Customer Reviews

Passion Play

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Ahh, the glorious 70s. Yes were elevating the 20-minute suite to an art form, the Who and Genesis were developing the idea of the rock opera, and outlandishness and excess seemed to be the order of the decade. Somewhere in the shuffle Jethro Tull were going through a transition between their beginnings in the blues and their era of medieval-rock to rival Ritchie Blackmore. After the brilliant Aqualung was mistakenly labeled a concept album, JT's songwriter Ian Anderson produced a 'true' concept album in the head-trip Thick As A Brick. And while deciding which direction to head in the next year, Ian and the boys sat down and put all the pieces they'd been working on into yet another album-length song. Knowing their sense of humor I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Tull aimed to make this album even more challenging and impenetrable than the previous one.. partly as a challenge to themselves, partly out of spite for the less-than-friendly critics.

And so we come to A Passion Play. Challenging it certainly is. And bizarre, earthy, intricate, wonderfully lively at times and properly sedate at others. The composing and musicianship are some of the most accomplished you'll hear on a Tull album, worthy of at least four stars. I leave off that fifth one because, while undeniably distinctive, the record can be just *too* impenetrable: often confusing and occasionally silly. APP doesn't merely test the waters of metaphorical strangeness; it gives a sly grin before diving completely off the deep end. Anderson's lyrics make next to no sense on the first few listens (and little more afterward). The music seems part rock opera and part theatrical soundtrack with plenty of oddities (heartbeats, harpsichord, glockenspiel) thrown in. It's what Frank Zappa might have produced if he'd been an Englishman with a fixation for medieval music and pseudo-religious imagery. And yet the album isn't only enjoyable to cerebral prog-heads who get off on the strangeness & intellectual challenge of it all; it's highly enjoyable to the right people despite these qualities, not just because of them. The absurdity factor reaches its high point in "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles," an aimless mock-fairy tale meant as an 'intermission' to the play. This may be considered blasphemous, but I recorded a tape of the album solely so I could leave out that part - I find it much more enjoyable going from one act of APP right to the next.

But I digress. I apologize if those comments seem a little confusing, but it's the most my limited writing skills will allow when dealing with this album's level of complexity and sheer adventurousness. The important thing: DO NOT buy this CD unless you're already a Tull fan. Go for Aqualung if you like classic rock, Songs From The Wood if you have a taste for English folk, Minstrel in the Gallery if you like both of those, Thick As A Brick if you like 70s prog. Then if you enjoy Brick and want more of a challenge.. give this one a good few listens and you may start scratching the surface.

Okay, so following up a one-song album (Thick As A Brick) with *another* one-song album was probably not the smartest thing to do---considering the critical beating that Jethro Tull took upon the release of "A Passion Play," I think these guys were just asking for it! But Ian Anderson & the boys did it anyway....and released their most powerful album ever. To my ears, 1973's "A Passion Play" is easily Jethro Tull's greatest work. The band have made *many* stunning albums in their 30+ years of life (and continue to do so to this day), but of all their albums, none have blown me away in quite the same way that "A Passion Play" always has. I LOVE this album!Oddly enough, "A Passion Play" came about totally by accident---Ian Anderson & company had initially planned a double-album follow-up to their highly successful "Thick As A Brick" album from 1972, and were quite busy recording the double-album in France. But the band were plagued by various technical difficulties in the studio, and, in the end, Anderson became so fed up with the "funky French recording studio" (as he put it), that he finally put a stop to the troubled recording sessions. Bruised by the experience, the band then headed back to England, and were faced with a choice: either re-record the whole double-album from scratch, or work on something completely different. Although a few musical elements from the France recordings were retained (and some material from the aborted album has subsequently appeared on Jethro Tull's double-CD, "Nightcap"), the band chose to work on a totally different project....and "A Passion Play" was born. Talk about a happy accident!Retaining the same "one-song" format as it's predecessor (i.e. 45 minutes of continuous music, with no individual song titles), "A Passion Play" easily stands out from the rest of Jethro Tull's catalog as the band's darkest album to date. (The striking black & white photo on the album cover alone, featuring a ballerina laying flat on her back onstage in a huge theater, with a trickle of blood coming down her cheek, is enough of a tip-off to the material contained within.) Tull fans have interpreted "A Passion Play" in SO many different ways over the years, and this is MY personal interpretation, which you may disagree with if you wish---it's a concept album about a man who commits suicide (by hanging himself, apparently), and, ala Dante's Inferno, is taken on a journey through the afterlife (first Hell and then Heaven). He is then given a second chance at life, and, at the album's end, is reborn again.... Now that's a VERY heavy concept, and not everyone appreciated it back in 1973. Also, being the second album in a row from Tull that followed the one-song format, the critics at the time had more than enough ammunition to fire at the band. But did any of the album's detractors actually LISTEN to it? If they had, they would've discovered that "A Passion Play" is quite an amazing work. Never before had Ian Anderson written a musical piece or sang it with THIS much depth & passion, and he & his cohorts, Martin Barre, John Evan, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond & Barriemore Barlow, play this opus with great fire (there's more than one reason why this album is called "A Passion Play"!). The band's musicianship throughout is very tight, and they come up with some incredibly stunning moods, sounds, and musical atmospheres that beautifully carry the album along. And despite the album's theme of death & the afterlife, Jethro Tull still make room for their reknowned good humor on this record. Even Ian Anderson knew that the listener could probably use a short break from the album's dark storyline, and so, right smack in the middle of the album, the band briefly halt the music---and tell a humorous children's story, "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles"! Some see this portion of the album as unneccesary, but I've always liked it. *I*, for one, think it's funny! And then, with the story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles told, the band simply pick up where they left off with the album's main storyline, and we're back into breathtaking Tull music once again....Ian Anderson was asked in a radio interview a few years back about what he thinks of "A Passion Play" these days. Anderson said that although he still likes "A Passion Play," he now feels that the album is "too serious" a Tull record, and "lacks the warmth" of the group's other albums, which is why the band no longer play anything from it in concert anymore. Although I totally understand Anderson's opinion, I still think it's a shame that the band will happily play a small piece from "Thick As A Brick" in concert, but ignore "A Passion Play" (which WAS, in fact, a #1 album for them, for Heaven's sake!). But nevermind---there IS the album itself. Yes, "A Passion Play" is Jethro Tull's darkest, most serious album, but to me, it is also their best. With all due love & affection to the band's other albums, "A Passion Play," in my estimation, is Jethro Tull at their creative apex. To hell with the critics---"A Passion Play" IS Jethro Tull's masterpiece. Thank you so much, Ian Anderson & company, for making it.

Following upon the success of Thick As A Brick, and to the absolute dismay of critics of the day, Tull repeated the "trick" of creating a seamless album in the style of a classical oratorio. While the critics were aghast, the album must not have been too far off the mark -- it sold well enough to finally displace Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon from the #1 spot in the album charts.

While the advisability of creating an album so similar in structure to Thick As A Brick the following year must be questioned, there can be no doubt that this dark and brooding effort is a masterwork containing music significantly more complex than that found in the earlier work. There are some serious problems in the connection of a number of the separate elements -- Passion Play's seams show much more than Thick As A Brick's -- so much so, in fact, that one is at times left wishing that they'd simply finished the separate elements as individual songs. It certainly would have given less fodder to the critics of the day.

This album is most definitely not Mom's Good Time Rock and Roll. The subject matter consists of a fanciful walk through the afterlife -- replete with a vist to Hell. It opens with the then cliche effect of a beating heart -- a not-so-inside joke on Pink Floyd -- which in this instance is stopping rather than starting, opening the album with death of the protagonist.

The music itself is rich and extremely polished, the rhythms and melodies are dance-like in the classical sense (somewhat unusual for Tull), in fact Tull would not match these production values for another four years, until "Songs From The Wood." While some of the more inventive pieces are found in the first half of the album, this album diverges from its predecessor in that the second half (the visit to Hell -- Overseer Overture and The Foot of our Stairs) contains the more compelling music. The powerful and heavily syncopated ending, highlighted by Martin Barre's strident guitar riffs and Mr. Anderson's sumptuous vocal, is probably the most well-known element of the album.

Ian Anderson's vocals on this album are perhaps the finest he's ever recorded, rich and with a truly remarkable range. For those of you familiar only with Aqualung or the later, post-illness albums, Ian Anderson's vocals here will be a revelation.

There is, of course, the issue of the middle break: "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles". I have had the chance to discuss this odd little piece with a number of Tull fans, some of whom think of it positively, comparing it to Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf." Others look on it more in terms of an inebriated take on "You Know My Name (Look up the Number)". I'm going with those who think that the band pounded down a few extra pints that night.

The Double CD "Nightcap" contains early-version recordings (recorded in Paris while the band was in tax exile from England), essentially demos and rehearsals, of music which would eventually, after serious reworking, form the central structure of "A Passion Play." These Paris recordings, the "Chateau D'isaster" tapes, are fascinating in that they show very clearly that "A Passion Play" began life as a more farcical and lighter work than the very dark and brooding final release. Especially noteworthy is the hilarious "Look At All The Animals" (which would have, IMHO, been a nice substitute to the "The Hare...").

This is an essential work for true Tull fans -- Ian Anderson's stunning vocals alone commend the album to true fans. Perhaps it is not as seamless in structure as Thick As A Brick, nor with music as easily accessible as that earlier album. However, the music here is significantly more complex and interesting than anything the band had created up to this time.

I have as yet been unable to appreciate or understand IanAnderson's music after 1979, so I own none of his albums after thatdate. However I do own every other one before that. I'm 19 and have loved Jethro Tull for many years now. A Passion Play was bought on record mainly because I love records and they're cheaper that CDs (just in case I didn't like it [there are a LOT of bad comments around about this album]) It took about ten listens to become engaged by this record, but when I did finally, it was incredible. So I bought the CD. And it got even better. This is a complex, stunning album that changes directions constantly like a trip to the center of the galaxy. So much detail. So much poetry. The lyrics took awhile to figure out. At first (and second and third) reads, I couldn't crack it. But then it became clear. This is an album about death. And a truly amazing one. You start with the death of a young man, who is then "escorted away" by an angel and a band of gentlemen to a review board who apparently tape life and then give you a show of your own little "Passion Play" when you die. Well, our hero eventually ends up in hell face to face with "icy Lucifer!" Unreal. Buy this record (but only if you like Jethro Tull) You will be stunned. END

This is a great album! And, before I say anything else, there's one subject I must brooch! The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles. I've seen way too many people rip on this piece. I love it! You have to understand its purpose. It's an intermission, to lighten the mood between the heavy music and meaningful lyrics. Yes, others have noted that, but they missed a point. Remember the title? A PASSION PLAY. Midievil passion plays could take a week to perform, and would always have a light-hearted interval, unconnected with the rest of the story. Almost exclusively dealing with a simple moral with animal characters. If you take that, and the obvious anti-establishment (for lack of a better term) satire involved, you'll get much more out of this story. (And by the way, Ian doesn't do the vocals for The Hare, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond does.) The rest of the album's great, too, but any other review can tell you that. Check this piece out, it's worth it!

If you are in the mood for "easy listening" music, forget about "Passion Play". But if you enjoy exercising your cranium once in a while, this album is for you. The music is complex, rich,with many twists and turns and changes in tempo. It suits the subject matter perfectly. The lyrics brilliantly convey Ian Anderson's personal interpretation of medieval passion plays, which were essentially about the suffering, death, and ultimate resurrection of Christ. Here Christ seems to be replaced with a mere mortal whose journey into the afterlife is quite beautifully chronicled by Mr. Anderson. Much has been made of the classical allusions to Greek mythology, Dante and Milton. Too many unfortunate people find them obtuse and overly intellectual. I think these poor souls are either trying too hard to find hidden messages where there are none or are incredibly dense and need to repeat high school. They are instead readily accessible images that most people with a somewhat decent education will recognize. The real beauty, however, lies not on those few pilfered images but in the way Mr. Anderson weaves them into the the rest of the fabric that is "Passion Play". I have been listening to this remarkable album for 27 years (!) and have yet to tire of it.

I have every album Tull ever put out (except for Nightcap), so you could call me an obsessed Tull fan. I've had Passion Play on vinyl for ages but wanted the CD to add to my collection. Well, I'm listening to it right now and it is just awesome. What an ambitious and creative piece of work! Sure, it's not for everybody. You'd have to have an appreciation of good music to get into this album. Otherwise, it will be way over your head. If that's the case, stick to your Ricky Martin records.

Another reviewer said this album was boring. Are you joking? A Passion Play takes the listener on a magical journey through all sorts of shifting time signatures and musical themes. It is NEVER boring; in fact, it is quite challenging and stimulating for the duration. One listen, 10 listens, 100 listens...you can find something new and exciting in the music or lyrics each time.

Ian is a God, a genius, a 20th century Mozart. This guy is so talented it's scary. On Passion Play, his composing skills are awe-inspiring and his playing is unbelievable. The band plays with fire and conviction, as if they knew they were creating an album for the ages.

I enjoy every aspect of this album. Even "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles" is hilarious in an odd, Monty Python sort of way. No wonder the critics hated it. It was way, way over their heads. They just wouldn't admit it. Typical critics. Those who can, create art. Those who can't, criticize it. Ian, you are the man.

If you heard "Thick As A Brick", and thought it was great, then most likely when you heard that the follow up was in the same vein, a 45 minute single track/epic you probably had your hopes up. To some it is considered inferior to the previous effort, or JT's worst album, I personally don't agree with anyone of those thoughts. To me this is just as good, if not better than Thick As A Brick.

A Passion Play is probably the most bleak, dense, gloomy and dark musically and thematically out of the Jethro Tull catalog and it may come as something of an acquired taste. As with most prog or anything intricate, It took me at least 7-10 listens before this mammoth work really began to "take me".

The theme is centered around life after death, and probably about deciding whether or not the person wishes he could come back to life, or go to hell, or got to heaven, I'm not totally sure, but that's fine with me because more importantly, it's the music that takes center stage. It features english folk, classical, in-the-heat-of-the-night jazz, and rock, and features many twists and turns within it's 45 minutes. Ian Anderson should be very proud of this achievment as it is very complex lyrically and his ability to write thought-provoking lyrics and to be an extremely great musician and composer, if not somewhat underrated. Not only does he sing, he also plays the acoustic guitar, flute, and 2 different type of saxaphones. Also John Evan, his organ playing was top notch on here. The drumming is great, just the musicianship overall is very impressive. There's also The Story Of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles, which I don't pay much attention to, but once again the musicianship is top notch. This is supposed to split the 2 halves of the epic as it comes right after the first 20 minute half.

Overall, I thought this was a terrific effort by this band and my advice to some is don't give up after one listen. This work may take quite some time to click as it did with me.

I own this, Thick As A Brick and Aqualung. This may come as a bit of a suprise, Aqualung was good, but is my least favorite out of the three, even Ian Anderson has said that he does not think that Aqualung was the best Jethro Tull album. Anyway, to me this is one of those albums that stands the test of time and does not age at all. A Total Masterpiece.

Thanks.

This recording is all sides of Tull. Despite the lingering criticism of this work, even Ian says that this is probably one of Tull's best works. I love the fact that this work takes you on a journey from start to finish (something few musical artists of the today can even fathom). From renaissance (neo-classical) stuff to out and out rock (and Ian's admirable go at the sax!), A Passion Play is simply one of Tull's best. Once you can get over the 'Hare and spectacles' thing they decided to put in (probably after a long nite at the pub), this is one solid recording that is easily better crafted than it's predecessor 'concept' album (Thick as a Brick).

Passion Play reminds me of Stairway to Heaven in the sense that it start out really softly and keeps on building until at the end it goes back to soft. I got this cd about two weeks ago and I cannot stop playing it. It is 45 minutes long, but it does not seem like that. I feel like I am watching an adventure movie as I go through it. Jethro Tull is at their best during Passion Play. Ian Anderson is an amazing flute player. I have thirteen of their cd's and I don't think I have heard Ian play the flute any better than in this album. This 45 minute piece is rock and roll, jazz, blues, and poetry in one. If you love music get this cd. Great lyrics! I think the critics must have been on drugs when they reviewed this album. I just listened to the entire thing thru and I am 16 minutes into it again. If fact I have it on repeat. Just buy it! I recommend starting with Living in the Past or Original Masters. Then get Songs from the Wood, Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, Passion Play, etc. Have fun listening!