So I've been listening to Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick a lot over the past few days. I've heard it before a couple times years or so ago but it's somewhat hit me hard recently. Meaning... it's just kind of ridiculously awesome and I have no qualms proclaiming that.

The band sort of strikes me as having not the greatest reputation, since they seem to either get classified as prog rock or hard rock band (probably because they beat Metallica for the Best Metal Album that one year...). But really, they're just sort of an English folk-rock band that happens to have a kooky flautist as the leader. But this album probably doesn't help matters, either--since it's probably their most well-known album while also being billed as just one 43-minute long song.

Which it is. But isn't either. I mean, there's definite overarching themes and melodies that connect everything together, but it flows so nicely that it just feels like the Abbey Road suite extended out to the next logical step (and lacking in individual song titles). Essentially, it's just a fun, enjoyable, and completely bombastic listen--and sometimes that's all you need from your music.

The only problem is that--considering that the thing's made up of individual little songs which have no titles, I have no way to discuss those individual pieces with anyone without learning exactly what the lyrics are. And I usually could care less about the song lyrics.

I don't know if this is *actually* a problem--the chance I'll ever discuss this album with anyone outside of this little post are slim to none. And even then, I could just state "minutes 5 through 10 on part 1 is my favorite part" and someone might get the drift. But it makes reading about the album kind of difficult, since the accepted way of discussing it seems to involve quoting each sections main lyric.

This is actually kind of annoying, because I'll open up some article, and then there will be an interesting paragraph or so on this one section of the song. The paragraph will eloquently effuse admiration for this particular piece, which will probably convince me to agree... until I realize I'm not actually sure what the paragraph is referring to. I'll then skip through the song to the section I *think* it might be in reference to, which will then fail--then skip to another section that might give me what I want. Again, no luck.

So I just listen to the damn song again. Which, you know... is fine. Just not an entirely efficient use of my attempt at edification.

I guess I could just look up the lyrics, figure out what segment the article is referring to and where it generally is within the album and then go from there--but then from there I figure I'll just have to learn the damn lyrics. Which was what I was hoping to avoid.

See, the thing is--I don't mind lyrics as long as they're interesting turns of phrases (and a lot of my favorites' lyrical writing process seems to be writing just interesting turns of phrases... which might influence why I like them), but I could usually care less what the actual meaning behind the lyrics are. Not because I hate depth and subtexts or whatever or prefer my art to hit me straight in the face or anything... but rather that my preferred mode of listening is to create my own meaning through what I hear in the actual music. And sometimes the lyrics contradict that... and it kind of annoys me.

The best example I can think of is Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's All Right" (which I guess is weird because people assume the main reason to listen to Dylan is the lyrics). The first few times I heard it, paying most of my attention to the music ad whatnot, I thought "oh, well isn't this a quiet but nice little love song." And it was good. I mean, I was ignoring pretty key lyrics like "you just kind of wasted my precious time", but the guitar sound is pleasant and sweet, so I preferred my interpretation. Then somehow I stumbled upon the lyrics (and maybe people's interpretation of said lyrics), and then it wasn't quiet and nice. It was a bitter as f*** breakup song. And... I didn't like it as much. I mean, it's still great, but it's not as pristine to me anymore.

(Sidenote: the song's spelled "Don't Think Twice It's All Right." Tried Googling it, and Google autocorrects it to "Don't Think Twice It's Alright." This really annoys me for some reason.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I haven't looked at the lyrics for this album and pretty much know nothing about it, but since this is a different breed of album and since it most likely has a clear lyrical concept behind it--I don't want to seek out the lyrics and have it then overwhelm my overall impression of the song/album.

Also, because... again, I like interesting little phrases that pop up, and don't necessarily need or want context for them. So I don't want to know what "so where the hell is Biggles" means... I just want to appreciate it exists in song form.

This is just me complaining about trivial matters. It's OK if you have more important stuff going on.

I see that the entire song is posted on YouTube, so I'm going to go ahead and post it because I can.



Minutes 5 through 10 feature my favorite part.