ironic reference to The Passion of Jesus Christ, but any connection is only a pastoral one. The story Ian Anderson attempts to recite is a journey into the afterlife, so closer to "Orpheus and Eurydice" than the trial and tribulations of Jesus Christ on earth. Debunking it all is a dead ballerina on the cover of the album and a centerpiece of the concept album is a spoken word text of a play within the music, called The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles. So really all one can really say about A Passion Play is that it's very musical theater and very much a tease (or spoof) like TAAB and not to be taken seriously.

Musically this album departs from TAAB in the manner Ian Anderson uses sax and alto sax more than he does flute, giving the album a more, jazzy feel than the usual Jethro Tull album. There are musical motifs running through the journey of the album as one piece connects to another, creating a continuous flow. There is a wider array of instruments with John Evans using lots of mini-Moog to effect.

Part I begins quietly with drum, organ and sound effects as we get into the main theme with flute, mini-Moog, organ, whistle effects and acoustic guitar as Anderson sings the main verse. John Evans enters the fray with his piano as Anderson sings, "There was a rush along the Fulham Road; There was a hush in the Passion Play". More acoustic guitar. An interlude of Spanish guitar and Bach like organ runs and then the sax starts up and then another lyrical verse, "And who comes here to wish me well? A sweetly-scented angel fell". Acoustic guitar, organ and electric guitar and Spanish guitar with more organ, then acoustic guitar reciting the main theme, which has a quality reminding me of TAAB. Lots of stops and starts, a flute passage then drums and then a burst of chorus, "Take the prize for instant pleasure; captain of the cricket team". The music gets very menacing. Lots of organ, drums and electric guitar with John Evans pounding his piano with the chords of the main theme. A bridge of sax, piano, drums and electric guitar we finally get to the coda of Ian's last verse with a quiet piano passage, before the ethereal effects of the instrumental piece, "Forest Dance", with acoustic guitar and ascending keyboard notes, introducing us to the play TSOTHWLHS, narrated by Jeffrey Hammond. This is just a silly nonsense piece with orchestra conducted by David Palmer. At its conclusion we return to the instrumental piece "Forest Dance" and then onto APP, part II.

The second part of APP begins acoustically with Ian singing "Foot of Our Stairs" before it gets heavy instrumentally with sax, drums and electric guitar. More acoustic guitar, a bridge of mini-Moog and then it's back to Ian singing the main musical theme to acoustic guitar. More mini-Moog, voices, marimba and drums, Ian sings "Overseer Overture". Another bridge of fading mini-Moog and it's into "Flight from Lucifer" Ian sardonically singing, "I'd give my halo for a horn and the horn for the hat I once had; I'm only breathing". The sweet acoustic guitar music of a Spanish serenade is suddenly broken by some heavy electric guitar and crashing cymbals. An instrumental of sax, flute, electric guitar follows before Ian wraps it all up in the epilogue when he reprises the opening theme as the music fades out.

I honestly feel APP is Ian Anderson's finest moment with the band. Whether or not he wants to disassociate himself from the music he created, I feel he succeeded in this successor to TAAB, where he takes the fictional character of Gerald Bostock in a spoof of concept albums, to this one where he creates the fictional figure of Ronnie Pilgrim, whose journey into the afterlife is a ruse to spoof the musical theatre genre. As to whether APP succeeds with its audience as a concept piece of progressive rock music worthy as a successor to TAAB, one of the great progressive rock albums of the 1970's, maybe I'm alone in asserting that it does.

iluvmarillion | 5/5 | 2020-8-15

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