Thick as a Brick

And the moment Jethro Tull went prog

Nigelleaney
4 min readApr 27, 2024

It is unthinkable to speak of progressive rock in its heyday of the seventies, without referring to Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick. Considering the origins of its birth, it is slightly ironic that the album is now revered as a classic of its kind. And rightly so. In poll after poll, it is consistently ranked in the top five of best prog rock/concept albums of all time. It is often only pipped to the post by Close to the Edge by Yes (not concept but definitely prog) or Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (definitely concept, probably prog).

It is slightly ironic because Ian Anderson, the band’s flute-playing-on-one-leg frontman, intended the album as a parody, or spoof, of this genre, that at the time, was an integral part of mainstream rock music. Jethro Tull’s (named after the gent who invented the seed drill), previous album, the amazing Aqualung, and yet another classic, was wrongly considered a concept by some critics. Ian Anderson, the band’s chief composer, decided, in which case, to present them with ‘the mother of all concept albums,’ within the genre of progressive rock. Prior to this album, the band had been mainly blues inspired. But rather than play it completely straight, the band decided to present it as an affectionate…

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Nigelleaney

Recently retired and completed MA in creative writing. Trying for the writer’s life with no more excuses about the day job. Named top writer in music.