TaaB - serious work or spoof concept

[Deleted]

I was watching the clip TM put up a few days ago from a UK TV show about prog rock, and in it again Ian states that he wanted to give the worlld the 'mother of all concept albums' and TaaB was that album. He claimed surprise that no-one realised it was a spoof.

Now, Ian knows best as regards his intentions, but what do you think, serious work or spoof concept album?

My take on it is that it was a serious piece, I can't imagine Chrysalis taking a risk on something like this if ian felt it was a bit of frigging about and a bit of a lark; too much effort has gone into it, plus loads of references which could link to feelings about his father and family, motifs and themes that run through many of the first five or six albums.

Over the years Ian has made fun of it as a way of distancing himself from those times and to present himself and the band as being outside of the trends and pomposities of those days.

Any other views?

[Mix]

I'm with you Quizz.
Ian seems to do this often. There are a number of interviews where he talks about Jack In The Green and his belief. Yet in recent times he labels it a load of bollocks.

I think TAAB is arguably Tull's finest work. It's certainly a work I would have in my top ten greats and I'm not talking just Tull greats.
A hell of a lot of work went into that album both musically and lyrically.

You'll notice the same is true of Ian regarding the follow up album Passion Play. Again, he dismisses it. I think it is a great shame he won't stand by much of his own work. He should be very proud!

[tootull]

Spoof newspaper - serious music. EPIC!

[TM]

Jul 16, 2010 15:58:37 GMT -5 tootull said:

Spoof newspaper - serious music. EPIC!

Exactly. The spoof was basically Gerald Bostock, and the album cover. The music seems very serious. Seriously good that is.

[Deleted]

I voted serious. Billy Hill also votes for serious.

[Morthoron]

I believe Ian would like to think that the entire effort was a parody -- a grand spoof on progressive rock of the era; however, Jethro Tull was so over the top at the time, and many of Tull's themes bordered on pompous, that it's hard to believe that Ian consciously devised an album to mock other bands. But that is only a feeling I have currently. I may be entirely wrong.

But I have to agree with others: an adolescent as Milton and a bogus newspaper were the spoofs, while the music itself was serious. Now, A Passion Play is a horse of a different color. I think that was certainly intended as a middle finger to the music industry and critics.

[Nonfatman]

Jul 21, 2010 20:54:54 GMT -5 Morthoron said:

I believe Ian would like to think that the entire effort was a parody -- a grand spoof on progressive rock of the era; however, Jethro Tull was so over the top at the time, and many of Tull's themes bordered on pompous, that it's hard to believe that Ian consciously devised an album to mock other bands. But that is only a feeling I have currently. I may be entirely wrong.

But I have to agree with others: an adolescent as Milton and a bogus newspaper were the spoofs, while the music itself was serious. Now, A Passion Play is a horse of a different color. I think that was certainly intended as a middle finger to the music industry and critics.

I agree, Greg, I thought it was intended as a serious prog-rock album, albeit with a humorous premise. I don't think it was meant as a spoof of the genre as Ian later claimed. That type of thing was in vogue in the early seventies, those records sold tremendously.

I also think that Passion Play was Ian giving the middle finger to that portion of his audience who liked to trip-out on LSD and other drugs during his concerts, much to his disdain. It was almost as if he cynically was saying, "okay, you want music you can trip out on drugs to, so that's exactly what I will give you." How else to explain the obtuse nature of the lyrics, the weird special effects and the whole Hare episode?

Jeff

[Blue]

And yet, and yet; I've always loved A Passion Play. In a good many ways it reminds me very much of Richard Strauss' Death and Transfiguration. Makes me glad I'm not a music critic. Or Ian Anderson.

[Deleted]

Jul 22, 2010 13:18:38 GMT -5 Blue said:

And yet, and yet; I've always loved A Passion Play. In a good many ways it reminds me very much of Richard Strauss' Death and Transfiguration. Makes me glad I'm not a music critic. Or Ian Anderson.

Me too, always loved APP but always thought that it wasn't quite as serious in its construction as TaaB.

The latter releases of the of the Chateau tapes on Nightcap [the animals concept] has always made me think that maybe APP possibly started out as a spoof, and the record company reeled Ian in and said, that they didn't buy it, forcing the band to re-record the more 'serious' APP stuff, like No Rehersal, Auditon and Scenario and the final version of the released APP. Just my flight of fancy.

Not linked musically, but I've always made a comparision with the theme of APP and Powell and Pressburger's "A matter of life and death"

[Deleted]

I am agreement with all I think Ian like to have memory fade when it fits his story at the time. There are many well documented cases of that. It is a very serious piece of music and subject matter that at that time was ground breaking on many fronts. A top band writes an entire album as one song (no other artist with the exception of Tull and or maybe a handful of others could get away with that in 71 or 72) Chyrsalis records a brand record label I do not believe would take that large a chance and the expense (especially on the packaging cost, remember there was a printing strike going on when that came out, and they persuaded them to run the album covers) on if they thought it was lark. They subject matter id far to deep to be spoof. The only spoof and humour was the the newspaper and the good ole Gerald Bostock and the SLAG Society. Ian lyrics and the subject matter where far too deep for it to be a spoof. Hell if it was he spoofed us with a number 1 LP in the US...but I doubt it

[SilverHamer]

Well, I'm going to agree...and I'm going to disagree. The entire concept of the album is a great work of sarcasm, from the newspaper articles contained on the cover being full of innuendo and the main front page story being a complete fabrication based on a fictitious character, to the sarcasm-laden lyrics. While the musical score is inarguably a very serious work of musical style which meshes a mixture of complex time signatures with sonic orgasms performed by 5 very intensely talented musical geniuses, the lyrics are rife[/i] with sarcasm. And on top of it all, I would venture to guess that the vast majority of Americans were totally unfamiliar with the expression "Thick As A Brick"...I know I personally just thought it was a very cute and witty rhyme for a very catchy song title. I would bet that had Ian titled the song "Dumb as a Box of Rocks", or "Stupid as the Day Is Long", we would have had a better initial understanding of where he was coming from in the chorus...but then the lyrics would have been different and the rhymes would have to shift..."and your wise men don't know how it feels to be dumb as a box of rocks" just doesn't work. And therein lies the spoof in my opinion...most of us didn't have a clue what the hell he was talking about because we weren't familiar with all of the British colloquialisms contained in the song lyrics.

Of course, Ian has been known for his irreverence toward certain aspects of "the establishment", particularly after the great success of the Aqualung album which, in general, is a knock against organized religion. And did any of us American types really know what he was saying with the term "...you poor old sod"[/i]? Only Ian could have gotten away with that...LOL.

His irreverence continues in TAAB with such lines as:

"With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention, while queuing for sarnies at the office canteen. Saying -- how's your granny and good old Ernie: he coughed up a tenner on a premium bond win."[/i]

Seriously...who sings about jock straps? More colloquialism in that one...I never understood the term "queuing" until I made a trip to the UK...and what the hell are sarnies, a tenner, and a premium bond win? LOL.

And how about:

"Let me make you a present of song as the wise man breaks wind and is gone while the fool with the hour-glass is cooking his goose and the nursery rhyme winds along."[/i]

Only Ian could get away with singing about such things as breaking wind...and these are only small examples which begs the question, "are these REALLY serious lyrics?" Seriously witty, I'd say, but completely sarcastic in nature.

Whether we can agree on these small details or not, we must all agree that this is by far one of Tull's greatest works which garnered much success and notoriety for the band. TAAB DID make it to the TOP in the USA very early-on in spite of our ignorance to the colloquialisms and innuendos, primarily because we were mostly just blown away by the excellent musicianship.

My opinion...and we all know how opinions are...hehehe.

George Smith Patton Jr. was absolutely correct when he stated "England and the United States are two great nations divided by a common language." In England cookies are called biscuits, french fries are called chips, chips are called crisps, cigarettes are called fags, fags are called sods, and a booger is...well, we won't go there. Waffle means to gab on and on. In America the fanny refers to the back-side of both male and female, but in England it is strictly the front-side of a female. And if you were a young American lady, what would you think if your English host were to ask you what time you wanted to be knocked-up in the morning? I'm just saying....

In the event you do not actually possess the LP, here is a website where you can view images of the entire St. Cleve Chronicle newspaper which served as the album cover for the LP:

www.orthogonal.com.au/music/taab/index.htm

[TM]

Sept 6, 2010 9:41:57 GMT -5 SilverHamer said:

Well, I'm going to agree...and I'm going to disagree. The entire concept of the album is a great work of sarcasm, from the newspaper articles contained on the cover being full of innuendo and the main front page story being a complete fabrication based on a fictitious character, to the sarcasm-laden lyrics. While the musical score is inarguably a very serious work of musical style which meshes a mixture of complex time signatures with sonic orgasms performed by 5 very intensely talented musical geniuses, the lyrics are rife

[/i] with sarcasm. And on top of it all, I would venture to guess that the vast majority of Americans were totally unfamiliar with the expression "Thick As A Brick"...I know I personally just thought it was a very cute and witty rhyme for a very catchy song title. I would bet that had Ian titled the song "Dumb as a Box of Rocks", or "Stupid as the Day Is Long", we would have had a better initial understanding of where he was coming from in the chorus...but then the lyrics would have been different and the rhymes would have to shift..."and your wise men don't know how it feels to be dumb as a box of rocks" just doesn't work. And therein lies the spoof in my opinion...most of us didn't have a clue what the hell he was talking about because we weren't familiar with all of the British colloquialisms contained in the song lyrics.

Of course, Ian has been known for his irreverence toward certain aspects of "the establishment", particularly after the great success of the Aqualung album which, in general, is a knock against organized religion. And did any of us American types really know what he was saying with the term "...you poor old sod"[/i]? Only Ian could have gotten away with that...LOL.

His irreverence continues in TAAB with such lines as:

"With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention, while queuing for sarnies at the office canteen. Saying -- how's your granny and good old Ernie: he coughed up a tenner on a premium bond win."[/i]

Seriously...who sings about jock straps? More colloquialism in that one...I never understood the term "queuing" until I made a trip to the UK...and what the hell are sarnies, a tenner, and a premium bond win? LOL.

And how about:

"Let me make you a present of song as the wise man breaks wind and is gone while the fool with the hour-glass is cooking his goose and the nursery rhyme winds along."[/i]

Only Ian could get away with singing about such things as breaking wind...and these are only small examples which begs the question, "are these REALLY serious lyrics?" Seriously witty, I'd say, but completely sarcastic in nature.

Whether we can agree on these small details or not, we must all agree that this is by far one of Tull's greatest works which garnered much success and notoriety for the band. TAAB DID make it to the TOP in the USA very early-on in spite of our ignorance to the colloquialisms and innuendos, primarily because we were mostly just blown away by the excellent musicianship.

My opinion...and we all know how opinions are...hehehe.

George Smith Patton Jr. was absolutely correct when he stated "England and the United States are two great nations divided by a common language." In England cookies are called biscuits, french fries are called chips, chips are called crisps, cigarettes are called fags, fags are called sods, and a booger is...well, we won't go there. Waffle means to gab on and on. In America the fanny refers to the back-side of both male and female, but in England it is strictly the front-side of a female. And if you were a young American lady, what would you think if your English host were to ask you what time you wanted to be knocked-up in the morning? I'm just saying....

In the event you do not actually possess the LP, here is a website where you can view images of the entire St. Cleve Chronicle newspaper which served as the album cover for the LP:

www.orthogonal.com.au/music/taab/index.htm[/quote]

Well said SH.

[SilverHamer]

Jul 22, 2010 11:40:57 GMT -5 Nonfatman said:

I also think that Passion Play was Ian giving the middle finger to that portion of his audience who liked to trip-out on LSD and other drugs during his concerts, much to his disdain. It was almost as if he cynically was saying, "okay, you want music you can trip out on drugs to, so that's exactly what I will give you." How else to explain the obtuse nature of the lyrics, the weird special effects and the whole Hare episode?

Jeff

I don't know about this...I have another line of thought here. I agree with your statement about Ian's disdain for drug use at the concerts...in particular for that of the band itself. There was no room for being "spaced-out" when you're playing some very complex musical phrases with intense time signatures, which has been a major hallmark of Tull music. Plus I'm sure there was much consideration for the "extra baggage" this would bring to the table considering they were international travelers and just didn't want to have to deal with the prospect of the trouble they could encounter on the road if anyone was caught in possession of any illegal substance...that's a tour-killer right there, not to mention the "bad press" coverage which would surely ensue. I firmly believe this to be a major reason why Tony Iommi had a very short-lived tenure with the band...Ian, very wisely, could see the problems Tony's pot-smoking could bring to the Tull organization and he wanted no part of it.

But back to the gist of my comment...I am of the opinion that Ian, being quite aware that a very large portion of his audience were stoned, like it or not, found a way to take advantage of it and played into it. I must confess, unfortunately, that in the early 70s I was one of those stoned audience members...it had everything to do with the crowd I hung out with in those days. And based on their stage antics, I think the majority of us in the audience probably assumed that the band was having a "stony good time" of their own. Of course we all know better than that, NOW, and it all makes perfect sense. But when you consider all that has already been said about it, with the sounds, the sound effects, the story about the Hare, etc., in APP...why else would they have had the telephone bit during John Evan's ripping organ solo part in TAAB? TO MESS WITH THE STONERS...and it WORKED!

Naahh...I don't think Ian was giving the finger. He was being entertaining in a way which he knew would have the most profound effect on the audience. I laughed over the phone call bit for several minutes after I saw it because I was a big fan of "Mike Nelson and Sea Hunt" growing up. It was totally off the wall and very funny at the time...and I think that only a stoned-out fan of Lloyd Bridges would actually get it and see the humor in it, otherwise it would be just an annoying, and unwanted, pause during a really great phase of the song.

[Nonfatman]

Sept 6, 2010 14:28:00 GMT -5 SilverHamer said:

Jul 22, 2010 11:40:57 GMT -5 Nonfatman said:

I also think that Passion Play was Ian giving the middle finger to that portion of his audience who liked to trip-out on LSD and other drugs during his concerts, much to his disdain. It was almost as if he cynically was saying, "okay, you want music you can trip out on drugs to, so that's exactly what I will give you." How else to explain the obtuse nature of the lyrics, the weird special effects and the whole Hare episode?

Jeff

I don't know about this...I have another line of thought here. I agree with your statement about Ian's disdain for drug use at the concerts...in particular for that of the band itself. There was no room for being "spaced-out" when you're playing some very complex musical phrases with intense time signatures, which has been a major hallmark of Tull music. Plus I'm sure there was much consideration for the "extra baggage" this would bring to the table considering they were international travelers and just didn't want to have to deal with the prospect of the trouble they could encounter on the road if anyone was caught in possession of any illegal substance...that's a tour-killer right there, not to mention the "bad press" coverage which would surely ensue. I firmly believe this to be a major reason why Tony Iommi had a very short-lived tenure with the band...Ian, very wisely, could see the problems Tony's pot-smoking could bring to the Tull organization and he wanted no part of it.

But back to the gist of my comment...I am of the opinion that Ian, being quite aware that a very large portion of his audience were stoned, like it or not, found a way to take advantage of it and played into it. I must confess, unfortunately, that in the early 70s I was one of those stoned audience members...it had everything to do with the crowd I hung out with in those days. And based on their stage antics, I think the majority of us in the audience probably assumed that the band was having a "stony good time" of their own. Of course we all know better than that, NOW, and it all makes perfect sense. But when you consider all that has already been said about it, with the sounds, the sound effects, the story about the Hare, etc., in APP...why else would they have had the telephone bit during John Evan's ripping organ solo part in TAAB? TO MESS WITH THE STONERS...and it WORKED!

Naahh...I don't think Ian was giving the finger. He was being entertaining in a way which he knew would have the most profound effect on the audience. I laughed over the phone call bit for several minutes after I saw it because I was a big fan of "Mike Nelson and Sea Hunt" growing up. It was totally off the wall and very funny at the time...and I think that only a stoned-out fan of Lloyd Bridges would actually get it and see the humor in it, otherwise it would be just an annoying, and unwanted, pause during a really great phase of the song.

Hi, Larry,

You are probably right in saying that Ian was just catering to his audience, and shrewdly found a way to capitalize on that portion of his fan base who liked to get high at shows, and that it was not intended as an insulting gesture or "middle finger" as I put it.

Maybe, in addition to a good business move, it was also intended as a grand joke on the druggies, which I think is what you were hinting at when you suggested that he liked to fuck with their heads with the telephone call, the hare costumes, the heartbeat, etc. He knew that people, whether high or not, would find that stuff funny.

But still I find it somewhat cynical. If you are opposed to drug use, why cater to it?

Jeff

[Nonfatman]

Sept 6, 2010 9:41:57 GMT -5 SilverHamer said:

Well, I'm going to agree...and I'm going to disagree. The entire concept of the album is a great work of sarcasm, from the newspaper articles contained on the cover being full of innuendo and the main front page story being a complete fabrication based on a fictitious character, to the sarcasm-laden lyrics. While the musical score is inarguably a very serious work of musical style which meshes a mixture of complex time signatures with sonic orgasms performed by 5 very intensely talented musical geniuses, the lyrics are rife

[/i] with sarcasm. And on top of it all, I would venture to guess that the vast majority of Americans were totally unfamiliar with the expression "Thick As A Brick"...I know I personally just thought it was a very cute and witty rhyme for a very catchy song title. I would bet that had Ian titled the song "Dumb as a Box of Rocks", or "Stupid as the Day Is Long", we would have had a better initial understanding of where he was coming from in the chorus...but then the lyrics would have been different and the rhymes would have to shift..."and your wise men don't know how it feels to be dumb as a box of rocks" just doesn't work. And therein lies the spoof in my opinion...most of us didn't have a clue what the hell he was talking about because we weren't familiar with all of the British colloquialisms contained in the song lyrics.

Of course, Ian has been known for his irreverence toward certain aspects of "the establishment", particularly after the great success of the Aqualung album which, in general, is a knock against organized religion. And did any of us American types really know what he was saying with the term "...you poor old sod"[/i]? Only Ian could have gotten away with that...LOL.

His irreverence continues in TAAB with such lines as:

"With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention, while queuing for sarnies at the office canteen. Saying -- how's your granny and good old Ernie: he coughed up a tenner on a premium bond win."[/i]

Seriously...who sings about jock straps? More colloquialism in that one...I never understood the term "queuing" until I made a trip to the UK...and what the hell are sarnies, a tenner, and a premium bond win? LOL.

And how about:

"Let me make you a present of song as the wise man breaks wind and is gone while the fool with the hour-glass is cooking his goose and the nursery rhyme winds along."[/i]

Only Ian could get away with singing about such things as breaking wind...and these are only small examples which begs the question, "are these REALLY serious lyrics?" Seriously witty, I'd say, but completely sarcastic in nature.

Whether we can agree on these small details or not, we must all agree that this is by far one of Tull's greatest works which garnered much success and notoriety for the band. TAAB DID make it to the TOP in the USA very early-on in spite of our ignorance to the colloquialisms and innuendos, primarily because we were mostly just blown away by the excellent musicianship.

My opinion...and we all know how opinions are...hehehe.

George Smith Patton Jr. was absolutely correct when he stated "England and the United States are two great nations divided by a common language." In England cookies are called biscuits, french fries are called chips, chips are called crisps, cigarettes are called fags, fags are called sods, and a booger is...well, we won't go there. Waffle means to gab on and on. In America the fanny refers to the back-side of both male and female, but in England it is strictly the front-side of a female. And if you were a young American lady, what would you think if your English host were to ask you what time you wanted to be knocked-up in the morning? I'm just saying....

In the event you do not actually possess the LP, here is a website where you can view images of the entire St. Cleve Chronicle newspaper which served as the album cover for the LP:

www.orthogonal.com.au/music/taab/index.htm[/quote]

Great post, Larry and I agree with you. It was serious, sarcastic, humorous, etc., and what he was commenting on was not at all silly, and not just a spoof of the concept album genre.

Jeff

[My God]

I understand Ian's dislike for drugs, however is not alcohol a drug as well. I have seen Ian drink onstage before.








Do you still see me even here,
The silver cord lies on the ground.

[Deleted]

Sept 7, 2010 10:46:34 GMT -5 My God said:

I understand Ian's dislike for drugs, however is not alcohol a drug as well. I have seen Ian drink onstage before.

Do you still see me even here,
The silver cord lies on the ground.

Didn't Ian once say something along the lines of if Sgt Pepper's was a drug inspired album then A Passion Play was Lowenbrau inspired

[Deleted]

Sept 7, 2010 10:37:01 GMT -5 Nonfatman said:

Sept 6, 2010 9:41:57 GMT -5 SilverHamer said:

Well, I'm going to agree...and I'm going to disagree. The entire concept of the album is a great work of sarcasm, from the newspaper articles contained on the cover being full of innuendo and the main front page story being a complete fabrication based on a fictitious character, to the sarcasm-laden lyrics. While the musical score is inarguably a very serious work of musical style which meshes a mixture of complex time signatures with sonic orgasms performed by 5 very intensely talented musical geniuses, the lyrics are rife

[/i] with sarcasm. And on top of it all, I would venture to guess that the vast majority of Americans were totally unfamiliar with the expression "Thick As A Brick"...I know I personally just thought it was a very cute and witty rhyme for a very catchy song title. I would bet that had Ian titled the song "Dumb as a Box of Rocks", or "Stupid as the Day Is Long", we would have had a better initial understanding of where he was coming from in the chorus...but then the lyrics would have been different and the rhymes would have to shift..."and your wise men don't know how it feels to be dumb as a box of rocks" just doesn't work. And therein lies the spoof in my opinion...most of us didn't have a clue what the hell he was talking about because we weren't familiar with all of the British colloquialisms contained in the song lyrics.

Of course, Ian has been known for his irreverence toward certain aspects of "the establishment", particularly after the great success of the Aqualung album which, in general, is a knock against organized religion. And did any of us American types really know what he was saying with the term "...you poor old sod"[/i]? Only Ian could have gotten away with that...LOL.

His irreverence continues in TAAB with such lines as:

"With their jock-straps pinching, they slouch to attention, while queuing for sarnies at the office canteen. Saying -- how's your granny and good old Ernie: he coughed up a tenner on a premium bond win."[/i]

Seriously...who sings about jock straps? More colloquialism in that one...I never understood the term "queuing" until I made a trip to the UK...and what the hell are sarnies, a tenner, and a premium bond win? LOL.

And how about:

"Let me make you a present of song as the wise man breaks wind and is gone while the fool with the hour-glass is cooking his goose and the nursery rhyme winds along."[/i]

Only Ian could get away with singing about such things as breaking wind...and these are only small examples which begs the question, "are these REALLY serious lyrics?" Seriously witty, I'd say, but completely sarcastic in nature.

Whether we can agree on these small details or not, we must all agree that this is by far one of Tull's greatest works which garnered much success and notoriety for the band. TAAB DID make it to the TOP in the USA very early-on in spite of our ignorance to the colloquialisms and innuendos, primarily because we were mostly just blown away by the excellent musicianship.

My opinion...and we all know how opinions are...hehehe.

George Smith Patton Jr. was absolutely correct when he stated "England and the United States are two great nations divided by a common language." In England cookies are called biscuits, french fries are called chips, chips are called crisps, cigarettes are called fags, fags are called sods, and a booger is...well, we won't go there. Waffle means to gab on and on. In America the fanny refers to the back-side of both male and female, but in England it is strictly the front-side of a female. And if you were a young American lady, what would you think if your English host were to ask you what time you wanted to be knocked-up in the morning? I'm just saying....

In the event you do not actually possess the LP, here is a website where you can view images of the entire St. Cleve Chronicle newspaper which served as the album cover for the LP:

www.orthogonal.com.au/music/taab/index.htm[/quote]

Great post, Larry and I agree with you. It was serious, sarcastic, humorous, etc., and what he was commenting on was not at all silly, and not just a spoof of the concept album genre.

Jeff [/quote]

Great post indeed!

I don't even see the paper as a spoof, i think it is Ian raising two sacastic fingers at provincial Britain of that time, a satirical poke at the local press, bombastic journalism, and even poking a little fun in his own direction as regards Gerald 'Little Milton' Bostock. I often wonder if the schoolboy Ian was a little precocious in his writing at school and was tormented by the 'Little Mlton' tag or something similar.

All in all the whole package is something well worth having, and to me will always be a serious piece of work in its completeness.

[Deleted]

I have heard Ian say that the album was meant to be a joke in the type of british humor monty python plays with, and that American audiences for some reason seem to think it's some serious view on society, when it's really just comedy, but I could never buy that. Ian's lyrics are very odd, strange, playful, and at many times most definitely humorous, but this song, and in all the ways it can be interpreted, does communicate something further than the general spoof would offer, and given the way the lyrics can be interpreted by all sorts of listeners, people can associate serious meanings with it.

[jrpipik]

TAAB is a satire, and I think a serious satire. Anderson means what he says but he's just too much of a wit to say things without a sense of humor. He likes to pop the balloon of anyone's pomposity including to say, as it were, don't take it so seriously because "it's just the nonsense that it seems." From his perspective, it's not like he was laboring for months over philosophical issues before coming up with a deeply argued theoretical tretise: he was literally writing the songs in the morning before showing up to teach them to the band in the afternoon. So he can argue with some sincerity that it was very off the cuff and intended to be humorous.

But that doesn't mean that the songs lack insight. They talk about how we raise our children, inculturation into society, the validity of national mores, the bewildering whirl of existence. And they do it with some wonderfully complex and challenging music, as well. The dynamics, the integration of the motifs, the disassembly and reassembly of order -- even without the lyrics it's all pretty heavy stuff!

I like the comparison to Monty Python, which on one level is just a lot of silliness, but on another is a knowing critique of authority and the strictures society lays on the individual.

[jrpipik]

I think A PASSION PLAY, as opposed to TAAB, is very much a thought out and structured attempt to build a coherent argument about Anderson's perspective on the world and what we're doing in it. Together with WAR CHILD (both album and movie treatment) and CHATEAU DISASTER, APP represents too much work on a single concept to be dismissed as any kind of parody. Though being an Ian Anderson production, it naturally contains a good deal of humor, as well. Irony is his natural mode.

[jrpipik]

And finally, while on the topic, the interlude of "The Story of the Hare who Lost his Spectacles" is far from merely a goofy romp. Yes, it's funny and it's recitation is outrageously entertaining, but when looked at closely it's the story of the young artist who is told by everyone how he should view the world but who knows secretly and with excitement that he has his own vision. It works perfectly with the "Forest Dance," especially in the video.

[jrpipik]

I suspect that's enough for anyone and I hope that's not too much for everyone!

[Campion]

Despite what he maintains, A Passion Play was the most serious thing Anderson ever wrote. It was his grand attempt at "serious" literature as he attempted to put the idea, if not the text of Dante's Divine Comedy to rock music.

I listen to it every once in a while because there are some sweet musical and lyrical phrasing in it. But its not going to be around in 400 years, I suspect. Dante was wise to take Vergil with him on his pilgrimage through the next world. Anderson was accompanied by John Evan in a rabbit suit.

[Nonfatman]

Dec 23, 2011 21:24:26 GMT -5 Campion said:

Despite what he maintains, A Passion Play was the most serious thing Anderson ever wrote. It was his grand attempt at "serious" literature as he attempted to put the idea, if not the text of Dante's Divine Comedy to rock music.

I listen to it every once in a while because there are some sweet musical and lyrical phrasing in it. But its not going to be around in 400 years, I suspect. Dante was wise to take Vergil with him on his pilgrimage through the next world. Anderson was accompanied by John Evan in a rabbit suit.

Hey, Campion!

It will be interesting to see whether classic rock pieces like Passion play survive hundreds of years into the future, like classical music has. It's lasted 40+ years already, so who knows!

Happy Holidays to you.

Jeff

P.S. Did we ever get your first name, or have I just forgotten?