Jethro Tull - A passion Play

RARE/2HAND VINYL LP ON CHRYSALIS 1973

Chrysalis CHR 1040 made in UK in gatefold cover.

Vinyl NM. Cover VG+.

Jethro Tull's second album-length composition, A Passion Play is very different from -- and not quite as successful as -- Thick as a Brick. Ian Anderson utilizes reams of biblical (and biblical-sounding) references, interwoven with modern language, as a sort of a rock equivalent to T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland. As with most progressive rock, the words seem important and profound, but their meaning is anyone's guess ("The ice-cream lady wet her drawers, to see you in the Passion Play..."), with Anderson as a dour but engaging singer/sage (who, at least at one point, seems to take on the role of a fallen angel). It helps to be aware of the framing story, about a newly deceased man called to review his life at the portals of heaven, who realizes that life on Earth is preferable to eternity in paradise.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_Tull_%28band%29

Tracklist

1. A Passion Play