Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
1: Providing a Context for Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play
2: Galliards and Lute Songs: The Influence of Early Music in Jethro Tull
3: Geared Toward the Exceptional Rather than the Average: The Album Cover and Lyrics of Thick as a Brick
4: The Music of Thick as a Brick: Form and Thematic Development
5: The Music of Thick as a Brick: Other Features
6: The Chateau d'Isaster Tapes and the Album Cover and Lyrics of A Passion Play
7: The Music of A Passion Play
8: Monty Python, Reception, and Live Versions
Conclusions
Epilogue: Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock?
Appendix 1: The Complete Lyrics to Thick as a Brick
Appendix 2: The Complete Lyrics to A Passion Play
Appendix 3: Analysis of the Instrumental Passages
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Promotional Information

Discusses the band's influence on popular culture and why many consider Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play to be two of the greatest concept albums in rock history.

About the Author

Tim Smolko holds master's degrees in Musicology and in Library Science and is monographs original cataloger at the University of Georgia.

Reviews

"Tim Smolko's book makes a significant contribution to the literature in popular music studies and musicology. Furthermore, it is an important addition to the available literature on Jethro Tull, which - despite their commercial success and longevity - has not been rewarded as of yet with sustained analytical study." - Kevin Holm-Hudson, author of Genesis and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway "[R]ather than offering yet another biography, Smolko takes a musicological - as well as a cultural - approach to just two of Tull's albums [...] an endorsement from such a notebale authority [as Adrian Stone-Mason] surely makes this worth reading for those of a scholarly bent." - Rock n' Reel