Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull

I was playing poker at my buddy's house (aka my buddy's parents house), when my buddy's dad comes down the stairs with 4 pieces of paper in his hand. "You want some big boy lyrics, you gotta read this." "Oh The Big Boys?" I said, "I love those guys. You're talking about The Big Boys right?" He wasn't. He plopped down the lyrics to "Thick as a Brick" by Jethro Tull in my hands. I immediately went on allmusic.com and looked up how they reviewed the first four Emerson, Lake, and Palmer records, then got bored.

The first thing that cued me off that Thick as a Brick was bogus was the first couple lines.

"Really don't mind if you sit this one out/ My words but a whisper -- your deafness a SHOUT."

Shout was capitalized in the copy i was handed. It made me really respect Jethro Tull in a "you guys are boneheads" sort of way. Also there was a lot of oceanic imagery which is codeword for rockers trying to be deep. Ocean = vagina, unconscious, graduate school, etc. Everybody knows that, I think. Anyways, obviously I didn't read the whole thing.

Instead i went back to the internet and read what wikipedia had to say about the whole affair. Call me a lazy journalist, or better yet don't call me a journalist at all, but it turns out I was smelling something out, because it turns out that "Thick as a Brick" is a parody of other giant prog works. Ian Anderson said that (courtesy wikipedia) "the album was a spoof to the albums of Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer much like what the movie Airplane had been to Airport."

Now, on one hand it's really heartening to know all the prog rockers were watching "Airplane" in 1972, but was it really necessary to create the "Airplane" of prog records? I'm not convinced.

"Fragile" and "Tarkus" were Yes and ELPs most recent records and for me, I just can't quite say I feel Jethro Tull was the most obvious band to "parody" these offerings at that time. I mean, these are the guys just coming off of "Aqualung" and I'm pretty sure that wasn't supposed to be a parody of a goddamn thing. Do you put your flute down, quit your prancing, and change out of your tights before you say "you've gone too far!" or do you just chill? That's why you can't leave being punk up to prog rockers, cause it all comes out the same. Ian Anderson in 1972: "Oh yeah? you guys are over the top! watch how ridiculous you look when we release a 42 minute coming-of-age story concept album!!! It's gonna totally make fun of your concept albums with the 21 minute track about the military-industrial complex on it!! Booyah!"

Anyways, this post is obviously is completely ridiculous so maybe I'll just give up on it...