July 13, 1973 - A Passion Play

A year after "Living In The Past" and about 16 months since their last studio album, the epic "Thick As A Brick", Jethro Tull decided to try and outdo themselves when they made another, yes ANOTHER single song that comprises the entire album, titled "A Passion Play" and released on July 13, 1973. With the same line-up as their previous epic, this time around the song is even longer, clocking in at just over 45 minutes! This album was written out like a play, with four Acts and even an interlude! It is a concept album centered around main character Ronnie Pilgrim and his journey through the afterlife. Let's see how it plays out!

The album of course begins with Act I and has a trippy fade-in beginning. A more typical Tull beat emerges with cool flutes by Ian Anderson and keyboards by John Evan. It quiets down to just Anderson singing and playing acoustic and Evan joins with some great piano. The lyrics are all from Ronnie's perspective, as he witnesses his own funeral, realizing he has died. It speeds up between the verses briefly with some cool keyboards and there's some nice acoustic guitar by Anderson after another verse that both closes out the first act, and still segues nicely right into the second Act. Awesome keyboards by Evan lead this cool part and Anderson sings of the The Memory Bank, where a jury will view Ronnie's life and decide if he is worthy for heaven. A very interesting concept! There's a wicked flute solo by Anderson that sounds fantastic and also a pretty solid rock riff led by some cool guitar by Martin Barre. This segues into a quite heavy riff with some more great keyboards by Evan. Everyone is playing really well in this wonderful part and they go back to the very beginning with the piano and chorus from Act I, but this time it leads into some cool, trippy keyboards. Due to time constraints of the time the original vinyl had the first 1:30 of the interlude section and then you would have to flip it in the middle of the section. Thankfully nowadays it can be heard as one continuous piece. 

So begins a completely unrelated interlude narrated by Jeffrey Hammond called "The Story Of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles". Hammond speaks in a heavy Lancashire accent and uses lots of fun wordplay to describe a tale of a bunch of animals unable to find a hare's lost spectacles. Evan plays some cool piano and organ during this funny part and Anderson plays flute and saxophone. It ends anti-climactically as Hare remembers he has a spare pair. Acoustic guitar leads off the third act, with trippy keyboards and flute as well. Pilgrim discovers Heaven, but is unimpressed when he finds everyone there just obsesses and reminisces about the living. Anderson plays lots of great acoustic in this act, as well as a cool saxophone solo! A great instrumental bit that leads into a new slow part with just Anderson; he beautifully sings how Pilgrim wants to go to Hell and at least try it. The band joins in for another cool riff and some crazy keyboards by Evan that sound amazing! He is really on his game this whole song, as Pilgrim gets his wish and arrives in Hell. Satan explains that he is his lord now and Pilgrim immediately realizes although Heaven may be boring, Hell is a lot worse. Epic keyboards signal the fourth act and the synths sound especially crazy; very ELP-esque. The new riff sounds really good and Anderson sings really well that Pilgrim feels he doesn't belong anywhere. There's some great drums by Barriemore Barlow and more spectacular stuff by Evan. Barre gets a cool solo in as well in this fantastic part, the a short acoustic part by Anderson is pretty good. It leads into an awesome new riff by Barre and the flute and keyboards are both great as well in this part. Pilgrim decides to reject Christian-thinking and welcomes people to "renew the pledge of life's long song". A twist ending indeed! We hear an awesome saxophone bit by Anderson as Hammond and Barlow are playing great rhythm as well this part. They go back all the way to the original riff, just like "Thick As A Brick" to end another fantastic song/album. 

That wraps up "A Passion Play", and I thoroughly enjoyed this album. I don't think it was as good as their last full-album piece, but that doesn't mean that this wasn't still a really good album. John Evan really shows off a lot, and he and Ian Anderson both play lots of really great stuff. Aside from their best album "Thick As A Brick", how does it shape up against their other works? I think it easily surpasses "This Was", "Benefit", and " Living In The Past", but "Stand Up" is a tougher question. I think it's really close, but I have to give the nod to this new 45-minute epic. They are both excellent albums and it is at #3 that "A Passion Play" will stop, as I don't believe it was better than "Aqualung". Still, an amazing album! Jethro Tull are really on a roll lately! The same day as this album, another British band was just releasing their first album!