A PASSION PLAY

A Passion Play was a very difficult album for me to listen. It all started when I discovered Jethro Tull, on a DVD (file) recorded by a friend, which contained This Was, Stand Up, Aqualung, Thick as a Brick and Songs From the Wood. When I heard these albums I was absolutely amazed with the band. I decided to go after the other works I found that there were but I had not heard. For me, the expectation was A Passion Play. Obviously after the masterpieces Aqualung and Thick as a Brick, APP should be their best album.

It was one of the most confusing moments of my life. The band was the same, the musicians were the same... What was it that I just heard? There were changes, repeats, stories about hares ... I was, like Lester Bangs "totally bamboozled!"

There was only one part that satisfied me: Magus Perdè! What a sensational guitar riff, otherworldly, mysterious, but totally rational within that album. Magus Perdè made me believe that I would be able to understand APP.

Indeed, the years went by and I was reading the lyrics, learning more about the history of the band, the recording problems that interrupted a double album, the concerts extremely elaborated, etc. I often say that APP is a puzzle: you should try to complete it every day. Fits some parts, come back years later, fit a few more. The messages are there, everything is there.

That is something I never understand when people came to rate APP so low. What do you prefer? A album that gives away everything it is in the first listen or a album that you have to construct your own understanding and meaning to it? A album that gives you the oportunity to do so... its a masterpiece.

I could go no, and on, and on... but I have lost my spectacles.