Why is Tull's "A Passion Play" rated so low?

Barbu wrote: Snicolette wrote: got to hear the whole thing on the way, as it was a bit of a drive.....June 15, 1973 ^ I too perfectly remember my first APP hearing: in an hotel room on a Sunday afternoon, May 22 1994. (lol) (I'll be back on that soon)

Saturday, May 21, 1994. A bunch of friends drove to the big city for some action and a good time.
The next morning we went downtown, direction 'the big music shop' (berri-uqam). At the time I was familiar with only two Tull records (A little Light Music & Thick as a Brick), I was enjoying them both greatly and decided it was a good opportunity to get some more.
In less than an hour I spent $500 (a small fortune for me at the time) on a good fifteen Tull studio albums + the 25th anniversary 4 cd box set.
Back at the hotel, while some were taking a nap, I pick up A Passion Play on the pile, headed for the bathroom and locked the door.
I slowly unwrapped it with trembling hands...maaan - one song/45 minutes, Thick as a Brick part 2 I thought with a sense of trepidation.
I put the cd in the discman, sat back comfortably, lit up a cigarette and pressed play:

Heartbeat...full band intro with (yuk) saxophone then piano and that strange singing style (hmmm?), full band again and more sax (wtf! where's the damn flute?).
I vomited for the first time during 'The Hare' and before the end of side 2 I was sobbing like a baby.

When I came out three quarters of an hour later, my girlfriend gave me a look and said: 'Are you feeling alright? you look rather pale'.
'It's okay', I said, 'everything's right'. Man, it was not since I had the impression that I had just threw five hundred bucks
out of the hotel room window. I only hope that they're not all horrible like this, I thought.

Around 7:30pm the same day we were all seated in the parterre at the Montréal Olympic Stadium sharing a joint and when the first notes of
'Astronomy Domine' started, that first repulsive A Passion Play experience was just a vague and distant memory.

Edited by Barbu - October 03 2019 at 13:13

Dervish D wrote: I think its great. Knew it was great first time I heard it and I still listen to it today. It helped when I saw it performed in Nashville. Still one of the best concerts I have ever been to...

It WAS my first concert, providing me a very cherished memory of how great that rendition of the band was. The album itself was beautifully designed with its faux playbill that's still good for a laugh. The music is densely constructed with a satisfying segue around every corner. Not bad for a concept album that was thrown together on a whim after a troublesome previous project was abandoned.

^

Why are any exceedlngly challenging masterpieces rated low? Because there seems to be a threshold of tolerance for many who don't have the ambition to accept the challenge of what the album has to offer. 

Incidentaly. Does a prog album played in a sealed bunker with nobody in that bunker, have a nominal (quantum) rating? I think it does...

Logan wrote: ... Different brains process information differently, one is not just hearing music, one processes it, and each person will process it a little differently (as well as variance in hearing), so in a sense, even if we are listening to the same recording, we are not "hearing" the same music. So I would say that art in a sense is the interactive process, or art is, or art happens at the intersection/ interstice, the relationship between the art and the admirer. ...

I received it as a member of the Columbia Record Club as the "Selection of the Month" when it first came out. I had not been a Tull fan though I liked some of their songs, but Passion Play mesmerized me for days. I couldn't figure out why it was that such an intricately crafted and obviously virtuosic musical experience was so difficult to get into! I finally gave up and have felt the exact same each and every time I have returned to it. The music or engineering or something is too dense and the story is virtually inaccessible because it's so colloquially Brit-lit and, therefore, meaningless to an unsympathetic American like me. 

M27Barney wrote:

I haven't heard the music, but somehow I think I must obtain a copy and give it a spin..mind you since i'm not a massive fan of the saxophone, perhaps that may put me off...[/QUOTE] Those sopranino saxophones really livened things up though.

Edited by BarryGlibb - October 04 2019 at 17:58