Thick as a Brick vs. A Passion Play

With the extended version of Foot of our stairs APP gets a bit closer to TAAB but TAAB has the edge still

APP for me, no other Tull album has come close to grabbing my imagination like this one.

A Passion Play

"there was a hush..."

Voted for the underdog APP - if side 2 of TAAB had matched side 1 you'd be talking about the best prog rock album ever - but the 2nd side fails to match the constant highs of side one. 

Dont get it why people hate so much APP.

Its like they dont even try to understand the album - and yes, there is a lot of things there to understand. It takes time and a good bit of reading, thats all.

GKR wrote: Dont get it why people hate so much APP. Its like they dont even try to understand the album - and yes, there is a lot of things there to understand. It takes time and a good bit of reading, thats all.

My inability to understand APP has always been a huge part of the appeal. Things I don't understand fascinate me.

progrockdeepcuts wrote: GKR wrote: Dont get it why people hate so much APP. Its like they dont even try to understand the album - and yes, there is a lot of things there to understand. It takes time and a good bit of reading, thats all. My inability to understand APP has always been a huge part of the appeal. Things I don't understand fascinate me.

EXACTLY - understand the understandable and admire the mysterious (= Magus Perdè).

Dayvenkirq wrote: GKR wrote: Dont get it why people hate so much APP. Its like they dont even try to understand the album - and yes, there is a lot of things there to understand. It takes time and a good bit of reading, thats all. "Hate" is a strong word. I don't hate the album; I just don't get it. That doesn't mean I gave up on it, though impatience as an experience from the past is a factor, and nothing can change that. Also, an album, like any other piece of work, should be able to stand on its own, without an extramusical addendum. Otherwise, it's just a weak move.

I used the word "hate" for various things I read in Progarchives and beyond about what people think about the album... I do agree that is a strong word, sorry for that.

The question is that I do think that APP stand on its own - the reading I suggest is also for the lyrics itself - there are things pretty intelligible in APP.

One example about the life-death-reborn:
In the beggning of the Play, Ronnie Pilgrim is lead right after his death to the otherworld:
"And who comes here to wish me well?
A sweetly-scented angel fell.
She laid her head upon my disbelief
and bathed me with her ever-smile.
And with a howl across the sand
I go escorted by a band of gentlemen in leather bound
NO-ONE (but someone to be found)."

Note the "across the sand" part. Where do we saw sand again? The final part, when Magus Perdè will conceed life to Ronnie again:

"Hail! Son of kings make the ever-dying sign
cross your fingers in the sky for those about to BE.
There am I waiting along the sand."

The places of the Play are present in the same Play - which already indicate to a second level of the concept, as the APP being a Play that is Played.

APP stands for its own, but ir DEMANDS interpretation.

Even one single example demand of me a whole explanation.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. :P

I got to know Thick very well before I heard Play.  I don't hate the hare bit the way some people do.  I find it amusing.  Still it does kind of drag down the whole package compared to Thick.  Still I'm going to vote for A Passion Play.  BTW my LP copy of APP has a booklet in the middle of the cover, cool package.  I also have the original paper cover version of TAAB.  Not to mention the deluxe cover of Living In The Past.  The discs weren't in the best shape when I got them, but who cares? heheheheheh